chaseandkelli

They were naked and unashamed…

Now while that could certainly describe our boys as they go streaking through the house every evening after their bath, it is actually the last sentence in our newest, consultant-approved Yetfa Bible story!

We just finished our latest workshop and it… was… awesome!

We went into the three-week workshop with the huge goal of getting 3 more stories consultant checked and approved, as well as crafting a brand new story.

After having worked on a few Jesus stories, we went back and started at creation. Before the workshop we crafted a general creation story, the story of two trees, and the creation of Eve story.

(The reason I use the term “crafted” instead of “translated” is because not every detail in Scripture makes it into the stories. However, every detail in a story is straight from Scripture. In many ways, this is a lot more difficult than strict translation. Simplification and faithfulness to the meaning and purpose of a passage is a challenging marriage to make!)

Even with a couple of unanticipated delays, we accomplished our goals – plus some! We checked, corrected and revised those stories. They went through 2 outside consultants checks. We made a few more revisions. Then… done!

We had planned to craft the Fall as the next story, but as we got to working on it, we realized that it was going to be too long. So, we broke it into two shorter stories – The First Sin and The Result of Sin. The first of those we’ve tested with mother tongue speakers and it’s almost ready to go to the consultants.

The thing that I am so proud of is that Sion, Jeri, and Alex are so faithful and have really learned the process. It took a solid year to really train them and drill-in the principles of translation and simplification, not to mention using the computer, voice recorder, testing with mother tongue speakers, how to interact with a consultant, so-on-and-so-forth… But they have it now. And now, they are really picking up speed!

Up until now, the method that has been used here is: an expat (foreigner) comes in, learns the language, does the work (with the help of mother tongue speakers, of course), finishes and leaves. Unfortunately, though, the result is often disappointing. The locals feel like they were left out. The “product” (God’s Word) still feels foreign and strange to them, and it doesn’t get used.

What we are doing is quite different. We are training, equipping, empowering, consulting and building the capacity for the people themselves to do the work. Some refer to it as the indigenous principle. I tell the team often, “It’s your language. It’s your families. It’s your tribe. It’s your project. I’m here to equip you to do God’s work.”

There have been so many times over the last year that I wanted to just grab the computer and “do it myself“! It was slow going at first, but now… now we’ve got momentum! More importantly than that though is the fact that they own it. They’ve done it! They’ve seen God doing through them things they never imagined. In fact, Sion often says that exact thing, “I never imagined I could do this!”

Every time we bring a story to completion, the team gets so excited. It’s one more tool… one more part of God’s revelation that they can share with the Yetfa people. Having to hear God’s Word in a foreign language is such an incredible obstacle for them – for some it’s an impossible obstacle.

Like a marathon runner who has just found their pace, we have a long ways to go. The great thing about this race is that it has already been “set before us”.

(If you want to read about Kel’s experience when sitting in on one of the Oral Bible Studies, check out her webpage.)

http://chaseandkelli.com/index_files/Page401.htm

It was just 2 1/2 weeks, but… wow!

It’s hard to cram so much activity into 2 1/2 weeks, and when you do, it feels more like 2 1/2 months.

First was our first broken bone! (A “first” for our boys, that is.) Our boys like to play… well, a little rough. Okay. Actually, our house often looks like an all-out brawl. Wednesday night of our first full week in Bias was no different. I was washing dishes. Kelli was clearing the table. And the boys were defeating some imaginary villain, which led to a three-boy pile up and a blood-curdling scream from Nathan. When I walked in to check on him, he was clutching his right arm. I could tell it was really hurt, but with about 90 miles of rainforest between us and the nearest x-ray machine, there wasn’t much we could do about it at the moment.

That night Nate couldn’t rest well because of his arm. The next morning, I did the standard exam - Wrist up… Wrist down… Rotate right… Rotate left… Apply pressure to the hurt area.

Every movement resulted in a painful wince. Hmmmmm… Looks like we’re going to need that x-ray machine.

Thankfully, a plane was scheduled to pick up our good friend Zach, who had come to help by wiring solar powered lights in the new house. So, Kel, Nathan and Corin hitched a ride back to Sentani, while Uriah and I stayed in Bias. Long-story-short… Nate had re-injured a previous break from about 3 weeks earlier – a break that we didn’t even know about!

