Making a Statement

Like Elias, today we jumped in with both feet as we planted a tanget in the village.

Accusations

What would make you leave a new job and hike fifty miles barefoot through the mountains? Not much you say? What if someone told you that your friends had put your name in at the courthouse and police station and were getting ready to have their extended family come and shoot you?

OK, now what if you came back to your friend’s place and he greeted you warmly and had nothing bad to say to you… would you start to wonder what the truth really is?

As far fetched as it may sound, this is what happened to one of our friends this week – and it was us that he was warned about! Imagine finding a friend approaching the house at dusk after a wearying two day hike with worry written all over his face… and then imagine that he is worried that you are going to kill him or send him to prison… I can say that I was a more than a little upset at the lies that had been told him and the trouble it had caused him.  Thus I found myself standing in the village today in a fairly formal village counsel setting and saying:

“We are not mad at this man, we have not threatened him, we have not given his name to the police, we have not invited folks from America over to shoot him and his family. No way! He is our friend.”

Nate hanging out with friends at a market. The older man in the foreground is behaving in a special ‘photo’ way – this mannerism is associated with the spiritual beliefs of our friends.

Appropriate and Emphatic

When the Pal people make a strong public statement that they want to endure, they pick a public spot and put a certain kind of plant in the ground. In essence the plant (tanget) is a public memorial, akin to a monument in the Old Testament, that reminds anyone who see it of the statements that were made and the circumstances surrounding them. A tanget instantly becomes part of the village indoctrination. So, today when we finished speaking and wanted to make sure that nobody was spreading false information about our thinking or our work, I asked for a tanget sprig and then planted it in the middle of the village (where other tanget is also planted). As we are learning more of the language and the culture here in Pal, we are better equipped to address the issues that face our friends every day. Please pray that we would wisely walk with them in all we are doing and they would then be drawn to Christ – and the tanget he planted at Golgotha – an appropriate and emphatic symbol of Grace.

The son of a friend sips the juice of a cucumber (tabara).

He was wounded for our transgressions and pierced for our iniquitites…

The progress we are making in Pal has moved us within what feels like spitting range of the finish of our language learning phase. Don’t get us wrong – there is still at least 6 months of language study that we’ll need to complete before beginning work on Bible translation -  but we feel that day approaching rapidly and oh is it glorious. As we sat tonight and celebrated a Passover meal as a family, we spoke of our hope to soon share the awesome story of the work of God that is highlighted in that meal. Please pray with us that our ears would be open, our minds elastic and teachable, and our hearts fully given to the Master’s use.

May you experience the power of our Risen Lord,

Nate for the family

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