‘Fotos’ on the Road

Every language borrows words from other languages. English is no exception. In fact, only about 30% of English words are ‘native English’; the rest are borrowed from other languages, particularly French, Latin, and Greek. French (or Old Norman) started coming into the English language in 1066 when William the Conqueror became the first Norman king of England. Because the Normans (i.e., French) were the ruling class, certain words that were borrowed from French had a greater prestige. For example the word mansion comes from Latin via Old French. Originally it simply meant a place where someone stays, but because the ruling Norman class lived more extravagantly than the English, the word has come to mean a large, impressive house.

English borrows from other languages as well. The word sabbatical comes from the Hebrew word shabat, which means rest. The word tortilla comes from Spanish, meaning little cake. There is no logical reason why we couldn’t call it a thin pancake, but I suppose that the first time an English speaker encountered a tortilla and asked what it was, the Spanish speaker simply said tortilla, and the name stuck. The word tsunami comes from the Japanese words tsu (‘harbor’) and nami (‘wave’), which explains why it starts with the letters ts. It is quite uncommon in English for a word to start with ts in English. Consequently, most English speakers simply say sunami instead of tsunami. I remember a conversation I once had with a young married couple about the word tsunami. The husband was American, and the wife was Japanese. The husband kept saying sunami, and the wife kept insisting that his pronunciation was wrong. He couldn’t hear the difference. Having the letter ts at the beginning of the word is so strange for English speakers that we just drop the t without realizing it was ever there.

Tok Pisin, the main trade language in Papua New Guinea, consists almost entirely of borrowed words, although, like the word tsuanami in English, the pronunciation often changes. I remember when I was first preparing to travel by public motor vehicle to Enga with my language teacher Reuben. I was asking him about the condition of the road, and he told me that there were a lot of fotos on the road. I assumed that he meant photos or pictures, and I couldn’t quite understand what that meant or how it was that there were photos on the road. Finally I realized that he was talking about potholes!

Driving over some ‘fotos’ on the way to Enga

 Not only do changes in pronunciation sometimes make it difficult to understand borrowed words, but words are not always borrowed as one would expect. I remember a time when we were staying in Enga and had an urgent need for a toilet plunger. I was going around to all of the small hardware stores in town asking for a plunja, trying to pronounce the word as I believed Enga speakers would pronounce it. Now in Papua New Guinean culture it would be shameful for someone to say, “I don’t know what you are talking about.” So instead they say, “Sori, pinis,” which means, “Sorry, finish.” (In other words, “Sorry, but we don’t have any more of those in stock.”) Finally, as I was visiting my third or fourth store and again asking for a plunja, and the store employee was again saying, “Sori, pinis,” I saw a plunger hanging on the wall. So I said, “That! I want that! What do you call that?” And the employee said, “O, han pum,” which means, “Oh, hand pump”!

The dialect of English that words are borrowed from can also cause problems. In Papua New Guinea, words borrowed from English often come from Australian English. So people say spana (‘spanner’), loli (‘lolly’), and ruba (‘rubber’) instead of wrench, candy, and eraser. And because the word napkin has quite a negative connotation in Australian English, the word serviette (borrowed from Old French) is used instead. But Papua New Guineans often just say tisu (‘tissue’), which is also borrowed from Old French.

Enga speakers also borrow many words from English, often twisting the meaning. I remember when there was a wedding ceremony in Wabag town and a couple dozen pigs were cooked in a ground oven similar to a luau (which, incidentally, is borrowed from Hawaiian). As men were butchering the pigs, I heard the master of ceremonies say “Operatimi laa,” which basically means, “Operate it.” In other words, “Perform an operation on the pig.” Of course, in English the word operate is used with reference to cutting open patients in surgery; it is not used with reference to butchering pigs.

Performing an ‘operation’ on a pig

Ironically, words borrowed from English are often quite difficult for me to understand when someone is speaking to me in Enga because the pronunciation is so different, and because I am expecting an Enga word, not an English word. Can you tell me what satumbeti, wanisa, anengapu, and pesembuku potene mean? If you guessed strawberry, varnish, handcuff, and Facebook friend, then you are doing much better than I did when I first heard those words!

