Jeniene in PNG

Interface Video

2008-02-03T23:08:00.000-08:00

It's finally here! While I was in PNG there was a film crew making a video about the Interface program. Well, it's finally finished and ready for your viewing pleasure, and if you look close, you may see a few cameos of myself. Please enjoy!

Some Pictures!

2007-08-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

Well, I can't say it has been the easiest thing to come back to the states to deal with everything that is going on with my life at present, but God has been giving me the strength to handle it and still give him the glory. Praise his name!

I have finally had some time to put up some pictures, so here you are!

Traveling

Boarding the final plane to Interface!

It was a very long trip to Papua New Guinea. This is our group in Singapore - I think.

The interface campus

The Classroom
This is where we spend most of our mornings learning stuff like the destiny of the heathen, language and culture acquisition, and bible translation.

In the evenings we would get inundated with these bugs that looked like a cross between a cricket and a grasshopper. The guys would try to swat them down with ping pong paddles and squash them.

Nasty!

Between classes, I'd usually go outside for a bit of fresh air and sun. I'm the one in the hat that you really can't see.

This is my wonderful Interface group!

Interface cabins - pretty comfy for "rugged" living!

These are my two cabin mates, Kim and Liz

This is me and Jesse, our very friendly guard dog!

In the evenings, I'd either be doing some homework or hanging out at one of the staff/teacher's houses. I think we're playing a "who done it" game here.

Skit night! Both me and Kendel are playing mandolins, and Ben Wolf is the jungle maid.

How we took showers!

I spent a lot of time in the email room writing to everyone back home.

Hiking Around

A walk down to the river

This is the road in and out of the Interface Campus. Here we're visiting a neighboring village.

This tall grass was pretty cool. This is my "Gladiator" shot.

These little kids would follow us everywhere, even when we were on a two mile hike!

I got a splinter in my foot, and all the kids wanted to help me get it out. Or at least see what it was I was doing.

How nice and peaceful!

I think these kids really liked to show off

Language and Culture Training

This is my group and our language helper, Carol (she's the lady in the middle)

As part of our cultural training, we got to experience what life is like day to day in PNG. Here I am weeding my language helper's sweet potato garden.

The Mumu

This is me pealing sweet potato for a mumu - a big feast we were putting on for the village.

To start the mumu, they heat up a lot of hot rocks in a fire

Then they put a banana stalk around it with sticks for support and cover the hot rocks with weeds. Around the outside they mound up dirt.

Next they fill it with sweet potatoes (kaukau)

And then with greens, plantains, and meat

After covering the food with more weeds, they stick a long pipe down the middle.

When the mumu is all covered in dirt, they start pouring water down the pipe. This creates a lot of steam that then cooks all the food.

They will let the food cook like this for about 2 hours.

When the food is done, they start shoveling off all the dirt

Then they take out the food and let it cool down a bit.

They lay the food on the ground on dried banana leaves. One pile for the ladies, and one for the men.

We all got to eat with our fingers.
mmmm.... Lamb!

Village Life

Not much in PNG was on even ground

This was a pretty common sight in the villages.

People by the sides of the road usually sell small food items like peanuts, bananas, or sugar cane.

Gambling was very prevalent there. Everywhere we went we saw old, ripped up cards in the dirt.

I'm trying out what Papua New Guineans used to use for a pillow. It definitely keeps your head off the ground, but I'm not sure I'd last the night on it.

One thing I never really got used to was to look out and see multiple fires going across the countryside. They were everywhere. Apparently, being the "dry season" everyone was burning their gardens to make way for new crops.

In Papua New Guinea, you don't yield, you GIVE WAY!

This is how you but the string on a bow. They use bows to hunt pigs and birds, and to defend themselves from enemy tribes. This guy probably made the whole thing himself.

This is the Foster's house, a missionary family working in PNG. They normally have to build their own houses.

This is how we normally traveled around the country - in the back of a truck. A little bumpy, but the company was great!

Goroka

Check out this security guard's patch!

Some people selling chickens (kakaruk)

This is the veggie market. Those ferns are actually for eating!

I had some ginger in PNG. They serve it cold and mashed and covered in salt. Not exactly my favorite.

This is the Mari Blouse area. Ladies here wear very bright, very frilly, and very "frumpy" blouses.

We got to visit a coffee factory and taste the goods. Pretty good I'd say!

This is NTMA (New Tribes Mission Aviation) Missionary pilots and mechanics are an essential part of tribal missions. They fly people and cargo into and out of the tribes, and serve as ambulances, emotional and spiritual encouragement, and mail carriers.

When a part broke on a plane they had to fix it themselves. This is their mechanic shop where they could do stuff like cut and bend metal to make any shape they needed.

They had a room where they kept a supply of extra parts like bolts and hoses and stuff. It was even temperature regulated to keep the rubber items from drying out - they needed to stay good for as long as possible.

