Amat Sparrow

 

 

 

 

A Beautiful Baby Boy

Amat Sparrow Crosland

March 17, 2014

7 pounds, 14 ounces

March Kids Newsletter

Want To Visit Us In PNG??

We have a unique opportunity for you to come be a part on our work in Ukarumpa! Matt is heading up this project to begin in June going all the way into March 2015. If you are interested or want more details, contact Matt at: matt_crosland@wycliffe.org

 

 

 

January 2014 Newsletter

 



What Now?

       The picture above is from the feast our friends made for us before we left Nobnob. If you look really closely you can see a pig hanging in the middle of the fire. They were burning the hair off the pig before it was cooked. I will write a blog post about the feast later. For now I just wanted to share my immediate feelings.
      I put this picture with this post because I feel a little bit like the pig today. When we arrived at our house we opened the door to find that every drawer and cabinet door was open and everything we have had been riffled through. We came up about a month and a half ago and brought some boxes up and all of the stuff we shipped from the US in the sea container had arrived. The housing department here was generous enough to let us go ahead and put everything in the house and leave it here while we finished up in Madang. While we were away someone broke into our house and stole a good bit of stuff. Myself (Matt) and the boys were the hardest hit. All of our good tee shirts and shorts were taken as well as all of my shoes. No one was left unscathed. Tiffany had some tee shirts taken as well as all of her wrap skirts (laplap). They also got her warm hats that she was looking forward to wearing now that she has had to cut her hair. Everything was rifled through. All the dry goods that were in our pantry were stolen as well as some of our pots, pans and dishes. Maybe the most painful was the 2 external hard drives that had all of our old pictures on them.
      We are all still feeling a little pained and numb from this. When you combine that with the fact that we just left all we know and all our friends for a place that is very different and a bit strange to us we are hurting (especially me). To top it off our friends who came up with us were supposed to go back on POC’s truck yesterday. They left in the morning and made it about 45 minutes away before having a flat tire. They then discovered that the spare was flat too. Fortunately, the truck they were driving has dual wheels on the back so they took one off the back and put it on the front and limped back to our house. I have to admit I had mixed feelings when I got the call that they were having tire problems. I was truly worried for them but I was happy to have them here again. I have some friends in the auto shop here so we were able to get in and fix the tires even though they were closed. By the time the car was ready it was too late for them to leave so they stayed with us last night. It was nice to have them one last time. They left early this morning and I got word just a little while ago that they had made it to the halfway mark.
     I know the numbness will fade and we will settle in to being here and we will make lots of new friends here but for now it is hard to do much but sit here and be sorry. Please pray for us as we adjust.

A Video

 

Here is a short video that our 12 year old daughter made (all by herself!) for our friends at Hub City Church. They just sent us the most WONDERFUL package for Christmas!! Thank you friends! We love you.

 

 

 

It So Hard to Say Goodbye, Especially for Me

  

(Election time on the Mountain)

Goodbyes are very difficult for me. I am never sure how to handle them. They always seem awkward and there is no good way to end them. I often try to avoid them all together. That is one of my many character flaws. There I said it, I hate goodbyes. For most people this wouldn’t be so bad but for me it is terrible. It seems we are always traveling or moving to a new place and we are always having to say goodbye to someone. Its not that I don’t miss them; its just that the whole business is clumsy and awkward and I‘m not sure what to do in those extended moments.
     Now, as we approach the end of our time here at POC we have so many relationships that need this closure that I am beginning to be overwhelmed by the prospect of it all. I have grown very close to a good many people here on the mountain, heck we even named one of our children after one of them, that I feel like I should start saying goodbye now but our lives are so intertwined that it almost seems absurd. How do you  say goodbye to people you will continue to see all the time for another month?
      Once, we started telling people we were leaving word spread pretty quickly and lots of people asked me if it was true.  Each time I say “yes” and then in good Papua New Guinean fashion we have to discuss the whys, hows, and whens. When all of this is done they mull it over a bit and agree that it is the best thing but they are so terribly sad to see us go. I guess in some ways this is a goodbye in itself, especially for the more casual relations we have formed. And in some ways this is easier on me than abrupt goodbye at the very end that seems to hang on an uncomfortably long time.
     For the people we have built deep relationships with it has been much more difficult on both sides. We have to discuss it more and the separation has to be dealt with much more solemnly. There are some other cultural elements that have to be dealt with as well. Papua New Guinea has several different broad cultural areas. The area we currently live in (and really feel a part of at this point) is the “lowlands”. This area is most of the costal regions (excluding the Sepik) on the north side of the island. Our folks (and us by extension) are a much more low key people. Life goes at a slower pace stuff takes time to be worked out and a discussion can go on for weeks without getting truly heated. People spend a great deal of time tending to relationships and making sure that they are in good order. Physical conflict is always a last resort. Of all of these lowlands people the people of Madang are the most steeped in this way of life.
     The area we are moving to is called the “highlands”. It can be broken into several broad cultural subcategories but for simplicity sake  I will treat it as one here. Highland people are much more aggressive. This is good in the fact that they tend to jump on a task and try to push it through to completion much more than lowland people do. They are also more entrepreneurial and seem to always have an angle they are working (good if it is channeled in the right direction). Unfortunately, they are much more quick to fight as well.  A dispute can very quickly erupt into a fight that involves entire families. The fights also tend to involve weapons and are much more deadly.
     These cultural elements add a bit of anxiety to our goodbyes as well. Our people are afraid of highlanders and so they are afraid for us. We have assured them that we will be ok, but they worry none the less. Please pray that we will deal well with goodbyes over the next 5 weeks and that people will understand that we will be back to visit.
Matt