After a brief scare about the possibility of needing surgery from a local doctor, Kel got lots of good advice (and good news) from a few doctors in the States and Singapore. All that was needed was a good splint and a few weeks of healing. They turned around and caught a plane back to Bias on Tuesday, where Uriah was anxious for a meal other than Daddy’s noodles!

A second major happening during this village stay was moving into our new house!!!

Yes! We are finally in the new house and IT IS AWESOME!

Although there are still a few small things to wrap up – like permanent doors, finishing the plumbing, building an island in the kitchen, etc – the house is livable.

It’s hard to put into words the difference getting into the new house (or rather, getting OUT of the old house) made. We never really noticed how uncomfortable we were, although all the indicators were there. What we DID notice was a completely different feeling we had in the new house. We were relaxed. We weren’t counting the days until the plane came. We didn’t necessarily want to go to bed IMMEDIATELY after clearing the supper dishes. In fact, several days after getting into the house, Kelli walked up next to me on the back porch and said, “I love this house, and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite places on this earth.”

Building this house has been an incredible challenge and seemed to be taking forever. However, when I went back and counted the actual number of days we worked on the house, I was stunned to discover that we went from a plot of land to living in the house in only 65 work days! And, in terms of our long-term ministry here, those were 65 well-spent days.

As exciting as sleeping under our own roof was, it paled compared to the third major event – a women’s oral Bible study using the stories we have been working on!

When we got to Bias Sion, Jeri, and Alex couldn’t wait to tell about the first Bible study group they led. Over 40 people attended and everybody was excited. Jeri (one of… if not THE… most educated Yetfa speakers) said, “Awa, the Indonesian Bible makes me dizzy/confused. I just want to hear God’s Word in Yetfa!”

I suggested that we hold another Bible study just for women. I don’t know of any Yetfa women with any formal education. Very few know Indonesian at all and when they are in a group with men, they often do not speak out. The way we do the Bible studies is very interactive and I wanted to give the women an opportunity to process God’s Word in an environment where they felt more liberty, and the team was eager to do it!

The first story we did was Jesus & Peter walking on water. It is the longest of the three stories. Fifteen women (and a load of kids) showed up. Jeri led the group and totally impressed me with his leadership!

We prayed and sang a little. Then Jeri told the story word-for-word… exactly as we had translated it! When he was done, he retold the story. Then he led an impromptu drama. One woman was Jesus. Others were his disciples and Peter. Others represented the wind and the waves. The Jesus-woman climbed up on a chair like Jesus going up the mountain to pray. The disciples sat on a bench-that-became-a-boat! When the drama was done, we did it again, with women changing roles. Then we all sat down and divided up into 3 groups, each group with one of the team members. The groups practiced retelling the story with the team member helping where needed. Having only heard it 4 times, they were retelling it with remarkable accuracy. Then we re-reenacted the drama with one of the women telling the story and directing the characters. Finally, we all sat down and discussed 3 things – #1 From this story, what can we learn about God/Jesus? #2 What can we learn about the people in the story? #3 What can we apply to our own lives? Jeri did a fantastic job leading the discussion and the women – all of the women – shared something.

Fairly early in our ministry here, we became convinced that we needed to tweak our strategy for giving the Yetfa people access to God’s Word. We saw that the most immediate way to open God’s Word to them was through an oral approach. The written Word of God is still our goal, but the oral approach reaches them where they are right now, as we work to help them move towards literacy and reading God’s Word.

As I sat there watching these Yetfa women easily recite God’s Word, God reaffirmed that we are moving in the right direction!

Then Jeri said, “Now that you all have heard this story, you can go home and share it with your husbands. And you (pointing to an unmarried girl) can tell it to your dad and mom. This seed has been planted in your heart, now go plant it in someone else’s heart!”

Awa Konefa made the boys a bow and traded for some instant noodles!

That’s right…

We began building our village house one year ago this month. Of course, it hasn’t been full-time. We’ve done a little hear-n-there, or rather, a lottle here-n-there.