As we translate the Bible into Enga, we often have no other option than to borrow words, particularly for things that are not a part of traditional Enga culture. So we use words like breta, waene, and sipisipi for bread, wine, and sheep because there is just no equivalent in the Enga language. Fortunately, Engans now have enough knowledge of outside cultures to know what those things are, and today you can find each of those things in Enga. Even words like ailene (‘island’) and solowata (’saltwater’, i.e., ‘ocean’) need to be borrowed, because Enga is in the mountains. One of the most interesting borrowed words used in the Enga translation is kakopai (‘cargo boy’), which can be used to talk about addiction. For example, 1 Timothy 3:8 says that deacons “must not be addicted to much wine.” In Enga we have translated this as, “Dikenes (borrowed) ... should not tell the [practice] of drinking much wine to take [them] as [its] cargo boy.” This hearkens back to a time when Papua New Guineans often carried cargo on their backs for the ruling Australian class. Although they were not slaves, they were very much in a subservient role, and deacons should not be subservient to wine!

Thankfully God has created languages to be flexible, always adapting to the world around them. For that we can say Hallelujah and Amen (which are both borrowed from Hebrew by the way)!

Reflections on 2020

As we put up our nativity set this year, our daughter Bella put face masks on the wise men, the shepherds, and Mary and Joseph—a fitting capstone to 2020. Christmas is supposed to be a time of hope, joy, peace, and eager anticipation. But I found that the heaviness and despair that filled 2020 carried over into the Christmas season as well. If only everything could magically be made new on January 1 and the nightmare of 2020 could be done away with in one fell swoop! But it is not that easy. It has been a hard year, a year of unfulfilled expectation, a year of disappointment, a year of uncertainty, a year of turmoil, a year of sadness and grief. It has been a difficult year spiritually, and it is not all magically healed when the clock strikes midnight on January 1.

Here in Ukarumpa we are fortunate to be able to attend church in person. A few weeks ago a fellow translator preached a sermon that really touched my heart, bringing me to tears. He said that one of the lessons of the Christmas story is that we surrender our plans to God. It was certainly never Mary’s plan to become pregnant through the Holy Spirit and endure the ridicule and shame that would be associated with a pregnancy that took place before she was married. But she graciously accepted the Lord’s plan for her life, surrendering any plans that she had for herself.

A new twist on our nativity set this year

Often I let my own plans take center stage, pushing the Lord’s plans into the background. It is so easy to make this life about myself and what I want to do, and not about God and what he wants to do. But in the end I find that selfish pursuits leave me spiritually empty. The year 2020 has exposed many of our vain pursuits, forcing us to take a good, hard look at who we really are deep inside as we are no longer able to hide in the busyness of life. And, for me at least, it has exposed a selfishness that is at odds with the message of Christmas: giving up one’s own dreams and plans to become a servant of the living God.

The Christian life seems so simple yet so elusive. It is so simple: love God and love others. But it is so hard to actually do that, and we constantly fall short of that simple goal. Like many missionaries, I struggle to understand how God could use an imperfect creature like me to accomplish his purposes for the world. I feel unworthy and incapable, at times taking too much of the responsibility upon myself and not trusting enough in God and in the power of prayer. And when I rely too much upon myself, I am constantly disappointed with the results.

If 2020 has revealed anything to me, it is just how desperately we need to be connected to Jesus, the true vine. Apart from him we can do nothing. Apart from him we are nothing but dead branches ready to be burned in the fire. Apart from him we have no hope in this world. Apart from him our lives are meaningless and all of our efforts and achievements are in vain. Apart from him, although we might pursue pleasure, we will never experience true joy. Joy—just a few days ago Martha and I were talking about the fact that Christians should be known as people of deep joy. Yet somehow it seems that joy is fading from the church. Of all people Christians should have joy no matter what circumstances they face, but it seems that we have grown soft. As the hardships of 2020 came upon us, we began to find out just how spiritually bankrupt we had become and just how much we were dependent upon the things of this world for happiness. And when those things were taken away, the true state of our spirituality was revealed.

Let us join the angel in shouting Hallelujah!

As I look at the nativity scene, I am struck by the fact that the angels are not wearing masks. They are not subject to the disease and sickness of this world, neither in a physical sense nor in a spiritual sense. I find myself longing for that day when all things will be made new, and we too will no longer be subject to the physical and spiritual illnesses that beset us in this fallen world. But rather we will finally become all that God has created us to be. Our enemies—sin, death, and Satan—will finally be conquered, and we will reign with Christ forever and ever. And then God “will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” That is the hope of Christmas, and that is the source of our joy, peace, and strength in difficult times.

Consultant Checking

We are currently in the midst of a two-week consultant checking session to check the books of Hebrews, James, Jude, 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. Last week we completed the check for the first three books, and this week we hope to complete the check for the rest of them. Please pray that we would indeed be able to finish checking all of the other books this week. If we do, we will then have completed the consultant check process for approximately 72% of the New Testament. As always the consultant and the Enga speakers who have come to help with the check have contributed valuable insights to make the Enga translation of the New Testament even better. We are thankful to have David Johns and Philip Kakio with us to check, along with William Walewale, who is one of the translation team members. We are also thankful for Rebekah Drew, who did the check for Hebrews, James, and Jude.

Philip, David, William, Adam, and Rebekah checking Hebrews

As we draw closer and closer to completing the New Testament, we are more aware of our need for prayer. It seems that there are more spiritual attacks, and so please pray that nothing will hinder us from finishing the New Testament in the coming year (2021). Pray for the health and safety both of our family and of the Enga Bible Translation team members and their families: Maniosa Yakasa, Martin Harty, William Walewale, Nete Talian, Frank Paiyak, and Rueben Yonasa. Pray for computers and technology to continue working, and for the generator that the translation team uses in town when there are power blackouts (which are frequent). Pray also for Jacob and Bella as they finish up online schooling. There were a few days last month in which our internet was almost completely out, which makes it quite difficult (if not impossible) for Jacob and Bella to do their schoolwork. Pray also for Martha as she prepares to teach a couple of English classes at the high school next term. She is filling in because of the shortage of teachers due to the pandemic. Pray that she will find time over the Christmas break to prepare for teaching.

Thank you for your prayers and your partnership in this work. We could not do it without you!

Back in PNG

It took a total of 80 hours from the time we left our apartment in Alhambra, California, until the time we arrived at our house in Papua New Guinea, but we are finally home. We flew on Qatar Airways from Los Angeles to Doha, Qatar, where we had less than a two-hour layover before getting on another Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We arrived in Malaysia in the morning and spent most of the day at the hotel inside the international terminal before departing at about 1:30 a.m. to fly to Papua New Guinea. The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Papua New Guinea was a charter flight of the United Nations World Food Program, operated by Malaysia Airlines. For all intents and purposes, it was like flying on any other international flight. As we entered the boarding area, however, the gate agents were taking everyone's temperature, and I got nervous about what would happen if one of us had a fever. Would we be stranded in Malaysia? Thankfully nobody in our family and nobody among the dozens of others from our organization who were traveling with us had a fever, and so we were able to board the plane. After flying to Papua New Guinea and arriving in the capital of Port Moresby, we were taken to a hotel, where we spent the night. The next morning we flew to the Aiyura valley on a Kodiak airplane, which seats ten people. From the airstrip, we were transported to our house in Ukarumpa, where we were quarantined for the next two weeks, even having our property closed off with yellow caution tape to remind people not to get too close to us, and to remind us not to leave our property.

Asher visiting at a safe distance with his friend Judah during quarantine

After three weeks of intense preparations to return to Papua New Guinea, followed by 80 hours of travel, spending two weeks in quarantine didn't sound so bad. Martha and I even tried to view it as a vacation of sorts (even though I resumed working after a few days), and it was nice to have some down time. Of course, coming back to a house that had mostly sat empty for 15 months had its challenges. Our toilet was leaking, our water pump died a few days into quarantine, birds had taken over under the eaves of our house, our stove was barely functional, and of course we had the regular ants, geckos, and roaches—but we know how to get by here in PNG. Quarantine was probably more difficult for the kids, who, after fifteen months of being away, were longing to spend time with their friends again, and not just for a few moments at a distance, separated by yellow caution tape. So when our quarantine ended at precisely 8 a.m. on October 27, we were waiting at the tape, ready to break out. As soon as the clock struck 8, we cut down the tape and enjoyed our newfound freedom.

Crossing the tape at precisely 8 a.m. on October 27

We are now transitioning back to normal life in Papua New Guinea, which, like everywhere else in the world is not quite so normal because of COVID-19. Nevertheless, for reasons that are not quite known, the death toll from COVID-19 seems to be much lower here in PNG. It is difficult to estimate how rampant the spread of the disease is throughout the country, but, for the most part, the area where we live does not seem to have had any measurable increase in respiratory diseases or deaths. And while the missionary community in which we live is being cautious and seeking to minimize exposure, in many ways life here feels far more "normal" than it did in Los Angeles. Asher is already back in school—in a real classroom! Things are a bit more difficult for Jacob and Bella because they have to wait until the start of the new semester in January to return to the classroom. As a result, they are finishing up their current semester online through NorthStar Academy. I (Adam) have returned to working in a little cubicle, and Martha is preparing to teach an English class at the high school next semester. Due to COVID-19 there is a shortage of teachers, and so Martha has been asked to help.

We continue to make great progress on the translation work, and, Lord willing, we should finish all of our checking requirements for the New Testament by the end of 2021. Please pray for us as we transition back to life in PNG, and please pray that we would continue to make progress on checking the New Testament. Thank you, as always, for your prayers and your partnership with us in this work.

Departing October 10!

Last month we informed you that we had purchased tickets with Air New Zealand to return to Papua New Guinea on November 15. A few days later, those tickets were canceled. So we rebooked for the next available flight, which wasn’t until January 19. A few days after we rebooked our flight, New Zealand completely closed its borders, so that even transit passengers like us could not switch planes in Auckland, New Zealand. So we began to resign ourselves to the thought that we would not be returning to Papua New Guinea anytime soon. But a week or two later, we received news that a United Nations World Food Program flight would be flying to Papua New Guinea from Malaysia on October 13. To ensure we had space on the flight, our organization went ahead and reserved us seats. The flight was then promptly unpublished, and we found out that our names had never made the reservation list. But a few days later, the flight was published again, and we now have confirmed reservations. Once the World Food Program flight was booked, we purchased tickets on Qatar Airways from Los Angeles to Doha, Qatar, and then on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So, Lord willing, we will be departing from Los Angeles on October 10. We are hopeful that this route will indeed bring us back to Papua New Guinea as four couples who serve alongside us have already successfully navigated this route, returning a few weeks ago. Please pray that we will all test negative for COVID-19 when we get our official tests on Oct. 6.

We have also received permission to complete our two-week quarantine at our own home in Ukarumpa. This is a much better option for us than having to quarantine at an expensive hotel in the capital city in Port Moresby. We are thankful for Josh and Becky Harber, friends of ours in Ukarumpa, who will prepare our house for us and make sure that we have all of the groceries and other essentials that we need during our two-week long quarantine at home. 

 

The four couples who have now made it back to Papua New Guinea

Translation Progress
During our extended furlough, we have continued to make great progress on the translation. We have now finished consultant checking the books of 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and Galatians. That means that 78% of the Enga New Testament has now been checked by a consultant. Not only that, but we have consultants lined up for nearly all of the remaining books. Lord willing, we should finish the checking process within the next twelve months. After that we just need to make an audio recording of the New Testament and then prepare it for printing.

Learning to Surf
Over the past month we have had the opportunity to do a bit of traveling, visiting churches and friends in various locations. On September 17, we drove down to San Diego, where I recorded a short message for Pacific Life Church. During our trip to San Diego we saw many of the people who had come to visit us on short-term missions trips back in 2017, including two men named James and Derrick who had become something like “instant uncles” for our kids. Back in 2017, they told the kids that they would teach them how to surf when we came home on furlough. COVID nearly squashed that dream, but James and Derrick held true to their word and did indeed teach the kids how to surf. Each of the kids was even able to stand up on the surf board. In a time when there have been so many disappointments, it was nice to experience a kept promise and a fulfilled dream. Even as I think about it, my eyes well up with tears knowing just how many disappointments our kids have had, not only over the past six months, but over the course of their entire lives. Being a missionary kid is not an easy life as there are constant goodbyes and disappointments. Back in 2017, as James and Derrick were heading home at the end of their missions trip, Bella wrote Derrick a letter in which she said she couldn’t wait to visit San Diego on furlough and learn how to surf. Little did we know that Derrick had saved that letter and scanned it to his phone. He then read it back to Bella when we saw him again. It was very meaningful to us that he had kept the letter and remembered what Bella had written to him. Thank you, Derrick and James, for keeping your promise! (By the way, if you want to see a 48 second video of surfing highlights, go to tinyurl.com/y356cyol.)

Bella learning how to surf

Do We Really Have Five Senses?

If you ask an English speaker how many senses we have, they will undoubtedly say that we have five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Most English speakers have probably never considered any alternate explanation to how many senses we have, and would consider it a “fact” that we have five senses.

But what if I told you that, according to the Enga language, we only have two senses: sight and what I would call non-visual sensing? You see in Enga there are only two sensory words: kandenge (“seeing”) and singi (“non-visual sensing”). The word kandenge is used for anything that is seen or perceived through sight, and the word singi is used for anything that is sensed non-visually. What a difference, to go from five senses to two! You might ask, “If the Enga language has only two sensory words, how do Enga speakers differentiate between actions such as hearing, smelling, and tasting?” The answer is that they do so through context. For example, Engans would say “He sensed the words that I said,” or, “He sensed a bad odor,” or, “He ate and sensed the food.” In each case, the context makes the specific mode of sensing clear.

The five senses from the perspective of an English speaker

I always find it fascinating to discover how different languages categorize things in different ways. English speakers categorize senses based on the part of the body that is involved with the sense: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and hands. But Engans categorize senses based on whether or not sight is involved; apart from the eyes, it doesn’t matter what part of the body is involved in the act of sensing. While that seems incredibly odd to us, we find that in English we do not have words for senses that do not involve specific body parts. For example, think of the story of the woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years (Mark 5:25-35). This woman went up to Jesus in a crowd and touched his garment, and immediately her flow of blood dried up. And in verse 29 it says, “and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.” So which of the five senses did she use to come to the conclusion that she had been healed? Well, none of them! She didn’t see anything, or hear anything, or smell anything, or taste anything, or touch anything that led her to the conclusion that she had been healed. She just felt it. Now in English, because there is no specific body part associated with the sense of feeling, we don’t consider feeling to be a sense, but it undoubtedly is one.

The same could be said of the feeling of being sick or the feeling of being sad. When a person says, “I feel sick,” or, “I feel sad,” he or she is not coming to that conclusion based on sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch. Rather it is an inner feeling that is not associated with any of those senses. And even if you took all of those senses, the person would still know that he or she felt sick or felt sad.

We could describe yet another sense that is sometimes referred to as the “sixth sense.” The “sixth sense” (actually seventh, if we consider “feeling” to be a sense) is defined as “a keen intuitive power.” The “sixth sense” is a way that we perceive the world around us that cannot be associated specifically with any body part and cannot even be associated with an inner feeling we have such as the feeling of being sick or being sad, which are easy to recognize. The “sixth sense” is an intangible sense that is hard to define, yet the experience of many is that the “sixth sense” is real. Again English speakers do not consider this to be a sense because there is no specific body part associated with it. But Engans would include both the “feeling” sense and the “sixth sense” under the category of “non-visual sensing.” So the Enga system is more inclusive of all the various senses, while the English system excludes those that are not associated with a specific body part.

