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Prayer Letter - New Guinea
News
October 5, 2002
There’s no place
like Bom! This we found out while
visiting Jim and Tina Marbach in the
village of
Bom
on the island of New Ireland. We had an eventful trip into the
tribe and a great time once there; and after it was all over we got
safely out despite the smashed in bridge.
It started out on
the Solomon Queen, a large passenger vessel that took us safely 14
hours through the night to Rabaul. From
there, we loaded on a bus and sped along the volcano damaged road
(from the huge volcano eruption in 1994) into the next town called
Kokopo. We spent two days at
Kokopo (the largest town in the islands
of Papua New Guinea) seeing what was available in the shops, eating
at the small restaurants, and visiting the local war museum from
WWII. We were also able to go to the local hospital and get an
ultrasound done. Though the machine was old and we couldn’t tell
much for detail, we were able to see that things looked pretty good
and according to the doctor the baby was ‘large’. The entire
checkup came to a total of K5 (about $1.60 US). After our time in
Kokopo, we boarded a small plane and
flew the half hour flight to a small town with a gravel airstrip
called Namatanai.
Once on the
island of New Ireland, we got on a truck (slightly crowded as the
picture above indicates) and headed to the other side, about an
hours drive to the village of
Bom.
There we spent nearly a week meeting people in the village, and
going to their sports celebration for PNG Independence Day. Though
the rivalry among the teams was mostly friendly, one team’s reaction
to a loss resulted in a small fight which resulted in others
breaking in a bridge so they wouldn’t be able to get into town.
Unfortunately, the bridge was between Bom
village and town and had an affect on us as well. However, the
issue was quickly resolved with a few sturdy planks spanning the
section that was caved in, and things were back to normal.
One exciting
thing that I was able to help Jim out with was a dialectical
survey. On the West side of New Ireland there are 3 or 4 dialects
among the Patpatar language group. I
held on to the back of the little dirt bike as Jim drove over 60
miles along the coast. We stopped in nearly every village and got
the name and coordinates and conducted
four separate language surveys from simple words and phrases. This
information could be helpful in the future to know where good
outreach points would be and how much change in the language is
required.
The
Kunzers are planning to join the work in
Bom along with the
Marbachs. At this point, we are considering joining them as
a third team member. Please pray for the
Patpatar language speakers. They have had religion (their
traditional beliefs, Catholic influence, and other missions), but
they are still confused over who Jesus really is and why they need
Him as their Savior. Please pray for the missionary team as they
strive to learn the language, so that they can clearly present this
all important message.
In the meantime,
Lori and I have been asked to go to Kavieng
(on the south cost of New Britain) to look after the guest house and
the property for two weeks. The missionaries who have been looking
after it are headed out for a while and the normal missionary family
that looks after it and runs the supply there will be returning from
furlough at the end of our time there.
All for His Glory,
Aaron, Lori,
Avalon, and ?
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