When the Lord Visits..... Again    
Archive: Nov. 2010

Sometimes we miss Him working around us.  Because we are so very, very busy.  Rushing around like crazy people, sometimes we fail to see the little "natural miracles", those coincidences that just seem a bit more "extraordinary".  Recently I had an adventure traveling to a village party in Kamano country, where I encountered the amazing watch-care of the Lord along the way.

They truly love who show their love  
— Shakespeare

A Birthday "Mu-Mu"?  A "Mu-Mu" is a traditional feast with various food items cooked traditionally on hot-rocks buried in the ground.  On the best of special occasions there must be pork served.  The event? My name-sake, "Little Brian's" seventh year birthday.  Very interesting since commemorating the day of your birth here is not customary at all in Papua New Guinea.

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A Brand New Church?

This family invited the church to come for a visit. Note some of the men are not present in this picture, and might be afraid to do so. Pastor Karl is in the back row on the right.

It was a Sunday and for once I did not have any speaking engagements anywhere.  So.. that Sunday I left the house expecting to be a "normal" member and attend the Ukarumpa village church.  On that weekend, Helen was on call and was "stuck" near a phone in case there were any emergencies in the community where we live that needed attention.  So I was, alone... walking to the people-bridge entrance to cross the Ba'e River.

But Pastor Karl was walking toward me, and heading in the opposite direction.  He met up with me and then explained that he left the worship service in the hands of some of the church leaders, and he was off to a "new worship service" somewhere else.  This new place (a hamlet really) had invited him to come over and lead a worship service in their midst... a first time ever.  "Do you want to come with me?", Pastor Karl invited.  I smiled, "Sure!" and with that, a whole new morning emerged than what I had planned.

Now on the back side of the Ukarumpa Highlands center are fields of gardens rising up a prominent hill.  A new cluster of village round-houses has sprung up near a grove of trees, and I recognized this as the clan line of Manis.  This is the same group that has evidently been exiled for "bad behavior" by the rest of Ukarumpa village and is rumored to harbor certain "raskols" (bandits) in our area.  (Fighting broke out last year that led to four deaths in the village, using illegal firearms).  Now they were rebuilding their lives and hence this new settlement.  But wait, the "raskol" family now wants a worship service?  The unthinkable was happening.

When we arrived in the main court-yard area, it seemed like the whole hamlet was present.  Probably around 40 men and women, plus a lot of children running around.  They had make-shift benches for us, and they nicely had me sit down in a shady spot since the sun that morning was rather intense.  Pastor Karl led singing. We maybe had only three song-books among the two of us, so we passed those out.  The Pidgin songs would not be familiar to non-church goers.  There was a time of greeting and I got to shake hands with all the men, including Manis himself.  There was one "lapun moma" (old mother) who seemed to be alive in the Spirit and she was called upon to pray at one point.  No doubt she was the reason we were invited to come.  Karl's main text was Colossians 1:15-23.  Karl said, "I'll preach first.... you follow" - which meant I would have a time to teach as well.  I gulped and starting praying about what the Lord wanted me to share within this context.

Karl's talk was quite strongly evangelistic, so I grabbed onto Colossians 1:23 which in the Pidgin Language talks about "holding fast" your belief and watching out for the things that will "pull you away" from faith in God, and particularly the "Good News".  So in my turn at speaking, I presented this verse, and then moved to the "poroman pasin" illustration (the manner of friendship) which seems to speak well to the culture (two males holding hands walking together in a town -- everyone instantly knows they are best of friends -- this is the relationship God wants with us). 

In the crowd I think I spotted a young "raskol" that threatened me once upon a time, but I wasn't totally sure... so this time I invited him to stand up in my illustration and be my "friend".  Not sure if he realized what I was doing or not... but he had trouble with eye contact with me.  Then after establishing the kind of relationship that God wants with us through Christ, I could give the very same testimony that I wrote above here about the Lord taking care of me with Brother Steven and the diesel fuel incident.  Then from there I could explain how wonderful it was to be in "friendship" with the Heavenly Father and how He does take care of us.  Then a final wrap up in Hebrews where God declares: 

... For God has said, "I will never fail you. I will never forsake you."  That is why we can say with confidence, " The Lord is my helper, so I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?"  — Hebrews 13:5b-6  (NLT)

These are actually Old Testament quotations that would normally be familiar to the hearers (Hebrew Church) who know those texts.  The point being that this promise is for all the faithful who believe in Him. Certainly a present promise for those in the New Covenant and with Christ.  In my testimony story (the one above), I had said that for some strange reason I was pretty peaceful while stranded and walking down the highway road.  I knew that God was going to do something, and sure enough, He did.  He did not abandon me, nor was I particularly afraid even in the midst of prime "bandit" territory, this time the Bandits of Kamano.

Where Jesus reigns there is no fear, No restless doubt, no hopeless tear, No raging sea nor tempest dread, But quietness and calm instead.  — Anon  

So with this, Pastor Karl and I could close our time together.  I finished with a prayer before all, and the "old woman" also prayed but totally in Gadsup, so I missed what she had to say to God.

Then after lots of hand-shakes and thank-you's and good byes....  we hiked back home across the many garden pathways.  I returned to my house, and Karl crossed the river to his place back in Ukarumpa village.  An unusual Sunday?  You bet.  Totally different than what I had planned, but I was blessed to be part of this "first time" church.  I have since heard that the place is called "Kwina" and since this first morning there were additional invites for others to come and lead church.  (I was assigned a preaching engagement at Bundaira Prison next Sunday morning... but I won't go into that here).

Complex Scripts and Open Office Org

Users of minority scripts have reason to rejoice!  OpenOffice.org has released version 3.2 of its popular office software package. This is the first version to incorporate the SIL-developed software that enables users of many complex scripts and writing systems to design special computer characters needed in their languages.

Prior to this partnership, OpenOffice supported approximately 110 languages. The inclusion of Graphite makes it possible for users of OpenOffice to implement computer scripts for hundreds of other languages.

There are currently more than 6,900 languages in the world, according to the Ethnologue, although some may never have a written form. Many of the remaining languages, however, require complex rules governing the way their scripts are or will be written. These writing systems require cutting-edge computer technology–smart fonts–in order to display and print properly with computers. Graphite is designed to be flexible enough to handle any orthographic need that might arise in any writing system based on any modern roman or non-roman script.

Features of Graphite software

• Graphite support is a component of OpenOffice’s complex text rendering subsystem
• All OpenOffice applications have integration with Graphite
• Text input can use any Graphite font
• The user interface can display in any Graphite font
• Documents export to PDF using Graphite fonts
• Documents print using Graphite fonts

Graphite was first designed on the Windows platform (Windows 98 and later) and then ported to Linux. Other applications that support Graphite include XeTeX, Firefox, Thunderbird and SIL FieldWorks, a suite of linguistic and anthropological research tools.

Insights into Papua New Guinea Life

Here is the entrance to our photographic favorites.  Come journey to the "land of the unexpected" as seen in our eyes after 20 years of ministry in this fair country.
See More from Years 2008 to 2005»

Higher Resolution Photos are freely available upon request.  Just email and let us know what you would like.

Keep my commandments and live, And my teaching as the apple of your eye.  — Proverbs 7:2