Cross-Country

Greetings from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where we have just finished our three-week cross-country trip. What a blessing it has been to visit Martha's cousin and his family in Durango, Colorado; camp in Ouray, Colorado; speak at supporting churches in Greeley and Montrose, Colorado; visit supporters in Wellington, Colorado; see old friends in Plymouth, Minnesota and Geneva, Illinois; and reconnect with all of my (Adam's) family as we celebrated my grandmother's 100th birthday in Madison, Connecticut!

Celebrating my grandmother's 100th birthday

It has also been a joy to see the children get so excited about seeing things that many of us take for granted like squirrels, chipmunks, and deer. (They don't remember seeing any of those things before!) For Martha and me it felt wonderful to be on the open road and see the country from the California deserts to the mountains of Colorado and from the plains of the Midwest to the forests of the East Coast. Nevertheless, we are so glad to finally be able to settle down in Pittsburgh with my parents after weeks of living out of suitcases. Martha is now starting to homeschool the kids as I return to work, checking the Enga translation of the book of Luke and continuing to compile my grammar of the Enga language. Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support!

El Nino Causes Drought and Frost in Enga The people of Enga are currently facing a major disaster as they face the worst frost to hit the area in 40 years. While Papua New Guinea is on a tropical island, most of Enga is over 5,000 feet in altitude and some areas are over 8,000 feet. Frost destroys the vegetable gardens that people rely upon for their daily food and entire crops of sweet potatoes have been lost. Sweet potatoes are the main staple in Enga, and so those in affected areas are virtually without food. El Nino has also caused a drought, which has left people with dangerously low water supplies. Papua New Guinea's government has promised immediate disaster relief funds for the region, but please keep the people of Enga in your prayers that they would have food to eat and water to drink.

Frost-burnt sweet potato crops in the Highlands region of Papua New Guinea. (The darker brown colors
are not dirt but withered sweet potato vines. Normally these mounds would be green.)

Home Away From Home

After four flights ranging from a ten-seat Kodiak airplane to a 247-seat Airbus A330, we are back in America to begin our one-year furlough.

Greetings from San Fernando, California, where we have begun our year-long furlough. After a relatively smooth trip home, we are now getting adjusted to life back in the States. Of course we knew there would be adjustments, especially for the kids. Asher did not remember America at all, and had no concept of how long our furlough was going to be or where we would be living. On one occasion he thought that our most recent two-week trip to Enga was ‘furlough’, and on another occasion he thought that ‘furlough’ would be five days long. At one point during our travels, Asher asked ‘When are we going home”, and we didn’t know if he meant our home in Ukarumpa, the guest house where we were staying, or where we would be staying in America. Bella and Jacob remember a little bit more, but we still had to train them to use water fountains, automatic sinks and paper towel dispensers, and what a red light is and why you have to wait for the light to turn green before you can go. The kids absolutely love escalators and elevators, which seem like fun rides (although the kids got stuck in one elevator because they didn’t get out fast enough).

A tired Asher enjoying an In-N-Out cheeseburger, fries (which we call chips),
and chocolate shake for his first meal back in America

As for Martha and me, we have our own adjusting to do as we experience some reverse culture shock. (No we don’t have a rewards card and no we don’t want to sign up for a credit card to save 15% on today’s purchase! Please stop asking!) The first time on the L.A. freeways made driving the horrible roads in Papua New Guinea seem not so dangerous after all, and we are still trying to figure out why people would power wash their already clean driveways during a severe drought!

Meeting Somaya

One of the highlights of our brief time back in America so far has been meeting our niece Somaya for the first time. Somaya is Martha’s sister Ruthie’s daughter, and she is the only niece or nephew on Martha’s side of the family. She was born just a couple of weeks after we first arrived in Papua New Guinea. So even though she is now three years old, we had not had the opportunity to see her and hold her before now. She has gotten along great with our kids, and she is already calling Martha her auntie.

Bella and Asher with their cousin Somaya

Getting In Gear
It was strange to leave our home in Papua New Guinea with no keys whatsoever (to a house, car, office, etc.) and no working phone. We’ve since been getting back in gear, first getting our driver’s licenses renewed, then getting car insurance, then getting a car (great deal on a used Toyota Sienna from good friends of ours), then getting cell phones. Besides that we’ve been spending lots of time with Martha’s family, swimming in the pool at the house of our dear friend, Roberta, where we are staying this month, going on outings with the kids, eating yummy food, and enjoying a few dates now that we actually have somewhere to go at night! It has not been the most restful time, but it has been wonderful to reconnect with friends and family!

