Bitten by a Ghost

"I must obey my father (in life) so that he won't bite me (in death)."

Perhaps no saying better summarizes the underlying spiritual fears of the Enga people than this one. Traditional Enga culture teaches that every person is born with a spirit, which is received from their father. At death, this spirit leaves the body and becomes a ghost. The ghost then wanders through the clan's territory, often accompanied by whistling or rustling sounds at night. It perceives human thoughts and influences human events, usually in malevolent ways. It can even kill an individual by 'biting' him. Although, much like a honey bee, the ghost can do this only once. Usually the ghost will bite a close relative with whom he is displeased. After 'biting' someone, the ghost then descends through a hole in the ground to join the realm of the ancestral ghosts, who act together as a whole to influence the entire clan, also in malevolent ways. So if you don't want to be bitten by your father after he dies, you better obey him while he is alive. And if you don't want the fraternity of ancestral ghosts to disrupt the livelihood of your clan, you better maintain good relationships among the clan and uphold the traditions of the ancestors.

How different the Enga worldview is from our own! I thank God that I don't live in fear of being bitten by the ghosts of my recently deceased ancestors, who can read my thoughts and destroy my life. Rather, I thank God that He sent his son Jesus, who, by his death, gave us the hope of eternal life, freeing us from fear and death.

A man dressed as an evil spirit at the Enga cultural show

One criticism that is often leveled against missionaries is, "Why don't you just let people believe what they want to believe instead of forcing your beliefs upon them?" Criticisms like that incorrectly assume that people are living their lives in a perfect spiritual harmony, which Christians disrupt by forcing Christianity upon them. The reality is, however, that people are often held in great fear and bondage by their belief systems. And without the gospel of Jesus Christ, they have nowhere else to turn and end up living their lives in spiritual darkness.

In the past, the Enga people would perform various rituals to try to manage the spiritual forces that were always working in malevolent ways against them. Today most of those rituals have been abandoned, however the underlying fear of the spiritual world is very much alive. Next month, I will share a recent example of how this fear of the spiritual world is rearing its ugly head in Enga, and just how much people need the hope and freedom that comes from believing in the good news of Jesus Christ.

Speaking at Covina Assembly
We will be speaking at Covina Assembly of God (our home church) on April 24 at the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. services, and again with a different message at the 5 p.m. service. We invite you to join with us and hear our story of what God has been doing among the Enga people.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Paul Brennan for his anthropological research among the Enga people, which has proven to be quite valuable in understanding the traditional Engan worldview.

Forgiveness is Contagious

They say that in order to be an effective Bible translator, you not only have to translate the text, but you have to let the text translate you. Well, during our first term in Papua New Guinea, we had the opportunity to translate the following text,

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
– Mat 6:14-15 (ESV)

It is one thing to translate that text into Enga, it is quite another to live it out. During our first term in Papua New Guinea, we not only had the chance to see our Engan coworkers living out this text (see our Feb 2014 update), but the Lord challenged us to live it out as well (see our Sep 2014 and Feb 2015 updates). And after seeing our coworker forgive, we too were encouraged to forgive.

Sharing about forgiveness at a recent church service

Now, as we share about our experiences at different churches each Sunday, we talk about how the Lord challenged us to forgive those who had wronged us, and we encourage others to do the same. A couple of weeks ago after a service, the youth pastor came up to us and shared the following story about a high school senior I will call Mary (not her real name).

Mary has had a tough life due to the lack of a stable family environment. Her parents were divorced when she was very young and her mom received custody of all the kids. She went on to have three more children and none of those relationships lasted. Mary was abused physically, sexually, and verbally, and she will tell you to this day that it was all her fault because that was what she was told for thirteen years. Finally, when she was thirteen years old, the courts stepped in and gave custody of all the children to her father. It has been a very hard path the past four years. Mary has struggled with suicide attempts, depression, PTSD, and cutting, but she started faithfully coming to our youth group about a year and a half ago. She is seeking God but still feels as if she is not worthy of God's love. She came to me this past week after you spoke and said that the service was great. She started to tear up and said that when the service came to an end and you said, "If you need to forgive someone to please consider forgiving them," she felt God's presence and was lead to forgive her Mom. She knows that this will be a work in progress and that this hurt and pain will still be there, but she is on the road to forgiving, which is one of the largest steps a person can make towards having a stable life. We are still in prayer for Mary and her whole family. They still have a ton of work to do, and a lot of healing needs to take place, but it gives Mary hope to know that you were able to forgive a man who committed murder, burned down houses, and destroyed lives. She has started to see the hope that she has in God and is starting to understand that she is also worthy of God's forgiveness.

