ENGA

I think God sometimes wants to impress us with what He did, and not others with what we did.

After a slow two years of planning, delays, pre-building walls, roof trusses, windows, and doors, we were off on a three-week building trip. Why I assumed we could build a whole house in 3 weeks start to finish with appliances and painting everything, is beyond me. But there we were: a caravan of three vehicles, leaving on a 12-hour road trip traveling over rough roads toward the center of the country. I had never traveled this far up the Highlands Highway and Adam Boyd, who we were going to build for, was the only one of us familiar with the drive. Three hours into the trip, the driver of the large truck, carrying almost the entire house and tools, swerved to miss a large pothole while coming around a bend.  With half the tires off the road, the extremely heavy truck tipped over and proceeded to plow a large section of the side of the road. The tires and axles were still spinning as we ran toward the wreck along with about 50-100 local Papua New Guineans. And like that, our trip was over…

Under the shade of the overturned truck, Adam took the opportunity to share about Bible translation. Many there had an open ear and they even said that there was a reason that we wrecked there.

One thing was clear: we weren’t going to Wabag to build a house for the Boyds. Adam and Martha Boyd had been working to revise the Enga New Testament ( http://pngboyd.blogspot.co.id/p/enga.html ). No doubt we were facing spiritual opposition to this project. There are an estimated 300,000 speakers of Enga. They are the largest native language in Papua New Guinea. Some of the people have been begging for a revision because it was originally translated many years ago. It is an area that has only had contact with the outside world since 1934, less than a hundred years! But, what could we do now? The project was clearly derailed.

We were thanking God that no one was seriously injured in the accident as all three men slowly crawled out of the only usable door. We contacted our Ukarumpa center and they began arranging help for us: a security team, a car load of mechanics, accommodations at a local missionary center, and a crucial call to a commercial trucking company. Mapai Transport had the resources we needed. However, we had to wait until the end of the day for a super-size rescue truck to turn us upright and tow us. We retreated to New Tribes Mission’s center in Goroka. They put us up for the night and fed us. We were so thankful for their hospitality. We would be headed home the following day.  We all called our families to let them know.

However, after a refreshing night of sleep and some renewed energy we made the opposite decision; to move forward with the project. We would use Mapai Transport again to carry the building supplies to Enga since our truck was not drive-able. We were so grateful again for this company. We stayed one more day at New Tribes and left two days behind schedule.

Removing our load from the broken Hino 700.

Adam buying roadside sweet potatoes on our way to the village.

After ten more hours of driving (including one more overnight), we finally arrived in Enga!  The next few weeks were filled with the excitement of being in a new place, living in a village house, eating village food, cold baths in the streams, hard work, long days, and fellow-shipping with new friends.  We were welcomed with gifts of food and friendship by villagers who had been passed by for far too long. The area has had a lot of fighting in the past and now they are working hard to improve their lives. “So many people are afraid to live in this area” said local Pastor Ekki. He says that as people drive by the area, they say, “You don’t want to stop here. This area is no good.” They are so grateful that the Boyds have decided to call this their home while they work with their translation team on this major revision of the Enga Bible.

The next two and a half weeks we worked almost sun-up to sundown, six days a week.

The children all helped us unload when we got to the village.

This is where our crew slept while we built.

Work begins!!!

 

Carrying in parts of the house through the local gardens, filled with kau kau (sweet potato).

We were building on Pastor Benjamin's land. God transformed Benjamin's life several years ago. His testimony and humility really impacted me.

We had lots of local help as well.

Digging a hole for a septic tank, PNG-style.

Pastor Ekki was one of my favorite people in this village.  He was a hard worker with a heart of gold. I felt like he was my personal guardian. He was always nearby, ready to help and watching out for me.

People were constantly feeding us and bringing stuff from their gardens.

Pastor Benjamin, Martha, and their two kids moved out of their house so we could sleep in it. They had true servant attitudes. They slept in our large tent at the work site watching out for our things. Martha cooked for our whole crew every night

Smoke pours from every roof while they cook each day. Another reason for inside fires is because of the chilly nights.

This small store is near the building site.

From the day we broke ground to the day we finished, was two weeks three days. The house has a tank to collect water from the roof, solar hot water, electricity from solar power, and indoor plumbing. What none of us would have believed was possible on the day of the wreck, was accomplished!

Matthew 19:26 “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."