What Do You Do On Furlough?
While furlough is a great opportunity to enjoy some personal time and catch up with friends and family, it is definitely not a year-long vacation. The Enga translation team continues to work on drafting the book of John, and I will be checking the book of Luke. I have also started brushing up on my Greek, and I hope to complete writing my grammar of the Enga language. It is amazing how writing a grammar of Enga forces me to really think through how the language works, which really helps me to learn the language on a deeper level. We will also do a bit of traveling over the year as we visit friends and family. We are currently in Southern California, but we leave on August 7 for a three-week trip cross-country. After spending the fall with my parents in Pittsburgh, we will drive cross-country again after the New Year, spending January through June back in Southern California. We want to thank you all for your continued prayers and support!

Six Days Until Furlough

This past month has been a whirlwind of activity. As Martha has worked tirelessly to clean the house, purge unwanted items, and get the house ready for furlough, I (Adam) have worked hard to finish editing the audio recordings of the Gospel of Matthew so that the Enga translation team can distribute them in October. In Enga culture, it encourages people to see tangible results of our translation work, so it is important to keep releasing books as we finish them. So I praise the Lord that He enabled me to finish Matthew. And I'm so encouraged that the Enga translation team will be launching Matthew even while we are away on furlough. They have really taken ownership of the translation work.

As we have planned and prepared for furlough, there have been a lot of unknowns such as Who will take care of our dog? Who will rent our house? Will our house be safe if nobody rents it? What will we do with our car? How will we be able to monitor the work of the translation team from overseas? Where will we spend our time on furlough? Where will we live? God in his timing has answered all of those questions, and we are grateful for His providence. It is so reassuring to know that we have a God who loves us and cares for us, even in the details of life.

As we prepare to go, we are sad to say goodbye to so many good friends whom we have come to know during our first term here in Papua New Guinea. We are especially sad to see some of our dear friends 'go finish', which is a Tok Pisin way of saying 'go for good (not to return)'. It helps us understand a bit of what our own family and friends may have felt when we made the decision to come here in the first place.

Bella enjoying time with her friends before furlough.

On July 7, we fly into Los Angeles, where we will be staying until August 7. Then we will drive cross-country, stopping in Colorado, Minnesota, and Connecticut before settling down in Pittsburgh for the fall. Then after the New Year we will drive back out to California and stay there until the end of our furlough next July. It will be a whirlwind of activity, but such a wonderful blessing to our family and friends again.

Some supporters may be wondering whether or not they should continue their financial support during furlough. The answer is Yes. We are still just as reliant upon gifts for our supporters during furlough as we are during our time in Papua New Guinea. We have truly been overwhelmed by the faithfulness of our supporters over our first term, and we can't express just how thankful we are for your continued support!

We hope to see all of our supporters during our furlough time, so please don't hesitate to contact us to schedule a time to get together. We would love to see you! Until then, please pray for traveling mercies as we travel from Ukarumpa to Port Moresby to Brisbane to Fiji to Los Angeles over the course of two days. See you soon!

Redeeming the Time

The last two months have been a whirlwind of activity as we have sought to make the most of the our time before returning home on furlough on July 7.

During the last week of April and first week of May, we spent our time in the village of Birip in Enga Province, polishing up the book of Matthew for recording and saying goodbye to our friends and coworkers. Our translation coworkers sent us off with a good Engan meal, including boiled chicken, sweet potatoes, potatoes, cooked bananas, broccoli, Japanese parsley, ginger, and rice. It was a good trip, and we found ourselves wishing that we could have stayed a little longer.

Our last day in Enga before furlough.

One of the highlights of the trip was when I (Adam) got to see my good friend Benjamin graduate from a short pastoral training course sponsored by the Wabag Assembly of God church. You may remember my story about Benjamin from a couple of years ago. (At that time I referred to him as Joseph.) Benjamin used to be a mercenary hired out by other tribes to do their tribal fighting for them (and he did a fair amount of fighting for his own tribe as well). At one point he showed me the shotgun that he used to use (a Winchester Model 37A). But God got ahold of his life, and he became a Christian. When we lived in the village of Immi for five weeks, Benjamin became one of our good friends, and I gave him a Tok Pisin Bible, which he received with great emotion and tears. Later he helped us to consultant check the book of Mark in Enga, and now he has graduated from a basic pastoral training course despite never having had any formal schooling. At the graduation he told me that our stay in Immi and my relationship with him was one of the driving factors that led him to pursue this training. Now the Assemblies of God church has appointed him to plant a new church in the Kompiam District of Enga Province. This is an area where many pastors who go to formal Bible schools won't go, but Benjamin is open to serving God wherever God chooses to send him. What a blessing to see God use Benjamin in this way! Please pray for the Holy Spirit to lead and guide Benjamin as he takes on this new role as a pastor.

