Having a baby, and packing and re-packing to go from our base town to the big city and back and then moving to the village has made life a "little busy" to say the least! Here are a few pictures recapping what we've been up to in the past 6 months.
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I am writing this based on the assumption that you know how to read. In our world, it is difficult to imagine what life would be like as an illiterate. But there are some contexts where it is less common to know how to read, even today. We live in a village where none of the adults can read, but one guy memorized how to write his name and one teenage girl is studying in a nearby village. As we consider our long-term goal of planting a church and giving them God’s Word in their own language, it is in our best interest to teach them how to read. So when they kept asking for literacy classes, Ed and I decided to try to teach some of the men first. We are fortunate that the missionaries who went before us put the language into writing and made literacy primers. All we have to do is teach. We only had a few days of classes and then everyone left to go hunting, but they seem pretty excited about it so far. It is fun to see them starting to recognize syllables and words. One day, as I was walking around in the village, I could hear them talking about letters in one of the houses. When I stopped there, three of the guys were inside trying to remember the letters, syllables, and words on their homework sheets, so I reviewed it with them. We hope they will stay motivated and become good readers so that one day we can give them a translation of the bestselling book of all time, which also happens to be inspired by God Himself. Alternate title: Eternal Life for Dummies. Main message: We’re all dummies; Jesus gives eternal life. That is something worth reading about. When there are no roads near the hunting grounds, you must walk. When you hike for 3 hours to your hunting spot, you are either hardcore or you actually live off of the game you shoot. When there are only two of you, you are 3 hours from home, and you shoot an animal half the size of a cow, you have to leave some of it behind. One day, two hunters showed up with their baskets full of tapir meat. They planned on retrieving the rest of it the next day, so Ed and I made plans to go with them. All the men and the hunters’ wives went on the hike. We went by boat to a nearby village and took the trail from there. After about an hour, we arrived at a clearing where there were three thatched huts with no walls. We thought we had arrived, but they laughed and said it was a lot farther. After a group picture, we continued on. Some parts were muddy and there were many streams to cross. Sometimes the bridge was a fallen tree and sometimes it was a small round pole. I discovered that it was easiest to balance when I slanted both feet inward like they do. Occasionally there were monkeys or birds that they would point out to us and watch. Sometimes they would shoot at something with a slingshot. After another couple of hours, we finally arrived at some more shelters in a smaller clearing, surrounded by creeks. After a short rest, they divided up the remaining meat and put in in their baskets. There were more people than baskets, so some of them took turns carrying them. They carry the baskets on their backs, with a strap either on their forehead or on their shoulders. They never asked Ed or me to carry anything, and we never offered. It was enough for us to get our own bodies home. We were amazed by the one young mother who was carrying the heavy basket while nursing her baby, which she had also carried all the way from the village. We finally made it back to the boat, legs sore and cramping. The GPS said we walked for almost 15 miles round trip. I can’t imagine carrying a heavy load in a basket for 3 hours. It took a few days before my legs were back to normal. These people are tough and have crazy endurance. I wanted to gripe and complain. I was getting bit up by bugs even in my own house. The verses about not complaining and giving thanks in all circumstances floated through my mind. "But Lord," I prayed, " How am I supposed to give thanks for this?" It's enough to drive you insane when bugs are biting you inside the house. We have screens on our windows, we've calked cracks in our walls and stuffed our floor cracks with the fabric used down here to pound into the cracks in boats. Still, the bugs somehow find a way to weasel their way in. Mosquitoes must have the hardest time. They have to find big enough hidden holes and cracks somewhere. But there are tiny greenish yellow, almost grasshopper-looking, flying bugs that get in more easily through the screens and swarm around our lights on the nights that the mosquitoes are off duty. They take turns. Some nights there are hardly any bugs. On others, the yellow flying bugs hover in a swarm, covering the floor in a circle under the light where they drop in expiration. The other nights are mosquito nights, where we live with a light under our supper table to discourage them from hiding there and piercing our innocent legs and feet (which we've started keeping covered in nylon pants and socks even in the house to keep down the biting). On those nights, the evening entertainment is zapping as many of those beasts with our new handy dandy plug-in bug zapper that Brian "happened" to find in our base town just before our move to the village. Then for the day shift, there are black biting bugs that come in three sizes. The biggest ones are the size of this capital "D." Then there are ones that are half that size. Then the smallest ones are only about the size of a period, but you can feel a bite on your leg and look down and see the tiny dot of a bug. The latter two tiny bugs easily get in, especially through the floor cracks. These dot bugs are what I was complaining about. Brian says that this place would be a paradise on earth if it weren't for the bugs. During my little conversation I was having with the Lord, it dawned on me that this, these biting bugs, are part of the curse of a broken and sinful, pain-filled world. We've been thinking about that quite a bit recently, having a three-year-old who wants to know "why" about everything. Sometimes it makes you really think, re-thinking through everything you know in order to explain it. Where did everything come from? Why are there owie things? Why are people sometimes bad and mean? Why do people die? It's because of sin. God created a perfect world, but sin tainted it. Our world is broken and filled with pain. Things get dirty, stuff wears out, there is pain, people die. But that's not the end of the story. There is redemption. God sent His perfect Son, Jesus, to die a painful death on our behalf and pay the penalty for our sins. Then God raised Him from the dead, showing that He accepted that payment for our sin, and showing that sin and death were beaten. Our part is to believe. This is what we talk about with our boy, and this is why we're here among the Maki. We want to one day be able to share this message of redemption in their language. It is our hope that they will understand and believe. As I stood there, those thoughts ran through my head in a split second. God showed me that I can view these bugs as a reminder of why we're here where these bugs are, and as a reminder that this world is broken. It is not really our home. It's not the end. Brokenness, pain, sadness, death, separation and goodbyes, and things like dirt and annoying bugs, all of this should point us to Heaven. It should make us long for our true home. And when we remember our hope, our redemption, it should make us overflow with thankfulness and joy. And this thankfulness and joy should compel us to want to share this message with any and all who will listen. Don't get me wrong. I haven't won in this area yet. I am just now realizing and learning these things. But my prayer, is that each time I am driven crazy by bugs, or I am laying in bed at night scratching my itching, itching feet, that God will help me instead of complaining, to pray for the people we have come to try to reach. This, I think, is the way I can be thankful for bugs. |
AuthorWe are normal people who believe that God would have us serve Him in Brazil. We are saddened by the existence of people who do not have access to the gospel due to their location and language. We want to live among such a people group and plant a church among them, shepherding the believers as they grow to maturity. Archives
November 2019
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