42nd CLTC Graduation

Jeff writes:

Today the college graduated 61 students from three of our core programs. We awarded Bachelors of Theology, Diplomas of Theology and Missions, and Rice Certificates.

It was a wonderfully sunny day and a sense of joyous relief filled the air. We were relieved to finish what has been a sometimes stressful year full of water shortages and security threats. At the same time we rejoiced to see the end of our work, the finished product. These students will be able to go into all of Melanesia and other parts of the world to do work we could not do. The battle for the Kingdom of God has a new cadre of capable foot soldiers to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

Our commencement speaker was the Governor General of Papua New Guinea Sir Paulias Matane. Sir Paulias spoke on loving one's neighbor, and he shared his many life experiences. He began life 80 years ago in a village that practiced cannibalism. He learned to read at seventeen and has never been the same since. When he went to school, his teacher told his students that there was one rule that must be strictly followed. No one could not ask him questions. When Sir Paulias became a teacher, he returned to his village and immediately abolished that rule. He is a naturally curious man, a truly Renaissance Melanesian. As a man of grace and courage, Sir Palias is a statesman of the first order. He has visited all seven continents, written scores of books, fights against corruption, and lives out his faith.

In spite of his stature, he surprised us all when he came down to our faculty building early while the students were getting their graduation gowns on so that they could pose for pictures with him.

After the ceremony the students headed off to their mumus (tons of food steamed by hot stones). Hundreds of people came to celebrate and to eat. Sue and I went to one such party off campus. Matthias and his wife Jennifer invited us to come to their place to rejoice with their friends, family and community leaders. After about two hours of speeches we got to feast on mumued pig, chicken, bananas, veggies, rice, soft drinks, and cake (which Sue provided). It was our Thanksgiving.

What a great day! Tomorrow we get on the big bird and head back to the USA for a short two month stay. What a huge change awaits us! Nevertheless, for now we remain content to rest here and enjoy the time we have left.

Again thanks to all of you who pray for and support us. God has been gracious once again to allow us to enjoy this day for all of you. May the Lord richly bless each and every one of you.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Sue says:


Though it is graduation week here, we remember that our American friends are celebrating Thanksgiving. It is a well-established tradition with my family to express what we are thankful to the Lord for each year. So for 2010, we have to say:
1. Helping us finish strong in our fifth year teaching at CLTC
2. Giving us Melanesian friends to enjoy and learn from
3. Enabling us to grow in our walk with the Lord, seeing Him in new ways through life here
4. Giving us the opportunity to see our dear family members soon 


Let the peoples praise Thee, O God;
Let all the peoples praise Thee.
The earth has yielded its produce;
God, our God, blesses us.
God blesses us,
That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.
Psalm 67:5-7

Graduation Week Opens

Sue says: This week will be full of activity. Our Sunday service featured several individuals and groups singing  farewell songs 

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These men from our cell group sang praises to the Lord in the village language of the one in the center. He and the guy on the left will graduate.

 A number of graduations have occurred. Last week 12 campus workmen graduated from a preaching class. This week these community women's leaders graduated from a Know Your Bible study.

 The worship committee asked Jeff to preach from John 15, where Jesus gave His last instructions to His disciples before they "graduated." Pictures from when we lived in a vineyard a year ago came in handy. Many people in Melanesia have never seen grapes growing.


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Classes Finish for 2010

Classes at the Christian Leaders' Training College finished for this academic year. That means that the students are finished. Of course the instructors will keep going for a while with red pens and calculators to come up with final grades.

There was a sense of relief among students today. It was a good day to enjoy a video with the history of missions class. We ate some banana cake and watched EE-Taow! The Next Chapter. Anyone seen it? It shows how some New Tribes missionaries evangelized a New Britain (part of PNG) tribe, and then they trained them to take the gospel to their neighboring tribes. It's one of the few videos I've seen with PNG characters and customs, and I think the students enjoy that.

Here's the missions history class looking relaxed. The guy at top left will graduate and go back to Port Moresby to work with youth (remember that's quite a broad term here) and run an after-school program something like Awana to disciple kids in his settlement.

The second guy top left hopes he will be accepted for a cross-cultural internship in the Solomon Islands, ministering with a male classmate (not in this picture) and his wife, the woman front left. The man at top, second right will intern in Western Province at a feeder school  in Mapodo, the home of the guy second left.

The two men in the top middle and the ones top right and seated right are first-year students. They will return to their homes to earn fees for classes next year.

The man second right will intern with his denomination in Western Province. He is eager to evangelize his area.

The gal second left is graduating. She will return to her home in the Sepik to teach children. Perhaps the Lord will open the way for her to go as a missionary to Indonesia.

We ask the Lord to use these students to build His church in Melanesia and beyond.

TEE Students Graduate

Sue says:
Theological Education by Extension (TEE) is a useful concept here in Papua New Guinea. People who can hardly read and live in remote places can join study groups to learn how to use the Bible themselves. Pastors can increase their biblical knowledge individually without moving away from their ministry. Our Bible college students use TEE materials for their own discipleship. We also train students and community members to be TEE tutors, those qualified to lead Bible study groups using TEE booklets.

CLTC recently awarded certificates to 91 people who have completed TEE studies this year. We are happy to see youth groups and people of all ages reciting Scriptures and growing in their knowledge of the Lord through studying these TEE courses.