And now we are almost finished. I’d say we are 95% of the way to being able to live in it, though not completely finished. Kelli, however, says it’s ready!

Not a whole lot to share about this last village stay. It was all about the house. I went by myself. Well… I did take our two builders. I worked a lot, ate a little, and slept even less. Kelli worked so hard preparing food for me, but in the end, I was too busy, then too tired to eat.

Here’s what the house looks like now…

This is the crew that carried in the last of the wood. Yep! Mostly women…

Collecting the only thing they really wanted from all their hard work – just a little food.

Looking back at the people & the process…

It has been a lot more than hard work. It has been an incredible effort by people from all over the world! Some praying. Some giving. Some literally traveling over 9,000 miles to work. Some walking just down the path.

It has been a lot more than gathering wood and building walls. It’s been gathering friends and building relationships.

But most of all, it has been one more extremely demanding, yet equally rewarding, step towards the passion that was planted in our hearts over 14 years ago – giving people access to the Word of God. To this day, there has yet to be a step towards that goal that was easy or that was accomplished quickly, and I expect that is what we can continue to look forward to. Nonetheless, I can say with an honest heart – It has been and continues to be “worth it all”!

January 2013 marked a milestone!

As you know, for several months, we have been working away on getting Bible passages orally translated into the Yetfa language. Just like a written translation, these oral scriptures must be faithful to the original text, accurate, clear, and natural sounding.

Because what we are doing is so very important, we are committed to having everything we produce thoroughly checked by an outside translation consultant. In fact, our stories get checked by 2 consultants. It’s a long, very tedious – but essential – process, often requiring several revisions, testing with native speakers, and documenting people’s understanding of key spiritual terms like faith, evil spirit, worship, etc. Key terms are essential to understanding the gospel but may have a slightly different meaning in the Yetfa worldview.

After months of work, we are excited to announce that our first 3 stories have been consultant approved!

That is a MAJOR accomplishment. To put it into perspective, the Yetfa team is the first OneStory project in Papua to have any oral Bible stories consultant approved.

Honestly… I just want to shout! This is why we packed up… gave hugs & kisses and said goodbyes… It’s why we have been slugging away at 2 different languages… plodding and struggling through significant challenges… It’s why teachers and pilots, mechanics and nurses and other support staff do the same… It’s why hundreds of people take part of what they receive or earn and offer it to the Lord… why they pray… why they go to incredible lengths to encourage us to press on… It’s why Sion prayed everyday for 12 years… It’s why Jeri left his village for 3 years to study… It’s why Alex is delaying further formal education… why the team works so hard… why they leave their families every 3 months to attend workshops… It’s why God has orchestrated all this and so much more… so that the Yetfa people can have His Word in their own language and in a form that is easily and instantly accessible to the whole community!

Amazing!

Along with translating these stories, we have been training the Yetfa team on how to lead oral Bible studies.

Lord willing, we will head back to Bias in a few days and begin having 3-week Bible study groups using these newly approved stories. (Actually, I’m going to get the house occupiable! Jeri, Alex and Sion will be leading the oral Bible study groups.)

Please pray as people begin to hear God’s Word in their language for the first time! We chose these stories because they directly address some of the issues that are in the Yetfa culture. God’s Word is living and powerful. Pray that the light of his word will dispel the darkness in these areas.

Also please pray as we continue to work towards finishing the whole set of stories. These three stories - Jesus Walks on Water, Jesus Heals a Blind Man, and Jesus Heals a Woman Bound by an Evil Spirit - are just a part of a larger set of stories that will begin with creation and continue through the life of the New Testament church. The full set of stories is going to be a powerful tool for evangelism, discipleship and helping to establish Biblical churches in the Yetfa area.

