my Sara-ish-missionary-ness explained
I hesitated to write this, but then figured "what the heck? why not just wing it?". I pray it will give you a clearer glimpse of my heart and maybe - just maybe - help you make sense of my Sara-ish-missionary-ness. But before I start I need to list a few disclaimers: 1. I love America. (This is not a bashing my country post.) 2. I also love Papua New Guinea. (And it isn't perfect either.) 3. I am not a contractor, engineer or architect and do not understand the structural workings of buildings.
Gotcha curiosity spurred into action yet?
Or maybe you are just thinking "whelp, here she goes again?!". Ha!
On the way to the older two girls' school we drive through a pretty affluent area. I suppose by some American standards it isn't all that, but considering I am making monthly payments on a house whose Ukarumpa value stands at $8000 (yes, you read that correctly. no, I did not forget to add an extra zero.), $300,000 - $500,000 seems a bit pricey to me. There are two huge new developments being built on the way to their school. I swear the homes have to be, at the very minimum, 5,000 square feet each. (This is where #3 comes into play for the first time.) Dude, these homes are humongous. Especially for this girl who will happily live in less than 1,100 square feet in PNG. Needless to say, these homes and these developments seem extreme to me. From my standpoint, from my perspective, my home with a value of $8000 and less than 1,100 square feet is above and beyond luxurious in comparison with how most of my close Papua New Guinean friends live. (Yes, other missionaries in Ukarumpa have much more fabulous homes than we do. Yes, I have had issues with location and cabinetry envy to say the least. Ha!)
Here is a picture of our home in Ukarumpa. (Take a peak at this Facebook album to see more.)
As you can see, though my Ukarumpian home is not all that spectacular, it has many modern conveniences and will withstand the elements for a much longer period of time. With the hand off being I am very slowly paying $8,000 dollars for a home while my PNGian neighbors are building theirs from the resources of their own land! And with the hand off that our home needs significant costly repairs. (Do you think our home would look okay with a kunai grass roof since the tin is in such disrepair?!)
I think at this point I need to add a few other disclaimers. 4. I am not an anthropologist. 5. I do not pity myself or my Papua New Guinean friends (who live in these amazing homes)!!
Okay, moving on.
I am so grateful to God for the opportunity to step outside of my American culture and live in and among other cultures. I hate to break it to you guys, but the way the average American family lives is not the reality for the rest of the world. (No, I am not saying you all own huge homes! And, please also remember disclaimer #4.)
When your "normal" is that your tin roof, louvered windows and plywood walls are extravagant compared to the national community that surrounds you... well it makes for quite a shocker to be back in the land of plenty where huge subdivisions filled with ginormous homes are bursting up all around you. Cause in my puny brain I am thinking I know that those five to seven thousand square foot homes with at least five bedrooms and four or five baths are not filled to maximum capacity. Not in the land of the average family having only 2.54 persons per home. (Yes, I looked up current statistics. And the funny thing is that I thought it was average to have 2.5 kids... not a total of 2.54 people per family unit. Weird.)
But that isn't where my story is leading. It is not just that these homes are huge and will not most likely be filled with huge families. Nope. Here's the deal. While that first home that was built in that first subdivision on the way to the girls' school was just in the beginning stages of construction, it caught on fire. Nah, I didn't see it while it was on fire, but boy oh boy have we all speculated as to when and how and why it caught on fire. There was significant damage to the home. Each day since that fire as I drive back and forth in front of that home I have wondered what was next for the structure. (It also brought my attention to the fact that while that home sat there damaged the other homes in this massive neighborhood were springing up to life before my eyes.)
Is it obvious that I do a lot of pondering on things while I am driving?
I also sit at a horrendous stop light right before arriving at the girls school. By horrendous I mean if I don't hit traffic just so I can sit through three of four changes of the light for a total of at least 10-15 minutes. Yes, yes, yes I know for some of you this is a drop in a bucket, but my "normal" is walking everywhere or two or three cars in the parking lot of our missionary store meaning that it very well could be crowded. And by crowded I mean someone else might be in the line before me. (Gasp!) As I sit through this light repeatedly every day of the work week my attention has been drawn to the abandoned gas station on the corner.
