Jars of Clay

Every two years members of our branch meet together in Ukarumpa to reflect on what God has done in and through Bible translation in Papua New Guinea during the past two years. This year’s conference theme was based on 2 Corinthians 4:7. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (NIV)

We “jars of clay” are full of cracks and imperfections. But when the treasure of Christ dwells within us, those imperfections allow His power and glory to shine through us. The fact that God has chosen weak vessels like us to expand his Kingdom is both heartening and humbling. We count it a privilege to be supporting Bible translation in Papua New Guinea, but it’s easy to become discouraged by our personal limitations or when our plans fail.

One of our co-workers, Bruce, had taken on the responsibility of delivering the newly printed Tairora Bibles to a few villages among the Tairora people. Since the translators (Alex and Lois Vincent) weren’t currently in PNG, they had difficulty finding couriers familiar with the region.

Nonetheless, Bruce and 2 other guys on off-road motorbikes departed with a load of Bibles for one of the better known villages. On the way, Bruce fell off his bike and was badly hurt. Some of the local people helped Bruce back to our center, and x-rays at the clinic revealed that Bruce had a broken clavicle. It seemed like there wouldn’t be any more deliveries for several weeks.

A week later, however, Bruce heard that local church leaders would be meeting in Ukarumpa village. He went to the meeting and was invited to speak about the new, undelivered Bibles. After hearing Bruce’s story and how he broke his clavicle, the pastors decided something needed to be done.

Not long afterwards, a group of men arrived to pick up all the boxes of Bibles. Not only did they complete Bruce’s failed delivery, but they also took the Bibles to some very remote villages that Bruce had no way of getting to.

Hallelujah! Our God is not restricted by our plans, and often uses our weaknesses to accomplish his greater purposes.

Resurrection Celebration

Two Grade 12 students made our Easter celebration extra special this year.  Stephanie and Elijah attended a Bible conference in Ukarumpa over the weekend with about 120 other students from across the country.  Members of our community invited the students into their homes for dinner after the Easter service.

We got to spend the afternoon getting to know Stephanie and Elijah.  They are from two different villages in the same language group.  We enjoyed stories about their families and customs.  Elijah told us how white foreigners first introduced his people to horses, and now they raise and sell them.  Stephanie told us how her people used to fight and even eat the white missionaries who were trying to get up to the Highlands.  <We’ve seen actual footage of the first white explorer’s journey into the Highlands of PNG so it wasn’t that long ago!>

It was especially encouraging to have Elijah tell us how much he enjoys studying the Bible, and ask us how he could become a Bible translator.  Yes!  It is our prayer that this young generation of Papua New Guineans…the future leaders of their country…would pick up the baton and help their neighbors get God’s Word in their heart language.

Surprise Eggs

Claire and Isaiah have vague memories of Easter baskets and egg hunts from years past but they haven’t been a regular tradition in our family.  This year, however, there were three little “surprises” waiting on their breakfast plates…Kinder Surprises.

They are a chocolate treat that most American kids can only dream about since they’re illegal in the US.  Apparently, the small toys they contain within their shells could constitute a choking hazard.  So just in case you Americans should find yourselves longing for this sweet concoction, you need only go to Canada to purchase one.  Just don’t try bringing any back home, you could get a fine of $2500 per egg!

To prepare you for this little walk on the wild side, Claire will now demonstrate how to safely eat a Kinder Surprise…without choking.

1.  Unwrap foil around egg and discard responsibly.

2. Break chocolate shell in half to discover yellow, plastic yolk.  Eat chocolate.  Do not eat yolk.

3. Open yolk to find toy.  After reading instructions thoroughly, assembly toy.

4. Smile really big!

Having Voice

We’re in the middle of our branch conference right now.  I confess it’s not my most favorite thing to sit and listen to reports and discuss governance issues.  I’m not alone in that opinion because sometimes during our meetings we even hash out whether it’s worth the time and effort to have the conference.  This year, however, I definitely see some benefits…even to me personally.

I work at home and home school my two kiddos.  My social interaction is often limited to trips to the store and Sunday morning services.  So it’s not often that I get to hear first-hand accounts of the work going on in the far corners of PNG.

Today I saw photos of villages almost completely isolated from the rest of humanity by mountains and swamp land.  I marveled at the number of language groups (not to mention individual languages) that exist in the Sepik and Sundaun provinces of western PNG.  And I was reminded that there is still a huge amount of work to do.

Later we heard presentations on a couple of proposed governance structures, and we were given the chance to discuss ideas and voice questions with those at our tables.  Even though I work primarily as a wife and mother, for me it is huge that I have a say in this work, and that what I say is valued.  It serves to reinforce in my mind that what I do matters in Bible translation.

A few years ago Jon was working at a university back in the US helping to start an aviation maintenance program.  We were convinced that we were furthering Bible translation by helping to train potential aircraft mechanics for the field—a skill that always seems in short supply.

The difficult part for me was that no matter what I did as the wife to support my husband in his role, I was not an employee and not privy to company plans and goals.  I didn’t expect otherwise, but I still found it hard to be left on the outside.  And it didn’t take long for our mutual aspiration to just become his job.

Maybe that loss of focus is my own fault, but that time on the outside has made me appreciate the “voice” I have once again.  I may spend my days making meals, washing work uniforms, drilling multiplication facts, or printing conference name tags but there’s no doubt in my mind that I’m doing it for Bible translation.

(Photos by B. Boogaard & P. King)

Fitting Pipes

Post by Jon--

Even though I have a very specific role in supporting Bible translation here in Papua New Guinea, I never really know what I might be called on to do from one day to the next.

