Navigating by Truth

A common occurrence at our house – a friend comes for a chat.

Do I trust what I think I know?

The other day we experienced another Pal first: a man came to us and asked us to help him understand if his sorcery practices were the truth or not. Literally, he said, “I want to you to tell me if what I am doing (sorcery) is really true or if it is just a lie.”

So, what is the good missionary response?  What would you say?

This six-foot long snake skin was left last night right above our washing machine… still haven’t seen its original owner… not sure how we feel about that.

Truth Focus

So, with an eye to the future church, and a healthy understanding of how much we do not understand the Pal beliefs and practices, I told our sorcerer friend…

·         That his asking that question made my day… in fact my week…

·         That I would like to hear more about his thinking.

·         That I wasn’t the one to judge his actions, that is the job of God’s Word.

·         That I am so looking forward to opening Gods Word with him when we have it ready.

Almost daily we are confronted with our friend’s need for the truth and that need helps motivate us to work hard in language and culture study. Since we do not understand the deeper thinking of our Pal friends, we cannot accurately share with them the truth. At the same time we are trying our best to puts those pieces together. Some of the things that we have learned this week are:

·         How a man shows his displeasure when someone messes with his prime hunting spot. (Think public tantrum, but it’s totally appropriate in this setting)

·         How bad words are thought to cause death…

·         How  the Pal people try to make things right between families once bad words are spoken.

·         How to tell people to come and get their rightful repayment

Thanks so much for praying for us about:

·         Medical needs – the Pal people’s beliefs about sickness prevent their seeking and using the medical help that is available to them.

·         Real Relationships  -  Our friends would love a handout (and we have lots of stuff that we could help them with), but real relationships here require give and take. We need to be creative and wise in how we build those relationships.

·         Time management – According to those in the academic community, 1 hour of field work generates 3 or more hours of processing and office time. We are trying to fit the processing and planning portion into 30% of our time…

Again, thanks for your care for us,

Nate for the fam

Posted via email from PNG Time