Two days before they, they being the demolition contractors, tore down the huge house that wasn't even finished they, a different contractor I assume, also tore down the gas station.
Woah. Flattened both structures to the ground. Gone. Kaput. No more. Decimated. (You get the idea, right?)
I wonder for the average American... does this strike you as odd that these buildings were torn down? Does it strike you as odd that entire companies exist just to tear buildings down? Cause my reality is that often road signs in PNG go missing because the metal can be used as a cook plate for a fire in an outdoor kitchen. Nothing, not one single solitary thing, goes to waste in Papua New Guinea. Nothing.
At first it did a little number on my pride and heart when random people would walk past our house on garbage day in Ukarumpa and dig through to see what they could make use of. It was convicting. And honestly, a little gross.
It was also convicting and a bit uncomfortable at first to watch our friend and haus meri (the young lady employed by the children's home to do laundry, clean the icky teenage boys' bathroom and so much more) sort through the garbage before it even made it outside to the side of the road. I learned to never throw away any container that can be sealed (jars and plastic bottles can be used to keep insects and rodents from food items as well as store rain water for drinking). I also learned to never throw away a plastic grocery bag after watching her wash and reuse any I mistakenly threw away. I adapted other thrifty techniques out of necessity. Like I very quickly learned to wash and rewash and rewash until they were torn, my ziploc bags. Ziplocs are very, very costly in Ukarumpa.
It's been a struggle for me this furlough because of my new mindset. I suffer from slight panic every time I throw away a ziploc and I hoard all my plastic grocery bags until they are sporting giant holes. I still feel nervous every time I throw away an empty jar, and I imagine from this point on in my life, I always will.
Maybe some of you are extremely conscious of our environment and uber careful with these sorts of things. If that is the case - yay, you! - cause you are a giant step ahead of what I see as average American.
So, imagine my poor little missionary heart that is a nervous wreck throwing away a ziploc, witnessing not one but two structures all within a very short distance of one another being smashed to the ground. Swept away in giant dumpsters.
Let me take you back to disclaimer #3 - remember I do not understand the structural workings of these sorts of things. I am not saying the entire home or the old gas station could be saved, but what of the tin from that gas station roof? What of the brand new windows and doors and all that treated wood that framed the new home? What of the all the elements in both of those structures that could be re-used or re-purposed?
Why in the land of plenty do we throw away so much?
Is it just because we have extra that we can chunk what is still good? Throw it away cause we can replace it with something shiny and new? More functional? Or more energy efficient?
I am saddened by this part of America. I love America (remember disclaimer #1). And just cause I am comparing America to PNG I am not saying Papua New Guinea is perfect (#2) but it seems to me that things are a little whacked in regard to this whole situation. I am not suggesting we ship all those supplies to PNG so people in the valley where we live can build fantastic homes - nope, that is not a good idea. I won't even force feed my children the rest of their meals while telling them there are children starving in Africa. Nope, never pulled that one either. But I am a bit heartbroken that my asples (Tok Pisin for my home country) has so much that we can simply demolish what still has some good value.
All this brings my mind and heart back to what I am most passionate about. Yep, you guessed it, Bible translation.
It seems to me that this whole demolish what is still of good value situation is a HUGE symptom of a much greater reality. Not only do we live in a land of plenty and live in large homes that the average family cannot fill. (Disclaimer #6 - the home we are renting here in America isn't large or grand on any scale. In fact I am saddened that this furlough I do not have an automatic dishwasher. #AmericanBrat) Not only do we live in a society where we toss out our ziplocs and plastic grocery bags... we also live in a society where we have AMAZING access to the Word of God yet we, as an over-generalized whole, do not take advantage of what we have.
The English language has more than five hundred different versions of the Bible. Holy cow. Five hundred?! Yes, five hundred!!! We have so many choices, a glorious feast of versions that feed all of our silly nuances. We are affluent!!! But even with all we have and as affluent as we are, as an over-generalized whole, we do not take advantage of our resources.
