Below I have pasted all of the snapshots Diane and I sent out during 2001. Enjoy!
Marcus (on 2008-9-1)
March 1, 2008
Dear Friends,
I can’t believe we’ve been here a month already! Thank you for your prayers; God is responding, as always. Our teammates Leslie and Loopie Williams and their kids are doing an amazing job of making friends in town, while we Reeses are focusing more on learning Tawala and making friends in the nearby villages. Diane is especially good at getting out every day with her tape recorder. You can tell she has fun because her recordings are only half language learning; the other half you can’t hear anything but Diane and the village ladies laughing together. Our daughter is also popular, and I am no longer surprised to hear village ladies (some we have never met) calling out, “Hello, Hannah!”
Even though we are focusing on the village ministry, our town ministry (in English) is also taking off. People have already started dropping in to talk for a few hours at a time. I have gotten to know a number of working people in the process of making initial improvements to our home, and we have also gotten to know the three local members of our congregation. We are meeting with them at a school facility now. The twenty-two year old man of the family, Poni, has agreed to give his first little talk during the church service this coming Sunday. So as you can see, we have many things to thank God for, as do all of you who have a part in this ministry.
Love, Marcus, with Diane and Hannah Reese
March 15, 2008
Dear Friends,
Our goals right now center around language and learning culture. Any of you who have learned a language know that it can be both exciting and frustrating. Thankfully, Marcus and I both learned to laugh at ourselves a long time ago, or we would be on a plane home right now! One hard thing about learning Tawala is that it doesn’t have all of the same sounds as English. For example, their letter “L” is quite a lot different. And our dear teachers want us to learn to speak properly. They can’t imagine why we don’t get it. Marcus told me about this language learning experience recently.
Marcus: “Geka ginolina goana awai?” (What is the name of this?)
Tawala speaker: “Polo” (Pig)
Marcus: “Polo”
Tawala speaker: “No. Polo”
Marcus: “Polo”
Tawala speaker: “No. POLO”
Marcus says that he never did get it right–and such a simple word!
The village school children decided to teach us to count recently, which provided some more amusement for us. Tawala has a very complex counting system. As a matter of fact, some people never learn to count, because it’s just too complicated. From one to one hundred, there are mixtures of fingers, toes, hands, legs and people dying, all to express numbers. For twenty, you say “One man dies.” Just to give you an example, in Tawala, thisis how one says 99: Lawa wohepali hi-hilage po nima luwaga hi-tutu po ae emosi i-tutu po wohepali (literally “four men died and two hands hit and one leg hit and four.”
Now y’all learn that, and I’ll send you some more.
Please pray that we will have patience, discipline and perseverance in order to learn this language.
God bless you, Diane Reese (with Marcus and Hannah)
Marcus volunteering at the community
workday in Mutuyuwa, where he does most
of his language learning.
March 31, 2001
Dear Friends,
I know some of you are especially concerned about and interested in our daughter Hannah, so I thought I’d let you know how she’s doing. Thankfully, she hasn’t had any major difficulties in adjusting to Papua New Guinea. She’s growing fast. Her hair is a little curly, so I did not realize how long it was getting, but I saw it wet tonight and it was hanging below her shoulders. She is learning skills that most American children learn, including speed-toddling, climbing on chairs, and saying, “No.” She learned to blow through a whistle the other day. That was wonderful for about two minutes. Today she helped Diane put the clean laundry in the basket (which shows Diane’s patience since most of it touched the floor in the process).
She is also having some experiences that she would not have had in America. We took her out in a dinghy recently on the way to a nearby island. We watched her to see if she was going to cry or get sea-sick, but all she did was giggle. She fits in well with the people here, and I think she’d like to “go native” if it meant she could go without clothes like the other little kids do. However, she has experienced one major cross-cultural misunderstanding. A lady in the village looked at her Winnie-the-Pooh shirt and said, “Polo,” which you may remember means “pig.” This is an understandable mistake, since the lady had probably never seen even a picture of a bear. Maybe that’s why Hannah forgave her so quickly.
Please pray that we will bring Hannah up in the right way, and pray for her continued health and happiness. And don’t forget to see her attached picture! I am grateful for all of her supporters.
