You know you’re in PNG when:

1. A kid uses a cow about to be butchered as a recliner

2. The road is so bumpy that your soda goes flat before you finish drinking it

3. At a quick glance, you’re not sure if the dark spots on the floor are knots in the wood or cockroaches

4. Cockroaches don’t gross you out anymore

5. Houses with thatch roofs and bamboo walls have padlocks on the front doors

6. Pigs wander around the yard like dogs

7. Airport security pulls butcher knives out of a woman’s carry-on bag

8. Toyota Landcruisers actually cruise land… not pavement

9. The fruit bats are so big you can hear them coming

10. Class is regularly interrupted by 4 inch long flying bugs or swarms of bees

This is Carol, our language helper. She is teaching us Tok Pisin (Pigin English), the trade language. Most people speak Tok Pisin but it isn’t the heart language of over 850 language groups represented in PNG. Carol’s heart language is Benabena

Using special techniques to learn Tok Pisin is part of the Interface program. Interface is a college level course that touches on why NTM exists and how to plant a church in a cross-cultural setting. 

The program gives students a chance to understand what is involved in tribal church planting. I like to call it "missionary 101".

Mornings are spent in classes taught by experienced missionaries on why NTM does what we do, how we go about doing it (like linguistics, literacy, how we teach the Bible chronologically, etc.), and also who NTM is.

Afternoons are spent with the local tribal folks. The Benabena people live near the Interface campus and the students spend time with them, trying out some of their linguistics training, and interacting with them.

Interestingly this people group just recently heard the Gospel for the first time, and they have a new baby church!

There is also time to spend with the missionaries… learning from them and talking one on one with them about their ministries.

This program completely rocks! To learn more and apply: www.ntm.org/missiontrips

There is a new phenomenon in the Benabena village I call the "Velcro Effect"!

I encountered the phenomenon today while taking photos with the kids! There are 2 key elements which  make this possible:  their short, coarse hair and my long hair. When we get close my hair sticks to theirs and viola! Velcro!

I had a blast with them today and it was the first time I really felt we were able to connect!

We’ve spent a lot of time together, but with the language and cultural barriers, it’s hard to meet them on their level. Even their sense of humor is different and that’s how I ALWAYS connect with kids.

We ran around, played games, tickled, and hugged! The picture above is from when I was teaching them how to take photos with my camera! (We might have the next "Ansel Adams" in the bunch!)

All that to say I’m so grateful to be here spend time with these kids and pass God’s love on to them. I don’t take this opportunity for granted. Thank you for praying!

While I type, young women in the Benabena village I was in this afternoon are being beaten.

To be honest with you, I’m afraid I’ll hear their screams.

Tonight marks the end of one young woman’s sikmun "sick moon". This is her cultural rite of passage into Bena  womanhood. It is called sikmun because "The moon has looked at her and made her sick".

She went into a hut last Saturday and has been without water or even juices from fruit for a week. 

Tonight she came out of the hut and she, along with other young, unmarried women of her village are being beaten by older, married women.  They are hitting them with bamboo sticks. 

We talked to one of the girls this afternoon and she tried in vain to lighten the situation by joking that she’d see us tomorrow if she lived through it.

These women are beaten when their bride price is announced and then later when their future husband presents the bride price to her father. This is so they will be submissive Bena wives.

I visited this girl in the hut a few days ago… I was completely naive to what was really going on. I remember that when I smiled and greeted her she smiled back, but there was something wrong. I could see it in her eyes.

Today I played games with Bena kids and took pictures of the men butchering cows for the mumu (feast) in her honor. I was completely oblivious to what would take place tonight.

This evening we had game night with the students. I was sitting there surrounded by people who were eating icecream and laughing, unaware of tonight’s events. It felt asinine and I felt helpless and ignorant.

This reality is world wide. What’s happening tonight is a symptom of sin. It’s horrific but it’s nothing compared to Hell. I know the one thing that will cause true change is the Gospel.

* The Interface students and people associated with New Tribes Mission are not in the village or in any physical danger.

* Photo copyright 2007 Kristen R. Fields

Our whole team was piled into the back of a truck on our way to the Interface campus. This was our first form of ground transportation since leaving L.A. 43 hours earlier.

The Toyota Landcruiser trailing us was packed high with our suitcases swaying about on its roof. I was glad to see a Landcruiser doing what it was made for: off-roading and work…not just rolling around in a nicely paved suburbia!

As we rode through the village, the nationals waved at us. Kids smiled and yelled at us to get our attention. I’m still not sure if it’s because we’re white or because they’re so friendly they wave at everyone. I can tell you, though, watching us is a form of entertainment for them!

We had our first tastes of PNG culture in the airports. They were stinkin’ hot but fun! While we stood in line for our boarding passes, security was pulling butcher knives out of a lady’s carry-on bags.

I stepped on a cockroach my first night here. I was barefoot and it felt kinda smooth and slimy at the same time. Funny thing was it didn’t freak me out. A week ago in Florida I would have been totally grossed out. It’s amazing how a changed perspective affects how I react and approach situations.

For example: I will be wearing skirts for the next 6 weeks. For any one who knows me…I highly dislike wearing them. You see, in PNG culture, a woman who doesn’t wear a skirt isn’t considered modest. 

I don’t want to offend any nationals and I don’t want to ruin the good reputation that missionaries here have worked so long to build. When I keep this perspective it makes it easier to pull on a skirt in the morning.

I’ll tell you what though, I’ve had some close calls in these skirts! I’ve closed them in the doors, stepped on them when I stood up, and have tripped on them numerous times!

I know that giving up my choice of clothing is a small sacrifice in comparison to what Christ gave up to become a man and live in the slums we call "Earth" so that we could be with Him in Heaven.

Philippians 3:7-8  "I once thought that all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…"

What’s keeping you from knowing Him?

Screams errupted from one of the cabins my first night on the Interface campus here in Papua New Guinea.  It was one of the students’ encounter with a big bug!

I was talking to some of the Interface staff the next morning. "We knew it was either a bug scream or a gecko scream," Herb and Emerson told me, "So we didn’t come running.

I laughed as we talked but the more I thought about it, the more sober I became.

They hear other types of screaming from the villages surrounding Interface: fear and anger.

 When I look around and see smoke from the campfires in these villages I realize they are a fraction of the people  all over the world in remote places who don’t have any access to the Gospel.

Figure out a way you can help. God’s got plenty of ideas for you.

It’s a 1991 with numerous problems. I will be traveling to Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin this September and there’s no way my Blazer will make it. I thank God it’s lasted 278,000 miles though!

Please pray with me for a Ferrari 599 GTB (woops!) I mean a Chevy/ Toyota SUV or truck. These would be the most practical for me. Plus, I work on my own vehicles and I’m most familiar with these companies.