A couple of weeks ago a guy I’d never seen before came into our hanger with a look of concern on his face.  He introduced himself as the leader of a rural development program within Papua New Guinea.  His company is in the process of installing a hydro-electric system next to a river in the remote location of Marawaka.  He had a logistical dilemma and was in desperate need of help.

He had prearranged about two hundred sections of specialized water pipe to be driven by truck from the port city of Lae to our airstrip at Aiyura, where a large Twin Otter aircraft would fly the pipe into Marawaka.  The problem was that all the pipe was cut into lengths that would not fit into the aircraft.  He asked us if there was any way we could help him get the material to his job sight. 

Wanting to help, we organized a system of measuring and cutting the pipes into manageable lengths.

Then we grouped them into loads that the aircraft could handle and loaded each one by hand into the plane.  This was no small task since some of those pipes weighed about 200 pounds!

 

As we visited with the leader of the project (who was an Australian) we learned that he had actually grown up in Papua New Guinea in the 1970s.  His parents were missionaries in a location about 40 miles from where we are now.

We just never know who the Lord is going to bring across our path, or who he is going to ask us to help!

Farm Chores

The yard around our house in Virginia often had bare patches where we never could get grass to grow.  Here in PNG, we have opposite problem.  Grass quickly fills in any available spot—often faster than we can keep up with.  I’m sure the local people must shake their heads at us in wonder as we routinely pull the grass out of our rock sidewalks and driveways.  The aviation department even has to scrape it off the runway.

There is a vacant house up the hill from us whose yard we walk through just about every day.  We were starting to need a bush knife (machete) to hack our way through it though since it hadn’t been mown in about a month.  I notified the appropriate authorities and a crew of men came with mower, weed-whacker and bush knives.  When it was done it looked like mowed hay, and I commented to the kids that Chaco would probably love it.

Chaco is our neighbor.  Actually he is our neighbor’s steer, but he’s a very sociable cow and the kids love him almost as much as our cat…and probably more than the dog we were watching.  The day our neighbors turn Chaco into mince and round steak will be a heartrending one for our family.

With Chaco next door, chickens in the coop, cats on the porch, and dogs around the house, Claire and Isaiah fancy themselves on a farm.  Naturally they couldn’t let all that fresh grass go to waste, so they decided to play “farm chores” and haul it to Chaco by the bucket-full.

Chaco by now knows to come close to the fence whenever the kids are outside.  Carrots might be involved afterall.  He enjoys watching Claire and Isaiah play kickball and will sometimes run to first base alongside the kicker.  Once a stray ball landed on his side of the fence and he obligingly nosed it back to where the kids could reach it.  So he was quite willing to participate in this new game.

Together the kids provided Chaco with lots to chew on, but Isaiah gave up the game long before Claire was ready.  She even coerced Daddy into helping her when he got home from work.  The next day, Claire composed the following for her home school writing assignment.

When I am 39 years old I want to live on Grandpa K’s farm.  I will live there with my husband, 3 daughters, 1 son, 3 adorable puddies [as in puddy-tat] and 2 wonderful dogs.  My job will be to raise work horses, cats that catch mice and sheep dogs.  When I’m not busy I’ll ride my horses and do different kinds of arts and crafts.  I can’t wait to grow up so I can do these things on my farm.

By Claire (age 8)

I noticed cows didn’t figure into her future farm.  I initially thought she discovered cows were too much work, but then I realized chickens weren’t on her future farm either.  Most likely, she doesn’t want to deal with animals as food and the attachment issues that might arise.  <smile>

Regret Isn’t the End of the Story

“Elmer ran off and went on a ship all by himself?” asked my daughter.

“Yes,” I replied.  “What would you have done?”

“I don’t think he should have left without telling his parents.  I would have told you and Daddy to come with me.  Then Daddy could bring his gun and we would have been safe from the wild animals…and we could still save the baby dragon.”

“I see.  Then Elmer’s parents wouldn’t have worried about him.  So you think that’s what he should have done?”  I queried.

“Yes,” replied my daughter thoughtfully, “but then there wouldn’t have been much of a story.”

We’ve all read stories or watched movies where a character makes a choice that causes us to wince.  We know or can guess what’s ahead—embarrassment, struggles, penalties, and failure.  Whatever the case, the decision usually can’t be undone and the character has to live with the consequences.

The hardest part is living with the regret.  We get trapped by it because we feel like it can never be completely fixed.

Jon and I talk a lot about our time in Virginia.  Should we have ever left the work here in PNG to take a job back in the States for those couple of years.  It certainly didn’t turn out how we had hoped.  Did we make a mistake—not pray enough about it?  Did we ignore signs from God?

Whether or not we made the right choice, we still have regrets—the stress the situation put on our family.  Buying a house and turning around and putting it up for sale 5 months later.  Resigning from Wycliffe and reapplying 3 months later.  How we must appear changeable, unreliable or even untrustworthy to those around us.  Since we can’t erase our history, we could hole up in our regret.

Fortunately, we have a God who’s bigger than our regret.  If we look back on our lives, we can look at the high and lows and BEGIN to see the beautiful story God is weaving in our lives.  Yes, we wonder if we really should have left PNG.  We may never know.  What we do know is that we’ll never regret the friends we made in Virginia.  We have memories from our time there that make our lives so much richer and colorful.

I believe God can make a beautiful story out of any regrettable choice we have made, IF we let him.  Forgiveness is the beginning of the next chapter.  So let’s get on with our stories.

 

PS—Elmer Elevator is the adventurous little boy with no regrets from the “My Father’s Dragon” series by Ruth Stiles Gannett and illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannett.