I just spent the past 3.5 hrs of my life at the feet of a missionary who has been in Papua New Guinea for 30 years, asking him questions about life there from how to be an inside outsider to the animal population to how to walk in the streets of the city.
Also, I got the honor of being giving the traditional Waran greeting. The missionary walked up to me, the foolish one who volunteered to be greeted, and grabbed my head and began to rub his nose all over my face. Of course, the first time this happened some sitting in the circle had a bad view of the event and so it was repeated at a different angle for their enjoyment. I was not informed of the manner in which the greeting was given. Needless to say, I responded better the second time around than the first.
The conversation was delightful and illuminating. I can't wait for tomorrow for yet another opportunity to hear and learn.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
PFO-PMI
Tomorrow is the last day of Pioneer Missions Institute and thus the final day of pre-field training. This training began on May 31st. The first week was Pre-field Orentation, a time to have lectures on what we would need to know in order to have a successful ministry on our trips and do some team building. The second week was PMI. PMI is a two part training and you take one each year. The first is a Discovery course, in which PBT gives a tantalizing taster of who it is, the second is Orientation, which is a "Ok, now what?" course of seminars to help guide budding missionaries to have a lucrative ministry. All of the interns are dispersed between the courses. Except for me. I have done both which makes me staff (a.k.a. kind of a big deal). I thought this meant that I would have a relaxed week. This is not so. While I did get to sleep in an hour and a half. I run sound for chapel, go to lunch, go to childcare before classes start again, go to afternoon chapel early to run sound there again, go to dinner, engage in the after dinner activities, return to my room and crash. Only to gain an hour and a half sleep over my roommate who is no silent ninja in the morning. The other interns, who have been coped up and quiet in a room all day, can't imagine why I'm so tired all the time!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Ticks
For a few days, I went up to Orange County, VA with a friend. He gave me a tour of his town (which didn't take very long) and one of the sites we drove by was a haunted house. A family had died there in the 50s and no one had lived there since. The place was overgrown and the house was not visible from the road. My friend merely pointed it out and drove on. But there's something about a haunted house that entices me. I didn't forget about it and the last day I was there, I begged him to take me to see it.
We began to pick our way through the brush that had grown over the drive. We were still in sight of the road and not yet in sight of the house when he began to perform a crazy dance on the path in front of me.
"Ticks!" he shouted, stomping them off his feet and swatting at them.
I took a deep breath and tried not to get irritable. Seriously? I thought. They're just bugs. I'm the city girl. I should be freaking out about bugs, not the country boy who grew up here. But he refused to go on and promised we would another time, when we both had pants and shoes on instead of shorts and flip-flops. We got back to the road (although, I admit, I did snap once or twice for him to get going when he stopped in front of me to wipe at more ticks. (but seriously, if you stop in the brush, more will get on you as you remove the others. Wait till you get to the road!))
When we were on the road, and he had become content that he was clear of ticks, I asked him, "Do I have any on me?"
He said, and I quote, "you're good."
He lied to me.
After this, I went back to his house, packed my car and drove home, taking about 4 hours total. I arrived home at about 11pm and, tired from the drive, promptly changed into some pajamas. This is when I found the first four ticks on my legs. I came to realize why my friend flipped out about the ticks. These were not just bugs. They were bugs that wanted to bury their heads in my flesh and suck my blood until they became gargantuous and then depart, obese on my life blood! I scrambled to remove the bloody little parasites and was relieved when I threw the four in the toilet to meet a watery grave. Relieved until I began to search the rest of my body. 5 more ticks joined their friends in the Whirlpool of Doom and finally I was satisfied that I was tick free. (I did, however, have that creepy crawly feeling for the rest of the night.)
The next morning, I was pleased to recall that that far from lovely incident was in the past and today was a new day. I got in my car. Evidently, during the three hour drive, a number of ticks had crawled off me in my car in a (successful) attempt to evade the Whirlpool of Doom and a (successful) attempt to crawl on my at a later point and dine on my blood.
13 ticks total.
Two lessons from this:
1. It is completely reasonable to freak out when ticks are discovered on self
2. After adrenaline rush from freaking out about ticks on self, friends become blind and fail to see the dozen+ ticks scurrying across your legs.
We began to pick our way through the brush that had grown over the drive. We were still in sight of the road and not yet in sight of the house when he began to perform a crazy dance on the path in front of me.
"Ticks!" he shouted, stomping them off his feet and swatting at them.
I took a deep breath and tried not to get irritable. Seriously? I thought. They're just bugs. I'm the city girl. I should be freaking out about bugs, not the country boy who grew up here. But he refused to go on and promised we would another time, when we both had pants and shoes on instead of shorts and flip-flops. We got back to the road (although, I admit, I did snap once or twice for him to get going when he stopped in front of me to wipe at more ticks. (but seriously, if you stop in the brush, more will get on you as you remove the others. Wait till you get to the road!))
When we were on the road, and he had become content that he was clear of ticks, I asked him, "Do I have any on me?"
He said, and I quote, "you're good."
He lied to me.
After this, I went back to his house, packed my car and drove home, taking about 4 hours total. I arrived home at about 11pm and, tired from the drive, promptly changed into some pajamas. This is when I found the first four ticks on my legs. I came to realize why my friend flipped out about the ticks. These were not just bugs. They were bugs that wanted to bury their heads in my flesh and suck my blood until they became gargantuous and then depart, obese on my life blood! I scrambled to remove the bloody little parasites and was relieved when I threw the four in the toilet to meet a watery grave. Relieved until I began to search the rest of my body. 5 more ticks joined their friends in the Whirlpool of Doom and finally I was satisfied that I was tick free. (I did, however, have that creepy crawly feeling for the rest of the night.)
