Returns and Relations
Our family on our first hike together back in Pal. Thanks so very much for praying and giving to keep us here.
Back in Action
Although we have spent the better part of two months away from our little home on a jungle mountain top, our days have been very focused on the work here. Between meetings and conferences and buying 3 months worth of groceries, what seemed like ages of time going into it, felt rather more like a 4x400 relay where the other three runners forgot to show up when we were done.
On that note, things are still hopping here as well. The Hostetter’s new house came together at lightning speed, but had enough rough edges that we’ve had plenty to do to help them get settled. Also, the Lockwood family has returned after nearly a year away from Pal and that has brought many people by to visit with us. It seems as though no matter how well we plan for the things that we’d like to get done in a given day, something is always coming up to change our priorities.
Here are a few interesting things that have happened this week:
1. We have been talking with our friends about siding for the Hostetter’s house and were informed that the Pal people would be busy with garden work for the next month or so and will have to get the bamboo in early December. (right now the house is sheathed in tarps)
2. A woman came into Pal to organize a ‘ladies group’. That group is hoping to put some money in a bank account and register their names with the government in order to receive financial assistance from them. That group spent 6 hours in my office learning how to enter names on the computer… one excruciating letter at a time…*
3. After a long day on the trail, a old man came by (around 4 pm), wanting to tell us the complete hidden story of Pal – what his grandparents told him. Because there were so many people seeking to bless the ‘ladies group’ with gifts of meat and parties, he never was able to get his desired accomplices in the story (they were busy as leaders in the other gatherings) and so he left without telling us anything… after staying around for two days.
Please pray for us, we feel more acutely than ever the need to connect well with people. We want relationship rather than to be the source for goods or services. Sure we want to be free in our giving, but not in ways that pull us out of relationship.
The first visitors from the States that got to stay in our house: The Asays. (Watch out for the bush knife…)
Family
Ours is a life set far apart both in time and in space from our friends and family. As much as we would try to bring it in an accessible way to you all in writing, our short notes are but a poor substitute for the experience of the thing. It is no mean feat then for someone to step out of their own home routines and comfort zone and to enter the completely different world of Pal.
That said, it was with great joy (and some worry) that we were able to welcome Elizabeth’s sister and her husband to our home and village. They did great, taking on hikes, work, and even the stomach flu with great attitudes. We were very blessed by their presence and fellowship. It’s a real thrill to bring close friends into firsthand contact with what God is doing here.
Honestly it was really tough to see them hop on the helicopter to head back to the U.S.A.
What could be finer than a sibling who is a great friend. Here are two sets.
Praying
This update could indeed be a book because there are so many things that we are feeling like saying, but I’ll condense it down to a few bullet points for prayer instead.
· Pray for health – we have targets for our language learning, Literacy!, and Translation! work that are fairly tight. Colds, flus, general malaise, and even a very smashed finger (did you break it Nate?) have affected the completion of our tasks this week.
· Pray for Unity – How many of you parents run the house exactly the same when your spouse is home and when they are not? Yup. Neither do we. That is why we will be adjusting to life trying to accommodate three families concerns and needs. It ain’t easy, but its worth it.
· Pray for relationship – We’ve noticed a willingness in our friends to treat us a little more like a place to stop for random stuff rather than a place to stop for fellowship. We want relationships with them because God wants relationships with them. Please pray that we deal with this wisely.
Thanks again for caring for us.
Nate for the fam.
* Some of you may be wondering what in the world illiterate people would want with a typed up list of names. You might also be wondering why we spent time teaching them how to enter the names when it would have only taken us 45 minutes to do it ourselves. Well, curious people, pat yourself on the backs and read on for your answers:
In New Guinea as elsewhere, image is everything. The Pal people, being from one of the more remote places, are easily identifyable in town as the PNG equivalent of hicks and are therefore rarely taken seriously or given any kind of time of day by government or business. A typed document in PNG instantly sets the bearer apart by lending confidence to the holder (“See, I’m not a hick, its in Times New Roman.”) and power to the message (“Gee, he looks a little like a bush dude, but he is holding a typed document – he must know more that he looks like he does or he must know somebody important… I’ll listen more carefully to what he has to say.”) Thus, a Pal person will hunt and peck his way through 250+ names (actually they more or less pony-expressed it taking it in turns of 25 names or until one at the computer had his head hurting and eyes glazed over) in order to appear that much more important.
We had the Pal people do the task for two reasons. The first is that typing in names in order to ask the government (3rd most corrupt in the world) for assistance is not our function here in Pal. Our function is to teach them the truth and to show care for them along the way. The second reason is that we hope to teach them to use computers some day and what better way to begin the process that with a project that they consider to be very important. We made it into a kind of party and in the end all involved were pleased with the results (except I didn’t get any literacy work done that day).
Posted via email from PNG Time
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