Benjamin's graduation ceremony.

After returning to Ukarumpa, we didn't have much down time as two of our coworkers, Martin Harty and Maniosa Yakasa, arrived the next day to begin recording the book of Matthew. Martin did a tremendous job of recording. The recordist told us that many Papua New Guineans read phrase-by-phrase, practicing each phrase two or three times before reading it. Martin would often read multiple verses with no mistakes, and sometimes we had to stop him so that we could scroll the text up on the screen that he was reading from. Not only that, but his voice sounds like a professional radio broadcaster. With Martin's help, we were able to record the whole book of Matthew in just over six days! The Enga translators have already begun planning the launching of Matthew in October (while we are on furlough), so pray for me as I edit the recordings and prepare the book for print in time for them to launch it. It is so encouraging that the team is planning on continuing their work even while we will be gone because it shows how much ownership they have in the translation. Please pray for them to work well and be able to upload their work to the Internet while we are on furlough.

Martin recording the book of Matthew.

On a final note, Martha had her annual heart checkup a few days ago, and her heart is doing well. Thank you for your continued prayers for her health.

Pure In Heart

During our recent consultant check of the book of Matthew, our consultant helped us to make it crystal clear in Enga just what it means to be pure in heart.

Second language learners are often slow to realize that one word can have many shades of meaning. For example, it took me a long time to realize that the same Enga word that means ‘stand’ can also mean ‘be’, ‘live’, ‘stay’, ‘inscribe’, ‘fasten’, and ‘from’. The same is true for Enga speakers who have the opportunity to learn English. Often they are unaware that an English word can have multiple shades of meaning, and this can corrupt their understanding of the English Bible (especially since the English itself is a translation).

So as the Enga translation team translated 'Blessed are the pure in heart', they were focused on purity only in the sense of ‘moral perfection’ because that was the sense of ‘pure’ that they were most familiar with. As a result they translated Matthew 5:3 as 'God blesses those who have no filth in their hearts'. But as our consultant explained the meaning of the Greek source text more closely, the Enga team realized that being 'pure in heart' is actually more focused on singleness of motive in one’s devotion to God than it is on moral perfection (which none of us can ever achieve in this lifetime anyway). In other words, Jesus isn't telling us that only those who are morally perfect will be blessed, but rather the ones who are blessed are those who completely devote themselves to God (even if they are sometimes imperfect). So after much discussion, we adjusted the Enga translation to read 'God blesses those who set their hearts upon Him alone'. After hearing that translation, Stephen Larsen, an Engan youth leader who had come to help us with the consultant check, said, "I've never understood this verse before, but now it makes sense."

Stephen Larsen listening to our consultant explain the meaning of a passage from the book of Matthew.

That Was Close...
Anyone familiar with the Wicked Bible knows just how devastating a typo can be. The Wicked Bible was a printing of the King James Version that accidentally printed, “Thou shalt commit adultery” (famously omitting the word ‘not’). We had a similar close call as we were checking Matthew 18:3, which reads, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” As our consultant checked the Enga translation, she was asking the Enga team what children were like and what qualities of children Jesus might have been talking about. We were expecting them to talk about how children are quick to trust and believe and other such qualities that would make them a model for people who want to live a life of faith. Instead, the Enga team members just kept listing all of the bad qualities of children, and both the consultant and I were very confused as to why they were ignoring more positive aspects of what children are like. As I sat there puzzled, I reread the Enga text only to discvoer that it said, “If you change your ways, and humble yourselves, and become like little children, you will not go to the Kingdom of God.” We forgot to put in the word ‘don’t’ before ‘change’! No wonder the Enga team was telling us all the negative characteristics of children that we should avoid! They were trying to figure out how not to be like children so that they could go to heaven!

Just For Laughs
On the subject of typos, they are actually much more common in the English back translation of the Enga text than in the Enga text itself. Our consultant chuckled to point out to me that my back translation of Matthew 27:26 read, “Then Pilate freed Barabbas and then gave Jesus to the soldiers, telling them to hit him with a witch and then crucify him.” Thankfully she figured out that it was supposed to say ‘switch’ instead of ‘witch’. A switch is the closest equivalent in Enga to the whip that would have been used to flog Jesus.

Pastor Peter Rai enjoying a laugh at our consultant check.

What's Next?
We are currently in the village of Birip for our final stay in Enga before our upcoming furlough. We then hope to record the book of Matthew and edit it. Please pray for God’s grace and strength during this final stretch of our first term.

