Close Calls

Clockwise from top left: Elias, we really do feed him; Two friends doing their best to look happy for the camera, Tim scales the landslide/playground with the help of A. a rope; and B. a little brother; Elias decides to try a climb without assistance.

Lost in Translation

‘Look, I am getting old, pretty soon, I’ll be eating Idole’s offerings, should I tell you what I know right now and you can tell me what the truth is?’ – Ulukes

…So this one guy decides to have a meeting, right? He has his own ideas of what he wants to talk about at the meeting. Ok, then this other guy, well, he hears that there is going to be a meeting and so he figures ‘Well hey, there’s going to be a meeting, I’ll just bring my agenda along too – the more the merrier right?’ But that is not all, some other guys hear about the meeting so they up and decide to come along with a few things that have been sticking in their craws (do people have craws anyway?) .

…Finally some village leaders hear about the meeting and they say to themselves ‘Surely nobody is going to have a meeting without a little bit of us throwing our weight around, lets go too.’

We went to that meeting yesterday. It was pretty much a good social event, but with so many conflicting agendas and ideas, it ended up as more of a discussion than anything else.

So, about the quote above, it was an older fellow who sincerely believes that we will be sharing with the Pal people the source of white people’s wealth and he was asking to be let in on the secret soon so that he’d have time to enjoy his bungalow and stuff. The truth is that in spite of everything we have told our friends about what we are going to do, they are still trapped by rumors and wishful thinking in regards to what it means for them. Please pray with us that they will continue to be hungry to listen to the truth and ready to understand what God’s Word really says.

Just some pictures of the meeting from yesterday.

Close call

One of our students at the literacy school almost died this week. What started as a simple cold turned quickly into full blown pneumonia (and ear infections).  Since there is a government aid post within hiking distance and we encourage our friends to make us e of the free/low cost services there, we weren’t too worried.

What  we didn’t know is that our friend believes that when he took his mother to the aid post for an infected finger he was shot by a spirit and so became sick.

We ended up stepping in with rehydration drinks, hot tea, and (duh) some antibiotics.  Our friend is no longer at death’s door, but still has fluid in his lungs and a raging ear infection. The problem is that he still believes it is a spirit caused sickness – and so he has moved from our area to a distant part of Pal. (Think 5 mile hike – 200 yards at a time).

Please pray for our friend – we had thought he would be one of the teachers in the literacy school for the second class – now he has missed so much it will be hard for him to make up the lost ground. 

Then, as you pray, please pray for all our Pal friends as thy are in bondage to fear and lies – lies that literally are killing them.

Thanks for joining with us in this work.

Nate

PS: we have a language check coming up in two weeks for Elizabeth – pray for her as she is || this close|| to being ministry approved in Pal!