Here’s an eye-opening view of PNG based on our first week here: We're really enjoying many things about life here in Ukarumpa. I love the fellowship with the other missionaries. Everyone is friendly and helpful. And this week was spiritual emphasis week with Dr. Richard Allen Farmer, a concert pianist, pastor, and former Dean of Chapel at both Gordon College and Taylor University. He has been teaching out of Mark (series called "Marked by Mark") and it has been great. I love the work I'm doing editing the Agarabi (language) audio Gospel of Luke. The audio version of the NT is scheduled to be dedicated early next year. It is exciting to have a part in it. It takes all day to edit approximately one chapter. I need prayer that I can find a solution to my neck and right shoulder cramping up most painfully after only a short time on the computer each day. Because of my past training and experience, I've also been asked if I would consider testing in the school here.
There is a serious downside to life here. There are daily and nightly break-ins and robberies on the center which are unnerving and put me on edgy alert. This is what the missionaries here live with on a daily basis. I know that my security is not in locks and keys, but in the Lord. Yet it is hard not to get up and look out the windows when the security guards hired by SIL/Wycliffe are flashing lights all around our house and our neighbors late at night because "raskols" have breached the 8-ft fence and are on the prowl, or when the rain hits the tin roof -- a favorite time for raskols to break in because the sound of the rain covers the noise they might make while breaking in. Last night a security guard was attacked by 10 raskols (though not seriously hurt). A man in my office was robbed while he and his wife slept in their house.
The raskols steal everything from electronic equipment like computers and cameras to shoes. Some people have lost over 5 thousand dollars worth of possessions. The raskols consider missionaries rich (in comparison) and see that everything stolen gets replaced anyways. Very little has been recovered and the police and government basically ignore the situation.
The house we're renting has an alarm system with motion detectors, solid bars on all the windows that open, electrified wire and screens on the windows and four locks on every door. But the raskols consider it all a game and are recently using machetes and guns to confront people on the street and in their homes. The people in the surrounding villages know who the raskols are but protect them for two reasons: there is a strong sense of community that must not be broken, and the villagers are themselves afraid of the raskols. Enough of that for now.
Timothy 1:7 (New Living Translation)
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
The simple life is not simple. We have to make our own bread, milk (from powdered), yogurt, salad dressings, salsa, sprouts, etc. We need to soak all veggies and fruit for 30 minutes in water with bleach in it before storing. All our drinking and cooking water needs to be filtered. I need to go to the open air market between 6 and 8 am M-W-F for fresh produce before I go to work. Other products from the little store here are VERY expensive.
The simple life is not simple. We have to make our own bread, milk (from powdered), yogurt, salad dressings, salsa, sprouts, etc. We need to soak all veggies and fruit for 30 minutes in water with bleach in it before storing. All our drinking and cooking water needs to be filtered. I need to go to the open air market between 6 and 8 am M-W-F for fresh produce before I go to work. Other products from the little store here are VERY expensive.
I'm getting lots of exercise, so I'll be going from 'fat' to 'fit' climbing the hills daily and doing aerobics with some of the younger missionaries 3 times/week. I'm also teaching myself Tok Pisin—the local trade language.
I think you can figure out some prayer requests from that.
Blessings, friends.
Julie
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