Around the World with the Woltjers

Written by Daniella

I am always amazed at seeing how God uses past history, skills, and passion to further His kingdom in ways we don’t expect. This happened to me in a very obvious way during the month of April. It all started when Oriela, a young attorney from Chile, was interested in coming to Papua New Guinea for a short-term mission trip. She came with the intention to help with some legal paperwork and advice for both the Papua New Guinea Field team and Kudjip Hospital Management. However, her main focus and passion was to speak to various groups on different topics. When she landed, our Field team realized that her written English (in emails) was much better than her spoken English.

Realizing she needed to communicate in English for her presentations, the Field team and Oriela attempted a meeting where she spoke into her phone and waited for it to translate what she had said. Of course, this ended up not being practical and other options were considered. I was asked if I would be willing to help with some translations as the missionaries know that I speak Spanish. I agreed to this request, thinking it was to help with some conversation and paperwork…turns out they were hoping I would translate for Oriela’s three large presentations!

The first presentation was on the topic of “Women in Ministry” on April 1. This talk was given to the missionary ladies and young women from our local Nazarene Youth International (NYI) group. (Although, we did have a couple young men join as well.) I was extremely nervous as I did not feel qualified for this at all. It had been over 18 years since I had left Ecuador and translated between Spanish and English! (The levels of Spanish I teach are level one and two…so much more English than Spanish.) Not to mention, I have been working on learning German to communicate with my mother-in-law and Tok Pisin for our ministry in Papua New Guinea. So, my brain is a big mix of a bunch of languages. All of this to say, I was overwhelmed and prayed lots leading up to this event!

Back to the “Women in Ministry” presentation – in true PNG fashion our event started a bit late, and we had a number of people show up throughout our presentation. We also experienced a number of electrical black-outs where we used my computer screen for the PowerPoint presentation instead of the planned TV. This presentation talked about the importance of women in ministry, whether local or in foreign fields. I learned that 70% of missionaries world-wide are women! God has given us many gifts and abilities to be used in the furthering of His kingdom. We talked about different ways to serve and how important even the “smallest” contribution can be. During the question-and-answer time, we asked for ways the NYI serve in the area, and we asked the missionary ladies how they were called to missions (and how God used/is using our unique gifts for the roles we are serving in). My translation went well, and any mistakes I made caused people to laugh as they could see I had no clue what certain words were and trying to figure out/explain the word was hilarious. And thankfully the main points were definitely communicated well, so it was a great presentation. 😊 I am very thankful that God does not expect perfection and uses those not qualified or confident to share His message.

The second presentation was “Women of God” on April 9. This presentation was given at “Meri Bung.” Meri Bung is a group of women/moms from around our station that meet every Thursday during the school year. I went into this topic with a lot more confidence as Oriela and I had been meeting and chatting more often, so my Spanish brain “clicked” and flowed much easier! (It was to the point I was speaking full Spanish to my PNG friends…oops!) I also experienced my first ever three-way translation! Oriella spoke Spanish, I translated to English, and Sister Vero (a lead nurse) translated to Tok Pisin. (I did not feel confident enough to translate the Spanish straight into Tok Pisin). This presentation was very empowering as we talked about how God has given women so many gifts and opportunities! We talked about what true beauty is, and how we should deal with our emotions as they affect our families’ home life and emotional well-being. The women clapped and clicked their tongues – the PNG way of showing the message was touching their hearts and the Holy Spirit was speaking to them personally. During our socialization before and after, the women were fascinated by me translating the conversation to and for Oriela as they chatted with her. Spanish is very different sounding from English and Tok Pisin, and they loved hearing this new-to-them language. (I also caused more laughter as sometimes I would be translating to Spanish for Oriella and use a Tok Pisin word or vice-versa.)

Audience: “Meri Bung” Ladies

The third and final presentation was “Gender-Based Violence” on April 14. This presentation was given during the day to the third-year college of nursing students and staff. This was a hard topic to talk about and translate for, especially with the cultural differences. It was also eye-opening as we asked questions and received answers about how women are viewed in this culture, how hard it is to get out of bad situations, and how few resources there are for women who are being abused. There were talks about “bride-price,” the power family has to remove their daughter/sister, etc. Our prayer though is that learning about the different forms of abuse, how to spot it (especially in the medical setting), and how to support someone going through it will help these students as they graduate and become nurses around PNG.

Audience: College of Nursing 3rd Year Students and Staff

I have so many take-aways from these presentations and being asked to translate for them. First – God definitely can use people who don’t think they are qualified or lack confidence in their skills. Not only that, but you also never know when God will use something from your past to further His kingdom. Second – I was so blessed to be able to participate in these three topics and see how they impacted the women and students here. There are not a lot of opportunities to have a qualified speaker come to local group events, so to see these topics presented well to them was amazing! Third – I am so very thankful that God has called me to serve alongside the men and women here. Their hearts are on fire for God, and they are striving to serve Him with their whole self. He is definitely moving in the people and culture of Papua New Guinea. He has called me, broken and unqualified, to serve with them. Praise and glory to Him!