Marcus Reese, with Diane and Hannah
Hannah in a canoe
April 16, 2001
Dear Friends,
I had an update all written and ready to go, but I’m afraid it has been scrapped so that I can tell you about the events of the past day and a half–our daughter’s little illness and our cross-cultural medical experience. First, let me assure you that Hannah is doing well and is going to sleep. If you don’t believe me, you can take a look at the attached picture, taken of our smiling Hannah just before bed tonight.
Wednesday afternoon I picked Hannah up from her nap and noticed immediately that she had a fever. Marcus and I took her temperature, and it was above 102. We took her to the hospital to be checked for malaria. We arrived at the hospital just before the outpatient center closed. The nurse pricked her finger and put her blood on a slide, but told us that we would not know until tomorrow if it was malaria or not, since the lab technicians had all gone home. He suggested that we go ahead and treat her as if it was malaria because of the high fever. I told him that if her fever did not come down with the Tylenol we had given her, I would give her the medications, but if not I would rather wait.
We went home a little disappointed that we wouldn’t know immediately. Her fever did come down a little, and she slept all night. When she woke up, she was still mildly feverish, and alternated between being pretty happy and extremely cranky. Since that is a typical symptom of malaria in this part of the world, we got the medicines we keep on hand for treatment out and ready. I called the hospital to check on the results of the test. They had no record of a slide for Hannah Reese, but promised that they would check it out. An hour later I called back, but they said that they had an emergency and were not able to look for it. A little while later someone called and said that the slide was found in the lab. The lab technician was out of the office, but a note had been left for him to do her slide immediately when he got back and call me with the results.
At 3:00 p.m. I called again, knowing that my time was running out. In Alotau, everything closes at 4:00 p.m. The woman I talked to said that the lab technicians had all gone home for Easter holiday. They would not be back until Monday. Remembering that Marcus had mentioned that the pharmacy did tests for malaria as well, I piled Hannah into the truck and went to town. They pricked Hannah’s finger and within ten minutes we had the results. Negative. Nevertheless, the pharmacist said that if the fever did not go down within a couple of days, I should treat her for malaria anyway. She said that the test is not always accurate.
I took Hannah home, gave her some more Tylenol and put her down for a nap. About an hour later, I got a call from the hospital, telling me that the slide for Hannah Reese was not only positive, but it was falciparum, which is worse than the other kind, and that the count was high. By this time, I felt positively frazzled. Hannah woke up and I started trying to get her to eat, so that I could give her the medicine. I was relieved when Marcus came home and took the situation in hand, mixing up her crushed pills with some syrup. Hannah has been cheerful and playing ever since.
We know that with the medicine she will probably be feeling better in no time. I know God was looking out for our little one. Next time, I’m sure I’ll do things differently. But for now, I’m glad for grace to cover my footsteps and thankful that a lab technician was working odd hours on a holiday weekend.
Of course, we’re thankful for your prayers while Hannah mends.
God bless you all, Diane (with Marcus and Hannah Reese)
Sick Hannah
April 30, 2001
Dear Friends,
While I am trying to focus on learning Tawala, I am also conversing with a few people in English to find out more about the people here. One man named Kari knows English much better than all the rest, and he has been very willing to help me get to know the villagers. The attached pictures are of him and me on a walk up to the waterfall. He said that forty years ago we could never have gone up there because the villagers believed there was a spirit-god in the form of a giant snake who would have destroyed us. Most of them still believe in the snake spirit, but they are willing to go to the waterfall now, because they believe it has moved somewhere else.
Previously they would have gone to the waterfall only after a special fast in order to ask the spirit-god for power, bringing an animal or vegetable sacrifice. Today, if they want power they take their offerings to the neighboring mountain, where they believe a spirit-god still resides in a huge rock. This power is useful, they believe, for anything that requires human ability, such as fights, rugby games, and sorcery. However, if they need luck, such as when they are planting a garden or going fishing, they turn rather to the “little people,” spiritual beings which they believe live all around in the rocks and trees. And for problems of every sort, they can always turn to the community sorcerers and witches.
Thankfully, there is also a Christian element in the village that regards these avenues as sinful. Please pray that we will be able to build on that foundation, and that Kari and all his people will know God in all His abundant providence and loving jealousy.
