Letters to Mom from Mariama

On January 7, we flew from our new home in Wewak to yet another new home for the next 5 1/2 weeks.  We were heading to the headwaters of the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea for our 'Bush Orientation'.  We would be living just like the missionaries have, who have been in there working hard for the last 10 years.  After many hard years of learning an unwritten language and the culture of the people, the Holmquist and Woodard families began to teach the Mariama people in their own language from Genesis through to Christ's death and resurrection.  It was about 3 years ago that, after the initial teaching was done, that many of the people understood and believed in God's plan from the beginning....to make a way for sinful mankind to be friends once again with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Amazing that these very animistic people were changed from living in fear and darkness to freedom and light!  And we got to witness that in their lives and from the testimonies of their own words!  

I wrote my Mom and Dad some letters and am going to copy those here and in following posts.  They will be lengthy at times but for those who like to hear the details, I think you will enjoy it!

"Dear Mom and Dad..........Here we are.  It is about 92 degrees right now in the house at 3:00 pm.  The kids are laying down for a rest.  Tiernan and Silas are in the kingsize waterbed with a 12 volt fan each blowing on them,  and Judah and Gianna are doing their school reading in the waterbed bunk beds in the boys room – each with a little fan too. The water beds really do make a difference out here – you feel a coolness under you when you lie down and actually use a sheet and/or blanket on most nights.

 

It is really pretty out here….we are at the head of the Sepik river so it is where pretty much the waters come to an end.  There are small hills/mountains all around us too…very pretty.  The missionary's  two houses are built up on a hill above the rest of the village so we get good breezes through our big screened in  windows.  The houses are on stilts too which puts them up higher.  Even though it is so hot inside right now, it is significantly cooler than being outside in the sun.  The evenings and mornings are quite a bit cooler too.  I was thinking it would be hotter out here than in Wewak, but I actually don’t feel it – I think we have acclimatized quite a bit.  I am still sweating like crazy right now b/c where the computer is, there is no overhead fan…but I always look forward to late afternoon/evening when it gets cooler and I can take a cool shower and feel ‘normal’. 

We have a ‘housewind’ (hauswin) right in our yard…it is a rustic, tribal house style gazebo type thing that you can sit under and just hang out with the people.  They visit it frequently and then through out their village, they have their own in different places where they will congregate.  They also will make a fire under there too and cook sometimes. 

Yesterday, a Mariama couple helped us and the Holmquists cook a bunch of fish that were caught – all intact…..then we brought them to another place and put them on big banana leaves and Brian showed us how to just pull the skin back and get to the meat.  He was showing us where the parts with no small bones were and then the other places where you really had to be careful….so, we ate fish tribal style…they also have these ‘pumpkins’ out here that grow – they are more like squash/gourd looking things and they taste more like squash/sweet potatoe……andrea diced those up and put them in foil with salt, pepper and oil) and they got cooked over the open fire too – very tasty….the fish was VERY good – hardly any fishy taste to it at all!  The kids were scarfing it down!  I was paranoid about the bones, but it all went

fine. 

The people are very nice and accommodating to us….many are believers which is really amazing to think about.  Just a few years ago, they were animists….they did have another religious influence in here for some years, but had been very unhappy with that…..back around 2000, one of the guys (our neighbor, Ishmael) hiked to the Bisorio tribe because they had heard there were missionaries there….and he asked if they could get a missionary here.  So, about a year or so later, the Woodards and Holmquists came in here.  After a few years of language and culture study, they started teaching from Creation through to Christ.  Many people believed the Gospel and now there is literally a thriving, functioning church here.  We went on Sunday to meet with the believers….the benches were packed out and Brian (missionary) and a Mariama guy named Jeniton did a tag team teaching…..Jeniton is very passionate and he was exhorting and encouraging his people…..I was able to understand some b/c every now and then they will switch to Pidgin from their mother tongue.  There are some other guys that helped lead in different ways…exhorting, etc…..Their singing was really cool to hear too – lots of enthusiastic participation and pretty voices!

My 'Papa'

We have had many opportunities this week already.  The goal of this week has just been to mostly get out into the village as much as we can to get to know the people and get language/culture exposure.  They have different clans within their language group and each clan is the name of a bird.  Because we are living in the Woodard’s house, we have been adopted into the clans that Mark and Holly are adopted into here in the tribe.  I am from the ‘Black Koki’ (kind of bird) clan and Ben is part of another – can’t remember the name…so we have been going around the village trying to figure out who our mamas, papas, sisters, brothers, inlaws, pikininis (children) are, etc….The people get a kick out of it when we fiture out part of the puzzle – it is complicated b/c it doesn’t work exactly like we would know it at home with who is an aunt, uncle parent, child, and why.  I have a lot of "kids" here who are like my parent’s age, etc…But, the people in your ‘family line’ take care of each other. 

The village is kind of layed out on three or 4 tiers of ground…..so you actually have to climb up and down these little steep hills to get around….the first day getting into the village I thought I would have a heard attack.  Poor Ben always has to carry Silas.  Now, we still breath hard and have to take breaks, but we are definitely getting used to it – I think we are losing inches by the day! 

 

 Tia became a special friend

The other day a lady came and showed me how to weave a basket.  She was doing it so fast as If I should understand and I was fervently praying that God would help me get it….b/c Silas was whining and I was really distracted plus I was trying to understand and hear what she was saying…finally I asked her to do it more slowly and I caught on!  My hand was killing after a while b/c I wasn’t used to holding all the grass pieces in certain positions.  I did it for about half hour and let her continue.  Yesterday we went to her house and she gave us that basket plus another big one that I wanted.  Then they gave us two little ones for the kids and a ‘man’ one for Ben.  I asked what she would like in exchange and she said that sometime, maybe a little bit of clothes for her and her little girl.  So I told her when we leave that I will leave something of mine for her.  I think the missionaries have done a wise thing in that from the beginning, they decided not to give money to the people for things, but to trade things like matches, fishing line, batteries, etc…These are things that people can also get from town but it is like a 7 day trip to town by canoe so they wouldn’t do it very often. 

Anyway, I am not sure how big this e-mail can be in order to send it out, so I will stop for now…Love you...Missy"