New York Times Article

Jeff writes:

For those of you, who are interested in what it is like to do business here in Papua New Guinea, you may want to read this informative article that appeared in the New York Times last month. The article is entitled "Riches May Not Help Papua New Guinea." You may access it by clicking on this link.

Kain kain hevi i kamap, tasol...

Sue says:

This Pidgin title means "All sorts of troubles exist, but..." You may have seen the title without any text another day. The satellite connection was particularly bad that day, and I wasn't able to post. That wasn't one of the troubles I had in mind.

You may have read another recent post about the trouble with village people thieving and then killing a security guard at Ukarumpa. Our situation has escalated to a serious injury of one of our guards and a robbery on campus in which a number of villagers took part. Please pray for our leaders as they deal with these villagers who are also demanding that they be our security--after they behave as they do.

There is also a serious matter with a student who is supposed to graduate, but may not be allowed to. Please pray humility will grow in the life of this student.

Remember there is a "but" in the title of this article. We don't like to keep talking about these negative things, though they are a factor here. The "but" is that there to introduce the contrast that positive things could result from these negative events. Our prayer is that God's ways would increase in our own lives and in the lives of those to whom we minister. Sometimes this comes about through problems such as these and others we have now. Thanks for sharing in our troubles. May knowledge of God's wonderful help come as a result of them. Thanks for joining us in prayer.

There are other really great things going on here. I will make an effort to write about the joys next post.   

Fall Nostalgia

Sue says:

I saw a picture of a maple tree turning color in Blacksburg this week. It made me nostalgic for home. The family will be planning Thanksgiving and a family meal. Hmm. Won't be there.

A couple pumpkins were at hand. Pumpkins here are green when ripe. See the one on the right above. It's flesh is the same orange color inside that North Americans are used to. You can see the seeds, left,  are similar too. I toasted them in the oven and they taste good salted.

Fall always inspires me to bake. That crispness in the air makes it cool enough that heating up the oven doesn't make the house too hot. I got out my mother's pumpkin cookie recipe. 

Since I was going to bake anyway, I started some bread rising while I baked cookies.

Though it isn't fall here, I made a little arrangement of the bounty from the garden and the kneading bowl. I miss you, Loved Ones At Home. Thinking of you today.

A Sad Day for the Lord's Work

Sue says:
A tragic situation has arisen at the large Wycliffe Bible Translators (known here as SIL) missionary base at Ukarumpa. It typifies the difficulties many Christian missions in the highlands have with neighboring villages. This is as clear as I could piece the story together.   

Early this year there were a number of forced entries and burglaries of homes at the SIL Ukarumpa base. At Easter a number of village youths committed their lives to the Lord. The break-ins stopped.


A while later the same tribe took up the breaking-and-entering again. Ukarumpa leaders appealed to the village leaders to rein in the illegal activities of their youth. The village leaders said it wasn't fair for them to be asked to "turn in" their youth. If they were being asked to act as security, they should have the security guard contract and get paid for what they were doing.

Recently, a drunken man from the same village was ejected by security guards from Ukarumpa property after he pulled a knife on the guards. After the 10 pm lock-up, the same man was found on the property again. The guards loosed a dog on the man, and he escaped with a dog bite over the security fence.About sunrise the next morning, the security guard at the Ukarumpa airstrip was beaten in retaliation by a few men from the man's village.

Later that morning, the village leaders showed up with the man with the dog bite. They demanded compensation for the dog-bite their relative had suffered. When they were informed that some of their tribe had already beaten a guard for compensation, they were angry at their relatives for negating their claim. Ukarumpa leaders saw that the man's dog-bite was treated at the Ukarumpa clinic. He did not need any further care. The leaders said no further action would be taken against the security guards. The police were made aware of the incident.

On the night of 31 October, an unknown person with a gun entered the Ukarumpa airstrip property. The person shot and killed a security guard. Local police are investigating.

The Ukarumpa leaders gave the whole security company the next day off to mourn the death of their co-worker. Some Ukarumpa missionaries also joined in the mourning and sent money to help the family with burial expenses. Some of the missions women brought cooked food to the mourners.

Leaders from Ukarumpa released this statement about the situation:

The culture dictates "payback" for every wrong, which leads to an
unending cycle of revenge. We ask our larger international community to
pray for a peaceful and lawful resolution to the current issues facing
our Papua New Guinean security contractor and the SIL-PNG community.

Many highlands cultures live by the "might makes right" motto. When opponents do not use force to back up their position, they are considered perfect targets. So where does this leave missions organizations? Asking God to intervene. Please join us.

 

 

Women's Fellowship Farewells Graduating Women

The women's fellowship of CLTC gave a farewell meal and send-off for the women who will graduate from the college this year. Each neighborhood cell group hosted several students for a meal together, then, with a scriptural challenge and singing, we blessed them as we sent them out to serve.

It was a solemn moment for the twenty-five women who will graduate this year. The four main teachers of the pidgin women's program lit the candles the students held and challenged them to carry with them the light of God's love as they go out to serve others.

We have observed this batch of students from the time they first arrived.  We welcomed some of them at a gathering for new students at our home the first week they were here. They were shy, wondering if they could make it. Many of them have become more confident and able in their handling of Scripture. We pray God will use this class to make a difference for His kingdom in the various places they will minister after graduation.