“Snake, Snake!” a Kovol villager cried out to Steve Stanley as he was sat at home. He went out to ask, “A live snake?”, “The snake is alive” he said, unfortunately Steve heard “I cut the snake”, because that is what he expected to hear and because “igom” alive and “higom” I cut it sound pretty much the same in Kovol!
Gathering up his three children to go take a look at it then Steve waltzed right up to a death adder under their co-worker’s house, thinking it was dead when it was very much alive! God protected them that day!
Death adders are pretty docile actually, so it did not move untill Steve borrowed the man’s machete and chopped it’s head off, just to make sure it couldn’t bite anyone – at which point it thrashed around and he realised it was very much a live snake!
Death adders are one of the most venomous snakes in the world, so it is not very reassuring to find one where their children often play, but they praised God for protection and for giving Steve good aim! The Kovol man thinks Steve is very brave. “Nope, just ignorant!” says Steve.
Steve and Gerdine were supposed to have a language check in November. They were hoping it would reveal some objective progress in their language-learning journey. Due to bad weather the testers could not fly in to the village and so it has been rescheduled for Dec 19th.
Pray for this language test. Steve has been practising many longer stories with the goal of achieving the end goal of Capable High level of speaking ability at the test. If he gets that he’s at the level needed to start preparing Bible materials!
Their co-workers the Hansens are now on home assignment in Germany to await the birth of their twins in mid-February and desire to return to PNG in the summer. That leaves Steve, Gerdine and family, and the Stous family in Kovol working on language study.
Pray for:
– The team’s relationships that are still in a rocky place.
– A good language day on the test day so Steve can get Capable High level!
– The safe delivery of the Hansen twins.
Praise God for:
Continued health and safety through snakes, earthquakes, infections and insect bites.