Love, Marcus, with Diane and Hannah Reese
Kari and Marcus
In the river
May 14, 2001
Dear Friends,
Visiting people in the village is always an interesting experience, both for them and for us. Recently Marcus, Hannah and I went to visit a lovely little old woman named Mary Theresa. She doesn’t speak hardly any English, which makes her a wonderful language tutor. What happened when we visited her is the same thing that almost always occurs when we go see someone. She apologized about 50 times (maybe that’s an exaggeration) for her little bush house, told us that it is not as nice as white people’s houses, and stood outside awkwardly, probably wishing we would leave. We sat down in her cooking hut and tried to assure her that we liked her house. She looked embarassed. We stayed for a little while, and eventually she seemed to get used to the idea of “rich white people” visiting her, although she never did invite us in.
Of course, she is right that we have a different kind of house from hers. Life in Alotau is vastly different from that in the surrounding villages. We have electricity, running water, internet access, and almost all of the other luxuries to which we are accustomed. While we appreciate the conveniences, we also are aware of a huge gap between our lifestyle and the lifestyle of the people who live around us. This gives us special challenges. In order to minister to people, we have to understand them a little. In order to understand them better, we need to spend time with them and see what their lives are really like.
Recently, Marcus, Hannah and I have been given an opportunity to stay in the village closest to here, Mutuyuwa, for two to four weeks. The house we are being offered (see the attached picture) is a bush house similar to the ones most of the people in the village live in. We hope not only that this experience will assist us in learning their language, but also that it will help us to better understand what daily life is like for our friends there. We plan on tagging along with our temporary neighbors as they go to their gardens, cook their food, wash their laundry, and go about their other daily business. We are excited about the opportunity to “become flesh and dwell among them” for just a little while. In some ways it is just an extended camping trip for us, and we look forward to early nights without electricity and early mornings sitting by the nearby river. But we also want this to have maximum benefit for our ministry here. Please pray that the people in Mutuyuwa will accept us even more than they do now and that we will make good progress on learning their language.
Tuesday of this week I was sitting by Mary Theresa, and shooing the flies off of both of us with a dish towel, when she patted me on the back and said “a hanapugeya tulau”. That means (I think): “I know you are my friend.” I hope that the more we are able to interact with people, the more they will see that is true. We are their friends, and we want to love them and spend time with them, even if their houses are the bushiest in the bush.
Love, Diane Reese (with Marcus and Hannah)
bush house
May 31, 2001
Dear Friends,
Thanks to all of you who prayed for our stay in the village! We have gone and come back now, and God has answered your prayers in many ways. We learned a lot of language and also a lot about village life, but most importantly we grew closer to the village people themselves. One family that had been cautious and distant seemed very touched by our attempts to reach out to them. They do not speak English, but they communicated their appreciation through a gift of food and through the few Tawala words we understand. A prominent woman who speaks English opened up to us about her fear that we were business people in disguise, trying to take advantage of the villagers. Another couple, completely on their own initiative, asked me (in English) to help their family study the Bible as soon as I am able. The man of this family, Simon, is pictured with Hannah and myself below.
Please thank God for opening their hearts to us and ask Him to help us learn their language quickly, so we can serve them soon. I know we can trust Him to do it through your prayers.
Marcus, with Diane and Hannah Reese
Marcus and Hannah with Simon
June 13, 2001
Dear Friends,
The rainy season seems to be officially upon us, and I thought I’d share with you 10 things that I suspect during that time in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea.
1) There’s a better chance of the Yankees losing the next World Series than our clothes getting dry on the porch clothesline.
2) Our solar powered hot water heater, which I previously thought was a great energy-saver, is actually a cruel joke. Its inventor laughs every time I take a freezing cold shower.
3) Most Papua New Guineans will hibernate during the rainy season. All activities are cancelled, and only those owning umbrellas go to church. If you do happen to see one of the local people out and about, they are noticeably cold. They huddle in sweaters, under blankets and sip hot tea, teeth chattering miserably. Hey, I’m sure it’s been at least down in the 70’s. I’ve even worn socks a couple of times.
4) We’ll avoid going anywhere that you might have to cross a river. You might just have to do what our teammate just did in order to get back–ditch the car, jog to the ocean, canoe around the river, jog back to the road, swim the next two rivers and walk to town.
5) Our new watchdog seems to be afraid of thunder. He’s likely to tear the window screens, track mud everywhere and generally act insane.
6) The sun probably still shines in Kansas and Texas, but it has quit us entirely here. I haven’t seen a patch of blue sky in weeks. There are rumors that it will return with a vengeance in a few months, dry up all the rivers and heat our water again–once it’s hot enough that I no longer desire a nice steamy shower. (Attached is a picture of the daily gray view from our front step.)
7) It will continue to be impossible to keep a white tile floor white during the rainy season.
If something didn’t mildew a few months ago, it will. The walls, the clock, the books, my watch, etc.
9) We’ll have to adjust to noise or less sleep. A tin roof does not allow one to sleep during the rainy season. Pitter patter pitter patter….
10) Ants and mosquitoes will continue to move into our home, liking a nice dry place to stay during the rainy season. As a part of our community service, we have opened our house as a shelter for these poor, neglected creatures. During the past weeks we have housed hundreds of ants and dozens of blood-sucking, malaria-giving mosquitoes.
Well, that’s it. Don’t feel too sorry for me. I have discovered that if I heat water and pour it into Hannah’s bathtub and fold my legs just right, I can actually have some semblance of a warm bath.
Does anybody know if this is called culture shock?.
Diane Reese (with Marcus and Hannah)
The rainy season
June 24, 2001
Dear Friends,
As you may already know, two thieves broke in to our house while Diane was here alone. I’ll let you get the details on that from her, but I’ll just say thank God that He limited Satan’s attack (as He always does according to His purposes) so that the thieves did not attack her physically! Naturally my work came to a temporary halt as I focused on raising our household security to a new level.
One of the additions we were most happy with was Ralph, a full-grown German Shepherd, but our joy was dampened when our neighbor’s dog was poisoned. If Ralph were to be killed, we would still be able to protect ourselves–we would just hire security guards until we could get another dog–but we prayed for him nevertheless, hoping against hope that he would somehow stay alive. A few days later a bowl of poisoned food appeared in our yard, but before Ralph could find it, a stray dog squeezed under our fence and stole the contents. I am sorry for that other dog, who was very sick last I heard, but I am thankful for the reminder that even the most difficult problems are easy for God.
Now I’m getting back into language learning, as I wait for the arrival of the better fence we ordered and also the equipment for teaching our dog not to eat strange food. Pray that things will get back to normal quickly, and don’t worry; I really think God has allowed us to make things more secure around here.
Marcus Reese (with Diane and Hannah)
Ralph with Diana & Hannah
July 5, 2001
Dear Friends,
Several months ago a man named Chris Doga came to our teammate, Leslie, to ask some questions about God. Leslie has been studying the Bible with him and his wife weekly, and tonight they were baptized. We piled our little church into our truck and went out to greet the new Christians, and we were all so encouraged as Chris and Melva each told us why they had decided to become Christians. Their excitement was a wonderful boost to Pauline, Poni and Lena, the family of Christians who have been here since the beginning. Chris and Melva live out of walking distance from our church, and Chris has said that he is going to try to get a driver’s license so that he can join us for services in Alotau. In the meantime, however, Leslie and whoever can join him will have afternoon worship in his neighborhood. So our little tiny congregation not only has its first new brothers and sisters, but also its first church plant.
Apparently others in their family have begun “eavesdropping” on the Bible studies as well, so pray that hearts in their extended family will also turn to Christ.
Love, Diane Reese (with Marcus and Hannah)
first fruits
Dear Friends,
Like any woman in her fifties, Maria has been through a lot. As a “mixed-race” child, she did not fit in with Europeans or villagers, so she was raised by the matrons of a boarding school. Later she moved to the capital city of Papua New Guinea, where she married a “mixed-race” man and raised a family. Now her children are grown and gone, her marriage is long over, and for ten years she has been living here in Alotau. One would think she had seen it all.
But praise God that when she heard about Jesus (weekly for about five months), she recognized Him as the Truth. She decided to give her life to following Him, saying, “He is the only way to God.” Her baptism this week is an encouragement to us all and a good reminder that what we are living for is not the stuff we see around us.
Thank you all for how you have reached out to her by encouraging and praying for this mission. Please pray that God will protect her and strengthen her.
