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Messersmith
In my wildest dreams, it never came to me that I too would someday take up a sword and journey to do battle in the same land in which my father's comrades-in-arms spilled so much blood. The sword I carry is the Word of God. Our enemies are fear, pestilence, and evil. The prizes of the battles are spiritual and intellectual freedom, a life made healthy by the grace of God and knowledge of the nature of his creation, and a peaceful society living in harmony within his will and according to his laws. God saw fit to mate me to a fellow warrior. Together we have done battle here for over twenty-two years. It has been a good fight. With God's blessing and the loving support of our fellow warriors in our supporting churches, we hope to continue as long as we have the strength. Eunice and I have found our home. It's right in the middle of a WAR ZONE. IN THE MID '70s Eunice and I
were working hard at building a business in Brownsburg, Indiana. We had
a son in grade school and life was chugging along. As time went by, we
became less and less happy with our situation. Our business didn't
provide the stimulation and satisfaction that it had in the beginning.
Feelings of unease and discontent began to dominate us. Finally, we
found it impossible to continue on a road that seemed to have no
direction or purpose. By 1978, we were seriously desiring to get off
the planet. We began the tedious process of selling our business with
no clear idea of what was coming next. We knew we wanted a drastic
change. That's just what we got. I had gone back to Lincoln Christian College
to finish a BA degree in Church Growth & World Missions which I had
started sixteen years before. Eunice stayed in Brownsburg to manage the
business while I spent four days a week going to school and living in a
dorm with what seemed to me to be children. One of my professors told
me about a small Bible translation mission that had just gotten
started. He was also the vice-president of operations for the board of
directors. He knew that I was interested in computers and that Eunice
was a bookkeeper and office manager in our business. He suggested that
we apply for support positions in the mission since those were the
positions they were wanting to fill. I HAVE TO SKIP NOW, over a lot of tedious preparations that aren't very interesting. By April of 1981 we were in Madang, Papua New Guinea ready to start our work. As I look back at the pictures today, I think we look awfully young, but we were in our mid thirties. Suddenly, and somewhat overwhelmingly, life was exciting again. We found ourselves seeing and doing things of which we never dreamed. Most of it was stimulating and just plain fun. A big part of it quickly became the daily grind - actually the part that felt normal. Some of it was just plain misery.
One thing we did appreciate about our training
experience was that it gave us time to experience being a family in a
situation in which we had to function together as a unit. Some of the
things we did as a family, while not being much fun at the time, still
provide us with a storehouse of memories that are even more valuable to
us now that we are separated from our son by half A fourteen year old boy mowing an airfield
with a tractor and a ‘bush hog’ may not seem unusual if you
live in the country, but for us city folk, it was worth a picture. That
tractor is the source of many memories for us. A village a few miles
away needed the tractor to help build an airstrip. Our job was to find
a way to get it there. A few miles doesn't sound like much of a problem
for a tractor, but you can hardly even walk through virgin rain forest.
The roots of the giant trees are so high off the ground that you have
to climb over them every few feet.
Though we were desparately short of experience, we certainly had enough advice.
People are the same the world over. They are always ready to offer
their expert opinion concerning projects that are completely beyond
their experience. After several anxious and stressful hours, it was
time to test the theory. My main thoughts centered on how long it would
take me to get the tractor out of the river and make it run again. BACK IN THE TOWN SCENE, we were
soon well into our respective assignments. As a bookkeeper and general
office manager, Eunice was comfortable in her work. Though the
surroundings were different and Computers have become a very important tool
not only for the assistance they provide to translators, but to the
administrative operations of the organization. BEING SUPPORT TROOPS in a war zone is never boring.
Unimaginable fears and suspicions are generated by death. The need to discover the spiritual cause of the death is paramount. No person in the village is safe until the murderer can be exposed. If this turns out to be a person, the community must see that justice is done. Papua New Guinea has laws dealing specifically with death by magic. Since disease also is usually seen as a result of a malicious spiritual act, medical treatment and hygiene are seldom accepted as being relevant to overall well being. Furthermore, vengeance killings often lead to bloody and merciless feuds. OUR SPECIAL FORCES TROOPS are the translation teams. Bible translation requires, aside from linguistic and theological studies, a thorough investigation of the culture. It's not as if you are translating a camera owner's manual from Japanese into English. Even that relatively simple task often produces a document more interesting for it's unintended humor than its usefulness. A Bible translator must reach deep into the cultural idioms of the Hebrew and Greek texts and transfer the meanings of the texts into the appropriate idioms of the recipient culture. Please visit other pages in this site for many examples of the difficulties (and the joys) of this process. EVERY SOLDIER NEEDS R & R and we have plenty of opportunities for it in NObody IS MORE SURPRISED than we are by how life is turning out. Mostly it is surprisingly good. We are astounded daily by our blessings. Birthdays:
Wedding Anniversary:
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| © 2002 Pioneer Bible Translators Association of Papua New Guinea All rights reserved. |
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WHEN I WAS A KID
my Dad often told me fascinating stories of his adventures in New
Guinea during World War II. He didn't have much to say about the war,
as such, but he had many tales of his forays into the mountains of the
Milne Bay area and his contacts with the villagers. He had a big box of
treasures that held my attention for many hours. There were bone
daggers, Cat's Eye sea shells, bits and pieces of soldier
paraphernalia, photographs, and many other items of wonder for a small
child. Like many young men of many nations, Dad was a soldier because
he felt it was his duty to defend his nation and the principles of his
culture. I honor him for that, as do the sons and daughters of other
fathers and mothers who have taken up the sword for honorable causes.
