First, just a little sidebar on the life of tribal missionaries. For about three weeks in January we were out in town and for most of that time watching over our mission guesthouse here on our island while others attended our NTM annual conference. We flew back to our village mid January. Two days later Gene lost a large tooth filling. The plane wasn’t available for awhile, but we were able to schedule to fly out on February 3. But, when February 3 arrived the pilot was weathered in at another NTM tribal location. That really didn’t matter because our river was too high anyway for our truck to cross. The river is very fast flowing when high so we can’t safely cross with the truck when the water is deeper than 3 1/2 ft – it had been 20 ft deep the night before and was going down very slowly. We couldn’t drive out to the dentist (more than a 10 hour trip – the first 4 hours of off-road like travel) even if the river were down because our road was blocked by landslides. However, the next day we were able to fly out to town and then go on to the city for dental work. Normally when we fly out, Mahan would drive us in our 4×4 mud truck the 1/2 hour trip to our airstrip and then drive the truck with cargo back to our village. Mahan is a new driver that Gene recently taught to drive – the only one in our village who knows how to drive anything but a motorcycle. However, Mahan wasn’t available the day we flew out. So Gene drove us, along with Piduy and Pulding, to the airstrip. Then Carol drove the truck, with Piduy accompanying, back to the village – including fording the river. Then Piduy drove Carol back to the airstrip on a hard sprung, jolting motorcycle, crossing the river on a raft. Then we waited at the airstrip. And waited, and waited. After the plane had been about 1 1/2 hours late, we were just ready to phone the pilot on our satellite phone when we heard the plane coming. It seems that he had been halfway to our place when the alternator belt broke. The plane doesn’t need the alternator or battery to run, but if the radio were to run the battery down a bit the battery might not have enough power to start the plane when ready to take off from our airstrip. So, the pilot returned to his airstrip to replace the belt before coming to get us. He wasn’t able to contact us because our satellite phone system has a problem and will not accept incoming calls.
After landing at the pilot’s airstrip, we then had a one hour drive to our guest house. The next day we drove to the city where our dentist is. The 61 mile road to the city is full of construction with lots of one way traffic and torn up road in between. But, we did manage to average 21mph for the trip. As we write this we are back at our NTM guesthouse and due to fly back to our airstrip soon. And this time Mahan should there at the airstrip to meet us with our truck – if the river isn’t flooded so high that the truck can’t safely ford it. And, if it isn’t raining so the plane can fly.
It is amazing how often over the years we have had a dental or medical need that needed to be dealt with as soon as possible just after getting back to our village. Dental work is quite inexpensive here compared to the States. For Gene to have a large filling replaced and to have a “wedge” made to help with his TMJ cost only about $200. But, to get to the dentist and back to our jungle village costs about $500, most of it in transportation cost. So cheap dental – once you get there.
That’s just a little insight into the life of tribal missionaries.
We don’t know yet what the Philippine Bible Society (PBS) has decided to do about the faint print on many of the pages of our translation of the NT in the Manubu’ language. We checked out the readability with Manubu’ believers, and they would like to have a better printing job done. We emailed that information to PBS. We have not received a response. A few days ago, after a number of text messages to the production manager, she answered saying that she had sent us an email with their response a week ago. We told her we had not received it. She said that she would send it again. We still haven’t received it nor answers to our text messages and emails about it. PBS has long had a problem with their email system so we’re not surprised. And the production manager doesn’t very often answer text messages either. She spends a lot of her time in meetings. Please PRAY that the issue of the poor print quality that PBS did will soon be resolved.
A while ago we asked you to pray for Jujin, a teenage young man who had been faithfully teaching children for about two years. A number of children have been saved through his ministry. We asked you to pray that he would not be tempted by the things of the world and peers who are either unsaved or not walking with the Lord. Unfortunately, he has stopped teaching and attending believer meetings, and like so many young men in our village, he has concentrated his life on buying an old motorcycle and driving it around unregistered and without a driver license. He also spends a lot of time in the lowlands doing things that he shouldn’t be involved in. Please continue to PRAY for Jujin, that he would see the futility of living life outside of serving God. It breaks our hearts to see a young man with such potential for the Lord having been tempted away from the things of the Lord.
Piduy and Pulding plan to do more survey this month of Manubu’ villages far from our village looking for potential villages to outreach to. Please PRAY for a safe and profitable survey. They will probably be gone on the survey for a week or more. It is so exciting to see them wanting to get God’s Word out further afield.
Also, please continue to PRAY for a vehicle for us for our time in the States starting late June through September. We need to book our flight to the States very soon as flights fill up months ahead, but our destination for the flight will depend somewhat on where the Lord provides a car for us. We would prefer something comfortable enough for long trips and not too expensive to operate. But, of course, we’ll take whatever the Lord provides. We will be having meetings from Maine to Florida and also visiting Missouri – so lots of travel.