This is me with a few NTMA pilots, and a mechanic, Martin Burnham's brother!

This is the NTM headquarters in PNG. They are pretty self-sufficient and do everything from administration to education for missionary kids to having their own waste water treatment plant. That dish in the background is how I was able to get email while there.

NTM has one of the best dentist offices in the country. Unfortunately, the need for a dentist still goes unmet! So at the moment, it stands empty and waiting.

This is the mission barrel. Normally, missionaries don't get new things, but just whatever people donate to NTM.

While at headquarters, they put on a skit for us. It was to show how much tribal missionaries have to do - like learning the culture, and phonetics ect. and how other people can come in as support missionaries and US partners and take on some of their extra work to help free up their time to reach the local people.

Side Trip

We flew in on a Cessna 206

No worries, we were just having a little fun!

You might barely be able to see a light green strip on one of the ridges - that's the air strip that we landed on! The village is right there too, but you really can't see it from the sky.

This is the house us girls stayed in. It belongs to a missionary family who were on furlough at the time.

This is the group that went on the side trip with me.

Darryl and Becky Jordan
These are the missionaries working in the village we visited.

Becki had us girls over for a lady's tea - complete with 7 different types of desserts!
Mind you, this is in the middle of the jungle, days from the nearest supermarket. Their oven was flown in probably by a helicopter, and they built their house with their own bear hands.

Kids loved to see pictures of themselves in my digital camera.

Everyone was very curious and would stop whatever they were doing to watch us do whatever it is we were doing.

PNG Kids. Notice their bark capes. It keeps them both dry and warm.

This is typically what people in Papua New Guinea wore - if they were lucky enough to own any clothes at all.

We got to help the tribal ladies pick some food for a feast we were having. This is Taro. The garden we are in is about a 2 mile walk from the village.

Sugar cane!

Here's us trying to carry a string bag (Bilum) just like a tribal lady.

The women carry everything in their string bags (Bilums) on their head like this - from sweet potato to coffee, and yes, even their own babies!

It was just a bit dirty on our side trips!

We got to visit the school in the village. The kids are taught English and are not allowed to speak in any other language while in their classrooms. The kids at this point also know their local language as well as Tok Pisin, the trade language.

The church we got to visit on the side trip. (Women on one side, men on the other)

This is us singing at the church

One of the purposes of NTM is to work the missionaries out of a job. This is a local believer giving a review of last week's teaching at church.

This is the first place this tribe heard about the good news of the Gospel.

One of the nights we got to stay in a tribal house. This is Kena's. She is a believer and teaches Sunday school at church and helps out the missionaries with Bible translation.

We got to go out coffee picking with the locals. Don't pick the green ones!

Me with Mr. Spider (I was really hoping it wasn't poisonous!)

One day we got to hike down to the river. It was a very muddy experience, but as you can see, I didn't stay muddy for long!

Videos!

2007-08-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

How we amused ourselves on our long rides to and from town

Barbara Ann
Solo by: Sean Brubaker

Lean On Me!

This is one of the games the kids in PNG taught us

Our Flight into the Village on our Side Trip

The Skit I was In

I made it to Singapore!

2007-08-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Well, we are all here in Singapore. A bunch of girls from our trip are surrounding me at the moment looking each other up on facebook on the surrounding computers (free internet access!). I guess I'll be making one of those too; you know, so I can keep up with everybody I have met here. Everyone has been so nice! I am really going to miss them!

If I didn't mention this already last month, the Singapore airport is the best. We are staying at a hotel right inside the airport with a pool and spa!

Well, I think I'll head off to bed! We have to meet at 7:30am to get to our terminal and wait for our plane to Japan and then back to LA where my parents will be picking me up.

God bless,
Jeniene

Things I've Learned

2007-08-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

This will be my last blog from PNG so I thought I'd write
a little bit about what I've learned here:

Things God has taught me through His word:

- That if people do not know Jesus, God, what sin is,
about God's free gift, Jesus' sacrifice, and about
personal faith, then they will have no way of being saved.

- That we are all called to give up our lives to spread
this news.

- That this will not be an easy task, but hard. And our
only consolation is our faith, that we are doing what is
pleasing to God.

Things I've learned through my experience on the mission
field here at ITF:

- Tribal Missionary work is hard and if you don't KNOW
that God has you there you will not last. Darryl and
Becki - the two missionaries I met on my side trip left 4 grown
children, have never seen two of their grand children, had
their house burnt down (which contained most of what was
left of their earthly possessions and mementos), have seen
their own possessions in the homes of the tribal people
(they were stolen in the fire), have realized that most of
the tribal people who they thought were there friends were
only trying to get things from them, and are away from all
other believers and their greatly desired fellowship, and
everyone who speaks their home language.

- These people really aren't worth the effort (worldly
thinking), but then again, neither are we - and yet, Jesus
still died for us all. If you are going there because you
love the people, that won't keep you there, only being
consumed with Jesus will.

