Sandpoint Missionary Blog

Hi everyone! We have been meaning to write you for a while to let you know how things are going here in Papua New Guinea but our situation was changing almost daily. Now things have finally settled down for a little bit and we have a chance to breathe and check in with you. We have had only one confirmed case of COVID-19 in PNG so far but the PNG government is watching closely as the virus spreads around the world and taking measures now to prepare for it and minimize the impact to this country. This is the public statement from our branch administration about what we are doing here: “SIL-PNG is complying in full with the requirements of the State of Emergency [SoE] announced by Prime Minister James Marape on Sunday 22nd March.  The SoE was initiated on Tuesday, 24th March. The Ukarumpa Centre and all Regional Centres are practicing appropriate self-isolation protocols. Our Ukarumpa Clinic staff remain vigilant and are examining any and all patients who present with COVI...

A "Hairy" Experience "Suddenly, there was a piercing pain like someone jabbed my heel with a needle," Rachel recounts. It was our first night in a local Portuguese-speaking community's church near the village, where Ed was invited to teach. Rachel looked around for the culprit that bit her as she was getting up from kneeling during prayer time. Later, she spotted a large hairy spider and had the lady in the next pew get rid of it. It wasn't until we were getting out of our boat at our village that she told me about her arachnid encounter. When we got home, she had me use our retrofitted stun gun to zap the bite several times. She says it helped with the pain. By the next day, she said the bite wasn't bothering her much anymore. Re-entry We had gotten to the village the week before, and it took some time to clean and organize our house. Most of our villagers were in town, so language learning opportunities were a bit sparse. Ed and I went to the ne...

Opposition When the Enemy is upset, we must be doing something right. Our mission made headlines this month because an anthropologist, who was formerly a member of the mission, was appointed to a high position in the government organization that oversees indigenous affairs. Particularly, he was put over the section that deals with uncontacted tribes. This sparked outrage in the media and digging up all the past garbage they could on the mission: some true, some half true, and some false. The Enemy does not want any infiltration of his strongholds and he doesn't care about truth or fairness.The new mission helicopter, which has begun operating, has also come up in the news. The Past Month In our little corner of Brazil, there are still rumors. Ed just got back from a short time in the village. He talked to A, one of the guys who is reported to oppose us at meetings. Ed explained to him that we got authorization to be there and showed him the document that the village leader...