Giving thanks

It’s already getting late on Wednesday, Oct. 26, here. (Late being a relative term — relative to the fact that there aren’t really lights here and our days are starting around 5 a.m.)

So being Americans, we’re looking forward to Thanksgiving tomorrow.

No, the missionary families here won’t be serving us a traditional meal with all the trimmings. Although Carolyn Crockett did say she thinks she has a can of cranberries.

No, we’ve actually been seeing reasons to be thankful all along, and saw another today.

Rainbows are actually pretty common here … but we saw the first one of our stay here today. Used to be, the Mois connected the rainbow with the spirits. Even called the spirit’s walking stick. It was a bad sign.

But today it represents God’s promise to never flood the world again. Which is a pretty big deal when you live with this much rain, I guess.

I can’t wait to see what we get to give thanks for on Thursday.

The heroine behind the scenes

 

Regina, behind the camera, as usual

One person on our team is playing a relatively unheralded role behind the scenes.

While Nate, Ben and Proctor shoot video and handle sound and scripts and recording and all that fun stuff, and Macon does the stuff that’s so important the rest of us can’t figure out what he’s doing, and I write, Regina is working almost all the time.

She’s offloading video from the Sony camera’s memory cards, capturing HD from the Canon camera’s tapes, transcribing the translation of the voiceover, cataloguing video, checking video — and helping with shots in between times.

But don’t tell anyone here about that. The Moi men like women who work hard, and we kinda need her.

Gotta love technology …

Proctor sent me a link to this blog … too cool.

http://www.biscuet.com/general/aba-aba-aba/

In a week here …

Showing some of the Moi people video footage

We’ve met a woman who had never before seen a white person. (And she meets us, as we’re making a short film. How’s that for first impressions?)

We’ve walked down trails with men who have killed … some of whom have killed two or even four people.

We’ve heard these same men tell of their fear of witchcraft and spirits, and ultimately, death. “We have no old people,” one man said. “We all die young.”

But …

We’ve also heard dozens of Moi believers lift their voices in praise to God in a uniquely Moi way.

We’ve heard them pray and thank God that they no longer live in fear.

And we’ve heard them express their appreciation to God, and to the missionaries here, and to all the folks who have helped the missionaries who are planting a church here.

And that includes you. Thank you for the role you are playing in Tribal Missions, and investing in ministries among tribal people around the world.

A lot of hard work and an extra day

From Regina, this morning:

The next few days we need lots of prayer as we wrap up our final shots for the film, interviews and b-roll.   It worked out for us to stay an extra day – Praise the Lord!

There is a big feast tomorrow, where we hope to get some particular shots (pig), but it may be difficult to get them.  We’ll be filming some night scenes as well as a re-enactment of the crucifixion and some of the changes in believers lives.  Did I mention the interviews and b-roll?  We are positive as a team and excited about what we have gotten done so far.

We’ll be working hard the next few days!

P.S.  It’s raining tonight…

Streams in the Valley

Tipaye is in the back, standing next to the post.

From Proctor this morning:

Saturday was the most physically challenging day since we’ve arrived, for me at least. We hiked a grueling hour down steep, muddy slopes to arrive at a beautiful waterfall and a turbulent river.

It was definitely worth the pain my right thigh endured as I slipped and fell multiple times, catching myself with my right leg and grabbing at the roots sticking out of the ground.

The reward I had hoped for was there; a few hours of filming the shots we needed, then jumping in the river and swimming with the local tribesman. It was a blast.

But God had another surprise for me. You see, I had befriended one of the young believers, named “Tipaye” (pronounced “Se-pah-yay”), and when I was sharing my powerbar with the others, he didn’t seem interested.

He was off by himself, completely lost in what he was doing: listening to an MP3 player with white headphones!! (congrats, Steve Jobs, you’ve managed to extend the digital music culture you created to the ends of the earth!)

I took an interest in what he was doing, as he seems to do things differently than the others. His mind seemed elsewhere.

Tipaye pulled the earbuds off and put them up to my ears. I had no idea what he might be listening to. Indonesian hip-hop? Island reggae beats? PNG’s pidgin rap artist “O-Shen”???

No. It was Robin Mark singing “Lion of Judah”. Celtic worship music filled with rich doctrine!

I was floored.