It is amazing how our language shapes the way we think and see the world. That is why it is so important for us to translate Scripture into the language that people understand best, so that they can interact with God’s Word in a way that “makes sense” to them.

Return to Papua New Guinea
We have purchased tickets to return to Papua New Guinea on November 15. Based on the advice of a trusted friend, we have booked with Air New Zealand, traveling from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand, and then on to Brisbane, Australia. We will then have a 24-hour layover in Brisbane before traveling on to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea with Air Niugini. From Port Moresby we hope to fly directly to our home in Ukarumpa, but we need permission from the government to quarantine at our home instead of at a government-approved hotel. Please pray that (1) our flight will not be canceled, and (2) that we will receive permission to quarantine at home. Thank you!

Travel Plans

Over the past few weeks it has become clear that our return to Papua New Guinea (PNG) will be delayed due to the Coronavirus. Some of our fellow missionaries have attempted to return to Papua New Guinea, only to have their flights canceled. One couple even began the journey, only to have a connecting flight canceled midway through the trip. After scouring the Internet for potential flights, we discovered that it is nearly impossible to fly to PNG right now due to travel restrictions in the various countries that we could fly through. Not only that, but even if we could book a travel itinerary to PNG, there is a high risk of us getting stranded in a foreign country if a connecting flight were to be canceled. And even if we could make it all the way to PNG, as things currently stand, we would have to quarantine in a government-approved hotel for two weeks at the cost of approximately $5,000. To make matters worse, due to the Coronavirus we have been delayed in receiving our travel visas. Although we now have approval to send our passports to the embassy in Washington, DC, we don't know how long it will take to get our passports back with the visa stamps. To complicate matters further, the policies of the high school Jacob attends in PNG state that he must be enrolled either for the entire semester or not at all. Since school begins August 12, we have come to the conclusion that we just will not be able to make it back to PNG in time for him to enroll. As a result, despite our best efforts to return to PNG in August, we have come to the conclusion that our return will be delayed. We have consequently enrolled the children for the fall semester at NorthStar Academy, an accredited online Christian school, and we hope to return to PNG in early January. Both Wycliffe USA and our supervisors in PNG agree that, due to current travel restrictions and school enrollment policies, it is best for us to remain in America for the fall school semester.

Still enjoying our time in America even with the restrictions
(Jacob, cover your nose!)

Thankfully, I (Adam) am able to continue translation work remotely. Because we are far along in the translation process for the New Testament, we qualify for remote consultant checking. So over the past month or two, the Enga translators and I have been working remotely with a consultant to check Romans and 1 Corinthians, and we have other books lined up to check in the coming weeks and months. I am in touch with the Enga translators on a daily basis as we send and receive project notes. And so even though the Coronavirus has delayed our return to PNG, the translation work continues on.

We are so thankful for your continued partnership as we wait to return to PNG. We were quite disappointed once we finally came to terms with the fact that our return would be delayed. The kids miss their friends, and we miss our home. But we are encouraged by your faithful prayers and partnership. Please be assured that even though our return to PNG has been delayed, the work continues to move forward.

The Enga Translation Team
(left to right: Martin, Frank, Nete, Maniosa, William, Rueben)

Prayer Requests
Please pray for our family to not just endure the next few months, but to thrive. Pray that the kids will do well in school, and that we will have quality family time together. Pray as well for the people of Papua New Guinea. Up until a couple of weeks ago, it seemed that the Coronavirus was not spreading in PNG. But now there is an outbreak in the capital city of Port Moresby, and at least one report of a case in another major town. The capital city is now in a two-week lockdown. Finally, pray for the translation team. Pray that their computers will work well and that the virus will not spread to where they are. Pray against every and any attack of the enemy that seeks to disrupt the completion of the Enga New Testament. May the Lord bless you and keep you!