- There is a huge need - many people still haven't heard
the Good News, missionaries are few and under supported,
and they need and desire our encouragement.

- An incredible amount of effort, money, education, and
time goes into just getting a missionary prepared to go
into a village.

- A missionary must be encouraging (not judgmental) of
the tribal people. They must be able to praise even the
smallest spiritual baby step (just like a real baby).
Missionaries must stay positive and have a deep sense of
urgency and drive to do and persevere in the work they have
been given to do.

- Getting involved into the tribal people's lives is
pretty difficult. They must learn their language and
culture - how to think like them and learn their world
views, learn how to relate and interact with them while
all the time not judging them and loving them regardless
of what they think of them. And regardless of what the
missionaries think of the tribal people.

What I've seen of God's work in the lives of the tribal
believers:

- Happiness. They smile all the time and their eyes are
so incredibly bright.

- Determination. They are very pressured by both the
community around them and their own family to continue in
their tribal traditions, but they continue to obey God
regardless.

- Excitement in hearing people's testimonies. They are so
happy about their faith.

- They will sit for hours in church to hear reviews of
previous lessons, questions asked and answered, new
lessons given, testimonies, and singing songs.

As I reflect on these things, I am really beginning to see
how all this stuff applies to all us Christians no matter
where we are or what ministry we are in. In no
circumstance should we be judgmental of the people under
our wing. We need to always be patient and persevering.
To love even when we aren't loved in return. We always
need to have a sense of urgency and determination to work
with all our heart, throwing off all that hinders us to
run with perseverance the race that God has marked out for
all of us. This is the average Christian lifestyle.

It if funny, I always used to say that I was afraid that I
would live the "average Christian life" and not do
anything "extraordinary" for God; but now as I think more
about it, I guess I am more afraid of NOT living the
"average Christian life" and just fitting in to the
average world views that I will be bombarded with in just
a few days.

This has been an amazing time of rest, reflection,
adventure, and learning. Now comes the hard part. I will
go back and face what they call here the "Blessed Blahs" -
the time where I will have to start actually applying what
I have been learning and fighting the desires and
pressures to fit back into my "normal" routine; to not get
frustrated when people ask me how my time in Africa was
:) and to take steps towards determining where to go from
here - where and if and when to change locations, what to
do (go get a new job, go to some sort of school and if so
which one) and how best to involve my friends, family, and
churches in those decisions.

Thank you everyone for staying updated with my trip and
for encouraging and praying for me. It has been a huge
blessing! I ask that you also be praying for me as I go
home: for traveling and for my "culture shock" back to
America, and for all the things mentioned above. Thanks!

God bless!
Jeniene

I'm back from my side trip (Still in PNG)

2007-08-06T22:55:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

Well, most of us made it out safely from our respective
tribes. I say most because the weather got bad (fogged
in) where we were and we had to leave about 8 people behind.
Only the first plane made it in and out; and thankfully,
I was on it. As for good news for the people remaining,
they will probably get helicoptered out tomorrow. (I'm
pretty sad to miss that!)

The trip was pretty great. We got to attend a local
church service and hear them sing songs in their native
language and give their testimonies, we got to
hike/slip'n'slide (it was pretty muddy) down to the river
and go swimming (the water was just a bit cold, and it was
beautiful!) and we got to spend one of the nights in a
local Christian woman's home. Her name was Kena and she
teaches Sunday school for the kids at church and she also
helps the missionaries do Bible translation. They are
currently translating the book of Romans.

The two missionaries there, Darryl and Becki were really
nice. Becky made us lots of great food, and Darryl showed
us all around the village. We got to pick taro and
kaukau (sweat potato) and carry it back to the village on
our heads in string bags just like the local ladies do,
and we also got to pick coffee with them.

Thanks to everyone for praying for my health. I don't
seem to have gotten sick from anything I ate while there,
and my sore throat is doing much better. Doug Shaylor
gave me some stuff to take for it, which I have been
faithfully doing.

God bless everybody!
Jeniene

I found out where my side trip will be!

2007-08-01T22:23:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,

In order to not compromise on the work being done in Papua New Guinea, I have cut out the specific information about my side trip that you had seen here previously. Although there is no real threat of terrorism in PNG at this point, the NTM's contingency commettee at their headquarters in the USA has asked for the entire mission across the board to be very careful to not pinpoint the locations where their missionaries are working. Thank you for your understanding.

Well, I found out where I will be going on my side trip. I hear it is very beautiful there, and as an added blessing, we won't
have to take any malaria medication!

The current missionaries there are Darryl and Becky Jordan.
I heard that Darryl loves to go hiking so we will be doing
a lot of that too (yay!). He normally runs 5 miles a day
up and down the mountains so I've heard! Which is pretty
good for a guy in his 50-60s.

There are about 100 believers and we will get to visit
with them, hear their testimonies and attend Sunday
service with them. I am very excited to see how their
indigenous church differs from other places I've been.

