SETTLING IN...
Wow. So much has happened since the last time I wrote to you guys. I am still so grateful for the time of prayer on zoom and those that joined from all over the world in such different time zones. It encouraged my heart deeply to be a part of the body of Christ like that. My teammates, the Kennells, eventually arrived after 3 failed attempts and we made it into Bisorio!!
Our first month was a lot. It consisted of a nationwide fuel crisis threatening to delay or keep us from going into Bisorio, a flooded airstrip causing a longer travel and then as we arrived to the village many were hiding from us, ashamed and upset that our houses were broken into. The first night there, we woke up to our entire village flooded (2-3 feet of water under our houses), we did end up calling the police in and later that week they came to take the man out who had done so much harm in the village and to our houses. There were talks with village leadership resulting in asking his family to leave Bisorio for a season which has never happened and was a hard decision to come to. And on top of that….SO MUCH RAIN, a death in the village, my body adjusting to life here, a massive earthquake that woke us all up and gave us a bit of work to clean up after, heavy conversations within the village and then a beautiful Easter Holy week of meeting together daily in God’s Word. It was a lot. All while I was still trying to figure out people’s names, how to get around and to say the most basic of greetings.
AND YET...through it all I kept reminding myself, none of this was a surprise to the Lord and through it all we could see time and time again God’s faithfulness in each situation. Now, with some time removed from it all, I can see it even more clearly. My co-workers left over a month ago and since then I have gotten into a great rhythm of language, culture and relationship building. My days are full and my brain/body is tired by the evening but I can honestly say I end most days so grateful. I am really liking my little life in here.
It hasn’t been perfect, there have been hard moments and things I have had to figure out and navigate, but ultimately I remind myself that that is life for all of us, right? I am grateful to be surrounded by a community that is helping me at every turn to teach me language and how to live life here. They have hope for what is to come and I am learning so much. There is the sweetness of different people stopping by daily with pumpkin greens or a sweet potato or some cooking bananas from their garden or the kindness of those who ask me if I want to walk with them to the other side of the village to see family and grabbing a coconut to drink along the way. Beyond verbs and nouns, I am watching and learning and writing so many questions down for the future. Joining a work in this stage is out of the box from the typical story within my organization, there are a lot of unknowns but as I chat with the Lord about it, I just have so much peace He will continue to reveal to me the next steps when the time is right. For now I must learn how to communicate and to hear what they are saying so I can better understand what they are thinking and feeling.
There is so much I wish I could share...but know the Lord is truly sustaining me and I am grateful. “But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.” Psalm 3:3-5 Above are some pics of daily life. Thanks for praying. Thanks for your support – financially and emotionally. I cannot wait to see how God continues to use our efforts to strengthen His church here. I can feel your prayers giving strength and joy to me daily.
WHAT IS NEXT...I have another month here in Bisorio with the people and then I will head to Madang for two weeks to help run the Interface Program that I was a part of last year. It will be a blessing to be around good friends and to be a part of a program I love in a part of the country that is filled with so many people that are so life-giving to me. After those two weeks, I’ll head back into Bisorio and will continue language and culture learning.
here I am.
Some have asked, where do you live exactly in PNG?…I am in the East Sepik Province, off a river called The Korosameri.
PRAYER
REQUESTS
1-LITERACY SCHOOL:
My co-worker, Noby helped train up and organize a literacy school for the Bisorio Language before she left. It’s sweet to see close to seventy students come every day eager to learn how to read and write. Please pray that they will learn to read. I pray over them every day knowing they are the future and I want them to learn to read and write so badly. The only book they have is God’s Word (the New Testament and portions of the Old Testament) and it is so inspiring and motivating for me to see them work so hard with a desire to read God’s Word.
She was so excited about school she started building her own “desk”
2-LANGUAGE LEARNING
Pray the Lord will help open up my ears to hear the language and loosen my tongue to speak it. Pray my pride doesn’t win the day and that I continue to build deep friendships with the people here. Pray I will learn quickly and love well in the process.
3-HEALTH
Praise God with me that other than battling being eaten alive in here by sand fleas and mosquitos, I haven’t gotten sick or come down with malaria. I thank Him every day for my health. Continue to pray God would keep me healthy but also for the health of the people. This is the season of sores and there is a really bad eye infection going around and probably 1 out of 3 kids have it currently and it looks so painful- please be praying for them.
This day!!! We stopped in to see Odeya + Lebase at their bush camp and to all our surprise, Odeya had trapped a giant pig so all our plans changed and we ended up spending the day prepping. preparing and feasting on this pig! Such a fun day.
4-TRANSLATION
Lastly, please be praying for my co-workers the Kennells and the Walkers as they continue to work on the final translation of the full cannon of scripture in the Bisorio Language. They hope to be coming back in the middle of October to do a course on some OT material.