Two Faces of the island in AP
AP in the island has preserved the pure beauty of nature – the clean sky, the fresh air, clear oceans and beaches, etc. Behind the innocent face, however, a sad, dark face is hidden. Alcohol, drugs, violence, sexual immorality, and so forth.
Especially the HIV rate here is 10 times higher than the national average.
(The island women selling pinang (a kind of fruit)
Street vendors selling pinang are easily seen here. Aren’t you curious about the taste?)
Things are changing drastically and rapidly in tribal settings as well. Tribal people become aware of money and the dark sides of civilization even before they listen to the true gospel. It is easy for them to get more interested in materials rather than spiritual truth they desperately need. This place seems to be getting spiritually darker and darker. Please be praying for us to stand firm in the light of the Word, and for them to come out into the True Light, our Lord Jesus Christ!
Three Moves in Three Months
It’s been more than three months since we came to Papua. We already moved three times. We are done unpacking and were able to go back to our normal life. We like our current house; hopefully, the 4th move will not come soon.
(In front of our new house, cheese~~ )
Ongoing Language Study
We are in the 3rd stage out of the four-stage-course. In this stage,we learn to talk about our life stories, opinions, worldviews, etc. beyond the everyday language. Also, we should know how to speak differently according to time differences, and how to connect sentences and paragraphs smoothly. Besides, we need to be good at descriptions,comparisons,contrasts, and explanations concerning abstract things. On the top of all these, we face the bunch of new vocabularies everyday. We spend a long time memorizing; it takes less than a second to forget them.
Please Pray for Us!
- Health & Safety: There are fellow laborers suffering of dengue fever. Also accidents and incidents take place frequently. Pray for health & safety for missionaries & families here.
- Language Helpers Wanted: Haejung needs a new LH; it is hard to find someone who can teach the high – level language. She needs LHs who can share friendship with her.
- Team formation: We need to form a tribal work team in order to do tribal survey trips. Pray for us to become humble, considerate teammates.
- Teachable Attitudes: Pray for us to learn the language, culture, and worldviews with a humble, open attitude.
- Spiritual Growth:Pray for us to take advantage of tough circumstances here to make us grow in faith, for us to look to the Lord so that we may overwhelmingly conquer, and to totally depend on and obey Him every moment.
“How blessed it is to live a normal life!” What a fellow worker said remains in my mind. We can hardly enjoy little pleasures of life such as good food or leisure activities in here. I often crave things I used to enjoy in Korea; I know that our normal life itself is like a miracle here, because this place is full of dangerous factors which can destroy our normal life in an instant, like diseases, accidents, or crimes. I am content with my normal life even though there is nothing special about it such as Korean food, spring flowers, or cool breezes.
