NCLA

NCLA - National Culture & Language Acquisition

That is what Kerri & I are involved in these days. For us here at Lapilo (the Mission HQ and school base) it is a 12 week course. NCLA is the real name for it but we just call it language study. For most of us North Americans when we think of studying a language, we picture a class room, books, memorizing verbs and tenses. For the first 3 weeks there was some classroom stuff. But as we progress, the class room moves more and more out into the bush. You see, we are not just wanting to learn how to speak Pidgin English, but we need to learn the culture behind the language. That is the only way to really build relationships with our neighbors here.

To do that we have to get out and do what they do. These folk live very simple lives, at least that is how it appears to us westerners. Much of their life is centered around food; not just eating it, but hunting it, growing it, and gathering it. A few of them have jobs that pay money. Many of them have coffee gardens which they work as a means of making money.

Anyway, for us to learn their language and culture we need to be out doing these things with them. This is where the fun part comes in. I got to learn how to make a fishing pole and a hand line then go use them. I got to go work in their gardens with them. I even learned how to make fire without matches. It’s rough (sarcasm) when we have to go to Mumus (a PNG style picnic/potluck) and eat, having to wade across rivers, walk through some of their beautiful gardens and have to constantly look at the incredible scenery around here.

I thought I’d throw in a couple pictures of some of the things we’ve been doing the last two weeks. 

Aute was teaching me how to fish with a hand line. Jon (the other dorm dad) was fishing with the pole a little up stream from us. We never caught anything but that is how it goes. (I'm the guy on the right) :-)

Aute, Jon & I went over and helped Pastor Eric put a roof on a house for his son. Jon & Aute were part of the roof crew and I was part of the ground crew with Hebert, Pastor Eric's son.

Here we are building the mumu pit with banana plant, leaves and grass. We are trying to help more than be in the way. They are literally building a pressure cooker out of leaves and dirt. It works quite well.

 While the food cooks we are sampling some of the other goodies. What we are eating here is fire cooked banana. It was much better than it looked. It tasted like like a potato in desperate need of salt & butter.

When the food is done, we sit around and eat with our hands. We had chicken, corn, kaukau (sweet potato), potato, pitpit (they said it taste like asparagus), and lots of salt.

It was a good time to sit around and talk with Aute, he is constantly trying to teach us something.

I spent an hour or two watching and talking to this ol' guy about making baskets. It is a very involved process from start to finish. I use to think their baskets were expensive until I saw what was involved. Lots of hard work goes into making these baskets.

Making fire without matches was one of the cooler things that i got to do. I've heard of Boy Scouts doing that but I actually got to do it. (Of course Aute got all the materials together). I felt like Tom Hanks in "Cast Away". I wanted to dance around the fire and sing "I make FIRE".

Here is the proof. Fire!

It really was pretty easy. A piece of hard wood (we used Coffee wood), a piece of bamboo, maybe 3-4 foot long and some very dry grass or leaves. And probably most important, a guy like Aute coaching you along!

Kerri has not been able to do any of our outings to the village (yet) so we hired a gal to come in and spend at least an hour a day with her. Her name is Junio. She is a believer with a real sweet disposition.

Hardly a day goes by that I don't stop and just look around in amazement at the beauty of this place. I'm often wondering why I get to be here. I don't know. There are a few things that I do know, one is that we would not be here if it were not for so many who give and pray for us, for the many who desire, as we do, to see the gospel in the hands of the many languages here in PNG. To you we say Thanks.

This is a beautiful place, yet a dark place. The enemy of God is very active here. He is working in every conceivable way to keep these people far from the Light of the Gospel. Scripture says that the Darkness cannot stand in the presence of Light and the Gates of Hell cannot stand against His Church (that's us). That is, if we will only go on the offence and attack. If we, the church, do nothing then the Gates of Hell will stand (at least for those living in darkness) and souls will continue to go into a Christless eternity.

Cultural Speed Bumps



View from the back of the Bus



As part of our field orientation we had to take a PMV (public motor vehicle, ie..Bus) into town and go to the open market.



This is my new buddy Aute



We went with Dave our language teacher and Aute, our language helper (his name is pronounced “ouch” but drop the “ch”, now say “table” but drop the “ble”). Anyway, the market was quite impressive. The selection was great and the prices were a lot cheaper than our little “gate” market on Monday & Thursday.



Goroka's open market



Amidst the chaos, things were surprisingly organized. There was a tomato section, a lettuce section; the kaukau (pronounced cow-cow, their sweet potato) was in another area, ect….. Everything has the price clearly marked with little tags. Unlike South America, there is very little bartering going on, just people and produce everywhere.



Kerri with my "work Bilum"



Before you even get into the market there are folks out front selling bags. Large bags (like 100 lbs rice bags), medium and small size bags with a strap. These are called Bilums (bee-looms). Everybody here carries a bilum. The ones sold outside the market are work bilums, made of nylon feed sack material. I bought a large work bilum and quickly filled it up with fruit and veggies. The main object of this trip was not to get our veggies but to use the language we have been learning as we shop. People are gracious with us as we learn. As long as you’re willing and able to laugh at yourself you’ll be fine.



My nice "Man Purse"



Later in the day, as we walked through town I saw a nice woven bilum and decided to buy that one too. So now I have “two man purses”, one for veggies in the open market and one for just shopping around town in the stores.

