Village Vignettes 1: Grubs

We have been back from living in the village for almost a week now, so it’s about time we update you on what we’ve been up to. Rather than attempt to be comprehensive, we’ll try to give a few vignettes over the coming days.

We’ll start off with something that many of you may have heard something about already. One day, one of the young men in the village gave me some grubs. When he gave them to me, they were still alive and wiggling, and I was a little concerned that he expected me to eat them alive, on the spot. Thankfully that was not the case. These were breadfruit grubs, a bit bigger than the sago grubs you sometimes hear about. The ones I received were in two different stages of development. This is what they look like:

 

I must say that this wouldn’t be my first choice for a meal either, but I thought I should be brave and at least give some of these local delicacies a try. So I cooked them, and ate all four (Francine and Avigail each tried just a small bite). They don’t taste terrible; something between the taste of potato and crayfish.

Less than 15 minutes later, I was lying on the floor with a pounding headache, feeling lightheaded and having great difficulty breathing. Almost the worst part was that I knew exactly what was happening, because it had happened before, about nine years ago (after I had been stung by a bee). This was anaphylaxis – a severe allergic reaction. In 2002, the paramedics arrived within 10 minutes, jabbed me with an EpiPen, put me on oxygen, and brought me to the local hospital, and I felt then like they saved my life. I knew that was not an option here in the village. So I felt it was a very real possibility that I would die that night. It was scary, and yet I felt calm.

I don’t remember a lot of what happened after that. I passed in and out of consciousness a few times. The nurse from POC drove up from Madang. People were gathering around me, trying to help. The only thing I really remember is that people were praying. I don’t even remember that they were praying, I just had a sense that they were. And then when I came to, and realized I was actually going to make it, I felt like it was really only the hand of God that saved my life. Never before had I depended on God so fully for my very life. Never before had prayers seemed so effective.

I realized that living in Canada (or any other wealthy country with quality healthcare), we really depend a lot on healthcare professionals and medicine. When we’re in a health crisis, the first thing we usually think of is to go to the hospital or take some medication. And yes, God does give these blessings for us to make use of, but we so easily lose sight of the reality that it is God who gives life and takes it away, who heals or allows sickness to continue. When we see medication alone making us better, it’s harder to see God as the one who heals.

People living in isolated villages don’t have the luxury of good healthcare – it’s either too far away, or too expensive, or both. For many people in rural PNG, the first thing they think of when they are sick is prayer. They fully rely on God to heal them. They know that medication won’t heal them (because they don’t have any), so they turn to the only one who can.

We are grateful that God spared my life. We are grateful that he uses these opportunities also to teach us something about who he is and how fully we are to depend on him. We trust that God used this to his glory to show that he is more powerful. It’s quite likely, given an understanding of the beliefs of some of the people in the village, that some people attributed what happened to sanguma (sorcery) – but they could clearly see that our God is more powerful than sanguma.

The next day, our host family went through the village and told everyone not to give me anything unusual to eat. A few days later, I found out that even some of the locals are allergic to these grubs – some get some itchy skin, but I did also hear of one person who had a full-on anaphylaxis like I did.

Needless to say, I will never eat grubs again.

Preparing for village living

We’ve been keeping busy the last few weeks at POC. We have, of course, been learning more Tok Pisin (mostly by interactions with local people), but have also done a lot more.

