Wednesday was the day we talked about preparing people for the Gospel. It's interesting because here in America, God is fairly well known. Most people have a general idea of who you are talking about when you say "God" and can describe Him fairly well. We, of course, should always make sure this is true, however, and not just assume. But in tribal cultures, their idea of God is often very different than ours. Sometimes they have no words for certain concepts. Most people living in tribal settings feel that God is an impersonal being who really doesn't care about them. Try telling them John 3:16 (For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only son, that whosoever believes in Him would have eternal life") raises too many questions to answer. So to prepare them for the Bible, you have to figure out their understanding of God, understand their culture and what drives the things they do, and then start from the very beginning. You want them to CLEARLY understand God's Word....doesn't HE? So that's our goal too, as the church. We want all people to clearly understand God's message to man and have the opportunity to respond to it. And we learned about that on Wednesday, which was also the day of the infamous hike. We drove to...some mountainous part of PA and participated in a four-mile hike. Kayla was my hiking buddy and it was really a gorgeous hike. We saw waterfalls and lots of green trees and crossed steep terrain. By the end, I had a HUGE blister on my left foot and a significantly smaller blister (but still a blister) on my right foot. Having holes in your socks apparently leads to that... So that was an adventure! It was fun and well worth the blisters! :)
Thursday was our Mumu. Mumus....welll, honestly, I'm not really sure how to describe it. Is mumu the way the food is prepared, the event as a whole, a noun, a verb.....I don't know! But what I DO know is that it encompasses an event where we prepare a pig, along with potatoes and sweet potatoes (pronounced cow-cow in Papua New Guinea), and stick it in the ground on these blazing hot rocks and it basically sits in the ground for hours and hours until the food has been adequately smoked to perfection. And then it comes out and becomes our supper. YUM...kind of. It's a cultural experience because it's traditional in Papua New Guinea. :) And it's fun of course. That day we also did skeet shooting. It was my first time shooting a gun and honestly, I was pretty nervous for that infamous kick I've heard about. But really, it wasn't that bad. I didn't even hurt afterwards. And I broke one of the clay disks!! That's right, my very first one. One out of two isn't too bad....I was pretty pleased. :) Onto my hunting license!
Thursday classes were more learning how to present the gospel. We talked a lot about the chronological teaching and it was great to learn and hear about how it worked and how God's Word truly does illuminate our darkened minds! Our Savior is so awesome! The next day was our last day at Wayumi. In class we learned about the Big Picture...what it takes to get a missionary into a tribe and what the process of sharing the Gospel looks like. You have to remember that the goal is not to share the Gospel, but to make DISCIPLES and for them to become their own indigenous church functioning without the missionaries. You want to work yourself out of a job. And so you teach them and teach elders and watch them as they take the Word of God as truth and apply it to their lives. You let HIM teach them. How cool is that! And you translate the Word into their language so they can have it for themselves. OH! And one of these days we did this exercise where we basically "learned" to read a different "language." It's both easy and hard. We learned that tribal people have never looked at something 2-dimensional and made sense of it in their heads before, so when they see a picture, they don't see it as we see it. That's something we TRAIN ourselves to do! Now here in America, that happens at a young age so we don't remember or even realize that we have done it, but tribal people who have never seen paper or a picture can't focus on the image as we can. It seems to me that it's the same concept as learning how to see those pop up 3D images (which I haven't been able to train my brain to see yet)...you literally have to LEARN how to do it! Anyway, so they have to train themselves and prepare themselves to see 2D images and then they learn how to read their own language and it's just the coolest thing ever! So awesome. :)
Okay, well I think I may have overloaded you with all my thoughts, so I'll let you think and show you some 2D images instead. ;)
This is what we do in our free time....make a Laz-e-Girl chair. :) Kayla is pretty comfy. :)
This is the Mumu. Those are cabbage leaves that the food was wrapped in so that it didn't get all dirty. Technically it was supposed to be banana leaves...but what American grocery store stocks up on those? :) (Actually, there are a few in the pictures believe it or not....but only a few...)
Here was my bunk mate and one of my best friends in the world: Jamie. I love this girl. Her and her nose ring. :)
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