Dear Praying Friends,

I was hesitating in sending another update your way, not wanting to flood you with one after another. Well, it seems that hesitating has proven to be a magnificent way of finding out how many people care for us and are praying for us right now. We have had a number of letters wanting to know if I made it home alright, how did Carolyn and the kids make out, etc. Thank you so much for your care and concern. Thank you for your many prayers.

This last trip was one of the neatest that I have been on. I don't know if you remember me telling you about the X-ray valley or not. It is one of the most isolated areas in Irian Jaya. Nobody has been in there to find out what the people call themselves. Therefore, it has been dubbed "Point X-ray" by MAF pilots because of the 3 rivers three converging to form another river leaving the valley giving the valley an appearance of an "X" from the air. Last year, we tried to set down in this valley with a helicopter but were unable to because of some mechanical problems with the heli.

What we were able to see though created an insatiable desire to get back in there and make contact with those people. Isolated villages, rugged terrain, and people with no contact to the outside world. At least once we saw women fleeing into the jungle while we were flying over their villages. I can just imagine the thoughts that were going through their minds.

Mike Moxness, the SIL linguist who had invited Tim and I in to "x-ray" on that first trip, tried to get into the "x-ray" valley earlier this year as well but was once again thwarted because of the strong winds that were prevailing at that time. You can imagine my excitement when the opportunity presented itself for me to accompany Mike on his third attempt in to the X-ray.

PTL!!! This time we made it. Think about it -- we were the first white men that they had ever seen. At first the women were afraid to come out of their hut. In fact, all we could see of them was the whites of their eyes peering at us from between the slats that made up the wall in the front of their hut. Everything we did and said in front of them was a new experience for them. You should have seen the crowd that gathered to watch me brush my teeth. You should have seen the looks they gave each other and heard their nervous laughs when the foam started to appear. I wonder what what they thought when I spit it out and rinsed my mouth out with water.

It first hit me, the impact we were having on them, when Mike began to treat some of the tropical ulcers they had. Using cotton and water poured from a bamboo pipe, Mike began to clean the sores the best he could. This in itself, probably caused enough of a stir. In their minds you don't bathe. To bathe, is to invite sickness. Next, Mike asked me for a Band-Aid (they've never seen paper or wrappers) which I opened up and handed to him. Mike then placed the Band-Aid over the sore and reached up for the next one that I was getting ready for him.

Meanwhile, everyone watching had their eyes glued to the Band-Aid waiting for it to fall off the man's leg on to the ground. It never fell. It just stayed there. They then looked at each other and everyone started laughing. I can't even remember the first time I saw a Band-Aid stick to something. To tell you the truth, I have never really found them all that fascinating. But to these people, this was the latest technology. This was almost magic.

Their fascination of us continued with everything we did: Using deodorant, eating rice, aluminum pots, plastic bags, bathing in the river, changing clothes, WEARING clothes, mosquito spray, sun screen, wearing shoes, blowing our nose into a hanky, spoons, shovels, machetes, a hundred foot measuring tape, (I'm sure it must have seemed like I had a limitless supply of metal inside it not to mention that when we were done using it, I was able to get it all back inside--Imagine that), candy, tasting chocolate for the first time, etc. Even the beep of my watch as it chimed every hour, without fail, brought laughs from all within hearing range.

While we were there we checked out a possible airstrip sight. It turns out that it will not work out at that location after all. Mike knows of one other sight in the valley that may work. Be praying that it does. It would really be a help in reaching these people.

I took a lot of pictures while I was there. One in particular stands out in my mind. While Mike was busy treating sores it was mentioned that there was a boy in one of the huts who needed some medical attention. (Mike was able to communicate with him using a different dialect from the Dao valley). It appears the boy had broken his foot about 2 months ago when a tree fell on his ankle. His mother came over and brought him out of the hut so we could take look at him. She had placed the boy's foot on a banana leaf and carried his foot in front of him while he walked on his hands out of the hut. What we saw was terrible. The break was a compound fracture that had punctured through the skin leaving an ulcerated wound about 3 inches long where the bone had come out. It smelled pretty bad. What hope will he have if gangrene begins to set in.

I snapped the picture as she was helping him get situated outside. In the picture, it is not the swollen and twisted foot that grabs your attention. It's not the banana leaf or the dirt, the gourd or the grass skirt that really makes you look twice. Instead, it's the little boys mother -- her back -- bare and lacerated by at least fifty scars, each one around 3" long and 1/2" wide. That's what really grabs your attention. They were purposefully inflicted to let out the bad blood causing all the pain inside.

It made you wince. It made you wonder what kind on desperateness would make a person go through those extremes to ease pain. What could the pain have been like?

What would it be like to live with no hope? Considering the amazement they experienced over the stickiness of a Band-Aid, a phenomena we take for granted, I wonder how they will respond to the message of salvation, the gospel of eternal life through Christ, and the hope of a glorified body free from pain, sickness, and death -- a message, a life, and a hope I often take for granted. It kind of grabs you and makes you sit up and think about it. It's a "grace awakening" all over again.

We stayed with them for three days before the heli came and picked us up. Not a long time at all. Hardly enough time to establish acquaintances. But, long enough to catch the vision and the burden for these people. I hope that we have another chance to go back soon and pick up where we left off.

I hope this has given you a better picture of what some areas in Irian are like. Most of all I hope that you have been challenged to pray for the people in the "X-ray" valley. We don't know yet if this is where the Lord would have us work. We certainly feel a burden for these people. I just think it would be the neatest thing in the world, to one day have the privilege of sharing the hope of eternal life with them in their own language.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for making this a possibility for them -- and us!

In Christ,

Stephen

PS I have this picture scanned on my computer in JPG format (Approx. 135KB) as well as others. If you are interested in seeing them via e-mail let me know and I'll send them to you.
Maybe give me a number so I don't send too many to you and bog your e-mail system down. :-)