Rain brings noise, odor and worse
It is rainy season in the Uriay village in Papua New Guinea where missionary Lisa Kappeler works and that brings a series of problems to contend with.
On Saturday Lisa heard a loud clanging noise coming from outside her house. She attributed it to work that her co-laborer Elias Struik was doing. But as the noise went on getting louder and louder, Lisa went to investigate. Several of the village kids told her that a frog had gotten into her water tank. She and Elias’ wife Jose laughed when they heard that. “How could a frog get into a sealed water tank?”
The noise continued the entire night. Indeed a little frog had found his way into the tank through the overflow pipe which was underwater because of the huge amount of rain. Since the little frog had such a great echo chamber he was happy to croak away. Fortunately the frog was able to get out the next morning and the noise ceased.
A few days later Lisa was assaulted with a horrible smell inside her house. Once again she was on a mission to find the source. It turns out that a cat died in the vicinity and even though the corpse was in the high weeds, the smell was permeating the house.
The smell lingered for two days and the missionary ladies tried to light the grass on fire to eradicate the corpse. But the surrounding grass was so wet because of the rain that it became impossible to burn. Eventually the forces of nature diminished the smell and Lisa was able to bear staying in her home once again.
As perhaps a final straw, the next morning Lisa woke up to find a cute little puppy had decided to make her front step his “bathroom away from home.”
“So my house seems to be the place for animals of all kinds to hang out these days. I’m thankful that it’s outside and not in but all the same, the sounds and smells make themselves at home inside regardless,” Lisa wrote.
The water continues to rise and bring the aggravating little stuff that makes life in the jungle more difficult. Meanwhile the Uriay Church is meeting in the muddy little broken down building that serves as their meeting place. Elias is nearing the end of reviewing the Bible lesson series showing the types of Christ in the evangelistic Bible lessons and helping the believers to understand their security in Christ.
The rains continue and the team of missionaries ministering to the Uriay church continues to deal with the difficulties of life as they disciple and ground the new believers.
Pray for the Struiks and for Lisa as they deal with each new challenge. Pray also that the believers will understand their position in Christ and will grow in the Lord.