Student Highlight: Michael Yambal

Jeff writes ...

Sue mentioned that we had students over last Friday for a hospitality night. One of them was a single man by the name of Michael Yambal.

Michael is a fourth year diploma student which means he will graduate this November. He is from the Tsenglap tribe which occupies land close to the town of Banz.

He finished grade 11 before coming to the CLTC. His education was cut short due to a tribal fight over election results in the Southern Highlands.

He is part of the Evangelical Brethren Church. He spent a year's internship at a Lutheran Revival Church in Goroka where he worked with the youth. He was selected to preach one of the graduating student's sermons in chapel, and he did a fine job with Galatians 5:1 as his text.

When he completes his studies here at the CLTC, he may go on to a teacher's college in Goroka, or he may come back to the CLTC to pursue his bachelors of theology.

Michael is in my ethics class, and he gave an oral report about a newspaper article on a man who "beat his wife for no reason." Now Michael is one of the nicest people you would ever meet, but I had to ask the question whether it is all right in some circumstances for a man to beat his wife. In the Highlands where we live apparently it is acceptable. The problem he saw with the article was the man had no good reason to beat his wife.

Spousal abuse is a major issue in Papua New Guinea. A good missionary friend of mine told me of a man he witnessed who early one morning repeatedly smashed his wife's head into a concrete block wall of the church they attended. However, another PNG faculty member said that in his province, if a man did that to his wife, he would be "meat in someone's mouth." In other words, her family would kill him, (and perhaps in the past eat him too).

Of course we did bring the Scripture to bear on the situation, especially Ephesians 5:28-29. I asked the class when was the last time the men had hit themselves in the head with a sauce (frying) pan? Husbands, who love their own wives as their own bodies, would never abuse them.

However, it takes time to change a culture. Men, who do not beat their wives here, are often referred to as merimen or as Arnold Schwarzenegger said at one time "girly men." Sometimes the husband's mother encourages him to beat his wife. And sadly, some women feel that for their husband to be a respected man, he must beat her.

Pray for us as we teach and interact with students. Certain notions run deep in their lives, and we need wisdom to make sure that we don't impose American cultural values but that we bring Biblical truth to bear in situations like these. Godly convictions change culture for the good. Pray that the Holy Spirit would act in this area to protect the helpless.