Praise God that He is working in Mary's life, and please join with us in prayer that the work He has started in Mary's life will be brought to completion according to His perfect will.

Golf Ball-Sized Hail

During our cross-country trip in January, we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of a storm with golf ball-sized hail stones, and it got me thinking that sometimes that’s what missionary life feels like.

"What was that noise? It sounded like someone just threw a rock at our car. There it is again. It keeps coming. I think that is hail. I hope the windshield doesn't crack. Maybe we should pull over. No, just keep driving through it." Those were our words as we made our way cross-country just north of Houston. It had been a nice clear day, and then all of a sudden a hail storm was upon us, with golf ball-sized stones pelting the car, leaving large dents in the exterior. It was a bit terrifying. But we kept driving, and even though the storm subsided, the dents are still there.

Sometimes the transition of missionary life feels like that hail storm. Everything is going along just fine, and then out of nowhere it feels like we are getting pelted with large hail stones. Sure, the hail lets up sooner or later, but we wonder if the damage that is done might be permanent.

Since arriving in America in July, we have ‘lived’ in three different homes and spent the night in more than twenty other locations. And along with the joy of saying hello in each new place is the pain and grief of saying goodbye to those we are leaving behind, yearning for the stability of a life lived in one place surrounded by family. And when we finally get a moment to settle down and think about it all, the hail storm hits and we wonder if the damage done is permanent.

Yet we know that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18). And so when the hail storms come, we keep driving through, confident that our Lord will bring us safely into His arms, even if we pick up a few dents along the way.

Dents on our hood from the golf ball-sized hail storm that hit us just north of Houston

Release of Matthew in Enga
In November the Enga Bible translation team released the book of Matthew in Enga. They traveled to four of the five districts in Enga Province to make the new book available in audio format and found that there was a high demand for the ‘top-up’ memory cards, which people can insert into their Audibibles to receive the new book. In fact all of the top-up memory cards sold out! Last month we also received a surprise email from an Engan man who said,

“I live and work in Enga as a civil engineer. I am from a small village called Lakui in the Ambum Kompiam district. I am so moved by the incredible work that you have done in translating the Bible into the Enga language. I am enquiring to find out where I can source some of those audio bibles so that I can distribute to Christians in my community who cannot read the Word of God in Tok Pisin and English. I believe that according to Romans 10:17, ‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’ It is my prayer that the Lord continuously bless you as you carry out the great commission of spreading the Word of God to the ends of the earth.”

It is so encouraging to get feedback like this and to see people excited about receiving God’s Word in Enga.

Cross-Country
We spent the first couple weeks of January traveling cross-country from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Pasadena, California, where we are now settled into a two-bedroom apartment in a missionary housing complex. (You can reach us at the address below until mid-July.) During our trip we enjoyed visiting friends and relatives in Priceville, Alabama; Bethany, Oklahoma; Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, Texas; and Phoenix, Arizona. It was a special treat in Houston to visit Martha’s aunt and cousins, who are the only stateside connection to Martha’s Mexican family that we have. We hadn’t seem them since our wedding, and it was wonderful to reconnect with them and practice our Spanish (which apparently has rented out the space in our brains that is now being occupied by Tok Pisin and Enga). Bella especially enjoyed getting to meet her second cousin Ramiro Jr. and became like a big sister to him during our stay in Houston. Thank you, Lord, for a great trip!

Jacob, Bella, and Asher with their cousin Ramiro Jr.