Now I know he probably doesn’t really understand what all is being sung … but he sure seemed into it!

It brought me back to a service I’ll never forget. Back in July, Nate & I were with Beth Moore in Minneapolis for Living Proof Live. We stayed an extra day so that we could visit John Piper’s church. “Lion of Judah” was the main song that ushered in our corporate time of worship, and the whole service seemed to bleed with a mission heartbeat.

For some reason, it was a really powerful Sunday that I will never forget. It made me think of New Tribes Mission and the work being done in some of the remote places in the world where there are no churches and other believers to reach the unreached.

As I look back, it’s encouraging to see that when God leads me on crazy journey down a deep valley, there He is. With a refreshing stream to relax and play in, and with a brother who’s got more in common with me than I ever expected.

New Look …

I had to share this photo from Macon

We changed the look of the blog a little this morning.  We made this choice because the new layout provides better navigation.  If you like/hate it, let us know in the comments.

Patrick

Next time, someone else does the blog …

Ian’s computer died. But he’s able to borrow equipment to send stuff to me.  I’m happy to post it for him.

Here’s the latest from him:

We got some awesome shots from the helicopter this morning!

Actually, we didn’t. They did. They told me to stay here and blog. But then they said they got great stuff. Told me all about the amazing views, and incredible footage. Told me I could watch it later. But I’m not jealous. Really.

(Memo to self: Next time, someone else does the blog.)

We’re really grateful to Helimission and pilot Gunter Stroh for putting up with those guys. They can be really mean and … oops, sorry, forgot this isn’t about me. Gunter took the doors off and chatted over the shots and told us what he did and did not feel comfortable doing, for safety sake — which is a very good thing.

We’re actually starting to wrap up the shots we need for the short film, and will soon be able to move on to “extras.” Still trying to think up something humorous. If you have any ideas, leave a comment!

And thanks for praying about the rain. Your prayers were so effective that we had a good laugh the other day. You see, all day long we had only a tiny bit of rain. Then it poured all night long. I was even chuckling as I walked in the dark through the mud. (I think the sound I will most associate with this place is “squoooosh.”)

Please, would you not only pray that it not rain during the mornings and afternoons as we’re trying to film, but rain a bit less overall? Thanks! By the way, we’re 14 hours ahead of USA East Coast time, but God knows that as you pray. 

Praise like we’ve never imagined …

I just got this from Nate:

I’m sitting in a tiny square hut set up on stilts to keep the rain from running in. There are probably 60 tribal believers crammed in here. Most of them are wearing gourds or grass skirts. They are singing in a beautiful lilting key that is unlike anything we’ve ever heard in the states!

This church service is as far from anything we would show up to on a Sunday morning as it could possibly be. Jesus is here amongst the billowing smoke of bamboo pipes and the high pitched squealing of the village pigs. He is here and He is smiling!

Old Ways vs. New Truth

From Macon in the tribe:

The day started dubious. None of the tribal men seemed up to hiking straight down the mountain with our film crew to the river. We were trying to finish the ambush scene where they wrap the ‘body’ in a mat and throw it into the river. 

I don’t blame the tribal guys for their reluctance to make that long trek. I knew I would have a hard time to make it back, if I went down the harsh, muddy mountain trail.

Regardless, we were doing all we could to coax some of the men who were not out on the hunting party to ‘play’ this part of the ambush scene.

It was while we were earnestly praying that a group of 10, very rough looking tribal men, showed up, ready to go. These guys would scare you to death if you met them on the trail. But they broke into smiles and started snapping their fingers in the traditional Moi way of greeting and said “Abababa, Abababa” … and before you knew it, our film crew headed down the mountain, shooting some great footage. 

It was at the river, after the filming, that one of the Moi believers stood, looking at the water and began praying. He was thanking God that now he does not have to fear their old ways. 

It is our hope that the Moi journey to faith will have an impact on our American church, when they see what God has done among the Moi. 

It is having an impact right now in the hearts of the Moi believers as they consider who they were, when in bondage to the ‘old ways’ of darkness in contrast to who they are now, as they walk in the light of God’s truth.

Thank you for praying. Keep it up.

We had less rain today and we were able to keep two film crews busy. While Nate, Ben, Proctor and Rich headed to the river, Ian, Regina and I filmed some great testimonies from the missionaries and tribal believers.