It was a cold foggy afternoon as is typical in Lapoc. The men had already made several trips to bring in our things and the last trip was the women and children. Finally we’d arrived and the cold air and swirls of fog greeted us as we stepped out of the car and surveyed our new homes. Eight months of hard work by Paul and teams of men from Kauyunan had already gone into setting this place up for us. Four houses and a clinic were already built and ready for us to move into as a team of four families. The men had endured hardships and setbacks to build the houses from scratch and to clear the land and now we were finally moving in as a team to live.
Paul had decided to make up for the hardships I had gone through in the first village when he didn’t have anywhere prepared for me to live. This time I walked into a house of my own complete with bed and bathroom and running water. Unlike our move into Kauyunan, I didn’t have an audience watching me while I walked about our new home putting our things away. We soon understood why though when gunshots rang out nearby in the early hours of the evening. It did not take long before we realized that people in Lapoc closed up their houses as soon as it got dark and stayed inside because it was too dangerous to be out. Long-time enmity and fighting between enemy clans meant that no one was really safe – not even women and children. Revenge killing was a way of life and even young children were taught that when they grew up they had a responsibility to take revenge for their lost loved ones. So many children had lost fathers and mothers and siblings to the fighting and many women had been widowed at a young age.
The much more comfortable housing was a blessing but our challenges here were very different to Kauyunon
Heads of a clan
Part of the centre of the village
In time we came to learn that this area had the reputation of being the “Place of Most Bloodshed” in the whole state. So why had God kept our eyes closed to the dangers and brought us and our children to this place of bloodshed? Maybe it was because of God’s plan for this generation of people here in Lapoc (that He planned before the foundation of the world) to shine His Word into the darkness of Lapoc and of the surrounding areas. One witchdoctor called Babrio, even had a dream very shortly before Paul first arrived on his first survey trip, a dream that a tall, white man with a book was coming and that they were to listen to the words of that book. (When we did start teaching over a year later, he brought his whole family including his married sons and daughters and their families.)
We started preparing as a team to start teaching the Word convinced that the dialect spoken here in Lapoc was similar enough to the Dulangan Higaunon language that we could use the same translation of the scriptures and the same bible lessons because we weren’t having too many communication problems in everyday language. It soon became evident though that we would have to do some more language study to learn spiritual terms and words for deeper dialogue and we were rising very early each morning – sometimes 4:00 or 4:30 a.m. to translate the scripture and the bible lessons into Tala-Andig. A lot of changes needed to be made to the Dulangan Higaunon materials.
Our team set up the Clinic and started doing medical work and every day we went to different households in the village to get to know the families here and to start building friendships. The events that took place though as the days progressed sometimes made our hearts pound with dread and fear. Sometimes we had to lie on the floor in the Clinic or in our homes when fighting broke out and bullets went flying. And we saw friends killed like Joe. One day, Joe, who was one of the village leaders, came and had coffee with us and promised us he would come in the future to hear what we were teaching but just not yet he said. A few days later Joe was gone - his limbs scattered over the path in the middle of Lapoc , his body literally blown apart when he had come unexpectedly face to face with an enemy carrying a high-powered gun. Another time, we sat in a house full of grieving and wailing people showing our respects to the family of a beautiful 14 year old girl who had been killed on the outskirts of our village as she was on her way to help her sister weed in the family garden. I sat with the mother and helped her bathe her daughter’s body and tried to keep my eyes averted from horrors like I had never seen. And these sort of things continued to happen regularly.
Paul was part of the mission field leadership team during this time and often had to travel out for meetings, leaving Jubab and I and the rest of the team in here. One morning after he drove off down the 4WD track I sat praying on the porch in the darkness of pre-dawn, praying that he wouldn’t get bogged in the mud (as often happened) while he travelled out on the road where frequent ambushes took place. And my prayer soon turned to self-pity as I looked over the dark valley and cried, “There is such darkness here Lord......and it doesn’t feel at all safe or like it ever could be home, I’m scared here and I don’t like it and I don’t want to die in a place I don’t even like.......”
That was over 9 years ago. In the ensuing years since I cried those things out to the Lord, He again has showed us His power. There are over 400 believers here now, a huge church which is the hive of activity for outreach into 9 other villages and into 7 different local primary schools in various areas. Numerous children in the schools have been reached with the Gospel – about 2500 children in all are being taught each week. There hasn’t been a killing here in Lapoc for nearly 3 years. The children look happy and secure and don’t wear the haunted scared looks that they used to before the Gospel lit up this part of the world! If you sit and look and listen in the evenings you can see lights shining from windows and smell cooking fires and hear laughter and talking. In the homes of over 200 families both here and in other Tala-Andig villages, families can now sit and read parts of the New Testament in their own language and talk to each other about their Lord Jesus and pray together.
The Lord provided for a wonderful facility for the believers here. This is the completion and opening celebration. It is a safe community hub for many in the area.
Some of the Bible Teachers
Some of the ladies who teach in the schools
As we move into this stage of our ministry here amongst the Tala-Andig, Paul and I are focusing more and more on finishing the translation of the New Testament as well as being involved in discipleship of church leaders and teaching of the Word. We are so thankful for our team here – Josh and Belinda, Bugsuk and Elsa, Rodil and Annie and Mrs. B our teacher. Without the team this work would not have grown as it has, and without the team, finishing the Translation of the New Testament would be looking impossible as there are so many other aspects of the work here that take up so much time. To read more about our missionary team click on the “Meet Our Team” page and also on the photo album “Tala-Andig Missionary Team”.
We don’t know where the Lord will take our team in the future after the translation of the New Testament is finished.......but there is another people-group over the next mountain who havn’t heard the Gospel yet and maybe that is where the Lord will take us. More suffering is ahead for sure.........but wherever we go we know that this suffering is only for a short time and after that comes the restoration which will be the church world-wide including our Tala-Andig and Higaunon brothers and sisters, caught up to Him and His everlasting glory.
1 Peter 5:10-11 'And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever'
You can see more pictures in the Tala-Andig Work Album on the right.