A Time For Reflection

Between having to delay our plans to build our house in Enga and having to wait for months for parts and repairs to get our car running right, we have stayed in Ukarumpa longer than we ever have before. As we've been settled in one spot and as we've been reflecting during this season of Lent, God has revealed many things to us. I (Adam) thought I would take the opportunity to share some of those things with you.

Asher and Adam

Martha and I decided to give up watching TV shows on DVD at night for Lent. We decided to give up TV shows at night so we could focus ourselves more on seeking God together. But what I found was that I was too tired at night to be very spiritual, and I also found that I was too tired in the morning to be very spiritual either. I recognized that I could be starting to feel the effects of burn out. Then I felt the Holy Spirit gently speaking to my heart about my diet. He allowed me to see that I had been fueling myself on a nonstop diet of sugar and caffeine, which is not a sustainable mode of operation. So I decided to cut way down on sweets and wean myself off of coffee. After a few days, I found that I had more energy than I remembered having in a long time, and I was able to get into God's Word and prayer without this feeling of complete exhaustion hanging over me. It's funny how God works, we went into Lent giving up one thing, and God showed me that I really needed to give up something else.

During our time in Ukarumpa, God has also allowed me the joy of seeing the Enga translation team working independently in Wabag. They have been so faithful, working five days a week and uploading their work to the internet so that I can review it from Ukarumpa. Since November, they have drafted the first 20 chapters of the book of Luke, which is truly amazing! I have been reviewing their work and providing my comments, which they have been reading and responding to by making changes in the translation. It is hard to fathom that the elder members of our translation team, who were born at a time when stone axes were still in use, are now uploading their translation work to the internet via the WiFi hotspots on their cell phones! Praise God for the technology He is giving us to speed the work of translation.

Bella and Martha

As the Enga translation team has been working in Wabag, I've been working in my cubicle translating the book of Luke back into English so it can be checked by a consultant. During that time the Lord has also revealed to me that I should not be the one doing the work of back translation. Because the team is moving so quickly in the translation work, I am becoming a bottleneck in the process. Rather than doing the back translation myself, I feel God leading me to train an Enga speaker who knows English well to do the back translation. This would not only speed up the process, but it would get a fresh set of eyes checking the text. As much as I have learned Enga in the past three years, I will never know it as well as a native speaker. And while I am able to offer many good suggestions (and will continue doing so as I review the text), having another Enga speaker review the text and translate it back into English will only serve to improve the translation as the person doing the back translation catches problems with the translation that I would never be able to see.

As I feel God leading me more and more out of the day-to-day work of translation (although I will still be involved in reviewing and checking the work), I feel that he is leading me more in the direction of promoting the use and awareness of the Enga Scriptures. One of the sobering realities that we have discovered while working in Papua New Guinea is that it isn't enough just to do a good translation of the Bible. You also need to be active in the community, making people aware of the translation work that is happening, distributing books and audio recordings as they are completed, and most importantly, teaching people how to apply the Word of God to their daily lives. As expat missionaries in Enga, we have the unique blessing (and sometimes burden) of drawing people's attention wherever we go. This puts us in a unique position to be able to raise awareness, distribute Scripture portions, and teach people how to apply the Scripture in their daily lives, and I sense that God is increasingly wanting to use us in those ways. As a result, we are planning and hoping to be able to spend a much greater amount of time in Enga during our next term (once our house is built).

Jacob (whom we love but didn't get a good picture with that day)

Often people talk about a missionary's first term on the field as being about survival. During that first term, it is enough if someone just learns the language and how to live in a foreign culture. God has blessed us by enabling us not only to survive but to see the first fruits of the work He has called us to. During our next term, we hope to build upon that foundation. God has made it clear to us that our job is to train our Enga coworkers to do the work of translation, in a sense working ourselves out of a job. At the same time, God has shown us that we should be operating in the areas where we are uniquely qualified. So please pray with us, that God would continue showing us what our next term is to look like and how we can best use our time and abilities to train our Enga coworkers while focusing on the areas where we ourselves are able to have the greatest impact. As you pray, we would love to hear your feedback, so please feel free to share your own reflections with us about the direction in which God may be leading us.

Funny How Things Work Out

It's funny how things work out. Back in November as we were getting ready to build our house in Enga, we realized that we would need to have a vehicle at our disposal for the four-week period when we would build our house. The cost of renting a truck was high, but we really didn't have much choice. At that same time, a 1989 Toyota Hilux became available. The vehicle was in relatively good condition and had just 65,000 miles on it. We decided to buy the vehicle because it would allow us to invest the rental costs of a car into the purchase price of the vehicle. Since the cost of renting was nearly 25% of the cost of purchasing, it seemed to be a wise investment. The vehicle just needed a new clutch and pressure plate, which the seller agreed to have put in for us.
 

