We've Made Changes, Not Sacrifices

The electricity went out before I'd woken. A major storm had passed over during the night and we wondered if this outage was due to damage from winds or rain rather than the usual system overload.

By mid-morning Isaiah and I had grown restless and although it was still raining, decided to put on our boots and go for a walk.

"Let's climb the hill" I told Isaiah and so we set out, splashing in all the puddles along the way. We'd tried to climb the hill before, but the path stopped at about 75ft up and we couldn't see how to get to the top so had walked down again.

View from the top with mountains in the distance

This time when we reached the end of the main path a Papuan man saw us and asked where we were going. "Kami mau jalan kaki ke atas." I told him "We want to walk up to the top." I understood only a small bit of what he told me, but after a great deal of hand signals we found a small foot path.

The path was slick and muddy but we made the 300ft climb easily while holding hands. Reaching the end of the foot path Isaiah and I stood at the top looking down at Sentani. Even with the rain and clouds we could see quite far in the distance, all the way down to lake Sentani and the mountains beyond.

I thought about a book I'd been reading, Prophecies of Pale Skin, as we stood looking out at the lush landscape. In the book, a missionary couple named Scott and Jennie, make a long and arduous hike through jungle terrain even crossing a treacherous vine bridge and risking health and life to reach the remote Dao community. After the first contact and an invitation by the Dao leader to live among them and learn the language, Scott and Jennie moved in with the Dao full time. They were barely out of their teens at the time.

Our family has made great changes to be here in Papua, but I can't call these changes "sacrifices" because they really aren't. We have given up so little and gained so much by being here. When we move to Wamena we will have the privilege of providing aviation support to those like Scott and Jennie. Men, women, families, who daily live a scripture penned by the apostle Paul during great hardship. A scripture I understand so little about.

 To live is Christ, to die is gain.

Phil 1:21 

Want to read about Scott and Jennie's work among the Doa? 

You can find the book on Amazon

It's well worth the read!

Prophecies of Pale Skin

The true story of a young couple who stumbled across a fierce, murderous, stone-age people group in the remote jungles of Indonesia only to find that they were the fulfilment to prophetic dreams given to the tribe long before their arrival.

Scott and Jennie also have a website where you can read their regular updates: http://sjphillips.org