How to Say 'Steelers' in Enga

Happy New Year! We got such a good response to our update last month about how to translate the word 'Go' from 'Go Steelers!' that I decided to follow up this month with a segment on how to translate 'Steelers'.

Normally, proper nouns like 'Steelers' are not translated. Rather they are just transliterated (in other words, they are written according to the writing system of the target language). Enga doesn't have the letter 'r', and it doesn't allow consonant clusters like 'St', so a transliteration of Steelers would look something like 'Sitilas'.

But, for fun, let's say we actually wanted to translate 'Steelers' into Enga. The name 'Steelers' is based on the fact that Pittsburgh is historically a city of steel workers. So the name 'Steelers' roughly means 'those who make steel'. (It does not mean 'those who steal'…that would be 'Stealers' with an 'a').

The problem is that steel as a building material is completely foreign to traditional Engan culture. As such there is no word for 'steel' in Enga. When there is no corresponding word in the target language, one option is to borrow a term from another language. Now we could borrow the term 'steel', but Engans would confuse it with the Tok Pisin term 'stil', which itself is borrowed from the English term 'steal'. So just borrowing the English term 'steel' would not work. We have to look for another term to borrow. The best option would probably be 'ain', which is the Tok Pisin spelling of the English word 'iron'. So if we borrowed the word 'ain', we could translate the name 'Steelers' as 'the men who make ain'.

But let's say we wanted to translate without borrowing any words from Tok Pisin or English. We would then have to find the closest equivalent to the word 'steel' that does exist in traditional Enga culture. That would probably be the term 'anda pingina', which means 'house post' and is the largest post that is used to make a traditional Engan house. That would leave us with 'the men who make house posts' as our translation for 'Steelers'. But to really emphasize how strong steel is, we would need to add the qualifying phrase 'very strong', which would leave us with 'the men who make very strong house posts'.

But really, when we talk about the 'Steelers', we aren't talking about men who make steel. Rather we are talking about men who play football like men who make steel. In traditional Engan culture, there is absolutely no equivalent to 'football', so we would be forced to borrow a term. And because American football is not well known in Papua New Guinea, the closest equivalent would be 'rugby'. So that would lead us to 'the men who play rugby being like those who make really strong house posts. But in Enga it would literally be 'men house posts very strong make being like rugby play the'. Combine that with our translation of 'Go' from last month's update, and we have, 'Men house posts very strong make being like rugby play the, count hold-huh!', which is the truly Engan way to say 'Go Steelers!'

Adam's family gathered together for Christmas

Hard to Say Goodbye
It is with sad and heavy hearts that we prepare to leave Pittsburgh to return to California. We've had a wonderful stay with my (Adam's) parents, and we truly enjoyed getting to spend Christmas with both of my sisters and their families. We are grieved to have to say goodbye again. While it is difficult for us to say goodbye to my parents and family, we recognize that it is equally, if not more difficult for them to say goodbye to us. We are truly grateful for their sacrifice in supporting our calling to serve in Papua New Guinea despite how difficult it is for them. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for a great few months together. We love you, and we will miss you greatly!

Go (Away) Steelers!

Earlier this month, I sent a thank you card to the pastor of my parents' church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Because we are in the heart of Steelers country, I thought it would be fun to say 'Go Steelers!' in Enga on the front of the card. You wouldn't think that translating 'Go Steelers!' would be all that difficult. After all, there are just two words, and I wasn't planning on translating 'Steelers', just the word 'Go'. However, the process to translate 'Go Steelers!' into Enga turned out to be much more complex than I had anticipated, and so I included in my thank you card an explanation of the translation process. I am reproducing part of the card below for your reading pleasure.

Dear Pastor David,

I wanted to send you, the staff, and the missions committee a postcard that said 'Go Steelers!' in Enga The problem is, if you translate 'Go' literally it would mean that you want the Steelers to go away, which isn't what we mean when we say 'Go Steelers!' So I decided to translate 'Win Steelers!', which is what I think we really mean when we say 'Go Steelers!'

