Feb 21 2023
As we start this week the helicopter came from SIL and we was able to get our cargo in. That was a great encouragement. The pilot is one of our good friends and we know he likes Coca Cola, so I had a cold coke ready for him. He was also able to check up on the airstrip and see the progress of it. It was a great relief to hear that it’s all moving in the right direction. Also he was able to tell the people what they still need to work on , which Caleb has been saying, but it’s better coming from Someone else. Moka has marked Mondays to be community day where anyone who can come will come and work on the airstrip. Caleb and Elijah work as well. We are praying to have this airstrip ( 5 years in the making) opened by Christmas! Please pray for this as well. Ultimately we pray for Gods will to be done. We just know that if we don’t put an end date in site they might lose hope and ambition and it won’t get finished.
The struggle is real.
Loving one another is what Christ called us to do, love thy neighbor as thyself is what he said. And boy this struggle is extremely hard for me here (not all the time) their culture is not mine and I get so annoyed by the way they ask things of me ( totally acceptable in their culture). This week I had a guy with a snake bite and a wild boar bite. Both alive. The snake bite guy I helped with the wrap but couldn’t suction anything for we couldn’t find the holes in the thick skin of his foot. I always tell the people” Do Not cut the bite, with a razor, but I leave and they always do. Their logic is that the “black blood” seeps out and that’s the poison. I have given up on trying to teach them anatomy and simple ways the body works. Altough when it means life or death this makes me extremely annoyed. “why ask for my help” if you don’t listen to it.
The boar bite guy was another story. He is from our village originally but has moved to another village. He came to me to seek help and remembered that I told them to pack stuff with charcoal to make the bleeding stop and to stay clean. He came seeking help, listened and trusted everything I did.
The short story is Nathan was in the bush hunting pig, saw a family of wild pigs and wanted to steal the babies. As he went to do that, the Dad pig which, would have had big tusks came at him to attack him. Many have died from boar attacks before. I guess his adrenaline would have kicked in and he told us that he punched the boar in its mouth. Anyway as he is sitting there with me helping him, I see my kids holding this baby pig. Thankfully the boar did not rip open a main artery in his arm, but it was badly ripped open at the elbow and on his palm.
The struggle I deal with is my own heart and how I care for them. We didn’t come here to westernize them but to tell them the truth of the Living God and that there is a way to be saved from the damnation of Hell!! I need to not look at myself in this situation and feel annoyed. Christ came to serve and not to be served. May I always remember this and catch myself before my sin brings me down the road of bitterness.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Ephesians 4:31
If you have time YouTube “ Otto Koenig-Pineapple Story” I can relate to everything he says! and that was many many years before we came to PNG.
this is Nathan a few weeks later and he is just fine!
one of the baby pigs, They want them because they feed them and have them as a pet until they are ready to eat them.