Missionary Update Fall 2003 Newsletter
Dear Family and Friends,
We thought that having ants in our last apartment was bad, now we have worse bugs! Check this monster out!
We are all settled in at Language Institute. This is the final step in training with New Tribes Mission. We are learning some key information for mastering another language in the future. We are in the process of studying the different types of sounds that make up all languages, and how to make them. Did you know that all the languages in the world are made up of only about 40 different sounds? There are a staggering number of combinations of those 40 sounds, though!! Also, in classes this week, we are learning how to organize cultural data in the computer. It is a very practical class.
It has been very exciting learning more about the
country (Papua New Guinea) that we are going to. There is a missionary
couple on staff that have lived in Papua New Guinea for sixteen years.
We have been picking their brains to find out more about what it is like to
live in that country.
Jasson has enjoyed learning about the solar system that he will set-up one day in our tribal house. We won't have normal AC electricity like we have here in the States. We will run on a DC system, and all our electricity will be produced by solar panels. This means that most of our appliances will be DC. And we will have to use an inverter for those few AC appliances (computers).
The school's property is right on the Lake of the Ozarks. Jasson has been doing a lot of fishing-with great success!
Thank you for your prayers. It has made a difference in our lives, and has brought us to where we are now.
In His Service,
Jasson & Kim Farmer
PRAISE:
1. We had a safe move
2. We paid off first semester
PRAYER REQUESTS
1. Truck needs to sell
2. Learn as much as we can in school
Contact Information
Jasson and Kim Farmer
134 Main Drive Box 67611
Roach, MO 65787
Would YOU make a good tribal missionary?
(Culture among the Piapoco tribe in Colombia, South America)
1. A Piapoco baby is born and the midwife smears blood from the end of the umbilical card inside the infant's mouth. Why?
a. To wash it out
b. To prevent tooth decay
c. So the child won't swallow a fish bone
2. A man ties several knots in a rope, burns it, boils the ashes, and then drinks the liquid. Why?
a. To keep from getting a stomachache
b. As a means of birth control
c. To make him brave
3. What is Cuwaisairi (a Piapoco mythological god) like?
a. A man
b. A strong wind
c. A jaguar
3 right=above average
1 right=average
Participated=consider yourself missionary material!
Answers:
1. c - So, during his growing up years, the child will not swallow a fish bone.
2. b - As a means of birth control. (By the way, it does not appear to work!)
3. a - He has the likeness of a man. He began as a worm that burrowed out of a cumaaru palm tree, and then took on a human body. He was a powerful witchdoctor. He was tall, with golden hair, and never laughed. He got mad at people because they would not believe his word, so he cursed them with hard work.