Week one was … well… I’m not sure how to describe it. The builders and I got to a fantastic start on the house, right up until the point that we realized that we had a miscommunication about a critical tool – the chainsaw. We each thought the other was going to bring one. No problem, though. “All we have to do” is use a device that sends a signal to a mechanism that is orbiting miles above the earth in order to contact someone in Sentani to get their chainsaw from their house, buy parts so they can repair it, and arrange to have it put on the next flight out to this area. Sigh… However, compared to what else was going on, that was a MINOR issue…

A few days after our arrival, one of the village heads named Karlos came from Sentani. He was suffering from what looks like rheumatoid arthritis. When I went to his house to give him some medicine, one of his children was very sick. After doing a blood test, we discovered that David had TWO types of malaria, so Kel gave them some medicine and instructions on how to give it. The next day I went to the house and found out that they had tried to give him the medicine once, but he didn’t want to take it. So… they didn’t give it. He was clearly a lot worse. I forced a dose down him and insisted they give him the rest. The next day I returned to find out they hadn’t given him any. By now the boy was nearly unresponsive. They were trying everything they knew to keep him awake and conscious. They were convinced that the dose of medicine I had given him had actually made him worse and didn’t want me to give him any more. Nonetheless, I insisted.

We prayed. We fasted. We did everything we knew to do but, a few days later, David died.

We were heartbroken. Then, to make things worse, we found out that the family had “secretly” (nothing in the village is secret) called a witch doctor from a neighboring village before I had even gotten the first dose down him.

The day David died we had an unprecedented outbreak of malaria (actually, they said it happens about every 4-5 years). Sick mommas were bringing sick kids. Thankfully, we had recently gotten some rapid malaria test kits (but we had a limited supply). People were torn. They do not yet truly trust medicine, but they knew a kid had just died. We told everybody who came that if they wanted us to test for malaria and give medicine they had to agree to (1) take the medicine faithfully until they had finished it and (2) NOT to call a witch doctor.

We no longer felt we could depend on parents to administer the medicines to themselves or their kids. So, we began taking the medicine to houses as often as every 2 hours.

Over 4 weeks we tested 28 people for malaria – 25 were positive – 10 were positive for both types.

During the second week, Sion brought his daughter, Jesika, to be tested (his middle child, Jeffron, had already been treated and recovered from malaria). While Kel was waiting for the test results, Jesika went into a major seizure. Jesika had BOTH types of malaria and it had gone cerebral.

After she was stable, Sion and his wife, Pauline, took Jesika back home.

Later that day, I heard people wailing from the direction of Sion’s house (about 400 yards down a path) and saw people running that way. When I got close I could hear Awa Wame (Sion’s dad) yelling, “Jesika sauwo! Jesika sauwo!” – “Jesika’s dead! Jesika’s dead!” I literally wanted to collapse.

As I got within sight, all I could see was a group of about 12-15 people standing in a close huddle wailing. When I finally reached them, I could see Jesika’s mom holding her in the middle of the group. Everyone was crying and wailing. Sion was calling out to Jesus. Jesika was clearly unconcious. I tried to reach in to feel for a pulse or breath, but it was such chaos, I couldn’t tell. So I started praying.

A few minutes later, Jesika opened her eyes. I finally got everybody calmed down and got them to bring her inside the house, so I could look at her. I sent a kid to run to our house for some medicine. Jesika was weak but conscious. We prayed.

Praise God, over the next couple of days, Jesika recovered fully.

Even with all this illness, we tried to press on with our other work (besides just living). We actually made tremendous progress on the house.

Our progress on the OneStory stories pretty much came to a halt because of the death, illnesses, and Christmas activities. Sion was obviously preoccupied with his kids (they all 3 had malaria – then he and Pauline each got malaria). Karlos is Jeri’s father-in-law, so he was involved in taking care of that family.

In fact, it was Jeri that came and told us that Karlos was again asking for us to come down and check on his youngest child, Sam. Sam and his mother had run a fever for several days. When I explained the conditions for testing Sam’s blood, Karlos refused to agree and asked that we only give a fever reducer. He did, however, want his wife tested and agreed to the conditions for her. She tested negative for malaria.

People talked openly about how Karlos was not a believer, about his lifestyle (multiple wives and other issues), about his persistent reliance on witchdoctors and “old ways”. Every time I made a trip through the village someone would tell me how “Karlos brought this on himself”.