Some prayer requests for the trip are that the weather
will be OK to fly in and then out of the tribe again. It
will be a 1/2 hour flight on a Cessna 206 airplane (very small)
and I heard that the airstrip we will be flying into is
slanted (we will land going up the strip and take off
going down it) so that should be a bit of an adventure!
For the moment the weather is holding well, though for
the last two days it was not and a missionary had to be
dropped off at a neighboring village and had to walk 7
hours to get to the village (sleeping in the jungle
overnight). If the weather is not good on Tuesday when we
plan to fly out we will just have to wait for it to clear;
which may lead to us missing our flights out of PNG.

No one there besides the missionaries will speak any
English, so please be praying that I will be able to
remember enough of my Tok Pisin to get by alright.

Also please pray for our health as I, along with several
others, are coming down with soar throats.

Thanks everyone!

God bless,
Jeniene

2007-07-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Well, ITF is slowly coming to a close. We leave for our
side trip this Friday and come back here to the ITF campus
on Tuesday; then leave for LA on Thursday morning. There
are a possibility of three side trips. I don't know which one I've
been assigned to yet, but for either one you can be
praying for health and safety as we travel into and out of
the indigenous tribe. While there, we will be able to see
a missionary work in progress and get to experience the
nationals' testimonies about how God has changed their
lives. I am very much looking forward to it. Please pray
that I will be open for what God has to show me there.
Thanks!

God bless,
Jeniene

My Day in Goroka

2007-07-27T23:26:00.000-07:00

A few days ago we got to visit the town of Goroka. I have
heard it has the best weather in the entire world, and I
must say it was pretty nice. In fact, the only time I was
uncomfortable with heat and humidity was because we
were INSIDE a department store that apparently didn't have
any air conditioning! I was so glad I got out of there!

At the veggie market I got to try a type of nut that was
new to me. It tasted kind of buttery but very good,
though I had nut in my teeth the rest of the afternoon. :)
There was a lady there that apparently hadn't seen many
white people before. She actually walked right up to me
and felt up and down my arm! That was pretty funny!
Apparently, the nationals there aren't afraid to stare,
and most of them were! Our only saving grace is that
there was a tour group of Japanese there as well - out with
their cameras :) so at least we weren't the only
spectacles!

Some of the other things we got to see were a PNG museum
depicting some artifacts and relics from WWII, and a
coffee factory. Also, we got to see New Tribes Missions
Aviation (NTMA) headquarters. We got to be shown around
and we saw where they service all the planes that fly the
missionaries into the jungle and bring people out for
medical work. They even had a helicopter there that we
got to see land!

One of the final destinations on our trip to Goroka was to
one of the nicest hotels in town. We got to sit around
the pool and order what they call "thick shakes". (If you
just ordered milk shakes, you'd basically get chocolate
milk.) I got an iced chocolate - it was kind of like a
frappuccino - my favorite! But then I went out again to do
some more shopping at the hotel gift store. When I got
back, everyone was leaving so I drank the whole drink in
practically two sips. I got a bit of a head freeze, but
it still was good. :)

The ride to and from the Interface campus took about an
hour in the back of a truck equipped with bench seats and a
canvas top. The road was very bumpy, but we had fun
entertaining ourselves by singing songs and playing games.
By the time we got back we were dead tired and almost
hoarse from singing. :)

It is actually kind of funny because Goroka isn't very far
away. We can see the lights from the city from the hill
we are on, but the roads are for the most part VERY
uneven, definitely not straight, and made of dirt.

Medical Update:

Kara is back with us. (Yay!) She and Doug have moved
into a different cabin on the same level as the school
house so she won't have to trudge up any hills to get to
class. When we have meals, one of the staff picks her up
in a jeep and drives her up the hill to the dining room.
Hopefully this arrangement will work out (it seems to be
so far) so she won't get out of breath again - which would
lead to her getting not as much oxygen (Kara has scarred
lungs so she has a hard time breathing normally - so being
up here at 5,000 feet isn't dong her much good). Thanks
to all that have been praying for her recovery!

Benjamin Shelor is still drowsy most of the time. He
hasn't been able to attend classes either. Please be
praying that this virus, whatever it is, will not hinder
him being able to get what God has for him to learn here
on this trip.

One of our other staff, Emmerson, has strep throat again
so he is back in quarantine (he has to stay away from us
students). Please be praying for him as well, and that we
will all be accepting of what God's will is for all of us
while out here in PNG.

Thanks guys!
Jeniene

The sounds of PNG

2007-07-26T00:35:00.000-07:00

Today I thought I'd give a brief overview of all the
different (and sometimes very similar) sounds of PNG.

First of all, at about 4:00 in the morning the day starts
with one, then all of the guard dogs barking. This lasts
until about 7:00 and pops up during random parts of the
day as people walk by where they are chained up. In the
morning, besides the usual sounds of people waking up, you
will get to hear all the beautiful birds chirping. This
in none of the annoying crow sounds you will hear in the
states. Each and every one is beautiful and melodic.
During the day if you are outside you will also hear the
common fly and bee noises as they hover around and on you.
My favorite sound is the rustle of leaves in the breeze.
It sounds a bit different here since it is mostly banana
leaves, but we also have silkwood and pine (who would have
thought there would be pine trees here in PNG?) If you
are inside it is because you are most likely either in
class, sleeping, or at a meal. In class you can hear the
speaker, or during breaks, people playing ping pong or
various instruments, or at all times: the geckos -
they make this "hiss-chirp" noise that is really hard to
reproduce. I never knew geckos even made noises, but that
is what everyone says!

In the evening you will again hear the dogs bark, but that
is nothing to the students. All our walls are paper thin
and everyone can hear everyone else's conversations from
almost anywhere on the campus until really late on in the
night. Last night I even heard some drum beats from the
neighboring village.

Well, I hope that was a little interesting, because that's
all I have time for today. I really have to go now, they
are calling us all for dinner! Yum!

God bless,
Jeniene

Passions and Purposes

2007-07-22T21:47:00.001-07:00

Hellow Everyone!

We are really getting into some exciting studies here in
PNG. Last night we had a visiting missionary speak on the
"Missionary Call". It was very informing. Generally
speaking, there is no such thing as a missionary call.
It is more of what I will call a "Missionary Send." All
of us are "called" to become followers of God, so in a
sense "being called" is synonymous to obtaining salvation.

Look it up for yourself in the Bible: most times when God
calls someone, it is to Himself; when God tells us then
subsequently to "go" it is either to a people or a place,
not necessarily to a certain ministry. God has called all
of those who follow him to go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey all that Jesus
has taught. Well, I don't know about all of you, but that
is definitely what I want for my life. I don't know what
that means for my future, but I am laying my own desires,
fears, dreams, and passions aside to take up whatever he
has portioned me to do. Please pray with me as I step out
in faith to receive direction and wisdom as to where I go
from here.

As the speaker last night said, "It is not important what
my passions are, but what God's are".

P.S. Thank you for all your prayers for the Lord to keep
us safe here in PNG. I am happy to inform you that not
many of us have gotten sick after that first wave.
However, I do have some other (slightly) more serious
prayer requests: Kara Shaylor, one of the NTM staff
working here, is having some lung problems. Her oxygen
levels are very low and she has suffered a lot of
different types of sicknesses. Hopefully she will be
returning to the Interface Campus within the week, but
currently she is still at the clinic. Secondly, Rebecka,
one of the other students here, has hurt her knee playing
soccer and is hobbling on crutches (an interesting story
about the crutches - they are truly a mixed blessing since
the only reason NTM has a pair here is because a guy broke
his foot here during the last session) . Finally, another
student, Benjamin, is recovering from a virus (high fever
and red spots on his chest) . Please be praying that these
three will be able to recover completely without any
recurring problems, and, most importantly, that God's will
be done and that our hearts will be in submission towards
whatever that is.

Thanks guys!
Jeniene

Neat Story

2007-07-20T23:14:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share a little story of something that
happened to me a few days ago here in PNG.

During our afternoon breaks here we sometimes get to go to
the local villages to speak with the nationals and
practice our tok pisin. On the way to the village the
other day we passed an old lady laying down by the path.
After a brief conversation with our NTM staff, we were
informed that this poor lady had been suffering with some
kind of sickness for about a week. She had gotten so
tired of being sick that that day she decided that she was
going to go to her garden to work anyway. On the way back
home she had gotten too tired and had sat down to rest.
She told us to go on up ahead and she would follow when
she felt a bit better.

I like this story because it reminds me of how much the
same all of us are, even if we live on the other side of
the planet in a totally different culture. How many times
have I felt so fed up with something that I just tried to
go on with life as if it wasn't even there. We are all
the same!

Thank you for all of your comments and encouragements and
prayers everybody! They have been such a blessing to me!

God bless,
Jeniene

What I've been learing in my classes here at Interface

2007-07-19T23:41:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

I just thought I'd share a very small portion of some of
the stuff being taught here at Interface. Before tribal
evangelism can take place, we each must be assured of our
own salvation and be able to share it with anyone. For
that reason, we have spent a lot of time going through the
Bible and determining what exactly it says about God,
Jesus, and mankind. Below is just a little snippet of
what has stood out to me through the teachings of the
staff here and the reading of God's word:

Through the course of our lessons it has been imprinted on
my mind that: While God will allow us to do whatever we
want, he will not allow us to chose our consequences. As
a creator, God created the world; as a God of consistency
and order, He created this world with rules - both
physical and spiritual - each with their own set of
consequences if they are broken. These rules do not
change; so if a scientist wants to plan a flight
trajectory of a satellite to Jupiter, he/she will be
assured that it will get there because the rules of
physics, say gravity, do not change. Likewise, if a
person decides to jump off a cliff, he will be assured
he/she will fall down; he/she cannot chose a different
outcome (that is unless he/she has a hang glider, but I
think you get the picture).

Spiritually speaking, God gave us rules, like the 10
commandments, that if, or more accurately, when, broken,
ensue prescribed consequences. God calls the breaking
of these spiritual rules sin, the penalty of which is
death. "For the wages of sin is death" Romans 6:23. By
this standard that God set up, all of us are guilty of sinning.
As it says in Ecclesiastes 7:20, "For there is not a just
man on earth who does good and does not sin." So just as
we can be sure that if we jump off a cliff we will fall
down, we can be sure that there will be a death for the
sins we commit. I say "a" death and not"your" death
because God has set up a way for us to not personally have
to pay the entire consequence of our sin. God sent Jesus
- the only one born who committed no sin (because He was
also God) to die for us. God said that if we believe in Jesus,
we will not be condemned for our sin. To
complete the entire verse of Romans 6:23, "For the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord."

Now, just as God set up the rules of physics and of sin,
God set up the rules of salvation. One cannot chose his
or her own method, but we must go through the ONE method
God has set up: Jesus. Many people try to get to God by
other means, be it through certain rituals, or by thinking
their good actions will outweigh their bad, but these
things are not Biblical and will not lead to salvation.
Jesus says that: "I am the way, the truth and the light,
no one comes to the Father except through me" John 14:6.

So, to sum up, just as if we were to jump off a cliff we
will certainly fall - there is no other option, and just
as if we sin we will certainly face death - there is no
way around this, we can be given salvation by having faith
in Jesus - there is no other way. This IS what the Bible
teaches.

One of the main things that Interface has been emphasizing
in its classes is that everything we do, think and believe
MUST be proven in the Bible. The Bible is the way we can
know the attributes of God. All our doctrine and ideas
MUST match up with it.

So many times we (as Christians) get into "discussions" or
fights and form divisions based off of what we think
instead of going back to God's written word and seeing what
it actually says. Even while I have been here we have had
some discussions when we had to remind someone that we
must base our beliefs on what the Bible says, not on what
some other great theologian might say, or what we might
think has to be true. If we go into the scripture with a
pre-conceived notion of what it must say, we will be in
big trouble. In this case, one can "make" the Bible say
whatever you want it to: that the world is flat, that it
is OK to kill off all non-Christians, or that
homosexuality is not a sin (these are all not true, by the
way, but were or still are thought to be Biblical by some).
Jesus said "blessed are the poor in spirit and the meek"
(paraphrased from Matthew). We must come to God with no
pre-formed agenda in order to fully understand and
glorify God.

Birthdays!

2007-07-18T00:18:00.000-07:00

I was very surprised to learn that while we are in PNG,
three of the students here will be celebrating their
birthdays. That in itself might not seem very out of the
ordinary, but as it turns out, they will all be turning
21. I find this very encouraging. How many people do you
know would want to spend their 21st birthday away from all
of their family and friends, in a totally new country, and
on a mission trip no less! I don't think I was that
mature at that age - in fact I know I wasn't. It has been
fun celebrating it with them, and I am so glad to think
that they have so much of their lives ahead of them and
they are willing to give everything they had wanted to do
with it and give it up to do God's will. Praise the Lord!

=J

2007-07-15T21:32:00.001-07:00

Hello Everybody!

Thanks so much for all your prayers about my health. So
far I have avoided getting sick, although a lot of people
around me haven't. It seems like almost every day someone
else is missing class. Thankfully it doesn't seem to last
long.

We got to learn how to cook sweet potatoes and banana
today, or as they say, kukim kaikai na banana. That was a
fun lesson, but it got my hands all sooty and the banana
that I tried to eat was a little hard, or as they say,
stronpla banana. :)

We have been able to learn a lot about how to learn a new
language; and I find it very interesting in how important
it is to understand the people's culture. In our classes
they have taught us that: Language is the expression of
culture, and to a great extent, culture is expressed
through language. So if you want to teach a group of
people something new (say, the Gospel message), you can't
just go right up to them and transcribe your English into
their tribal language; It won't mean anything to them, or
else it will mean something inaccurate. First you need to
understand how they view the world, their motives, values,
and beliefs. You need to understand their pre-conceived
notions of God or "gods", or their understanding of good.
You wouldn't want to tell a group of people who think a
good person is one who lies well that "God is good."
Basically you would be telling them that God is a good liar.

I am learning that it takes a lot of preparation and
learning to be able to be able to explain the Gospel
correctly to a tribal group. There are so many things you
have to be looking out for. For example, it is very easy
for a tribal group to take their new belief in Jesus and
mix it in with their old form of religion, what is known
as syncratism. For example, there is what is called the
"Cargo Cult" here in PNG. They believe that if they obey
God and go through all the actions of Christianity
correctly, then God will provide them with physical stuff.
This came from their initial belief that all their
physical possesions come from "gods" so when they saw White
Man receiving cargo shipments of guns, food, and other
stuff they thought that their "gods" were providing it for
them. The White Missionaries told them of God and all the
things needed to be a good Christian, but instead of their
ultimate desire of wanting a relationship with Him, all
they wanted was the Physical Stuff. So they were quite
disappointed that they didn't receive any of the White
man's physical goods when they "became Christians".

I can really see now why it takes so long to "Evangelize"
to a tribal group. And I am even more impressed of those
who choose to be a tribal missionary. They have to be so
knowledgeable to all the pitfalls, aware of all that the
tribes people might be thinking, have a exceptional
knowledge of the language and culture, and on top of that,
the Bible and Gospel message. That must all take so much
discipline!

Amazed in PNG,
Jeniene

National Exposure

2007-07-10T23:56:00.001-07:00

We got to visit some of the nearby villages for the first
time today. I couldn't believe how close they were. We
visited three altogether and it took less than an hour. The
first, the Yamayalo, was just up the hill from our campus,
and you could even see our buildings from them. The
Villages consist of large family groups, with about 10
huts a piece. Most everybody was off tending their
gardens when we were there, so we got to play tourists and
took pictures of ourselves with their huts, dogs, chickens
and pigs. There were some people still there, but most of
them were playing cards (a form of gambling) so we weren't
allowed to socialize with or take pictures of them. The
reason being, the people know that gambling is "wrong" but
it doesn't stop them from doing it; however, they feel
very uncomfortable when we acknowledge it (by sitting with
them or taking their picture) - us being "good bena"
Plus, New Tribes doesn't want itself (by means of us) to
be associated with something that the Bena people think to
be wrong or impolite.

That is also why us girls must wear long skirts, must not
look in the eye, take pictures of, or talk to the Bena
men, or walk alone with any guy (including our own - the
guys in the training program with us). The restrictions
are pretty rigerous for us girls, especially for me who
makes it a point to always look people in the eyes, but if
it helps keep us Christians in good standing with the
nationals, then it is just that much easier to share the
Love of Jesus with them. Indeed, it would be very hard to
share His love while we are simultaneously disrespecting
them in some way.

I made it safely to PNG

2007-07-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I have now settled into some sort of a routine here in
PNG. The first couple of days were kind of rough. It
took me a bit longer to recover from the trip than most of
the others. During most of our breaks I would be found
sleeping in my hut. We get these cute little huts to
sleep in, surrounded by beautiful flowers set on a sloping
grassy hill. In the distance you can see a lush valley
full of banana, silkwood, and pine trees, and behind that
mountains peek through low-lying clouds. It rains quite
frequently here, though never for very long or hard.
Sometimes we can hear the rain tapping lightly on our
metal roofs in our cabins. It is very relaxing. We have
had a couple of sunny afternoons, and with the very hot
sun I am glad that the clouds are not frequently absent;
but the unfortunate thing about this is that I have yet to
see a starry night sky. We are told that we can see the
southern cross from here, and I feel that I won't really
be able to comprehend how very far away I am from all of
you until I am able to see it.

The food here is great and varied. Today we had Chinese food, yesterday tacos, and a few days before that BBQ
chicken - all of which was delicious. We have a great
kitchen staff. I have had the ability to taste some of
the local fruit, much of which was not to my preference,
but the pineapple and bananas aren't bad.

My daily routine consists of waking up sometime around 7, having group prayer at 7:30, then breakfast. We are in
classes then until lunch and then free-time / homework
time until dinner. We then might have another class,
then some time to hang out at our staff's houses and more
time to study or do our devotions.

I have really loved our classes. My favorite so far has been phonetics. To learn another language, we will have
to write out very specifically what we are hearing, and
for that we need to know how to write it. Thus far we
have learned all the vowel sounds for the Tok Pisin
language (the trade language here in Goroka - and the one
we will be attempting to learn). They have quite a few and
include "i" which is pronounced "ee," "e" which is
pronounced "eh" and even some others that I can't even
find characters for on this keyboard. The homework is fun
too. We are given English words and are asked which vowel
sounds we hear and how to write them.

Some other homework isn't quite so much fun. I just finished writing a short essay on the destiny of the
heathen - using nothing but my Bible and a very old
concordance. I'm just glad this stuff isn't going to be
graded heavily. I was never that keen on writing papers.

Well, it sounds like it is raining outside again. I think I'll go sit outside on the swing and journal for a while until dinner. One of the reasons I was so much looking
forward to this trip is that I would have lots of time to
reflect on God and all the things He has been teaching me,
though I must confess, I have been pretty preoccupied with
so many other things. If you have some time, I would love
some prayers on this matter. One of the sessions we had
when we first got here was on our passion. The ultimate
passion we have as Christians is that of God himself. If
this is not the case, then our lives will be way off
balance, without peace or satisfaction. I have definitely experienced this before! It is anytime I have put myself and my priorities first. I am asking God
to give me that passion for Him; and in that, trusting
that He will lead me in the correct direction with the
rest of my life - giving me "minor" passions/ministries
that are subservient to Him, staying humble and open to
His teaching.

God bless, Jeniene

Or as they say in PNG, lukim yu behind! (i.e. good by)

Pictures!

2007-07-09T15:53:00.001-07:00

Compliments of Doug and Kara Shaylor, full-time NTM missionaries primarily assisting the New Tribes' Mobilization program. They've accompanied the Interface crew on the trip to PNG and updated their website with some pictures of Papua New Guinea, the students, and the overall trip thus far. Enjoy!

-B <><

PS- I'd like to personally thank the Shaylor's for taking all of the pictures :-)

About to leave Singapore

2007-07-05T04:38:00.001-07:00

Well, Singapore has been nice, but I'm about ready for my 6.5 hour "nap" to PNG. I still feel like I am in a bit of a time warp - not really ever tired, but I probably could drop right off to sleep if need be. Most of the group here is pretty tired, so I think most of us will drop off during the flight. I hope it is enough. We will get to PNG in the morning and will have to/should stay up the rest of the day to adjust to their time zone.

The tour of Singapore was great. It was so nice to get outside the airport. The air was really warm and humid and for some reason, smelled sweet. I really liked it. Singapore was not at all like I was expecting. It is a very modern city, with very tall and narrow skyscrapers that housed most of the population. The whole area looks more like a garden than a city - very clean. We got to take a river tour on these old boats and see some very colorful buildings and city landmarks, including the mer-lion statue. It has the body of a fish and a head of a lion that spouts water. For a while it looked like the boat driver was going to drive us right into the spray, but then backed up last minute. It reminded me very much of the jungle cruise - especially with the cheesy happy American tour guide audio recording playing in the background. By this point my camera battery gave out (so sad) but some other people got some pictures of me on the boat so its not that bad. I just hope the battery is OK. I don't really want to pay for a new one - so I'm going to risk it.

I had some good authentic food at the airport - the latest being fish ball soup - not that bad, but a bit bland. To make up for it I had Macadamia gelato for dessert. Pretty good!

I'm in Singapore!

2007-07-04T21:52:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

I made it to Singapore. It's 9:40 pm California time, 1:00 pm July 5th my time. Suffice to say, I'm totally thrown off. I remember once on the plane I was woken up to eat breakfast and I realized that they could have been serving either breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert and I wouldn't have cared. Actually, that was the second breakfast I'd had in a row.

The flight over was by far the best one I've ever had. In fact, I wouldn't be upset if it was much longer. The reason for this seemingly odd statement is that each seat back had its own entertainment unit where you could choose to watch about 50 movies (with fast forward, reverse, and pause control) play games with the computers or other passengers, get local news, watch TV shows, and listen to whatever music you want. The food was actually really good too. I even got to get a little bit of sleep. I found out that my sweatshirt (the one Mrs. Lesicka gave me) works really well to block out light, so minus the uncomfortableness of sleeping upright, I was able to get in at least one good powernap (that doesn't happen very often and I'm very grateful for it).

In about 2 more hours we are going to take a tour of Singapore. That should be really exciting since we actually get to leave the airport. It looks a bit overcast outside, and I think it is very hot, but it looks green and beautiful. Not that the airport isn't that great too. A lot of the other guys here are taking showers, and I have a voucher to get some good local food involving some sort of rice dish that should be pretty good. I would really like to try out some local food while I'm here.

God bless!

Jeniene

I'm going to PNG!

2007-06-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hello wonderful friends and family! Only a few more days now and I'll be on my way. I fly out of LA Tuesday evening (technically July 4th 1:00 am), stop over in Taipei, and spend Thursday afternoon in Singapore (with the time change I actually lose July 4th, so you'll all have to celebrate it for me) I finally arrive in PNG a little after 5 am on July 6th.

With such a long journey, I would love to have some prayers that it will be a safe and healthy one, and low-stress. I am really looking forward to meeting everyone else that is going on the trip, and traveling somewhere so totally new to me. And, of course, I am so excited to see what God has to teach me along the way.

I'll try to keep everyone updated through this blog and personal emails about how the trip is going, but I'm not sure how much time I'll have.

Thanks for all your prayers and support!
God bless,
Jeniene

Jeniene in PNG

Interface Video

Some Pictures!

Videos!

I made it to Singapore!

Things I've Learned

I'm back from my side trip (Still in PNG)

I found out where my side trip will be!

My Day in Goroka

The sounds of PNG

Passions and Purposes

Neat Story

What I've been learing in my classes here at Interface

Birthdays!

More stories from PNG

National Exposure

I made it safely to PNG

Pictures!

About to leave Singapore

I'm in Singapore!

I'm going to PNG!