And not only do we not use what we have to experience a personal encounter with the God of all creation and draw our hearts and lives into a closer communion with Jesus we, as an over-generalized whole, HOARD it for ourselves. We are stingy and self-serving. Throwing away or setting aside what has been lavished on us.
Lord, help us!
Here are the 2014 statistics on Bible translation needs throughout the world. There are more than 6,900 living languages in the world today. Nearly one billion of these people, representing about 2,000 of those languages have no access to any of the Bible. As many as 340 million speak languages in which no Bible translation has even begun. These people, these 340 million, do not have one verse of the Bible in a language that they can clearly understand. Not one word. Not one verse. Not one book. Not any of it.
And what does God say about all this??
"Jesus told him, 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." John 14:6 NLT
"by grace you have been saved through faith" Ephesians 2:8 NKJV
It is through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that we are saved and can come to God.
"He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent." 2 Peter 3:9 NLT
God desires to have us all come to repentance. He loves us all. Americans and Papua New Guineans alike.
"If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing." 2 Corinthians 4:3 NLT
If we do not reach those who have not heard, they will suffer a Christ-less eternity.
We know the need. We have the means. We know how to reach the lost.
"faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" Romans 10:17 NKJV
We are promised by God that our mission will not fail. We are promised by God that His Word will prosper.
"It is the same with my Word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it." Isaiah 55:11 NLT
With all that said, I find it no surprise that the very last instruction of Jesus, the perfect Son of God, spoken here on this earth was:
"go and make disciples".
Years ago I prayed that God would open my eyes and allow me to see the lost and dying and needy as He sees them. I prayed for a heart that would be broken and would never be satisfied with this life. I prayed for a way that He could use me, ordinary me, to impact the lost. (Did you know He can use ordinary you too?? That is what partnership is all about!)
God has granted my request. He answered me and brought a fire to life in my heart that keeps me passionate to reach the Bible-less.
I suppose without knowing it would happen, but also as a result of that prayer, my eyes have also been opened to see beyond my American culture... and that my friend is where these ramblings have come from.
Okay, okay, okay the rant of the missionary who supports the work of Bible translation is done for now. Congrats if you made it all the way through! Maybe you understand me and my Sara-ish-missionary-ness a tad bit more now?
Gotcha curiosity spurred into action yet?
Or maybe you are just thinking "whelp, here she goes again?!". Ha!
On the way to the older two girls' school we drive through a pretty affluent area. I suppose by some American standards it isn't all that, but considering I am making monthly payments on a house whose Ukarumpa value stands at $8000 (yes, you read that correctly. no, I did not forget to add an extra zero.), $300,000 - $500,000 seems a bit pricey to me. There are two huge new developments being built on the way to their school. I swear the homes have to be, at the very minimum, 5,000 square feet each. (This is where #3 comes into play for the first time.) Dude, these homes are humongous. Especially for this girl who will happily live in less than 1,100 square feet in PNG. Needless to say, these homes and these developments seem extreme to me. From my standpoint, from my perspective, my home with a value of $8000 and less than 1,100 square feet is above and beyond luxurious in comparison with how most of my close Papua New Guinean friends live. (Yes, other missionaries in Ukarumpa have much more fabulous homes than we do. Yes, I have had issues with location and cabinetry envy to say the least. Ha!)
Here is a picture of our home in Ukarumpa. (Take a peak at this Facebook album to see more.)
Here is a picture of the typical PNG highlands home from our neighboring Kainantu area (photo credit given to this blog I found 'cause my pictures were too blurry to share).
I think at this point I need to add a few other disclaimers. 4. I am not an anthropologist. 5. I do not pity myself or my Papua New Guinean friends (who live in these amazing homes)!!
Okay, moving on.
I am so grateful to God for the opportunity to step outside of my American culture and live in and among other cultures. I hate to break it to you guys, but the way the average American family lives is not the reality for the rest of the world. (No, I am not saying you all own huge homes! And, please also remember disclaimer #4.)