We
quickly found that God knew what he was doing when he put us in a town
situation. We really didn't like life in a village setting. We needed
quite a bit of training before we could be effective. Most of it took
place during a four month long ‘Jungle Camp’ session
conducted by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. We did, however,
enjoy learning the common language of PNG, Neo-Melanesian or Pidgin, as
it is commonly called. Many of our experiences during that time
taught us lessons that were valuable to us in the coming years.
a
world. I have clear memories, for example of the day we spent waiting
for our plane in the "Bunapas International Airport Departure Lounge."
The villages were connected by a river, adding even more miles to the journey, and you can't drive a tractor in a river. Or can
you? The solution seems obvious once it occurs to you. But the
execution is a puzzle that requires a lot of planning and cooperation.
It also created a good deal of anxiety.
After a few dozen what if sessions and much head scratching, we borrowed a couple of very big (and very valuable) Sepik canoes and tried carefully
to drive the tractor onto them so that it was safely balanced in the
middle. We then lashed the canoes securely together so that everything
would float as a unit. Did I mention that we weren't actually sure that
the canoes would float with the tractor on them?
I
suppose I don't need to mention that there was a lot of praying going
on about that time. Our plan was that three or four workmen would go on
the canoes to see the tractor safely to its destination. Well, that was
the plan. Several other people suddenly remembered an urgent and
immediate need to get to the other village. One thing you discover very
quickly in this part of the world is that once a person has his gear
loaded on a canoe and has made up his mind to go, there are no logical
and reasonable arguments that will remove him from the passenger list.
This includes pointing out that there are only a couple of inches of
wood above the water. We all probably witness minor miracles many times
in our lives and don't see them for what they are. There was no
mistaking this one.
there
was much to learn about ‘doing business’ in a different
culture, she was obviously suited to the job from the first days. Aside
from her usual familiar office functions, she also became a radio
operator. Communications with the teams working in the bush is
obviously one of the most important tasks of the support staff. There
are three regular radio schedules each day. Each team checks in on at
least one schedule each day so that the support staff will know that
everything is OK. Orders of supplies, messages to and from village
residents, and just general person to person chat are other important
needs that are satisfied by the regular radio schedules.
Our
first efforts were pretty crude. The desktop computer was born at about
the same time as our organization, so they have grown up together. If
you are an old timer from the early desktop days, you might recognize
an Imsai computer being coaxed into life in this picture. We were
amazed at what we could do with them, but by today's standards, they
are laughable. Today we have ten networked computers in our
administrative offices alone and many more operating in the bush. It
wouldn't be too strong to say that our task would be nearly impossible
today without this technology. It is a stimulating challenge to work
with high technology in a low-tech environment. Until we were able to
connect to the internet, we had to figure out everything on our own.
There simply wasn't anybody to ask for help with technical problems. In
1986 we went to the USA for a 20 month furlough so I could obtain a BA
degree in Computer Information Systems from 
Getting
up each morning brings a day full of potential adventure. Being one of
the few individuals having detailed topographic maps of the area and an
ex-military helicopter pilot, I was once ‘drafted’ by the
Royal Australian Air Force to go out to help in the search for a
missing airplane. When a severe earthquake struck in the mountains 
near
Madang the Provincial Governor asked us to organize a work party to
build a temporary government services and church meeting building near
the area of damage. Thousands of villagers were displaced by
landslides. One thing you learn not to say in this job is, “I
don't know how to do that.” At least without adding, “But
I'll figure it out as I go.” We feel that one of the greatest
blessings of our lives has been the opportunity to work here in PNG.
Our work is intellectually and emotionally stimulating as well as
rewarding to our spiritual lives. Sometimes I feel as if we really came
to life when we started our work here. God is teaching us so much, and
making school so satisfying. It has become nearly impossible to imagine
doing anything else.
SPIRITUAL WARFARE
goes largely unnoticed by most of the world. We are acutely aware of it
here. Here men prepare part of an old canoe as the coffin for a family
member who has suddenly died. The concept of disease as a cause of
death is given little credence in the traditional belief system. Nobody
dies primarily of disease. Death is a direct result of spiritual
conflict, most often caused by the purposeful actions of another
person, or sometimes by an evil spirit. The most important thing one
must remember about the indigenous beliefs is that their foundation is
the co-equal existence of the spiritual and the physical. In truth, the
traditional beliefs are entirely animistic. Nothing physical exists
without a spiritual component. Furthermore, the physical world does not
contribute to the troublesome moments in life. If a Papua New Guinean
stubs his toe on a rock, he would not typically say, 
“I hit my foot on a rock.” He would instead say, “That rock hit my foot!” The difference is most definitely not subtle. Rather, it is profoundly indicative of the difference in our world views.
Madang.
It is a great blessing for Eunice and I to live on the shore of the
ocean. Our house is thirty feet from the South Pacific. Our activities
on, in, or under the water provide exercise, relaxation, and a lot of
fun. Eunice likes to drive the boat, snorkel, and just float in the
water chatting with friends. I find my 
fun deeper and have worked my way up to a