But there is no single word for 'win' in Enga. Instead they use the idiom 'hold count'. This idiom is derived from the idea that the person who wins is the person who has the most votes or who 'holds the count' of the votes, and it has been extended to mean 'winning' in general.

But if you just say 'hold count', it applies only to the immediate timeframe, and, although sometimes when we say 'Go Steelers!' we are saying it in the immediate context of a particular play, when writing 'Go Steelers!' on a postcard, we are really talking about our general desire that the Steelers win all the time and not just at a particular moment. So instead of just saying 'hold count', we need to say 'hold count, huh'. That little 'huh' at the end makes it clear that we don't just want the Steelers to win in a particular moment but over a duration of time.

But the true word order in Enga would be 'count hold-huh' since the verb always comes last in a sentence. Also notice that 'huh' is hyphenated to 'hold' since in Enga they are just one word.

Finally, we must put 'Steelers' first since they are the ones being addressed. Although one could make the argument that this saying is not addressing the Steelers directly, but rather it is stating our desire that the Steelers 'hold count' without directly commanding them to do so, in which case another verb form would be required ('Let the Steelers hold count'). But let's assume that we are in fact meaning to address the Steelers themselves, regardless of whether or not they will ever read this postcard. That leaves us with...

Steelers, count hold-huh!

So we go from 'Go Steelers!' in English to 'Steelers, count hold-huh!' in Enga, which is actually 'Steelers, ita minalapape!' Imagine, now, that you are translating not 'Go Steelers!' but a difficult verse like Mark 9:49, which says, "For everyone will be salted with fire." No wonder Bible translation is such a difficult task! Yet it is well worth it for people to hear God's Word in the language that speaks to their hearts!

P.S. I'm still working on a translation of 'Deflategate'!

 

An Engan man wearing a Steelers jersey in Wabag town

Talk is Cheap

In Enga just saying that you are going to do something doesn’t mean very much. What’s important is when you actually do what you say you are going to do.

In Enga, talk is cheap. Just because somebody says he is going to do something, you shouldn’t necessarily believe him. There is a joke about a politician in the Highlands talking about all the things he will bring to the people if he is elected: good schools, roads, medical care, and even nice beaches. When the people remind him that they live in the mountains and that the ocean is hundreds of miles away, he promises to bring them the ocean as well.

Unlike the politician in that joke, most Engans are not trying to be deceptive in their speech. Rather, because they are highly relational people, they are apt to say what they think the other person wants to hear in order to maintain a good relationship (whether it is true or not).

Because people cannot always be taken at their word, when we tell people that we are translating the Bible into Enga, there is probably some suspicion as to whether or not it is actually going to happen. That is why we have made it a priority to release audio recordings of individual books of the Bible as we complete them. That way people can see that this work is really happening and moving forward.

In October 2014, we released the Gospel of Mark and portions of Genesis. Now on November 11 and 12, the Enga Bible translation team will release audio recordings of the Gospel of Matthew on solar-powered audio players, memory cards, and as an Android phone app. Please pray for this event. Pray that more Engans will have the opportunity to hear God’s Word in their own language. Pray also that Christian leaders in the Enga community will continue to support this work with their prayers as well as their giving.
 

Community members putting money into a cardboard box to help support
the Enga Bible translation project in October 2014

The Lord's Prayer in Enga
Most English speakers have never learned another language that isn’t related to English, and so they are surprised to discover just how different languages like Enga can be. One method that we’ve used to demonstrate the differences between Enga and English is to take the Lord’s Prayer in Enga and translate it word-for-word back into English. Read the word-for-word English translation of the Lord’s Prayer in Enga below and find out just how different the two languages are. For extra credit, try reading it out loud without stumbling over any words!

Of us Father top in sky stands the,
Of you name the well doing be say.
Of you ruling place the it shall come say.
Top in sky of you as thinking they do,
Even that down below land in this do say.
Even today as we will eat doing, food the give.
Against us bad they do of them,
Payback the we are abandoning,
You of us bad the payback the abandon.
Bad do saying trial happening to the,
Go saying leave don’t.
Bad from the you us doing get.