When your "normal" is that your tin roof, louvered windows and plywood walls are extravagant compared to the national community that surrounds you... well it makes for quite a shocker to be back in the land of plenty where huge subdivisions filled with ginormous homes are bursting up all around you. Cause in my puny brain I am thinking I know that those five to seven thousand square foot homes with at least five bedrooms and four or five baths are not filled to maximum capacity. Not in the land of the average family having only 2.54 persons per home. (Yes, I looked up current statistics. And the funny thing is that I thought it was average to have 2.5 kids... not a total of 2.54 people per family unit. Weird.)
But that isn't where my story is leading. It is not just that these homes are huge and will not most likely be filled with huge families. Nope. Here's the deal. While that first home that was built in that first subdivision on the way to the girls' school was just in the beginning stages of construction, it caught on fire. Nah, I didn't see it while it was on fire, but boy oh boy have we all speculated as to when and how and why it caught on fire. There was significant damage to the home. Each day since that fire as I drive back and forth in front of that home I have wondered what was next for the structure. (It also brought my attention to the fact that while that home sat there damaged the other homes in this massive neighborhood were springing up to life before my eyes.)
Is it obvious that I do a lot of pondering on things while I am driving?
I also sit at a horrendous stop light right before arriving at the girls school. By horrendous I mean if I don't hit traffic just so I can sit through three of four changes of the light for a total of at least 10-15 minutes. Yes, yes, yes I know for some of you this is a drop in a bucket, but my "normal" is walking everywhere or two or three cars in the parking lot of our missionary store meaning that it very well could be crowded. And by crowded I mean someone else might be in the line before me. (Gasp!) As I sit through this light repeatedly every day of the work week my attention has been drawn to the abandoned gas station on the corner.
Two days before they, they being the demolition contractors, tore down the huge house that wasn't even finished they, a different contractor I assume, also tore down the gas station.
Woah. Flattened both structures to the ground. Gone. Kaput. No more. Decimated. (You get the idea, right?)
I wonder for the average American... does this strike you as odd that these buildings were torn down? Does it strike you as odd that entire companies exist just to tear buildings down? Cause my reality is that often road signs in PNG go missing because the metal can be used as a cook plate for a fire in an outdoor kitchen. Nothing, not one single solitary thing, goes to waste in Papua New Guinea. Nothing.
At first it did a little number on my pride and heart when random people would walk past our house on garbage day in Ukarumpa and dig through to see what they could make use of. It was convicting. And honestly, a little gross.
It was also convicting and a bit uncomfortable at first to watch our friend and haus meri (the young lady employed by the children's home to do laundry, clean the icky teenage boys' bathroom and so much more) sort through the garbage before it even made it outside to the side of the road. I learned to never throw away any container that can be sealed (jars and plastic bottles can be used to keep insects and rodents from food items as well as store rain water for drinking). I also learned to never throw away a plastic grocery bag after watching her wash and reuse any I mistakenly threw away. I adapted other thrifty techniques out of necessity. Like I very quickly learned to wash and rewash and rewash until they were torn, my ziploc bags. Ziplocs are very, very costly in Ukarumpa.
It's been a struggle for me this furlough because of my new mindset. I suffer from slight panic every time I throw away a ziploc and I hoard all my plastic grocery bags until they are sporting giant holes. I still feel nervous every time I throw away an empty jar, and I imagine from this point on in my life, I always will.
Maybe some of you are extremely conscious of our environment and uber careful with these sorts of things. If that is the case - yay, you! - cause you are a giant step ahead of what I see as average American.
So, imagine my poor little missionary heart that is a nervous wreck throwing away a ziploc, witnessing not one but two structures all within a very short distance of one another being smashed to the ground. Swept away in giant dumpsters.
Let me take you back to disclaimer #3 - remember I do not understand the structural workings of these sorts of things. I am not saying the entire home or the old gas station could be saved, but what of the tin from that gas station roof? What of the brand new windows and doors and all that treated wood that framed the new home? What of the all the elements in both of those structures that could be re-used or re-purposed?
