We have gone into Pei now and met with the leaders there! One of our leaders, Chris and Evie and I all went in for a few days. It was an incredible time of encouragement to our hearts as we know God has been preparing them for us to come. They are an extremely marginalized people. And, for all intensive purposes they’ve been forgotten in the history of the world as they are totally unassuming.
In fact since 1998 they have been writing organizations for years asking for a chance to hear ‘God’s talk'(You can view some of these letters in the gallery below). One man wrote several letters a year since ’98 and sadly passed away last year. It was sobering to see his mat mat(grave) to say the least. He died with out the message of reconciliation, the one you and I carry daily and stand as ambassadors with! The people were formerly a mountain people but roughly 45 years ago moved by recommendation of the kiaps. They anticipated services and ‘stuff’ but it never came. There is a deep rooted worldview that ties the coming of cargo with a skin color and they are certainly anticipating that of us, but oh how much sweeter our message is. This hope for goods and cargo to come is understood as they are even with out a clean water source. The closest is a 1 hr hike through the Tais (swamp) or a canoe pull that take an hour too.
The language is called Pefiyahe, and it is full of sounds that are familiar to our ear, but put in completely weird ways and orders. The people in Pei total in number of about 250-300. It is so sweet to be able to hope for the chance that all of them will be able to know the Love of an incredible Dad who loves them so much and accomplished so much on their behalf. There is one detail that might stand in our way however, they live on another Tribes Ground. This could pose a tricky situation as ground is a huge deal here in PNG! We’ll keep you posted.
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