Lately we have had 3 families living in the guest house here.
They have been here to get paperwork done in some of the governmental offices in town.
While they were here, one of our more veteran missionaries offered to arrange a trip into a tribal location that is not too far away. This place is also reachable by motorbike.
I, Erlend, also had the chance to go along.
Our town is incredibly hot and dry, so it was awesome to go on this trip, because we started by driving on a serpentine road up a mountain to 700-800 meters above sea level.
On the top of the mountain, we had to leave the paved road we had drive on for about 2 hours.
The rest of the trip, about 40 minutes, was all on very narrow trails. Don't let the bridge fool you, that was the absolute best 5 meters of this road, and it was also new. Before it was built, travelers had to go all the way down into the gully, cross a little river, and then hope they made it back up the other side. Having to stop on a steep hill like that, with a very heavy motorbike is not fun...
After arriving in the village, we were greeted by the team, our national co-workers, there. There's one family from another tribal group and two single ladies that are originally from this tribe, but have just lately moved back after 20 years out in the bigger cities.
This is the kitchen in one of the houses. A pile of dirt on the floor for insulation, and on top, a oil burner, and for when they are out of oil, a place for a small wood fire.
This is a picture of their roof. The green part is a type of weak roof that has to be changed every year, and the brown part is a stronger kind that usually last about 2-3 years.
These hooks are to keep their food safe. If they have bought some pork, or have killed a chicken, they hang it on these hooks so that the rats can't get to it.
After seing their houses, we had a meal together. We brought some traditional yellow rice, and our hosts had prepared some rice, steamed fern, papaya leafs and fish.
It was really cool to get to spend time with these guys, and to get to know them a little bit. It is also the first time I have been in the interior since my language level got high enough to speak freely with nationals.
Here we are, us 3 visitors together with the missions team. It was a real privilege to meet them and to hear their stories. Just because they are also nationals, does not mean that their task is easy. This team needs a lot of prayer, they have had a lot of challenges, and as the time to start teaching God's Word is getting closer, they know there will be more difficulties. Please join us in praying for this team, and the effort they are making to bring the gospel of God's salvation to this lost people group.
Here are some more pictures of the road when we went back down. It is pretty rough terrain up there, so what you see in this picture is farm land on a very, very steep mountain side.
The clouds were not especially low that day, that is just how high above sea level we were.
Can you see me in this picture?
I had borrowed my language helpers Honda Win for the trip. It is only a 100cc bike, which sounds very small, but since we pretty much never made it out of 1st gear, and since many of the hills were very steep, this small, light, bike was much better than one with a bigger engine that would be heavier.
I'm hoping to be able to go back to this work soon, and I'm excited to bring Anne there also, because when we work in town, it is hard sometimes to imagine that we are a part of the team, that we are part of the work to spread the gospel that is going on, so it is nice to be able to do visits like this. Not just to remind our selves that the jobs we do in town is helping these teams, but also to, hopefully, be an encouragement to the people who are really working the front lines.
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