Why in the land of plenty do we throw away so much?
Is it just because we have extra that we can chunk what is still good? Throw it away cause we can replace it with something shiny and new? More functional? Or more energy efficient?
I am saddened by this part of America. I love America (remember disclaimer #1). And just cause I am comparing America to PNG I am not saying Papua New Guinea is perfect (#2) but it seems to me that things are a little whacked in regard to this whole situation. I am not suggesting we ship all those supplies to PNG so people in the valley where we live can build fantastic homes - nope, that is not a good idea. I won't even force feed my children the rest of their meals while telling them there are children starving in Africa. Nope, never pulled that one either. But I am a bit heartbroken that my asples (Tok Pisin for my home country) has so much that we can simply demolish what still has some good value.
All this brings my mind and heart back to what I am most passionate about. Yep, you guessed it, Bible translation.
It seems to me that this whole demolish what is still of good value situation is a HUGE symptom of a much greater reality. Not only do we live in a land of plenty and live in large homes that the average family cannot fill. (Disclaimer #6 - the home we are renting here in America isn't large or grand on any scale. In fact I am saddened that this furlough I do not have an automatic dishwasher. #AmericanBrat) Not only do we live in a society where we toss out our ziplocs and plastic grocery bags... we also live in a society where we have AMAZING access to the Word of God yet we, as an over-generalized whole, do not take advantage of what we have.
The English language has more than five hundred different versions of the Bible. Holy cow. Five hundred?! Yes, five hundred!!! We have so many choices, a glorious feast of versions that feed all of our silly nuances. We are affluent!!! But even with all we have and as affluent as we are, as an over-generalized whole, we do not take advantage of our resources.
And not only do we not use what we have to experience a personal encounter with the God of all creation and draw our hearts and lives into a closer communion with Jesus we, as an over-generalized whole, HOARD it for ourselves. We are stingy and self-serving. Throwing away or setting aside what has been lavished on us.
Lord, help us!
Here are the 2014 statistics on Bible translation needs throughout the world. There are more than 6,900 living languages in the world today. Nearly one billion of these people, representing about 2,000 of those languages have no access to any of the Bible. As many as 340 million speak languages in which no Bible translation has even begun. These people, these 340 million, do not have one verse of the Bible in a language that they can clearly understand. Not one word. Not one verse. Not one book. Not any of it.
And what does God say about all this??
"Jesus told him, 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." John 14:6 NLT
"by grace you have been saved through faith" Ephesians 2:8 NKJV
It is through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that we are saved and can come to God.
"He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent." 2 Peter 3:9 NLT
God desires to have us all come to repentance. He loves us all. Americans and Papua New Guineans alike.
"If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing." 2 Corinthians 4:3 NLT
If we do not reach those who have not heard, they will suffer a Christ-less eternity.
We know the need. We have the means. We know how to reach the lost.
"faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" Romans 10:17 NKJV
We are promised by God that our mission will not fail. We are promised by God that His Word will prosper.
"It is the same with my Word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it." Isaiah 55:11 NLT
With all that said, I find it no surprise that the very last instruction of Jesus, the perfect Son of God, spoken here on this earth was:
"go and make disciples".
Years ago I prayed that God would open my eyes and allow me to see the lost and dying and needy as He sees them. I prayed for a heart that would be broken and would never be satisfied with this life. I prayed for a way that He could use me, ordinary me, to impact the lost. (Did you know He can use ordinary you too?? That is what partnership is all about!)
God has granted my request. He answered me and brought a fire to life in my heart that keeps me passionate to reach the Bible-less.
I suppose without knowing it would happen, but also as a result of that prayer, my eyes have also been opened to see beyond my American culture... and that my friend is where these ramblings have come from.
Okay, okay, okay the rant of the missionary who supports the work of Bible translation is done for now. Congrats if you made it all the way through! Maybe you understand me and my Sara-ish-missionary-ness a tad bit more now?
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