Marcus Reese, with Diane and Hannah
Maria
August 17, 2001
Dear Friends,
Some of you have inquired about our teammates, and since they’re such an important part of our lives, I thought I’d fill you in on them. Besides seeing each other at normal church functions, we meet every Monday to pray, brainstorm, and eat lunch. Every once in a while when we’ve been taking ourselves too seriously, we play a good competitive card game too. Loopie and I are still recovering from that last match, but we will get our revenge on the guys.
Leslie is known by everyone (and I mean everyone!) around town as the crazy fisherman. He’s managed to wriggle his way onto the board of the local International School, and his impact on the community is seen in many other ways as well, not the least of which are the many Bible studies he has begun. Loopie is the quintessential missionary wife, who always magically manages to throw together food for everyone Leslie brings home for spur-of-the-moment meals, and she does it with a smile on her face! Her laid-back, cheerful personality stabilizes us all, and I honestly think she is one of the most wonderful Christian women I know. She and I share the teaching responsibilities for the children at church, and she takes care of Hannah once a week so that I can keep my sanity.
Leslie and Loopie have four boys, and Hannah squeals with excitement every time she sees them. They teach her important things like how to play Ring Around the Rosy. I never have to worry about her when the boys are around, because they take such good, big brotherly care of her. Logan the Philosopher always has thought-provoking comments about the Bible, Zack, the impulsive one, keeps us in stitches, Tate eats all of his peas and tells you, “Thank you, they’re delicious!”, and Thomas knows how to play with children from every kind of background and always makes them feel welcome. All the boys put the grownups to shame when it comes to the church’s scripture memory work. Are you parents drooling with envy or what?
Please thank God for providing us with such wonderful teammates, and pray that God will continue to bless our unity.
Love,
Diane Reese (with Marcus and Hannah)
It’s not ALL fun and games in PNG, but life can be sweet.
September 19, 2001
Dear Friends,
We awoke Wednesday morning to a phone call from our teammates, telling us of the devastation that had happened in the United States during our night. We, like many of you, cancelled our normal Wednesday appointments with people from the village of Mutuyuwa in order to watch the news. Of course, none of them have televisions, and few can ever afford a newspaper, so we broke the news of the tragedy to our Papua New Guinean friends in explanation for why we would not be meeting with them that day–we wanted to go to Leslie’s and watch President Bush address the nation on television. I wish I could express to you the sorrow with which the village people and our Christian brothers and sisters in town received the news. We have been told many times of the prayers they are now praying. People stop by our house to ask us about the latest and tell us that they pray several times a day for the situation. The attached picture shows Pauline, one of the Christian sisters here, reading the newspaper.
Marcus ended up hauling people from the village to the hospital before he was able to join us at Leslie’s house. The hospital was doing chest x-rays in an attempt to keep an outbreak of tuberculosis contained. As I thought about the outbreak and the many things people here struggle with, I understood why they are able to empathize with the pain Americans are going through right now. In a country that battles poverty, sickness, and sometimes even starvation, people who suffer become sensitive to others who suffer.
We wanted you to know that people of another nation, of a different race from many of you, of another language group and a completely different way of life–without electricity, cars, or running water–love you and pray for you and our country.
With love and prayers,
Diane Reese (with Marcus and Hannah)
Pauline, one of the Christian sisters here, reading the newspaper
October 1, 2001
Dear Friends,
In the picture you can see us with our friend Sigi in her family’s newly acquired house (which is actually the same house we stayed in during our time in the village). Sigi has been the person in the village that Diane feels most comfortable with as a friend, and she is one the few people we know there that seem to truly love Jesus Christ. You can imagine our concern, then, when Sigi told us that she is not entering the kingdom of heaven because she is not baptized.
Sigi said she would like to be baptized, but she has been hesitating because she does not want to make a hasty commitment and then later backslide. We asked if she would like to have a list of Bible verses about baptism, and she said she would, so Diane prepared a list and gave it to her. We are glad she is “counting the cost,” to use Jesus’ words, but we pray she will soon realize that accepting God’s offer is worth any cost. Please join us in that prayer.
Love,
Marcus Reese, with Diane and Hannah
P.S. Also thank God that another man with whom Leslie has been studying was baptized this Sunday, and others may follow his example!