While on this little outing to the market, I crossed over two cultural speedbumps. Two things happened that brought me a little closer to feeling comfortable in this new culture.

Owning a bilum and sort of feeling comfortable carrying one is one speed bump. The second one is really more like a stone wall than a speed bump.

In PNG it is not really culturally acceptable for Kerri and I to walk around holding hands.  We’re told that would be like making out on a park bench. However, it is not uncommon to see ladies holding hands with ladies nor men holding hands with men. It means that you are friends. To see two guys walking down the street holding hands has nothing to do with homosexuality, it has everything to do with friendship.

Well, as Aute & I were walking through the market, Aute was explaining things to me, answering my questions, and then it happened……Aute took hold of my hand as we were walking along. There I was walking through the market holding hands with a man. My first reaction was one of fear and panic. “Oh man, what do I do?” …… I wanted to pull my hand away and quick stick it in my pocket.  Then I realized what was happening, Aute was being a friend. He was not trying to hit on me, he was just saying “hey, we’re buddies”. The hand holding actually only lasted for a few seconds but that was enough for me. However, as I gave it some thought, it was an encouragement to me. I have PNG friend! Aute is probably not a believer, but is a "good guy". He is from the Benabena people, a different culture, a different language. Although our ability to communicate is very limited at this point, we are starting to establish a friendship.

Holding hands with a guy while carrying a man purse is not a speed bump that I want to go over too many times but if we (both Kerri & I) are able to keep things in cultural perspective then we will be able to adjust to PNG much quicker. This is a land in desperate need of the gospel. The enemy is here working overtime to keep these people in darkness. If it means them seeing the light of Christ, then we will go over the bumps and trust Him for the grace needed.

God is Good…..All the time.

An update...

A Look around the place

 This is our semi-automatic washing machine. It's fine for the two of us now, but when we move to the dorm we will have two full size top loaders. 





 We're lovin' fresh fruits and veggies in March. Tomatoes & Cheese sandwiches...you can't beat it.

This is a shot off our front porch. We are one of the few apartments to have a lake front view. The pickle pond is quite lovely this time of year. 

  Local wild life!

Our basement apartment was recently refurbished. The ceremic tile floors are beautiful. It was like a full back ice pack which felt good after a walk. .

 The Jr Class has several a fund raisers for next year's senior class trip. Saturday night they made and  sold hamburgers and French fries. We felt like we should support the kids. Tim had his first Mt Dew, made in Singapore. (It was worse than a bad generic), but the fries were awsome.

 

This is our bedroom. We are so thankful for our mattress. A place to be comfortable. 

This is a front view of the dorm we will be able to move in around June 12th. It's huge, tons of storage.

Here is a shot of the dining room/kitchen

This is the living room, looking towards the kitchen. The furniture look familiar? Tim made this exact kind of furniture in Venezuela. And when we moved into our house on Hepburn Street, I found and bought this same furniture at a yard sale! Makes us feel right at home.

This is looking at the living room from the kitchen.

This is the back of the dorm. Nice place for a grill out. Downstairs is a Laundry room, Storage room and "the shop".

This wood got Tim's attention right away. Thinking about having a shop, some wood, even a plainer and table saw (don't yet know if they work) got Tim all pumped up.

Spectacular view from the dorm's front porch! Love the mountainous view surrounding us.

Well there you have it, a deluxe tour of the place. Hope you enjoyed it.

Tim & Kerri

We made it!

Well, we made it. We are pretty well adjusted to the time change. It was nothing to adjust to the climate, it is beautiful here. We are in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, comfortable days, cools nights, no humidity. Along with that, no malaria (for the most part).

The trip over went well. The Lord went before us in some very real ways. For example; we were praying for Kerri to be able to stretch out so the Lord gave us a whole row to ourselves. Kerri laid out on the floor and was quite comfortable for almost the entire 13 hour flight to Tokyo.

They lost one bag between Philadelphia and Tokyo. That created a little stress in Tokyo where we had to go through customs & immigrations, fill out paperwork, then get back to our flight to PNG. The stress caused was simply my lack of trust. The Lord was again answering our prayers. That bag getting lost may have saved us up to $1,000. We had 5 bags. One bag over our allowed amount. The guy behind us in line had one extra bag also. They charged him $1,000 for that one bag. He was not happy but he had to pay it. Our 5^th bag was delivered to our door 4 days later, free of Charge. God answered prayer.

Life here at Lapilo (la-pea-low) has it perks. Every Monday & Thursday the locals set up a “Farmers market” right outside our gate. The fruits & veggies are very nice. Lettuce, cucumbers, strawberries, and much more, all delicious. It’s weird getting use to new currency but those are things we will quickly get use to.

Kerri’s back did well on the trip over. We messed up by not getting her off the plane and into our apartment for a few days of down time. Instead we got a tour of the property, a trip to the market, meetings, and many meals out. Well after three days of that, her back had enough. We have had to restructure our time, cancelled a number of meeting (or I go alone). She is feeling better each day. We do appreciate your prayers for her.

We are going to try to send out updates often and keep them short. I tend to not read long emails and figure you don’t either.

Thanks for praying for us! And thanks to you who give enabling us to be here and be a part of getting God’s Word to those who don’t yet have it. We are excited about fitting into this new ministry God has ahead of us.