Sue says:
On Sunday our Pioneers co-worker in Banz, Kent, received word that his dad had had a stroke at home in the US. By the end of that day, Kent's dad had died.
Kent and his family quickly made plans to return home for the funeral. Before they could leave, though, our Melanesian neighbors (in Banz) came by to sit with them and pray for them.
Yesterday, Kent and and his family arrived in Moresby and they stayed overnight with us. Again, our Melanesian neighbors here asked the family to come to what amounted to a Christian haus krai. We were able to attend the second one.
A traditional haus krai is the Melanesian way of mourning the dead and saying good bye to someone who has died. We found the Christian adaptation of this custom very special.
Kent has only been a part of Christian Leaders' Training College for about six months, so I thought it was unusually caring for his neighbors and co-workers to show the concern they did.
The gathering last night started simply with the singing of Christian songs. One that stood out in my mind went like this:
Yu no save long mi
You don't know me
Na mi no save long yu
And I don't know you
Tasol nau, Jisas i bungim yumi
But Jesus unites us
Yu kam long arapela hap
You come from one place
Na mi kam long narapela hap
And I come from another one
Tasol nau, Jisas i bungim yumi
But Jesus unites us
Yes, yumi kam bung wantaim
Yes, we come together
Na kamap femili, femili bilong God
And we become the family of God
The senior statesman in the group shared thoughts about Christians leaving their temporary home in this world (our tent) and going to our permanent home in heaven, the thoughts taken from 2 Corinthians 4 and 5. Then Kent was asked to share thoughts he had.
Next, the women offered cookies, cake and drinks they had prepared for those present to share while they talked together.
Melanesians are community-oriented. Most of them live in small villages in which almost everyone is related to everyone else. The way they included us "outsiders" was very meaningful last night.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment