Why are we hiking, swimming, and building fires?

Have you wondered how our physical regimen of hiking, swimming and learning to cook outside helps to support the work of Bible translation in Papua New Guinea? In short, because it prepares us to serve and gives us a much needed, deep empathy and understanding of the people and culture here. We now have a whole new respect for the challenging lives many of the nationals live. We will hike for many kilometers, on steep, slippery bush trails to a village this week, cook supper, stay overnight, and hike back as part of our training. Our PNG sisters will do this every day as part of going to their gardens, from which they get almost all their sustenance, or to the market, where they sell their surplus produce. We strive to swim a mile in the ocean, to build our stamina, while our PNG brothers need to be strong swimmers if their banana boat ferry capsizes. We learn to cook outside so we can eat for the month we live in the village, but our wasfemilis will cook all of their meals over an open fire their entire lives. We have learned to admire the strength, ingenuity and perseverance of the people here, and their incredible faith. Our desire is to serve God and reflect Christ to the people around us even now as we are still new learners in PNG, the Land of the Unexpected.

 

Classes are winding down & Village Living is about to begin...

We have learned so much in the Pacific Orientation Course, and are grateful for the expertise of our instructors, both expats and nationals. We have spent the last 6 weeks in intensive language classes, learning Tok Pisin, and we look forward to our upcoming immersion time during Village Living. This is when we will “connect the dots” from what we have learned in the classroom and small groups, and really put our language skills into practice. Right now, we understand a lot more Tok Pisin, both spoken and in writing, than we can speak. It is not unlike being a small child again, when you hear a language and can respond, but cannot actually form meaningful sentences yet. We are just starting to speak conversationally, but our vocabulary is still very limited, and the best way to increase it is to be with native speakers around the clock. So, we eagerly anticipate this opportunity to live in a village with only Papua New Guineans for the next four weeks. There will be challenges, like having no plumbing or electricity, but the relationships we will form and the skills we will develop will be well worth any momentary discomforts.