Justin and Becky Burt Just another weblog Yesterday about 5 pm we heard some commotion on our front porch. Becky went out to see what was going on and to her displeasure, some of the Morop kids had caught a baby bat that would later be dinner. Since it was just a baby, it was unable to fly away. These fruit bats are one of many animals we would not dare to think about eating in the States. Other animals that the Morop often eat are lizards, rats, chickens and pigs. The later two we take great pleasure in eating with them, the first two we let the people have them all to themselves. Both parties seem to be happy about that!!! 
Bats for Meat
Merry Christmas from the Jungle!
Hey Everyone,
Merry Christmas! We are in the heart of the jungle but it still feels like Christmas! We have all of our decorations up, presents wrapped and 2 little boys who are counting down the days. Life here in the Morop village has settled down in terms of everyone in the village being sick so that has been a huge relief. Our little medical hours are set up to help with very general sickness’ so when big things come through the village we have to really depend on the nurses and doctors in town to help us through with their emails of advice. We had a great time with our thanksgiving company. It has been hard being in here alone but there visit was refreshing and seemed to encourage us as we press on. While they were here Justin and Brant even did some projects around the house so that was an extra treat. Justin just finished up his preliminary phonemic write up on the language here so that is just one more step toward the goal of one day presenting the gospel and translating the Bible into the Morop language. We have a break coming up the end of Dec so we are looking forward to being able to touch base with some of you on facebook. Other than that life here is just more language study and building relationships. This past week we had a hot dog roast in our front yard with some of the people. They thought it was cool but I am not sure what they thought of the hot dogs. Tonight we have plans to overnight at a garden house a little hike away from the main village so we will see how that goes. The boys are excited about that and are already betting how many leaches they will get on the way. Gross, yeah I know but its true! Hope that you all have a special Christmas this year as you celebrate the greatest gift of all! We will be thinking of you.
Love,
The Burt Family
Justin, Becky, Ethan and Derek
Prayer Requests:
The planes are all up and running and the weather is nice so that we can take our break after Christmas.
For us as we prepare for our upcoming language check end of Jan!
For finances for us to get a solar freezer (we are currently using our coworkers) and a needed new computer
Praise that we have been healthy even while the whole village had that virus.
Praise that the Lord has been our strength with medical and getting through the daily grind of life in here.
Update e-mail Nov. 20, 2009
Hi All,
So, how was your week? Our went something like this…
Maret returned and he is doing GREAT!!! He was out shooting his bow and arrow with all his buddies yesterday! PTL
A virus is making its rounds through the village the older people are having a hard time and dont seem to be able to kick it. We are on week 2 and it is still going strong.
Obet is super sick. We have started him on TB meds after consulting with the nurse in town on day 3 of taking the meds he slammed the door when we came.
Matias shot himself in the toe with his pellet gun so came to get that out.
Beceba is coughing up blood and has lost tons of weight so I started her on TB meds.
Maxi cut himself with his machette and his leg is super swollen.
Salinkon and Aboltangi from T2 were extremely ill from maybe TB and the virus.
Sally came with a gangrene infection on his thumb. That is the weirdest thing I have seen.
Karella came last week with a swollen lymph in her groin so we gave her some meds but this week she decided to slice it open with bamboo so now she has a huge infected sore.
Yohanis is sick with pneumonia.
Those were just the big things that came outside of our medical clinic hours this week. We have become really good at giving shots. Most of the things are getting better but talk about a busy week. Please pray for the health of the Morop people and wisdom, strength and energy as we offer medical care while learning language so that one day we can present the gospel in their language and they can be saved.
We have company coming for Thanksgiving!! Some friends from town will come in on Wed and stay til Mon. Please be praying that the weather will be good so they make it in and that we all have a relaxing and refreshing time of fellowship. Hope that all your holiday plans are coming together too. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Missionaries to the Morop,
The Burt Family
Justin, Becky, Ethan & Derek
Update from Nov. 6, 2009
Hey Everyone,
We have had a couple of really cool things to be praising the Lord for lately and wanted to say thanks for your prayers…
A doctor flew in here yesterday to give check ups and antibiotics to the Morop people. He and his team from a nearby village treated 16 people and were planning to walk back so they left all their medical supplies for us to use. Two boxes full of medicines that we use all the time for our medical program here in the city delivered right to our door stop…looks like the hand of God to me. We were also glad to be reassured that we are doing well caring for the people.
Maret is on his way home. We just got word that Maret and his dad have flown to a nearby village so 5 men went to carry him back to the town. It is a 3 days hike so that will be challenging for them all. We have heard that Maret is all better he talks, eats and can even walk but gets tired really fast. Please pray that they would return safely and that he would continue to regain his strength. We are still praising the Lord for working that miracle right before our eyes.
Other than that we continue to press on here in language study and are making great progress. Please pray that we continue to be healthy physically, mentally and spiritually as we live and serve the Morop people.
Thanks for Praying!! Hope that this is as exciting to you as it is to us.
Missionaries to the Morop,
The Burt Family
Justin, Becky, Ethan and Derek
Sago
Today we were able to visit one of our friends and he made us fried sago with egg. It was like a starch rubber egg, although we did enjoy it. The boys said they didn’t like, but then we told them it was just eggs they decided they liked it. Sago is one of the main foods here in Morop. They make it into a ball and then break it off into pieces to cook. They bake it by throwing it into the fire and toasting it a bit, they can fry it, usually without eggs, and they also use it in the feasts when they kill and cook a pig on top of rock under banana leaves.