The next morning, I was pleased to recall that that far from lovely incident was in the past and today was a new day. I got in my car. Evidently, during the three hour drive, a number of ticks had crawled off me in my car in a (successful) attempt to evade the Whirlpool of Doom and a (successful) attempt to crawl on my at a later point and dine on my blood.
13 ticks total.
Two lessons from this:
1. It is completely reasonable to freak out when ticks are discovered on self
2. After adrenaline rush from freaking out about ticks on self, friends become blind and fail to see the dozen+ ticks scurrying across your legs.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Two Months!
I am two months away from being on a plane headed to Papua New Guinea. That's an exciting thought. I'm still $2000ish short of what I need. But I'm sure that God has that taken care of. Thank you all for your support. I'm excited to go on this adventure and thrilled to ave an opportunity to help with the translation process.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Oasis at MACU
Right now, I'm sitting in the balcony in the chapel of Mid-Atlantic Christian University, listening to awesome worship and waiting to hear an excellent speaker. I'm so glad that I got an opportunity to serve and hang out on campus with the students. It's been a really fantastic weekend for me.
But there are a lot of high school students on campus enjoying time hanging out with one another and the services hosted by MACU. It would be awesome to see some of their faces here next year and in the years that follow. Pray that they hear God this weekend.
But there are a lot of high school students on campus enjoying time hanging out with one another and the services hosted by MACU. It would be awesome to see some of their faces here next year and in the years that follow. Pray that they hear God this weekend.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Pass it forward
Meet with Forefront today. I'm really stoked about some things we talked about and hope to see some things get fleshed out soon. I'm hoping that a couple of these ideas will help me with finding some amazing people who'd like to partner with me in this mission that I've found myself to be a part of.
I went to Barnes and Noble and finished reading a book I started yesterday. (I've come to discover that it's cheaper to buy Starbucks and read at Barnes and Noble than it is to buy the books it takes to satisfy my habit). It was about this girl who killed herself but sent cassette tapes to all of those who in one way or another contributed to her decision to kill herself. They're actions were seemingly small but snowballed rapidly.
I started thinking about how a snide comment and other little deeds can hurt alot more than we ever knew. And as these thoughts of how mighty small things can hurt, a man taking my parking ticket said, "I'm not trying to flirt, but you look very pretty." And then I started to think of how such things worked in a positive way to. A small positive thing like a compliment can have great repercussions.
I went to Barnes and Noble and finished reading a book I started yesterday. (I've come to discover that it's cheaper to buy Starbucks and read at Barnes and Noble than it is to buy the books it takes to satisfy my habit). It was about this girl who killed herself but sent cassette tapes to all of those who in one way or another contributed to her decision to kill herself. They're actions were seemingly small but snowballed rapidly.
I started thinking about how a snide comment and other little deeds can hurt alot more than we ever knew. And as these thoughts of how mighty small things can hurt, a man taking my parking ticket said, "I'm not trying to flirt, but you look very pretty." And then I started to think of how such things worked in a positive way to. A small positive thing like a compliment can have great repercussions.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Rain
Today I was woken by a mighty clap of thunder at 5 am.
I thought, "oh dear, I have to drive to Elizabeth City in great rain today."
Before I left, I was sure to check my email to make sure school had not been canceled due to the torrential downpour. It had not.
Driving down I was pleased to discover that, while steady, the rain was not hard, impeding visibility.
However, upon arriving just a turn away from campus, I discovered the final road on my normal route to be flooded. Not losing heart, I turned to take the next parallel road. Only to find that too flooded, and the next, and the next. I decided that this was quite ridiculous and turned to take a more main road, which we all know are less susceptible to flooding. Dear Elizabeth St, however, had been blocked off by the police due to high water levels. And the officer suggested I try Road St, the street I had just been on. When I returned to "risk it", I was lucky to find a larger vehicle fording the road and followed quickly in its wake.
I did not enjoy discovering that Mid-Atlantic Christian University had become an island. Nor did I enjoy driving down those roads at the end of the day, for all indications that it had once been a river were gone. And while that made driving easier, it was a little frustrating to see that what had caused me so much grief was now, after so short a period, gone without a trace.
Good times
Good times
I thought, "oh dear, I have to drive to Elizabeth City in great rain today."
Before I left, I was sure to check my email to make sure school had not been canceled due to the torrential downpour. It had not.
Driving down I was pleased to discover that, while steady, the rain was not hard, impeding visibility.
However, upon arriving just a turn away from campus, I discovered the final road on my normal route to be flooded. Not losing heart, I turned to take the next parallel road. Only to find that too flooded, and the next, and the next. I decided that this was quite ridiculous and turned to take a more main road, which we all know are less susceptible to flooding. Dear Elizabeth St, however, had been blocked off by the police due to high water levels. And the officer suggested I try Road St, the street I had just been on. When I returned to "risk it", I was lucky to find a larger vehicle fording the road and followed quickly in its wake.
I did not enjoy discovering that Mid-Atlantic Christian University had become an island. Nor did I enjoy driving down those roads at the end of the day, for all indications that it had once been a river were gone. And while that made driving easier, it was a little frustrating to see that what had caused me so much grief was now, after so short a period, gone without a trace.
Good times
Good times
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