Sigi with the Reese family
November 10, 2001
Dear Friends,
Anne first came to church several months ago. She, Pauline, and Maria all live in the same apartment building, where Anne shares a tiny room with her two children. She usually works six days a week, and as a single mom she struggles to nurture and single-handedly support her family. Sarah, her almost-3-year-old, is our Hannah’s “best friend.” In other words, Hannah kisses her, hugs her, pats her, beats her, and chases her, all the time squealing with delight even as Sarah runs in terror from our well-meaning, over-excited daughter.
As we try to teach Hannah social skills, we’ve been trying to love Anne and her family into a relationship with Christ. She has been studying the Bible with Pauline and has been considering committing her life to Christ in baptism for a long time. She was baptized Sunday, and we are thrilled. We have seen the change in her so gradually, and I admit that it always amazes me to see God working in a person’s life. In the beginning, she was tired, untrusting, and bitter about her husband’s leaving them two years ago. Now she glows with hope and new trust in God.
A few weeks ago, her husband came back to town and seems willing to “try again.” This is new territory for her, and she is a little wary, but she says she is trying to take “one day at a time” and “leave it all to the Lord.” She desperately wants her two daughters to have a father. Please pray for her as she gives her life to the Lord and pray for her marriage. Pray especially that God will move in her husband’s life so that they can be united in Him.
Love,
Diane Reese, with Marcus and Hannah
Marcus with Anne
November 27, 2001
Dear Friends,
This month, after a relaxing eleven day vacation in Cairns, Australia, we are trying to cut back on our enjoyable town work in order to give our language learning another boost. This means we are spending more time with the village people whose worldview is especially distant from ours. As a result, we are having more of those intriguing cross-cultural experiences that we told you about during the first half of this year. These mysterious glimpses into the village mindset make us all the more determined to learn this language so that we can really get to know these people.
Yesterday, for example, Diane had a very interesting conversation–a mixture of broken Tawala and broken English–with a middle-aged friend of hers. Diane thought she was paying her friend a surprise visit, but when she arrived at the woman’s house, the woman said she was not surprised. She explained that she had been working in the garden and some butterflies had approached her. She had interpreted the butterflies as a sign telling her that someone was coming to visit, and indeed someone came!
Needless to say, we are not very familiar with butterfly omens, but we became completely confused at something else the friend said. She said that she had been ordered to pay a fine: one very valuable pig. What had she done wrong? She had become angry with another woman and had “sat on her thighs.” Now what does that mean?
The communication barrier has thus far prevented Diane from discovering what “sat on her thighs” means. Hopefully we will figure it out, but even if we do, it will only be one small piece in a large puzzle. Please pray that we will learn this language!
And thank you all for the prayers you have offered on our behalf in the past. May God bless you.
Marcus Reese, with Diane and Hannah.
P.S. In the picture is Diane’s friend (her name is Melele), watching as Hannah plays with her grandson.
December 19, 2001
Dear Friends,
Up until now, a lot of our weeks have been spent trudging along the path of language learning, wondering if it would be worth it. The first real encouragement that it would definitely be worth it came on Tuesday evening when Marcus spoke to a village assembly entirely in Tawala. In his speech he explained how people cannot escape the trap of sin without God’s help. After he spoke, many of the leaders stood up and addressed the group, all of them seeking to affirm and build on Marcus’s message. After the meeting, several approached him to talk about it some more. They seemed to understand well, and many were impacted by the imagery Marcus used of “being stuck in Satan’s hole [of sin], unable to get out.” They felt that they could relate to that. They have asked him to continue sharing messages with their assemblies each Tuesday night, and he has been meeting with the leading men on Thursday nights as well.
Adding to the emotion of the event for them and for us is the fact that for months these men have been teaching him to speak just as a parent teaches a small child. They have taught him to use a bush knife, corrected his pronunciation, and helped us survive in a new culture–all with the understanding that someday he would be ready to teach them about the Bible in their own language. The relationship he has forged with those men made the evening very special for everyone. Needless to say, when he finally came home at 11:30 p.m., he was too excited to sleep.
Thank you all for your prayers that have led us this far. Please keep praying, because we are still limited in our conversation and have much to learn. The attached picture shows Marcus running his speech by Betty, the village friend who helps me once a week with language and housework.
Diane Reese (with Marcus and Hannah)
