Thoughts?

This past week I've been thinking a lot about the final 18 months of Mesem New Testament translation and the ministry in which we've been involved in PNG for more than 20 years. I was actually thinking of how faithful, loving, generous, and truly amazing, have been those who have prayed and sacrificed for the sake of reaching the Mesem. There are dozens of churches, and many, many wonderful Christian friends, who have stayed faithful to answering God's call to reach the Mesem.

How many? It is said that it takes at least 100 "donors" to keep a missionary on the field. I know that the number of people who have sacrificed for this work, far exceeds that number, but there are a dozen or so families that have given, prayed and fasted, not to mention painted, cleaned, moved, stored, archived, called, and researched...just to name a few tasks....and participated in this work in ways that are known only to the Lord and perhaps to us in some measure. There are single parents, single women, couples with disabled children, pastors who are AG and pastors who are Baptist, who have stood by us for as long as we've been in Papua New Guinea. They've stayed faithful for more than 20 years to a group of people they have never met, and never seen in person. I really don't have words to adequately describe just what a gift this is to us and to the Mesem.

As "the missionary" we get to go, be with the people, and see first hand the fruit of what God is doing. The rest of the people in the ministry, those at home, don't get that opportunity. I have often wondered how we can best share the day the New Testament is dedicated with that faithful cohort. A number of friends have been saving for years to come to Papua New Guinea when that time comes. (Lord willing, summer 2012...speaking from a Northern Hemisphere perspective). Many, of course, cannot come and we really would like to know how to best share the dedication celebration with them. So I put this out here to ask for ideas, suggestions, or whatever comes to you as what might be the best way to share that day. Thoughts?

Photographs and Memories

First, the photographs:
Last week Christiane sent me a number of beautiful photographs to use for the New Testament. At the same time I had a terrific conversation with Carolyn, the typesetter at Life Publisher. (Typesetter is the wrong word, "Publishing Guru" might be better!). It was exciting and wonderful to see how the New Testament is coming together in all the little details that make it a book people will treasure for generations. There's much to be done. Neil is still spell checking Acts, which is 14% of the New Testament and that will speed along the final check. When Webers return from their skiing holiday I'll be begging them for some help with the topical index as well.

At present, we are in Bothel, WA for a couple of weeks to afford us some time at Missionary Renewal Asia Pacific. This is a pastoral care center for missionaries. Although it is staffed by AGWM missionaries, members of many missions take advantage of the help and resources that are available. The transition back to the US for Tony is much greater than for us, and we are very proud of him and thankful for some time to get those college applications in while we've still got a decent Internet connection.

Then the Memories:
At this point in life, we do reflect on the many years we've spent working to this point. It's never been something we have or could have done without the Lord's Body sustaining us all the way through. We began living in a remote village without electricity, before the days of email and cell phones, waiting for those planes to fly over and drop the precious mail bag. How often friends and family encouraged us with letters and cards and packages. Times have changed and it is no longer possible to live in the deep interior. Now we live with a cell phone, have real honest to goodness electricity ( and a back up generator as the power is intermittent) and even access to the Internet. Yet spiritually we have the same desire as we did so many years ago. We still long to see a real move of God among the Mesem, one that is characterized not just by reading the Word but by being doers and hearers of the Word of God. We remain committed to the belief that if the Church of Jesus Christ did what He told us to do, it would change the world.

There's a beautiful line in John just after Jesus washes the feet of the disciples. He said, "Now you know these things. You'll be blessed if you do them".

May we be blessed.

The Bigger Sacrifice

Most of you reading will know Neil's dad passed on December 8th. My father-in-law would have been 86 this weekend so his death was not unexpected but no matter what stage of life, it is still hard to say good-bye someone you love.

As parents, we joke that the one thing we don't want Tony to do is to move far, far away from us as we did with our parents. Obviously, if the Lord calls him into ministry, we can accept that and be very happy and supportive, but the reality is that as a parent, having your children move far away is difficult. When we left MA in 1987, it seemed to be a very dramatic event to me, much more so when we left for PNG the following year. The older I get I realize that what I was experiencing was even greater for my parents and my father-in-law.

I cannot help but wonder if in His eyes, they made the greater sacrifice.

Papa Geoff

Papa Geoff,
OK, not the most spiritual blog update but this is kind of funny. We’ve got a dog and a cat. Tony, “the animal lover” Vanaria’s idea of course. The dog is a mix of German Shepherd and Blue Heeler. His name is Geoff. “Geoff with a G”. He’s large, pleasant, affectionate and could definitely write one of the “dog diary” entries where he records every activity of the day followed by the words, “My favorite thing!”. He’s cheerful and enthusiastic.
Sally is a small tabby who just had her first litter. She first played with Geoff when he was a small puppy, about 20 kilos ago and they still play together constantly. She’s not gained any weight and he’s about five times larger than he was before. They still play the same way they did the day we brought Geoff home. He chases her around, sleeps with a paw over her back, and eats from the same bowl as Sally. It is not uncommon for her to have hair sticking up like a stylist had applied gel to it in order to create a punk look. The cause: Geoff has been licking Sally again. They would be the picture perfect family is they were the same species.
Given their relationship, it was not a surprise that Geoff felt like a proud papa when Sally had her litter. He would go in the bedroom and lie down staring at the kittens for long periods of time. Within a couple of days he began licking the kittens and Sally just sat there while he did this. Then he began to play a new game: hide and seek.
When the kittens were about five days old we came home and couldn’t find them. We found an empty cardboard box, a sleeping Sally and a happy Geoff. We reasoned the kittens couldn’t have gotten far on their own but we hadn’t figured out what the cause was. Eventually we found all the kittens, who were rather large eyed and traumatized. They had been stashed in various places around the room. It appears that Geoff created a new version of hide and seek. He had been picking up the kittens in his mouth, depositing them in various hiding spots around the room and waiting to see if they would come and find him. The kittens seemed unaware of their role and were wet with slobber and rather limp to the touch. I think it was shock. All this was going on while their mother sat and watched, licking her paws and occasionally grooming one of the untouched kittens. Eventually, we had to lock Geoff out of the bedroom because we couldn’t trust him to leave the kittens where they were supposed to be.
While it’s not knock-down hilarious, it was pretty funny. There’s a lot of little joys like this in the course of a day and as these two extra members of our household provide a lot of humor we thought we’d share it with you all. Till next time!