VOLUME 7; NO.3 MAY 1984
Dear Brethren;
Greetings in the name of the Lord
MARRIAGE STABILIZATION PNG STYLE
Since the beginning of the Lord's work here in PNG one of the major stumbling
blocks our Christians have is in their marriages. The views and attitudes of
the people toward marriage here has been shaped according to their background
and culture. These views are on the whole contrary to the Biblical view. As
we look to the day when the PNG church is to have strong, vibrant spiritual
congregations with strong spiritual leaders we see the need to lay the foundation
with strong spiritual families.
David Lock and I got together (that's a pair for you) and decided to try the marriage enrichment series PNG style. Neither of us have attended this but we both had material we could use. During a weekend in April seven families from Lae and seven families from Goroka met 15 miles outside of Goroka at the Boy Scout Camp. I mean we were away from it all. We had the use of a 201 x 201 room and I took our two tents out also. Here we were talking "Marriage Enrichment" but everyone was sleeping together. (They were told to do their homework at home.)
The customary thinking of the people about marriage here in PNG is like the
picture of a man working his garden. The man is the one who sows the seed and
works the garden. The woman is like the garden. The woman's body receives the
seed of the man and helps it grow. The child is the man's child, his on going
spirit and life. This means that in thinking about marriage in the customary
way the people of PNG believe:
Men are more important than women. The one who plants the garden is more important
than the garden
* If the woman has a son that is very good. But if she has a daughter then
that is not as good as a son. Sons are more important than daughters. Sons are
needed to fulfill their duty to produce sons for the clan.
* The relationship between husband and wife is like possessor and possession,
a gardener owns his garden. A husband owns his wife and she must do what he
tells her.
* A marriage without children is as useless as a garden without fruit. One important
purpose of marriage is to have children (lots of them).
* Divorce and polygamy are part of marriage. If a man's garden does not bear
fruit, then he gives the garden back. Or, he keeps the garden and gets more
gardens to bear the fruit.
* In adultery a woman is more guilty than the man. The man sows his seed in
a garden which does not belong to him and must pay if he is caught. But if a
woman commits adultery she lets a strange seed into her husband's garden. She
spoils the whole family line.
* There is no place in the garden picture of marriage for the single or unmarried
person. A garden without an owner does not make sense. A gardener without a
garden to plant is even worse.
Along with this thinking, wife abuse is wide spread here. Many Highlands tribes
have taught the women that if their husbands don't beat (ferociously) them regularly
(weekly) then their husbands don't really love then. (Can't you see me using
that reasoning with Kathy, ho, ho.)
This was where we were when we began our Marriage Stabilization weekend (we
will try the 'enrichment' later).
We were 14 couples and multitudes of kids. Friday night, Saturday and Sunday morning we had talks on: "flow is your marriage?"; "What do YOU expect in your marriage?"; "What does God expect in marriage?"; "How to improve our marriage." We have heard many good remarks from those who attended and Lord willing we plan to hold more seminars for more couples later in the year. We didn't have one man beat his wife the whole weekend.
ANNUAL MISSIONARY WORKSHOP
During the month of April Goroka was again the site, of the annual missionary
workshop. This is a time when the missionaries here in PNG get together and
discuss the various areas of work and ways in which we might improve our efforts
in the Lord's vineyard here. Final stats were not in as to the number of Christians
here and the number of congregations but we know of: over 1400 baptisms
in 1983; over 4200 Christians (faithful), a 44.6% growth rate over 1983; over
147 congregations, a 12 1/2% growth rate over 1983. PRAISE THE LORD!
PRINTDATE 4/84
As we reprint material I revise it and put it in storage on floppy diskettes
in the word processor. This takes time, times and half times. Really time consuming.
During April, in addition to spending time at the word processor I printed 24,580
pieces of material. This included four books: (1) 2-17pp books of 200 copies
each; (2) 1- 28pp book of 200 copies; and (3) 1- 34pp book of 200 copies for
our Bible Classes.
After the workshop our family went down to Lae shopping for a few days. When we returned I found the printshop with several inches of water in it. A water pipe had broken behind the shop and flooded the floor. Fortunately all but six boxes of paper were up off the floor on pallets. The floor had been needing a bit of a clean-up actually. Thank you Lord
Please remember us in your prayers. We have lost $500 a month support which we were using towards the printing work. If you can help in any way please do so.
Your servant of the cross,
the Huffs