Ready, Set, GO!

After only 14 months of being in Papua New Guinea, we officially started learning the Lembena language and culture! For our CLA (Culture & Language Acquisition) “Kick-Off,” two of our language consultants along with one of their wives flew into Lembena from Wewak (New Tribes Western Area base) for two days to refresh us on language learning. It was a busy two days with Greg and Thomas: we refreshed on our phonetics, talked through how to file our data and they gave us goals to shoot for each day in learning language.

They also sat down with our community and talked through how the people could best help us, explaining that we could not do this on our own. They encouraged the people to take us with them when they go out to do things: like when they go to their garden or go hunting or on a trip somewhere, to invite us along, teach us and help us understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. The Lembena people are the teachers and we are the learners.

Becoming “Lemben”

After our consultants left, we jumped right into full time CLA. Our village is split into two clans, the Molim clan and the Iparok clan. The Iparok clan “looks out” after our family and the Molim clan “looks out” after the Fergusons and Hughes. We discovered right away the jealousy and rivalry that exists between these two clans and how central clan identity is to who they are. We have to keep reminding our clan, Iparok, that we are not just here to benefit them and their clan only but this message that we have is for all of Lembena. Please continue to pray for wisdom for us and our team as we minister in this context where favoritism is expected and where jealousy and anger over even the smallest of things is normal.

Every other morning, the men (Jason, Micah and Adam) go out the airstrip with their “bush knives” (machetes) and cut a section of the grass. They are often joined by some of the village men who are much better at swinging a bush knife than we are. It is hard work and the grass grows so fast that we barely seem to make a dent on the massive airstrip. We are all looking forward to when our team lawnmower will get here and we will be freed up to spend more time learning the language and culture rather than cutting the airstrip as often.

After cutting the grass and having team prayer, we typically walk to a neighboring house, sit and try to practice the new Lembena phrases we have been learning and gather some new ones as well. Central to the life of our people is the garden. They cut, clear, burn, fence, plant, work, weed and harvest their gardens which are often hours hike away, up steep trails and built on the sides of mountains. We are learning the names of all the things they plant and how they plant them. Making a garden takes a lot of work and our people are an incredibly strong and determined people. It has been really fun learning to do things as they would do them and beginning to see some of the reasons why they do it that way.

I (Micah) was able to go on a several day trip with some of our Iparok clan to learn how they harvest sago-one of their staple foods. It was incredible to see the feat of engineering it took for them to create their sago washing station (pictured below) and to help them in the process. Our people are great teachers and have fun laughing at us as we struggle to say and do things that even their little children do easily.

Home for the Holidays

We flew out of Lembena early October for a quick doctors check up for Laura and baby. We intended on it being a two day trip but when the pilot landed on our airstrip, he told us that our grass was too long and that he had to close the airstrip and that we would need to cut the entire thing before any aircraft could fly back in. Our co-workers, Jason and Adam worked tirelessly trying to get it cut so we could get back in but they had very little help from the people. We originally were planning on coming back to Washington the 1st of November but after waiting a week and a half and the airstrip still nowhere close to being cut, we decided to return to the States two weeks early. This was a tough call, as we did not get to say goodbye to our teammates or to our people before we left.

It was a long trip home, traveling through four countries in about 30 hours. Due to Covid, most of our flights were fairly empty and during layovers, everything was closed. It ended up being a smooth trip overall and Addy slept for a lot if it which was a relief!

We are currently back in Olalla, Washington and have been blessed with a beautiful house to stay in until we are able to head back to PNG after the birth of the baby. His due date is December 31st, though Laura would love for him to come sooner as each week she gets more and more uncomfortable. After the baby is born we will work quickly to try to get his passport and visa so we can return to Lembena. Realistically we are looking at March before we are able to return to PNG and with Covid it may end up being even later than that. We are content that it is the Lord’s timing and are trying to make the best use of our time home. We would love to connect with you while we are back and we know that Covid has made that difficult if not impossible in many situations but feel free to reach out to us by phone or email!
Micah’s cell- (360) 525-4281
Lauras cell- (253) 341-3556
micah_myers@ntm.org

Ways to Pray for us

• Pray for a safe delivery and for the health of Laura and the baby.
• Pray for our co-workers, the Hughes and Fergusons, as they continue to learn culture and language without us for these next several months. They have their first language evaluation coming up next week!
• Praise that the lawnmower we had shipped from the States made it into PNG and should be flown into Lembena sometime in December!
• Pray for us to be able to get the necessary paperwork for the new baby once he is born and return quickly to Lembena.
• Pray for us to make the best use of our time here in WA.

In His Power Alone,
Micah, Laura, Adalia and baby