With a language that has 23 distinct secondary dialects, we felt lost. We struggled to adapt to living in a place where the people use a six-day week, where there are no years or ages, and where polygamy is considered a virtue.
We knew we needed to study the language, understand the culture and compare it with the Word of God, and discover ways of expounding the Word; but we were to learn that it was Jesus himself — not us — who was building his church.
Like Sue Frampton before her, Rossana (my wife) helped those who were sick. Although only a nurse, she found herself treating all kinds of diseases ranging from skin conditions and inflammation of the gums to malaria, hepatitis, tuberculosis and meningitis. Her patients, who came in from surrounding villages and from Nakpai itself, expected to be given a litapalpel (literally ‘white stone’), a term which originally alluded to the white chloroquine tablets used to combat malaria, and that generally came to mean any medication.
