A village from the air
- Filled with Physical Trials
- very difficult trekking that is filled with leeches.
- washing laundry in the river every day.
- First, I thought this would be really cool. After about a day, I realized how difficult it is to do laundry in the river.
- with no showers, one must bathe in the river.
- Although, I loved bathing in the river, it is hard to stay clean when you bathe in "dirty" water.
- Sickness
- With many mosquitoes and other bugs, infection, malaria and other sicknesses are hard to evade.
- At one point, the missionaries and us interns all got Scabies. Scabies is a condition where microscopic bugs are all over your body. With the combination of many mosquito bites, I itched a lot. It can be miserable. Yet, God is so faithful to provide grace for these trials! Praise Him that we had medicated baby powder and Scabies medicine!
- Since no Walgreens or Walmart exist in the jungle, it is very hard to keep bug bites from getting infected. At one point, my feet and ankles were so swollen that I had swollen ankles..Plus, I itched so bad that I had to put on powder to relieve the itch. Thus, my feet looked like a leper. You just have to bear through it.
- Lack of resources make it difficult to help people. Many people die in the village. T and T face that often.
- filled with Spiritual trials
- Witch doctors still exist here in these remote, tribal places.
- The Papuan, tribal people are a very superstitious and animistic people
- You have uneducated evangelists leading the church.
- When people are so concerned with surviving physically, it's hard to reach them spiritually.
The life of the Papuan in Danowage
- Filled with Physical Trials
- Women are constantly working in their gardens. Yet garden work in the jungle swamp is much more difficult than American gardening. In America, we have our nice rows of veggies, fruits, etc. In Papua, you see jungle everywhere, then all of a sudden a garden. The garden looks so similar to the rest of the jungle, it is hard to make the distinction.
- Men are off fishers.
- If they don't catch anything, no meat for dinner.
- Families harvest sago.
- With little food variation, sago is a grain-like substance that is harvested from a tree. It takes a group of families all day to harvest the sago.
- The same sicknesses that plague the missionaries hit the villagers as well. Many people die from sicknesses.
Yet in all these struggles, GOD IS FAITHFUL! His word says that He daily bears us up (Psalm 68:19). Although life in the jungle is extremely, God is faithful to bear His children up physically and spiritually. Glory to His name!
God showed me the great cost of being a missionary in these types of environments. The people are still underneath the curse of Adam in a physical sense: "cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:17b-19 Praise God that He is making all things new! Although life is difficult both for the missionary and for the people, God is worth having the people come to Him! God wants His lost sheep to come to Him and they will! So the physical and spiritual trials are worth it. Plus, God assures us that He is with us to the end. We have the love of God, what more could we need!
 |
| Baptism!! |
 |
after church
|
No comments:
Post a Comment