Did you ever have a project that you just kept putting off and tackled many others, simply because the project was huge and going to take a lot of time and effort? That’s how I feel when trying to present the events and thoughts from our trip to the village of Yemli in the highlands for the Malê New Testament dedication and celebration a couple of weekends ago. (Malê is often written Malei because the “ê” tends to mislead English speakers into mispronouncing the name as in "female".)
And here was one of the first signs of how well and honored we were to be treated. On the side, mostly in the shade, the people had built a bench of bamboo so that we could rest comfortably. In addition, they had cut saplings and stuck them into the ground in front of the bench to create additional shade to keep us cool.
[Later on Monday as we were watching other guests leave by the helicopter, I was sitting on this bench. A man kindly prompted his young son to come offer me a good-sized cucumber to refresh me. I would never have thought of eating a cucumber, using the “waitskin” solution of a water bottle. Such care and generosity!]
From our first step into the PMV (private motor vehicle for hire) where we each sat next to Papua New Guineans who spoke enough English to accommodate our baby Tok Pisin, to stepping off the PMV on return and finding our neighbor, Alan, at our door checking to see if we were home, we basked in God’s providential care.
And in the same way, we remember this special trip and keep being reminded of how God provides so much for our protection and comfort without our asking, and in ways that we would have/could have never imagined.
More blogs later to tell more of the story…
Our trip began Friday as we rode with others, some Papua New Guinean co-workers and some “waitskins”, from Ukarumpa to Lae, a large coastal city almost 4 hours away. We were going to meet at a helicopter pad with about a dozen others who had come from the US to join in the ceremonies. We would then be ferried about 20 minutes (by air) to the village, perched on top of a mountain ridge, by the SIL pilot, Bev, who is actually one of our neighbors.
Since the helicopter could only carry 450 kilograms (about 1000 lbs) of people and cargo and had only seats for 8 (including pilot), it took about 8 ferry trips to get everyone into the village. We were on the last trip. I’d said I’d wanted to get some pictures so he ushered me into the co-pilot’s seat for the ride in. (Watch this video to see how remote the village is and the narrow ridge we landed on.)
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Upon arriving, we were greeted by the translator, John Lindstrom, and about 40 villagers who always love seeing the helicopter land and take off. In this case, however, they wanted to see the guests who had come from so far to be with them on this special weekend. There was a small area nearby that normally is a basketball court (dirt floor) but, since there was to be a big greeting ceremony by the Malei people, everyone arriving before us was waiting in the shade surrounding the court.
And here was one of the first signs of how well and honored we were to be treated. On the side, mostly in the shade, the people had built a bench of bamboo so that we could rest comfortably. In addition, they had cut saplings and stuck them into the ground in front of the bench to create additional shade to keep us cool.From our first step into the PMV (private motor vehicle for hire) where we each sat next to Papua New Guineans who spoke enough English to accommodate our baby Tok Pisin, to stepping off the PMV on return and finding our neighbor, Alan, at our door checking to see if we were home, we basked in God’s providential care.
And in the same way, we remember this special trip and keep being reminded of how God provides so much for our protection and comfort without our asking, and in ways that we would have/could have never imagined.
More blogs later to tell more of the story…
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