Sanders Party of Five

“Are the stories still here?”

That was the question a young man posed to Jeremy on the afternoon of our last day in the bush. His name is Lyle, and he had been trying to get to the village where Jeremy was teaching, but the road is long, and he was unable to make it in time. Jeremy and two of the pastors that came with us spent the next four hours retelling Old Testament stories to him, beginning with creation.

The week had been a good one. Tough, but good. It began on Monday morning, with a flight into the deepest part of the jungle I had ever visited. When the helicopter disappeared over the mountains, I was struck by a brief moment of panic, but was soon surrounded by people speaking a strange tribal language and ushering us into the bush. It was too late for second thoughts.

We followed the crowd through the jungle, down a steep incline, through streams, deeper into the bush, walking in single file due to the narrow path. At one point I looked up and realized that a man with a large machete was carrying Everett on his shoulders, but everything was chaos and we were moving so quickly on the uneven ground that I could only continue stumbling forward to keep from getting run over. People were constantly grabbing at me, afraid I would tumble down the mountain. I was grateful. After a short but fairly arduous hike, we came upon a clearing filled with small bamboo huts on stilts. We were shown to our house, also on stilts and made of bamboo, where we dropped off our supplies. We soon learned that our family would be sharing the small house with seven Papua New Guineans.

Olivia and Everett sitting in the doorway of our bush house

We spent the rest of the day getting to know the lay of the land, such as where we would wash our clothes and bathe, where the liklik haus (outhouse) was, and where we would hold meetings. That night, we sat around a fire on a woven bamboo floor in a smoky hut with the village elders and discussed our purpose for being there and what we hoped to accomplish. We learned of a new cult presence in the village and that the elders had given the cult some land on which to build a meeting house. We were disheartened by the news, but were given permission by the elders to go ahead with our plans to teach.

Jeremy explaining where these stories occured

 On Tuesday morning, Jeremy and the New Life pastors began storying through the Old Testament, beginning with Creation. This village, like most others in PNG, is full of creation myths, but during our visit, they heard for the first time that there is a God who created us in his image, and that he loves us and wants to be with us. They heard about the fall in the Garden of Eden, and that because of our sin we can no longer come close to God. They heard how the penalty for sin is death and saw several examples of this throughout the Old Testament. By the end of the week, they had been shown that we are in desperate need of a Deliverer. On our final night in the village we showed the Jesus film.

Aron teaching about the work of the priests in the Tabernacle

Pastor Paul teaching about King Solomon

As a result of our time in Village M, the elders have decided that they want us to build a church in their village. However, there are no Christians in the entire area. Our intentions are not to erect a building and have people come just because it’s there. They don’t need another haus tamburan (spirit house) in which to practice their current animistic beliefs under the guise of Christianity. Our purpose for traveling the difficult road to get to this village, and others like it, is to share the gospel with those who haven’t heard, to see God raise up believers who will begin meeting together, and to eventually see a healthy, functioning church in a place where Christ has never been known. Constructing a building has never been part of our plans. We graciously turned down the offer. The elders do want us to come back to teach them more of the Bible, so we agreed to come back in July and teach through the New Testament.

Hanging out at the river where we bathed

Kandy at the river

We are encouraged by this trip to Village M, but to be honest, it was challenging. The children and I have never gone that deep into the bush. The entire area for many, many miles around, is completely undeveloped. The village is right in the middle of the scarcely explored interior jungle of Papua New Guinea. Watching the helicopter fly off was a little strange, knowing that there was no other way out until it would return in five days. Some aspects of the week caused me to wonder if we should even be there. Our bathing area was a raging mountain river, swollen by recent heavy rains. Also, communication was extremely difficult. The villagers who could speak Tok Pisin spoke with much different accents than we’re accustomed to hearing, but they mostly spoke their tribal languages. In addition, most of the women were very shy; some had never even seen a white woman, so it was nearly impossible to get them to talk to me. Many people had sicknesses and sores that I desperately wanted to help with, but I didn’t have adequate supplies. One day we saw a baby crawl into a fire and suffer major burns on her arm and torso, but her mother refused to take her out of the village for help, even though we told her the baby could die of infection. We even offered to pay her way and help her get to the hospital, to no avail. Further, the presence of the cult was discouraging. The whole time we were there, we watched villagers work on clearing jungle for the cult meeting house.

Some of the women and children of Village M

However, despite the difficult and discouraging events from our time in Village M, the encounter with Lyle on the last day buoyed our spirits. Here was a man who was genuinely interested in hearing teaching from the Bible. He so wanted to hear God’s word that he sat for hours, listening intently, completely absorbed in the stories of the Old Testament. Please pray for Lyle and his family. Perhaps God is working in his heart already and will use him to encourage others to learn about Jesus. Perhaps he will be the first believer in this village.

Our current plan is for Jeremy to travel back into Village M in July. Due to financial considerations, it isn’t possible to take the whole family by helicopter again right now, but we will possibly all go back at a later date. During the July trip, Jeremy and the pastors will story through the New Testament, introducing the villagers to the Deliverer for which they are waiting. Pray for open hearts and clear communication of the gospel.