More Rainy Days
Here in Morop it rains most days. Weather it is a drizzle for a little or a down pour of about 4 inches in a half hour or anything in between. During rainy season we get fogged in with a light drizzle that lasts for days or weeks. Well, it looks as though we were celebrating the arrival of dry season a bit too soon. The last few days have been completely fogged in with the slow drizzle that comes with it. Since there is not much sun, you can imagine how thankful we are to have friends like this pilot to help us fix our generator when my expertise is just not there! Just another thing to praise God for as He cares for us each day.
Soldering Friendships
There are about a million job that Becky and I do as we live and serve the Lord among the Morop people that we would have never imagined would come with the job of missionary. Some of the jobs that I do as relationship builders are fixing radios, flashlights, watches, wheelbarrows, etc…and NO thats right not my engiftment for those of you that know me but the Lord is working and I am learning how to jimmy-rig about anything these days with just a little solder. When you live in the bush there is no walmart or repair shop so we are there only hope…we try our best and they seem to appreciate our efforts even when things dont work out. I think it is neat to see how the Lord is using all these times with the people as opportunities to help them, as well as cultivate those relationships that are crucial for earning our right to speak of course so that we can one day present the gospel to the Morop people in their heart language. It is definitely an impossible task looking through the eyes of man but with God all things are possible for those who believe and step out to what He has called them. Thanks for your prayers as we solder friendships among the Morop and for the skills needed in the process.
Computers and Language Learning
Hello,
After hearing about our computer dying, one our good friends email us and asked us a few questions about how much computers actually play a role in learning the Morop language. I thought he had some very good questions and here is my attempt to answer them one by one.
Question #1: When you talk about your language studies, are they limited to computer work?
Language study is never limited to our computers. In fact, one of the most important things we can do to learn language is to get out and be with the people. When we set out to learn a language with NTM, it is not just the language we are interested in, it is the culture too. Because our goal is to one present the Gospel to the Morop, we need an in-depth understanding of the way they act and the underlying reasons for it. For example, when it has been raining for days or weeks without stopping, they will heat up a rock in their fire pit and then throw it outside so that the steam with rise to the clouds and the rain with stop. Now this can be as simple as them thinking that steam can stop rain, or it can have a more complex spiritual side to it in which they are appeasing some spirit or god. The only way for us to find out is talk to them about it in Morop and the only way for me to know about it is to be out with them.
Now computers are not completely useless. We do need computer for some of our language learning activities. Let’s take the example from above with the stone. When I am at a person’s home and something like this happens, I begin taking pictures. After they are done I will then ask them to tell me what they did in Morop. Since I am in the 2nd of 4 stages of language and culture learning, I don’t understand much of what they are saying. So I will go home and put the pictures and text into a program called CLAware (Culture and Language Acquisition Software). This was developed and is currently maintained by NTM. With those pictures I will have my culture and language helper do exercises with me so that I first learn the nouns of that situation, like rock, fire pit, steam, etc. Then I will move on and have him tell me the verbs like to heat up, throw, raise, etc. Once I have learn those little phrases, I will then move on the to text that I got while I was at the house and begin to transcribe it which often takes a long time. This will give me the sentence structure I need to speak good proper Morop as well as the intonation of the language.
Question #2: Are you able to learn as much from them [computers] as you are from the immersion lifestyle you are in?
Computers are mainly used for processing information, review and linguistic work. The things we experience in the everyday life of a Morop, are the best way to learning things. But just like anything else, we need to review those things, which is where computers come in. To give you an idea, I review about 4-5 hours a day and input things into the computer for about a half hour, so a good chuck of my day is at the computer.
Question #3: What is the most useful tool you have for learning/ logging/ studying the language?
The most useful tool we have is the computer. If it is used properly as a tool and not a crutch, it will be your greatest asset. If it becomes a crutch, it will be come the biggest hinderance to learning language. In fact, since I enjoy computers and office work so much, I try to spend one day just out with the people and not in the office. I am thinking of my time last week in which I did it and it was really one of the most profitable days of language I had that week. Now, I can’t do that everyday, but getting out with the people about 20 hours a week with give you more than enough material to review when are in the office without the computer becoming a crutch.
Well, I hope that shed some light on how computers play a role in language learning.
On a positive note, I was able to get my computer up and running this morning. I had to reformat the hard drive 3 times and finally it started working. I am thinking it is because my battery has gone completely dead recently and we keep forgetting to turn off my computer when we switch from generator power to our inverter. My mom did buy us a battery that will be here on our next supply flight in 1 week. So with a little caution given this week, maybe we have not seen the end of my MacBook Pro!
Missionaries to the Morop,
Justin, Becky, Ethan and Derek Burt
Bad Week
Hey Everyone,
You know those weeks you have that you would just like to forget? Well this has been one of those for me. One thing after another was happening, then tonight my computer finally died! It was one of those awesome 1st generation MacBook Pro’s. You know, the one that got this whole Mac craz started. Becky and I were hoping that it would last another year, but no such luck. It has seen many good days…blog writing…many many emails, but no more. Please be praying that God would supply the funds for another computer so that we can continue our language study here in Morop.
On a more serious note, please keep Maret in your prayers. We have not heard anything since our last update, but please keep praying.
Missionaries to the Morop,
Justin, Becky, Ethan and Derek Burt
Big Fly
One of the many joys our boys get to experience living here among the Morop is the joy of catching bugs. Everywhere we go they are catching bugs. Today as Becky and I were visiting some of our friends on our front porch, our friend Obet caught a huge fly. I have never seen one this big before. So Obet motioned to our kids to show them what he had caught. Ethan was really excited about it, but Derek didn’t really want much to do with it as it made a very loud buzzing noise.
Aside from catching bugs Ethan and Derek have been busy with school and playing outside. We have just entered our dry season so there are more opportunities to play outside for them. Although is still rains every afternoon, this is our dry season! 