Last Pictures of the Bakar Batu

Bakar Batu

We woke up this morning pagi, pagi.(Very early) We could hear a bustle of activity going on outside. The villagers were busy preparing for the feast. Ladies were coming from gardens and villages all over. They had large nokins (hand-sewn bags) full of vegetables. Each lady is responsible to clean all of the veggies they bring. So they were busy washing it all up. The men were busy bringing the last of the wood and rocks to the pits. We brought in 90 chickens for this event and they slaughtered two hefty pigs. Everyone had a job to do. It was amazing to watch. 

The way they set up the pits is in layers. A layer of hot rocks, veggies, greens, hot rocks, veggies, greens and somewhere in there they layer the meat. There are big pots of marinade and they use these leafy greens to brush the sauce on. Layering everything took a long, long time. There were several pits and each hot rock had to be hand carried over with special tongs that they made from logs.

Once all the food was in the pits they covered it all and tied it all together. Then the celebration ceremony began. Lots of dancing, and clapping and singing. They were so thankful that we came and lived with them for two weeks. They presented our two male leaders with hand-made headdresses and they made one for Wyatt. That is a HUGE honor. It shows that he is one of them. He belongs.

This culture is Wyatt. He lives and breathes Papua. 

This was one of my favorite days!  Sitting with the people, having the kids come up and grab my hand, having the ladies put their arms around me, singing and dancing with them... it was amazing. During the ceremony, they called all of us girls up front, then all the young village girls came up and presented us each with a nokin. Inside each nokin was a piece of paper with the girls name and a request to please remember them. Oh, it was so moving. The whole ceremony took several hours.

After that, it was time to eat! They unwrapped the pits and carried off the hot rocks. We all sat down in circles with large banana leaves on the ground and they started bringing us food. It is such a beautiful thing to watch. I just sat there looking around at all of the different kinds of people together. Kids from all over the world, together at this one place, enjoying this experience and I get to be a part of it. WOW!

Here are some pictures:

My Last Days in the Village

So after three nights in the small village of Yagendaimo, we said good-bye and began the hike back into the larger village of Ilugwa in Danama. When we got there we had much to do. The girls needed to help the village ladies get ready for the bakar batu tomorrow. A bakar batu is a large feast where the food is cooked with hot rocks.It is amazing the time that goes into such a celebration. 

We went into the gardens with the ladies and picked greens, labu siam (a hard, green, lumpy vegetable), ubi (sweet potatoes) and other edible leaves. Then we took them to a water source where we could scrub them all down. The boys were all busy hauling wood and rocks.

Here are some pictures

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This was super cool!

Our last night in the village the people wanted us to sleep in their huts. So the guys slept in with the guys and we all slept with the ladies. The day before we had done a kids club where we explained the plan of salvation using a wordless ball. Let me tell you what this is.  A lady from my home church, Marian Sorensen, (Thank you Marian) had made us a bunch of inflatable balls that have stripes of different color on them. The green stripe is for Creation- God created the world, and He created us. The black stripe is for sin. Everyone on the face of the Earth has done something wrong. No one is perfect. Except for Jesus Christ. The red stripe is for Jesus dying on the cross for us to pay the penalty for our sin. The white stripe is to represent that if we believe in Him and put our trust in Him, He will wipe those sins clean and make us white as snow. The yellow stripe is for Heaven. He has prepared a place for those who believe. A place that we can live in forever, Heaven.

So, we explained that to the whole village at the Kids Club. After that the chief of the village asked if we would explain it again when we are in the honais. When the girls and I were with the ladies in the honais we started going through the colors of the ball again. We were almost through when some other ladies came in the hut. So we were asked to explain it again. We were almost through it for the second time when some young girls came in. We were asked to start over again from the beginning. So we explained it for the third time. Right when we finished two more girls came in. I asked if they wanted us to explain again for them, and the chief's wife said "No, now I know it. Now I finally understand. I can explain it to them!!!!!"  So we left the ball with them. She said that once a week the older ladies of the village meet with the younger girls and now they have something to talk about. She was so excited! I was so excited. God is so very good. We were hoping for one good chance to explain salvation to this village, and God gave us more than we imagined.

This is how the babies sleep in the honai

Time in the small village

Nights are always interesting on excursions like this. You never know where you will be sleeping and WHO you will be sleeping with. In this case, how many rats will join you during the night. Haha. We all managed to sleep some though so that is good. I wanted you to see what our bathroom looked like so I took a picture of the outside and the inside.

​We were able to spend quite a bit of time talking to the ladies in the women's honai (hut). They value relationships above all else. So that means they always have time to sit and talk. I love that about their culture!

The building in the center of the picture is the church. They took great care in building it well.

We did some simple medical, like with this lady. She had a bad infection in her finger and we were able to open it up and drain the pus. There were lots of kids with cuts and infected scrapes that we were able to help as well.

Can you imagine waking up to this view every day?

Yes, that is the bathroom.

So while we were in Yagendaimo we showed the Jesus Film, did some AIDS/HIV presentations and showed a video about that, we did a kids club and Sunday school for the kids, helped them in their gardens, set up a water tank so they could catch rain water, and built them a rocket stove. In between all of those we interacted with the kids as much as we could. That is the best part.

Many of the villagers were talking about how years ago they lived a life full of fear. The villages were always at war.They wouldn't even build huts to live in because they were afraid that their enemies would come during the night and burn them in their sleep. They would sleep in random places in the woods. Then in the 60s the first missionary came to the area. The villagers didn't know what to think of this creature with white skin. They didn't know if he was a person or an animal. So they ignored him for awhile and then one brave man came up with a plan. He gave the missionary some dirty vegetables. They decided that if he ate them dirty he was an animal and could be killed. But if he washed them, he was a person and could live. Praise the Lord he washed them before eating. This opened a door for him to learn the language and begin telling the people about Jesus. Now, many of the villagers are Christian and are telling others about Christ. Isn't it awesome to hear the ways God uses people when they are willing?

Hallelujah! I was so blessed by the kindness these people showed us. What a blessing! Tomorrow I will tell you about the COOLEST thing that happened while we were there. But not today. I need to go and be a part of something up at school.

Rachel