Waiting and Waiting No Longer

I know I’ve been raving a lot about Sonlight and our kids’ homeschool curriculum.  I guess it’s natural when so much of my day is spent teaching Claire and Isaiah, and Sonlight makes it so enjoyable.  I especially love it when what we’re studying is already so very close to our hearts!

We started using the book “From Akebu to Zapotec” in our home school.  Each week we pray for a Bibleless people group from around the world.  A couple of the people groups are from right here in Papua New Guinea.  I used our organization’s language resource website to find some information about those languages, and sadly I found little.  It’s rather amazing that there IS a map of their locations considering how remote they are.  Nonetheless, they are still waiting for God’s Word in the language of their hearts.

Which reminds me that there is another people group in PNG that waits no longer.

Two weekends ago, the Bariai people of West New Britain celebrated the dedication of the New Testament, Genesis and Exodus.  Enthusiastic processions of people from the community carried the Bibles up to the church on Saturday afternoon.

 

 

The Sunday morning service was packed.  Men and women adorned in elaborate costumes of feathers and flowers participated in the celebration of the vernacular scriptures.

 

 

It is our prayer that the Bariai people will read God’s Word.  That they will “hear” God speaking their heart language and desire to follow after Him.  That their lives will be changed into a greater likeness of our Father.  That is why we’re here!

  Photos by D. Barton

Patchwork Bridge

A bridge on the only road that links our center to the Highlands Highway collapsed last week.  The Highlands Highway is the artery that carries the “life blood” of PNG from the coast through the Highlands.

The PNG Department of Works has been planning a new bridge for quite a while but it is progressing very slowly.  In the photo on the left you can see the current state of the bridge with its make-shift patches.

Fortunately, the Department of Works and our own construction and auto shop teams came up with a temporary fix that involved replacing three broken I-beams with some second-hand beams.  You can just see the broken beams on the underside of the bridge in the photo on the right.  Praise God, after two days of hard work, the bridge is now passable for light weight vehicles.

Please pray that the new bridge would be completed soon.  Until then, it is difficult to get supplies like fuel and groceries to our center since the bridge is not safe for large trucks.

Photos by: B&S Frey

Sonlight at the Ends of the Earth

The day our Sonlight home school curriculum finally arrives is a red-letter day for our family.  Being that we’re within hollering distance of the “ends of the earth”, I’ve wondered if any other Sonlight users wait as long for their books to arrive.  That big white box makes quite a journey….

January 12—I place an order for our 2012-2013 home school material with Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd. in Littleton, CO.

January 17—Boxes of books arrive by FedEx at our mission’s shipping office in Waxhaw, NC.

Mid March—Boxes are packed in a 40-ft. shipping container and head to a port on the coast of NC.

End of March—The shipping container is loaded on a freighter and begins the long journey to Papua New Guinea.

End of May—The freighter arrives at the port city of Lae, Papua New Guinea.

Beginning of June—The shipping container is unloaded from the ship and waits on the wharf to be inspected by customs officials.

End of June—The container is emptied and the contents are put on a truck to be driven 130+ miles up the Highlands Highway (about the equivalent of a neglected county road in the US).  The journey includes a climb of 5000 ft. up the Kassam pass via multiple hairpin curves.  Fortunately, it’s been dry for the past few weeks so there’s less concern that landslides might close the road.

June 29 (approx)—The contents of the shipping container arrive at the Ukarumpa Store’s warehouse to be checked one more time.

Today (nearly 6 months later)—Our boxes of curriculum finally arrive at our front door via the grocery delivery truck and its friendly driver, Willie.

The excitement of boxes at our front door entices even a curious (albeit anonymous) neighbor.

Unfortunately for the neighbor, the lure of new books makes Claire and Isaiah oblivious to anyone else in the room.  <smile>

Moving On Up

Another successful year of home school came to close recently.  Below Claire and Isaiah proudly show off their certificates of achievement.  Claire’s biggest accomplishments were reading her first chapter book all by herself, writing and illustrating several stories, and learning how to multiply.  Isaiah can read all 27 of his little phonics books quite proficiently, and loved learning about our solar system during science class.  He also draws amazing rocket ships.

Claire and Isaiah are excited to be moving up to Grade 3 and Grade 1 respectively, but are even more thrilled about having several weeks’ reprieve from school.  Mom/Teacher is a bit concerned about how long it’s going to take them to get bored, but for the moment the kids are enjoying their freedom—especially since just today some new kids moved in next door.

Picking Up Chicks

Jon has a new hobby.  It involves driving to the nearest town with a couple of guys from work to pick up chicks.  And I’m OK with that as long as they’re the cute, fluffy, yellow kind.  <wink>

I mentioned in a previous post that a whole chicken costs about USD 15.00.  Needless to say, we don’t eat much poultry.  In an effort to change that the homesteader in my husband suggested we try raising our own.  How hard can it be, right?  Well…if they don’t all die of sickness or exposure, and they don’t get stolen or eaten by the neighborhood cats and dogs, hopefully we’ll be eating roast chicken in about 7-8 weeks.

The kids wanted to name them despite our warning that these balls of fuzz are food not pets.  We compromised and decided to call them “Enchiladas”, “Cacciatore”, “Noodle Soup”….  <smile>

Heart Language

Praise God for the Maiwa New Testament dedication in April!  Another 1400+ people of Papua New Guinea have God's Word in their heart language!

When we say “heart language”, we mean the language that speaks to the heart. The language a person hears their mother speak, the language they learned as a child, the language a person uses with those most close to them.

You might wonder, “Wouldn’t evangelism just be easier if everyone learned English?” Well, think about it…. I’m going to insert a verse from a language in the same branch as English.  See if you can figure out which verse it is.

“Denn Gott hat die Menschen so sehr geliebt, dass er seinen einzigen Sohn für sie hergab. Jeder, der an ihn glaubt, wird nicht zugrunde gehen, sondern das ewige Leben haben.”

Didn’t get it? OK, try this one.  It has a lot of words that sound like English….

“God i gat wanpela pikinini tasol i stap. Tasol God i laikim tumas olgeta manmeri bilong graun, olsem na em i givem dispel wanpela pikinini long ol. Em i mekim olsem bilong olgeta manmeri i bilip long e mol i no ken lus. Nogat. Bai ol i kisim laip i stap gut oltaim oltaim.”

So did you pick it up that time? Some of the words sound familiar didn’t they? No? OK, how about….

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

So now you know it is John 3:16.  Can you imagine having to learn German or Tok Pisin to read the Bible for your spiritual nourishment?  I can’t.  That’s why we’re in Papua New Guinea supporting the work of Bible translation.

*Photo by J&M Matsumaru

Heartbroken

Our family is grieving the loss of our first pet—little Bilas.  On Saturday morning Jon had to put our kitten down.  Although she was her normal playful self earlier in the day, after breakfast I discovered her lying in her bed unresponsive.  Other symptoms make us suspect she ingested some kind of poison.

Isaiah helped bury the little bundle and both kids made stones for her grave.  Claire exchanged a framed photo of her favorite horse on her desk for a picture of her furry friend.  We’re all pretty upset by the sudden loss, but we’re working through the grief.  Remembering all of Bilas’ funny antics helps.  It’s amazing how that little fuzz ball wound herself around our hearts during those two short months that she shared with us!