Kinship and family is a much bigger deal in Kovol. Concepts of clan and tribe have deep, deep meaning and it can be fairly hard to understand as an outsider. For Steve and Gerdine Stanley with Oscar they are picking vocabulary up again and scratching one layer further down, fixing a bunch of false assumptions. There is a new set of vocabulary to learn regarding family, and this is a deep area of language. It is going to take a while to understand.
The Kovol people were super excited to be receiving missionaries, and their enthusiasm has not dimmed much eight months later! The team thank God for such eager, excited people and are really looking forward to being able to share the Gospel.
Some individuals will stay back when everyone else goes to their gardens to ensure someone is always available for language study if they need them. Villages are competing to host them for more culture events than their neighbours; they are inundated with opportunities and invites. Praise God for their hunger, and pray that the team have the stamina to keep up!
They wish they could hit a fast forward button to get to the point where they are able to communicate in Kovol. As they are writing language down, they are eagerly thinking ahead to the literacy programme. They dream of being able to share the Gospel, they want to help with community projects – but the language is needed first. It is going to take months and years with them faithfully putting the hours into language study; there are no shortcuts. Deep heart to heart communication seems a lifetime away!