I, however, was reading through Job at the time and one verse was seared into my heart –

“To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; [even though] he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.” Job 6:14

Throughout the next two days we treated Sam with fever reducers. On the third day, Kel took some ibuprofen. I was out working on the house and saw her coming, weeping, and motioning me to come. When I got to her, she said that Karlos had agreed to the conditions for testing Sam. We went together. I explained that three days earlier we had urged him to let us test Sam and that now he was much worse. I again confirmed that he would let us treat Sam and seek the Lord ONLY for his healing. He agreed.

Sam, like David, also had both types of malaria and was very, very weak. However, this time we were allowed to treat him and no witchdoctor was called. Graciously, Sam recovered!

The rest of the trip was much of the same. Morning, noon and evening – we took people malaria medicine, almost always staying to make sure they took each dose (25 people – 3 doses per day – for 3 days).

When one family refused to let their child be tested because of what Karlos had initially said about the medicine causing David’s death, Kelli told Karlos that he had to tell people that he was wrong and tell how Sam had recovered. After that, the family brought their child – who had malaria and eventually recovered.

The whole trip was exhausting – physically, emotionally, spiritually! But it was a major victory!

In Bias, you cannot find two people who are more polar-opposites than Sion and Karlos. One has fully embraced Jesus and the Gospel. The other has clung to fear and appeasement of evil spirits.

I couldn’t help but think of Elijah’s challenge to the people of Israel:

“How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him”

Other happenings during this stay :

Lots of bumps and bruises, cuts and contusions!

A little traditional Christmas cheer

A little village Christmas cheer

Christmas services

Kel and Uriah made up gift bags for all the kids

Christmas “potluck” (more like “bucket-luck”!)

A Christmas dance

Corin’s 2nd birthday

Corin had an allergic reaction to… something

Performed my first Yetfa wedding (Alex and Cabe!)

Wow…

I’m often surprised how long it’s been since I’ve done an update, but this time… wow!

Life here has been full speed. Below is a few snipits from different aspects of life these last 8 weeks.

Work & Workshops

October was a month of workshops with a whirlwind trip to Bias. I spent 14 days in 3 different workshops, and we were in Bias for 8 days.

Workshops don’t sound very appealing. For us, however, workshops are very productive times. It is concentrated time of working together with the team and with others who are involved in similar projects.

During October, we spent a lot of time revising our oral Bible stories. (We revise stories for 2 reasons – to make them clearer or to make them more accurate.) It was a lot of tedious and tiring work, but we are VERY close to being finished with the 5 stories we’ve been working on.

During November, Kelli and I have been pounding away at a project that we are calling 100n2. It involves a collection of 100 short books that will be translated into Yetfa (and other languages). Some are simple Bible stories. Others are simple short stories about health and life issues. Still others are for entertainment only. We are developing 80% of these from scratch – including the illustrations and text!

This is a HUGE project, but once it is finished, it is going to be an incredible tool for developing literacy (which is vital, if we desire people to have access to God’s Word!) for the Yetfa and other language groups here in Papua. (Actually, there is a lot of interest in this project from people serving in other countries as well.)

Other Matters

Uriah had 2 major events. He turned 7 years old and he asked Jesus to be his Savior!

The first was accompanied with the usual fanfare. Kel is an awesome birthday coordinator and puts together a great party.

The second went almost completely unnoticed. One night I finished praying with the boys and Uriah said,

“Dad, would you pray for me?”

“I just did, Uriah.”

“I know, but… the other day, I asked Jesus to be my Savior but… I still keep sinning.”

“What?!” [Insert a LONG conversation about salvation and sin and joy.]

We were late to THAT party but no less excited! What an indescribable blessing!!!

On another note… We have contracted a local builder to go to Bias and help finish the main part of the house. This is a MAJOR weight off my shoulders. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on the house, but we really need to finish this and move on. The builder’s name is Pak Musa (Indonesian for Moses). He seems like a great man to work with. I’m looking forward to getting him started, and for him to get us finished!

We are getting ready to spend the end of November and all of December in Bias. This will be our first time to spend Christmas in the village. We are anticipating a different pace during this season.

One of the things we will be doing is crafting the Birth of Jesus story! We are so excited to do this during Christmas time. We plan to invite the whole village to watch and even participate when we get ready to craft the story. That will be a new and, I’m sure, interesting experience!