Sunday, February 12, 2006

My thoughts on Superbowl XL... (PNG update #3)

THE SEAHAWKS WERE ROBBED!!!

I remember... 10 years ago, watching Superbowl 30, over at
my boyfriend's place, with some other people, doing the 18
year old thing. If you'd told me then that 10 years later
I'd watch Superbowl 40 in Papua New Guinea while on a
short-term missions trip, I never would have believed you!

Yes Folks- a missionary in Port Moresby taped the game and
DSL-ed it to Interface, and we had "Superbowl Saturday"
yesterday! Now, mind you, the version we saw was minus
all the fun American commercials and the halftime show- oh
yeah- and the second quarter was unusually fast- it went
from 10 minutes down to 2 minutes in like 15 seconds (we
have to suffer a little :) )!But I got some good football
time in, and ate a lot of good food too.

Again this past week, the message driven home was "Nothing
is beyond God". I want to sort of quote from a movie we
saw called "The Cross and The Cresent"- I'm taking the
liberty of generalizing it to all people though.

"It has been said that The World is difficult to reach- or
even impossible. However, nothing is impossible to God.
If you want to share the Gospel with someone, you need to
believe that the power of the Gospel is greater than the
powers of this World, and not be afraid by the
difficulties you will face. We as humans can reach the
ears, but the Holy Spirit will bring the message down to
the hearts. We can water, take care and cultivate. But
as the Bible says- GOD does the growing. That's so
important for us to know! The burden is NOT on our
shoulders- but is on the Cross- it's on the shoulders of
Jesus Christ, who DIED for these souls. We must be
vessels- hands and feet and mouths of God to deliver the
Message as accurately and as faithfully as we can."

Good stuff, good stuff!

I'm beginning to feel more and more like a kid writing
home from camp, so here's the rest of the week in a
nutshell:

-- Lapilo- New Tribes headquarters for PNG- went there,
saw it, got to see Tom and Karen Bowen again, learned
about support roles in missions, pretty cool!

-- ISLAM- watched the movie I already quoted from, which
I would highly recommend if you wanted to learn more too.
Also heard Sally's testimony of how she was raised
Muslim, and came to know the Lord (staff member here).
This was very interesting for me, and I could talk about
this for a while, so please- if you're interested, let me
know!

-- MUMU- it's a way of cooking food using red hot stones,
banana tree trunks, banana leaves and dirt. You put the
interesting plants, sweet potatoes, lamb flaps (don't
ask...) and chicken in, cover the whole thing with banana
leaves and more dirt, and then insert a bamboo pole to add
water for steam. Pretty cool! I got to eat a whole bunch
of things I can't remember the names to :).

-- Culture study, language study(I had to tell a Bible
story in Pidgin), hike down to the river, learning how to
make a bilum (string bag).

I thank you for your prayer support! God has been so
good, and very faithful. Prayer Requests... Let's see:
1. We are going to Pawaia this week for our side trip, so
for traveling safety while flying to and from the tribe.
2. For continuity in building relationships during the
next 2 weeks.
3. PRAISE- for reduction in homesickness- thanks to you
for writing and helping out with that.
4. It seems that while reviewing translation, another
Bena came to trust in Christ for salvation. So praise
too- for the harvest that comes with true understanding of
God's Word.

I hope you are doing well too- any prayer requests?
Stories? Interesting stuff happening in your life?
Please pass it all on.

Thankful,
Emily.