Avigail exploring the world

carrying Avigail in a bilum, PNG style

 Over the course of our time at POC, we have had several opportunities to get together with a wasfemili (host family) and eat a meal. We have eaten meals both at POC and at their house, and have also had the opportunity to spend a night at their place. A great introduction to what it’s like to live in a village house! Last night was our last official get-together with them, but we’ll probably get together with them after our five weeks of village living as well, and share stories of what it was like.

waspapa shows us his garden

 Last week, Tim went on a three day group hike while Francine stayed back with Avigail. During this hike, we got to stay in two different villages and learn all about life there – all in Tok Pisin of course. It was great to enjoy a good time of camaraderie with our local guides on the trail as well. 

crossing a river

we came across this crab on the trail on a rainy day

On Friday we hope to leave for our five weeks of village living. We’ll be in a village called Waliyaksor up the north coast, about 60 km from Madang (and no, we won’t have electricity there, let alone Internet access). We are really looking forward to this time – especially now that we have some idea of what to expect in a Papua New Guinean village. We hope that being surrounded by Tok Pisin every day for over a month will boost our confidence in the language even more and enable us to express more and more. Please pray for good health, safety, and learning.

The Importance of Sending Churches

I came across this quote the other day that really captures the beauty of the relationship between missionaries, their sending church, and those they seek to reach:

"How thankful we are for those who give, who pray and send so that those who have never heard the gospel and are not a part of the kingdom of God have an opportunity to join the body of Christ. One day we will all gather around the throne to worship the King of kings and Lord of lords: those who sent missionaries, the missionaries, and those who responded to the gospel message. We will all stand amazed at the grace of God in allowing us to come into His presence and spend eternity with Him. Only then will we see the full strategic influence of those who have prayed and sacrificially given so that the gospel could go to those who needed to hear it. With eternity in view, may churches continue to pray, give and send out missionaries; may missionaries be faithful to their call and the mandate of the church; and may the Saviour of the world be praised."

Taken from: "Expectations & Burnout: Women Surviving the Great Commission" (by Sue Eenigenburg & Robynn Bliss), p. 99.

A day on the coast

PNG can be a stressful place to live, and we've certainly had a taste of that already. But not everything in PNG is stressful. In fact, there is also much to enjoy in this country. Sometimes we just stand awestruck at the beauty of God's creation - whether it's the moon shimmering over the waters of the South Pacific, or the great variety of plants and animals in the jungle.

Glenda the goat watches the full moon shimmering over the ocean.

A Christmas spider waits for lunch outside our dorm. We weren't sure at first if the yellow and black stripes were part of the spider or a bug that he had caught.

Last week we spent a day on the north coast, and that was just breathtakingly beautiful. We had the opportunity to go snorkelling over coral reefs and explore a world we had never seen before. It's just amazing how many different kinds of fish and coral there are. Perhaps some day we'll have a waterproof camera and take some underwater pictures, but for now, we'll just leave you with a few from on shore.

A blue starfish

This is where we went swimming. The water really is that blue (and then some).

 

One of many tiny crabs on the beach.

Nobnob

About three weeks ago we took a five-hour drive to Madang to begin our training in Tok Pisin, the main language of PNG in which we will be ministering in Lae. We are taking the Pacific Orientation Course (POC), which is run by SIL. We are located on Nobnob mountain, a short drive out from Madang with a beautiful view over the surrounding jungle and the Bismarck Sea. There is an amazing variety of plant and animal life here - and the locals know a great deal about what can be done with it all.

It's hard to believe it's been only three weeks here, because we have done so much already. Part of our time here is spent in formal language learning, but so much more is spent on other things, and it's amazing how much of the language we are able to pick up through everything else. For example, we go on hikes quite regularly, and that gives us an excellent opportunity to talk with some of the local guides, ask questions, and hear their stories. We have lectures on anthropology that help us to understand the Melanesian culture better. We have assigned readings to help us understand more yet. We have had practical orientation to basic survival in village living - although we will be working in the city of Lae, we are still looking forward to the 5-week village living component of POC as it will help us understand the life that people come from who end up in the city, and of course it will help greatly to be immersed in Tok Pisin.