October Travels
After sharing at the Brooklyn Tabernacle and Ingomar Church in September, Martha and I were delighted to get some time away to ourselves during the first week of October, taking a five-day vacation to Gettysburg. Thank you to those of you who gave specifically for us to enjoy some personal time away. The last week of October, our family traveled to Florida, where we shared at Life Church in St. Petersburg before heading to Orlando for the Wycliffe Connection. The Wycliffe Connection is a five-day conference for missionaries on furlough to debrief from their time on the field, to learn how to make the most of furlough, and to prepare to return to the field after furlough. Wycliffe places such a high value on this conference that they pay for the entire trip, and we are thankful for the wonderful support!

How are the Kids?
The kids are doing well, enjoying things they don’t normally get to do like going to the pumpkin patch, apple picking, and kayaking. Because we are traveling so much, we are homeschooling the kids this year. Martha is teaching Jacob and Bella, while I am working with Asher on his reading and math each morning before heading to my parents’ church for my regular work of translation. I am also teaching Martha and the kids Enga, so please be sure to keep us all in your prayers!

Bella, Jacob, and Asher at the pumpkin patch

Brooklyn and the 'Burgh

After four years away, September was the month when we were finally able to return to the 'Burgh (Pittsburgh) to spend a few months with my (Adam’s) parents. A few days later, on September 11, we were scheduled to be in New York City to visit the Brooklyn tabernacle. Amazing, when we arrived that Friday afternoon there was virtually no traffic, even in downtown Manhattan! Upon arrival, we were rather concerned about where to park, but a tiny space opened up for us. However, I didn’t know how to fit our minivan in such a small space. Thankfully, Daniel, our host, helped me out. He showed me that in Brooklyn you need to bump the cars in front and behind in order to carve out some space for yourself! Thank you, Daniel and Aida, for providing us with a wonderful apartment and for being such wonderful hosts!

During the weekend we were privileged to share our story at the Missions Ministry on Saturday. It was a great blessing to pray for many people who responded to a call to missions. On Sunday, though it was not planned, Pastor Jim Cymbala showed our video and asked us to share about our work, at both the 9 a.m. and 12:00 noon services. We were humbled to have the choir dedicate the song 'It Will Be Worth It All' to us. On Tuesday evening, we were able to share a bit more deeply at the prayer service. We were overwhelmed by the many wonderful people who greeted us and told us of their faithful prayers for us during our first term in Papua New Guinea. The people of Brooklyn Tabernacle know how to pray, and not only were we blessed and encouraged, but also empowered to seek God with greater fervency in our own prayers. Thank you to the missions team at Brooklyn Tabernacle and Pastor Cymbala for making us feel so welcome, and for encouraging us so much! We will remember our time with you when we return to Papua New Guinea. By your prayers and encouragement, we will continue stepping forward in faith, knowing that we have a great team of prayer warriors at the Brooklyn Tabernacle!

While we were in New York, we also had the opportunity to do a little sightseeing. We took the kids to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and Brooklyn Bridge Park, which both offer fantastic views of Manhattan. We also visited Times Square, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the new World Trade Center Observatory, Wall Street, and Battery Park. Needless to say, by the time we arrived back home in Pittsburgh, we were ready for some rest!

Overlooking Manhattan from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade

Last Sunday, we were honored to share again at Ingomar Church, where I grew up, and where my parents have attended for over 30 years. I never imagined as a young boy, that I would one day be standing in front, as a missionary to Papua New Guinea! It was wonderful to share about our work with so many who have been praying and giving to support the work in Enga. It was very special to share with my parents in attendance, knowing how much they pray for us and support our work. My Aunt Kerry also flew to Pittsburgh to hear my message, and we enjoyed the opportunity to have deep, meaningful conversations about God during her visit with us. Thank you, Pastor David Streets, and the congregation at Ingomar Church, for making us feel so welcomed, for receiving us with open arms, and making us feel at home. Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

God is good and it is good to be back in Pittsburgh, at a place that we can call home.

Asher and Bella enjoying the beginning of fall at my parents' house just north of Pittsburgh