Ordinary Can Still Be Very Difficult
After six years living in a Tobo village in Papua New Guinea, missionary Kellie Knapp still finds some experiences stressful. The ladies gathered and sat on the cold, wet, dirt floor in a small grass hut. One of the Tobo believers was sharing from the book of Acts while her 3-year-old son was nursing.
To keep from staring at the topless Bible teacher, Kellie decided to count the flies trying to land on her face. When she reached 100, she decided she should be paying attention to the teacher.
Big mistake.
The child had stopped nursing but now had a full diaper. The mom/Bible teacher -- teaching the whole time -- took off his clothes, put them in a bag beside her and he ran around her naked.
Then noticing that he had a runny nose -- actually that's quite an understatement -- she reached out with her hand cleaned his nose and wiped it on her blouse.
That's when Kellie decided to count bugs again. Another mistake. She noted a weird-looking orange spider on her shirt, a fluorescent blue bug crawling toward her leg and a 3-inch-long fuzzy bee trying to land in her hair.
At that point she was about ready to start crying. Then she did start to cry. Not because of her emotional state, but because smoke from the fire in the hut was permeating the air around her and her nostrils were burning. She moved closer to the Tobo woman next to her in order to get away from the smoke.
Offering to hold the baby, she immediately felt a warm trickle. The baby peed on her.
"Now I smelled of smoke and pee, so I looked away trying to focus on something else," wrote Kellie. "And my eyes met intense stares. Every child in the hut was watching me. You would think after six years they would get used to me and my white skin and red hair!"
Kellie glanced at her watch, the Bible study had been going on for three hours and they hadn't even begun to pray yet. Praying usually took about two hours.
Kellie thought, "I can't feel my legs, I need to start dinner, and I really needed a shower." So she got up and left.
"That's it. The climax of my story. I left," Kellie wrote. "I want you to know that even though I am supposed to be an experienced missionary, I make mistakes. Will you pray for me as I try to ignore my cultural stress and be sensitive to the Spirit?"
Missionaries need your prayers every day to help them deal with the unusual, the uncomfortable -- and the normal stress of everyday life.- Dena McMaster | New Tribes Mission