In the past week and a half we used a lot of our spare time to build haus kuks, literally cookhouses. These are cooking shelters that we get to use to prepare our own meals over the coming weekends (otherwise we are fed in the POC dining hall). The building process was done using wood from the forest, with some string to tie it together, and a tarp for a roof; all we had to get the job done was a machete. I must say I am really beginning to appreciate the versatility of the machete and am not surprised anymore to see so many people walking around with them; it's certainly a lot more useful than walking around with a Blackberry… This past weekend was the first time we had to use our hans kuks, and cooking over a fire went remarkably well. We came to realize that living outdoors, plus not having access to a refrigerator is really good for building community and a great reason to share food.

Last week Monday (Aug 29th) was our second wedding anniversary (although with all the changes in our lives in these last two years, it seems like it's been a lot longer than that). We weren't sure how we could celebrate that here, but the staff did a great job of making sure we did. During supper, they had someone watch Avigail, and they had set up a table in a room off the main dining hall where we could have a candlelight dinner with just the two of us. When living in a dorm community, that is a huge luxury, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Here are a few pictures to give you a taste of what our life has been like lately.

While we are in class, Avigail spends her days in the nursery. When it's nap time, the ladies hang her up in a bilum.

When the trail comes to an end, it's time to take out the machete and blaze a new trail.

Avigail just loves it here and is very sociable with the other kids. She learned how to crawl last week, and really enjoys her new-found mobility.

Working on the table in our haus kuk.

At this time of year, people are clearing out their gardens, expanding them, and burning all the dead debris and weeds in preparation for the next planting season.

Dining doesn't get much more exclusive than this!

Boiling some eggs for breakfast on Sunday morning.

First two weeks in PNG

We have now been in PNG for two weeks and in some ways it is beginning to feel like home. Because we visited Lae briefly in August of last year, there were at least some familiar sights and faces to come back to. And now they are becoming more and more familiar to us.

We first spent a weekend in Port Moresby, visiting our colleagues at the Reformed Churches Bible College. It was a good time of getting (re)acquainted with some of the students there, as well as the families from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Being newcomers to PNG, and to mission work in PNG specifically, we really value the insight of people who have been in it much longer than we have.

Benefitting from the experience of others continued soon after we arrived in Lae. Our colleagues the Wildeboers have been very helpful in getting us settled. A few days after we arrived in Lae, we had visitors: Dr. and Mrs. de Visser. It's probably not very often that a missionary gets to have his mission professor present right at the beginning of his ministry. Their time here was very encouraging to us.

One thing we've really noticed here is that we can get by living here just speaking English. But we are also more and more aware that we don't just want to get by. To truly be effective in ministry here, we need to learn the local pidgin language, Tok Pisin. And so tomorrow we're off to do just that. We'll be taking SIL's Pacific Orientation Course (POC) in the Madang area for 14 weeks. That will include 5 weeks of living in a village, total immersion language learning. We're looking forward to it - but don't be surprised if you don't hear from us until we get back.

our house and wheels in Lae

Down Under

We have spent most of the past two months in Western Australia. This is where our supporting churches are, and so it was very good to connect with them. Up to this point we had never met any of them (other than when Tim was in Australia at the age of 4, maybe, but that doesn't really count). Spending seven weeks in the Perth and Albany areas gave us many opportunities to get to know people and come to feel at home. We got to know people at church, at coffee socials, and in their homes. We also really enjoyed an opportunity to introduce ourselves and answer questions one evening at the Free Reformed Church of Bunbury.

We'll just mention a few highlights from our time in Australia:

• A very warm welcome from Armadale Free Reformed Church on the day of my ordination.
• Some time out for a holiday down the southwest coast.
• Getting caught in a storm 1.5 km out into Geographe Bay on the Busselton Jetty.
• Preaching in about eight congregations.
• Becoming familiar with kangaroos.
• Meeting old friends from Canada.
• Experiencing the grand, majestic, terrifying ocean (which is quite different from Lake Ontario!) 
• Being shocked at the price of coffee. And bananas.
• Relaxing in Cairns for a few days before heading to PNG.
• Watching everyone fall in love with our daughter.