Entries by Jeremy Gable

When I wrote last week, I actually had more to say about the people here, but while I was writing, I received a call over the radio that I was needed at the clinic as soon as possible because much prayer was needed. Thinking that there was a deathly sick patient there, I hurriedly finished the thought I was typing at the time, shut down the computer, and then hiked the quarter mile back to the clinic as fast as I could in my malarial weakened state. When I got there, I saw a large group of people crowded around the corner of my porch (which is attached to the clinic). I walked up to our clinic nurse, Wendy, and asked her what was going on. She looked tense and said they weren't sure, but it seemed like some kind of satanic harrassment, and tha everyone was gathered around her to pray for her.

I'll never forget it as long as I live. Nor will I ever be able to get the sound out of my mind.

I was helping out in the clinic earlier today with the normal flow of patients for a Sunday morning, when around 11:30 am we heard someone coming up the trail wailing. We looked to see Buba carrying his younger sister, our friend, 15 year old Nurgina on his back. She had her eyes closed and was screaming at the top of her lungs, "Meningkag siu ne, meningkag siu ne..." (let's pray, let's pray...)

The people and culture here are very different from what we know in America.  For the most part, everything opperates at a very slow pace compared to what we're used to.  In general, the locals aren't in a big rush to get things done.  For that matter, they don't have alot of things that need to be done.  Most of their days consist of working in their fields—cleared from the jungle on the side of a mountain slope so steep that if you slip and fall, there's a very good chance that you'll keep rolling until you roll right off the end of the field (or in some cases, right off the mountain)—or gathering food.  Aside from that, some people make various types of crafts which they sell along with any excess food they might have.

Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die."
 
This was the first lie every told on earth, and yet it still holds countless people deceived.  On Friday, May 5th, Danny, Napthali, and I went to a village called Lep-lep [Lupp-lupp] about 1 hour hike from here.  There's a man who lives there who fell from the top of a coconut tree years ago and was severely wounded.

From Jeremy

It was Sabbath morning, finally!  The week had been long and discouraging for me, but it was finally over and Sabbath was here!  I got washed up and put on my best—a pair of knee-length shorts and a clean t-shirt—and headed for church Saturday morning.  After prayer meeting and songservice, Rinal told the children's story—though I couldn't understand enough of it to know what it was about—while one of the local boys sat in my lap.  Next, Seblitu gave the sermon.  This time I was able to determine that it was about Samson, but not much more.  Finally, Pastor (Kent George) got up to speak.  I was able to understand most of what he said, and furiously wrote down the words I lacked.  After the sermons were over, we sang the closing song and had closing prayer.  The church members then split up for Sabbath schools—the women going to theirs, the men to theirs, and the children to theirs.  This week the study was on Revelation, so after every few verses were read, Pastor would get up to speak concerning the content thereof.  About half-way through, Danny's (another SM) radio came on, "Lima Golf, Lima Golf, do you copy Whiskey Golf, Lima Golf."  It was our nurse, Wendy, calling for Mrs. George.

  Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been able to write in a couple weeks. Two weeks ago the hydro generator went down in a way that I didn't know how to fix yet, and Pastor was in the lowlands so he couldn't fix it. Because he couldn't examine it either, we couldn't troubleshoot it over the radio. So without hydro power, we were conserving power as much as possible and the computer uses alot.

Hello everyone! I FINALLY have a chance to do some more updating. Unfortunately, I still don't have alot of time. It seems that this is going to be the case for most of the times. Just so that you're all aware, my scheduled email time is Sunday 10-11 am (my time) which is 14 hours ahead of US Central Standard Time. So with that in mind, you'll have to figure out what time that will be wherever you're reading this from. For anyone interrested in sending things to me here at the project, you can find my mailing address on the AFM website, which is www.afmonline.org Just click on Student Missionaries on the left side of the screen, and then click on my name and browse through the options displayed on that page.

Well everyone, it seems the first attempt to post this was done from my other email address which I apparently didn't give posting permission to, so it just rebounded. So now I'm posting it again (from the CORRECT address this time) though it's a couple weeks late now. Just remember that this all happened around the date that's shown below. I'll post more when I have time. Just so you know, I've been here in the project for a week now, and we just finished celebrating Thanksgiving (we even found some red, yellow, and orange leaves to use in making a center piece for the table! I was so happy!) For now, I'll just leave you to digest the things I wrote a couple weeks ago. God bless!

With love in Christ,
Jeremy Gable