Our Stories
Perspective
Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea, 2005.
We woke with a start. There was shouting and torches flashing and a security truck had pulled up outside our house. Something was going on outside. Max and I raced out the back of our house to find the shed door wide open, the light turned on, and a bunch of security guards talking excitedly and flashing their torches around the yard. Our hearts sank. Our shed had been broken into and by now all of Max’s power tools were over the fence and off to a village to be sold in town at some point in time. These tools were important. Max was using them to rebuild our rundown house, to fix things for people, to loan to others. They were expensive to buy and hard to get in PNG. There was no chase. The guards sympathised with us and left. A report would be written and that was that. Our friends would share our pain and shake their heads at the behaviour of “the few”. We went back to bed feeling frustrated and angry. I was frustrated for Max, and angry about the waste– those tools wouldn’t last long out there. We didn’t get much sleep that night.
Then in the morning, as I opened the curtains overlooking the road in front of our house God opened my eyes. He lifted my head. Up the road came a man, pushing a wheelbarrow – not with our tools in it – no, something way more precious – his mother, in a wheelbarrow. He was pushing her to get medical help at the Ukarumpa clinic. Oh God! You are showing me this. What is precious to you? Is it a shed full of tools, or is it a man’s mother, that having no other means of transport, he would put her in a wheelbarrow to go and get help. My heart melted, and my head lifted. He changed my perspective! He took my eyes off myself and onto others. Feeling sorry for myself was getting me nowhere. He knew what I needed and provided me with a powerful picture.
That’s my God. His ways are higher than my ways, His thoughts are higher than my thoughts. He knows me better than I know myself and I can trust Him with my life.
O Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! … But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. Psalm 3: 1,3.
Max and Helen worked in the Highlands of PNG with Wycliffe Bible Translators from 1998 to 2018. They are now at the Wycliffe Australia National Headquarters in Melbourne. Max is the CEO and Helen works in recruitment.
We woke with a start. There was shouting and torches flashing and a security truck had pulled up outside our house. Something was going on outside. Max and I raced out the back of our house to find the shed door wide open, the light turned on, and a bunch of security guards talking excitedly and flashing their torches around the yard. Our hearts sank. Our shed had been broken into and by now all of Max’s power tools were over the fence and off to a village to be sold in town at some point in time. These tools were important. Max was using them to rebuild our rundown house, to fix things for people, to loan to others. They were expensive to buy and hard to get in PNG. There was no chase. The guards sympathised with us and left. A report would be written and that was that. Our friends would share our pain and shake their heads at the behaviour of “the few”. We went back to bed feeling frustrated and angry. I was frustrated for Max, and angry about the waste– those tools wouldn’t last long out there. We didn’t get much sleep that night.
Then in the morning, as I opened the curtains overlooking the road in front of our house God opened my eyes. He lifted my head. Up the road came a man, pushing a wheelbarrow – not with our tools in it – no, something way more precious – his mother, in a wheelbarrow. He was pushing her to get medical help at the Ukarumpa clinic. Oh God! You are showing me this. What is precious to you? Is it a shed full of tools, or is it a man’s mother, that having no other means of transport, he would put her in a wheelbarrow to go and get help. My heart melted, and my head lifted. He changed my perspective! He took my eyes off myself and onto others. Feeling sorry for myself was getting me nowhere. He knew what I needed and provided me with a powerful picture.
That’s my God. His ways are higher than my ways, His thoughts are higher than my thoughts. He knows me better than I know myself and I can trust Him with my life.
O Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! … But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. Psalm 3: 1,3.
Max and Helen worked in the Highlands of PNG with Wycliffe Bible Translators from 1998 to 2018. They are now at the Wycliffe Australia National Headquarters in Melbourne. Max is the CEO and Helen works in recruitment.
Posted in Our Stories