Our 1989 Toyota Hilux

Four days after buying the car, we received the news that missionaries in Enga were being deported due to the back room dealings of a corrupt bishop. After much prayer, we decided not to proceed with our plans to build our house in our chosen location. On December 3, I (Adam) drove up to Enga to try to find a new place for us to build. The Auto Shop had installed the new clutch and pressure plate the day before, so I was able to drive the car up to Enga along with three of the Enga translators who had just finished computer training in Ukarumpa.

We left at six o'clock in the morning for the ten-hour drive to Enga. As we were driving along, the car was backfiring on a few occasions and the fuel gauge was bouncing all over the place so it was hard to tell how much fuel we had or if there was a leak. As we stopped in Goroka (two hours away from Ukarumpa) to refuel, I considered letting the translators take public transportation the rest of the way and turning around to go home. But I decided to keep going.

After leaving Goroka we went through Simbu Province, which is the worst part of the road. After a particularly rough patch, we started to hear a rattling noise. We stopped but couldn't find the source of the rattle, so we continued to Mt Hagen (six hours away from Ukarumpa). We then discovered that the rattle was due to a problem with the front left shock absorber, which had lost its rubber bushings. Also after we refueled, the car had difficultly starting. Again, I gave serious consideration to just letting the Enga translators go the rest of the way without me. With problems like that, it seemed a bit unwise to continue driving farther away from help knowing that I would also have to return at some point. But we kept going.

The car made it to Enga and I took the car to Maniosa's house the next day. (Maniosa is our lead translator.) One of his relatives is a mechanic, and Maniosa had the necessary tools to access the shock absorber. I was amazed when he went into his house and brought out a bag full of rubber bushings. He didn't have quite the right size, but he instructed his relative to cut one of the bushings to size (with an axe mind you) and smooth it (with a stone). He installed the bushings for me and the shock absorber was now working again. He also assured me that the other problems with the car would not prevent me from driving back safely to Ukarumpa.

Fixing the car at Maniosa's house

After a couple of days in Enga, in which I searched in futility for another piece of land where we could build our house, I set out again for Ukarumpa with my friend Max. I took it slow over the bumpy roads and the car did fine…that is until we got to Daulo Pass. Daulo Pass is a mountain pass located at an altitude of 2,478 meters (8,130 feet). There are good road-side food stands there, and Max and I stopped to get some food. A couple of the locals asked us for rides, but we sort of ignored their requests because we didn't know the people well.

Daulo Pass Summit

Right after ignoring their requests, we got back into the car to get moving and avoid any awkwardness that would arise from further requests. I turned the key and the engine turned over but would not start. I tried it again…no luck. One more time…no luck. I decided to let the car sit for a few minutes and try again. In the meantime, I also decided that I better become fast friends with the locals. So I started asking them how to say various things in their language, and they enjoyed hearing me try to repeat what they said. I told the two men asking for rides that if we got the car started again, then I would take them where they wanted to go.

So after a few minutes I got back in the car and tried to start it again with the same result. Having been stranded on the road before, I told myself not to panic even though there is no such thing as AAA in Papua New Guinea. Somebody suggested turning the car to face downhill and push-starting it. It seemed like it could work. However, for someone who had never tried it before, the thought of pushing the car downhill from a mountain summit without clearly knowing if the brakes would still kick in was a bit daunting. But I didn't have much choice.

 

The view from Daulo Pass

A couple weeks prior I had seen a friend push-start a car in Ukarumpa, and so I knew that I needed to turn the key to on, put it in second gear, keep the clutch in, and then pop the clutch once I got a little speed. I tried it and to my utter delight, the car started up. I picked up the men whom I had promised rides to and we were back on our way. I decided right then and there not to turn the engine off again until we got to Ukarumpa, and we made it back safely.

The mechanics at the auto shop in Ukarumpa determined that the car needed a new distributor and carburetor, which they ordered from Australia. After waiting a month or so for the parts to come in, they were installed, but the car still wasn't running right. After 10 more days in the auto shop, the mechanics finally determined that the person who sold them the carburetor actually sold them a used carburetor (but marketed it as new), and so we are now waiting for another new carburetor to come in from Australia (probably another month's wait). It takes patience to live in Papua New Guinea!

The good news is that since the building of our house got delayed until after our furlough, we have plenty of time to get our car in good working order. Without the delay in building the house, we would have had to rent a vehicle anyway even after buying our Hilux. It's funny how things work out! We thank God that He has a plan even though we don't always know what it is.