One Down,
Three to Go
"Some of those pigs are
yours". That is what I was supposed to say, but when my
language helper translated it back into the trade language it
came out, "Some of those pigs are females." Thankfully, I did
not have too many similar errors during my test. In November, I
(Aaron) along with my partner Butch Kunzer took the first of our
four Language/Culture Checks. These are tests designed to gauge
where we are in our knowledge of the Patpatar language and
culture. We had a consultant (a missionary who has worked in a
tribe and is now helping other missionaries in the language and
culture learning process) come and give us both written and oral
checks which he was able to check with some of the Patpatar
people using the trade language. Praise the Lord...we passed.
This simply means that I am on target with learning about the
Patpatar people and understanding their language and simple
grammar points. Thank you to all of you who prayed for me
during this time.
Thank you to many of you who
replied with insights to our last email, "Medicine won't work."
Here is what has happened since. Shortly after I wrote that
email, the girl's family decided to start wrapping her leg with
gauze to keep flies and dirt away from the sore on her leg,
though they still refused to go get medical help aside from the
medicine man that had worked the magic on her leg. A month
after I had first seen the sore, it was still very evident and
did not look good, but it was getting smaller in size and there
did not appear to be any infection.
We are heading to Goroka (a
town in the highlands of Papua New Guinea where our mission
field quarters is) for two conferences. The first conference is
a Culture and Language Acquisition Seminar and the second is a
Church Planting Workshop. We arrive in Goroka on December 8th
and return to the tribe on the 22nd. We would appreciate your
prayers for travel, time in class, and for our girls as they
will be in all-day childcare.
For His Glory,
Aaron, Lori, Avalon, and
Sierra
PS - The picture I attached
is of Lori, Avalon, and Sierra at a custom and feast at the
nearest hamlet to us.
