Of Hands and Feet

Just a photo I captured while checking the camera settings on the way to visit some friends in the village

“His is short and fat, mine is long.”

I was amazed at the skill that the Pal people have for determining who is on the trail and who has gone where just by looking at the heel and toe marks in the ground. It actually came up because some guys were asking me why I had gone down a certain trail the other day. I gave them a really hard time about it – saying “Hey, I’m the only one in all of Pal that consistently wears shoes, how hard can it be for you to find out where I have gone and why?”

Not sure if they were offended or what, but they immediately said; “No way, its not that you always wear shoes, it is that you are so stinking huge and you walk like a truck.” (I think I heard one of the guys mutter something about my leaving consistent impressions of my backside in the slippery parts of the trail as well.) Touche.

Anyway, I still say it is a remarkable skill (although its usefulness is definitely limited in the more urban environments) and it got me thinking… While I am so busy wallowing about Pal in my size 9 New Balance 573s (the footprint equivalent of typing your chat remarks in ALL CAPS) with an occasional posterior punctuation mark thrown in for good measure, we are hoping to be leaving behind marks that are much more curious and that contain much more valuable information. We so hope and pray that our lives among the Pal people are such that the marks we leave in the villages and homes are marks that point the way to the awesome work of a Great and graceful God. We could really use your prayers for this as well.

We missed some onions on our last supply flight and this young girl  shared some of hers with us.

Hands Out

“We are short of onions.” Was a phrase that we used frequently for a week or two. We might as well have been saying, “We’d like to get to know you better.” It might seem an odd way to deepen a friendship to our fellow westerners, but the request of the use of a tool, or an item of food here in Pal is actually the request for a closer relationship. By indebting ourselves to various people, we basically are putting out the welcome mat, in effect showing a desire to live in community and a willingness to be a resource to them when they are in need as well.

As a result, we are not only rolling in onions, but we are feeling blessed by the increase of relationship as well.

Thanks for praying for us this week.

Nate for the family.

PS. Please be praying for our partners as they seek to make appointments in Australia to try to resolve their ongoing health issues. We’d really be asking that the Lord would open those doors sooner than the two month time frame that they have been given.

Posted via email from PNG Time