Insects and Mice

Here's a chapter for my next book. Since the first book is titled Mission Possible, I thought the next one should be Mission Complete. What do you think?

Hauna Village - 1970s.

Before turning in for the night, I would always spray inside my big mosquito net to make sure all the mosquitos, spiders, bugs, and other critters would be taken care of before crawling into my bed.

I blew out the lantern and crawled quickly into bed so no mosquitos could get in with me before I was able to tuck the mosquito net tightly around my nice, thick 2 inch mattress. It only takes on mosquito to keep you awake all night. Why do they always buzz around your ears? That drives me mad. I nearly knock myself out trying to slap 'um dead. The bugs (Bwi is the word for bug in Sepik Iwam language) can become so think that you have to escape under your mosquito net. Actually, you can hear them coming across the swamp. I think every bug, insect, and other critter that God created from the Beginning are right here in Hauna Village. We have all the plagues that Egypt had.

I had my flashlight, which I put under one corner of my pillow, my Bible, walkman, notebook and pen, plus an American magazine if someone from the States had sent me one. I would die for an American magazine of some sort. The Lord often speaks to me during those quiet times. God's symphony of jungle sounds was all around me. The rats and cockroaches were out in big number, along with the geckos, bats, snakes, frogs, cicadas, crickets, crocodiles, and dozens of birds. They all have their unique sound, and they are never off key. Yes, the jungle comes alive at night. It is beautiful. Actually, it is a bird paradise of the world.

With my flashlight sitting precariously on my shoulder, I read some letters from home. I always saved the mail for when all was quiet and I was in bed - just me, the Lord, and all of God's creation out there singing up a storm.

After reading my mail and magazines, US News World Report and Sports Illustrated, I then picked up my Bible, which is always by my head on the pillow to read the verses we would be translating the next day. We usually translate about 10 verses a day. I would concentrate on those more difficult words that we seldom use in our everyday conversation ... like justification, sanctification, mercy, grace, etc. Trying to find those words in the Sepik Iwam language was a major challenge. God created all these languages so we know the words are there in some form or another. We went straight to the Hebrew or Greek for the exact meaning, and I would then try to convey that to my translators to see if they would come up with the Sepik Iwam word or phrase that meant the same as the Hebrew or Greek word.

After that, I switched my flashlight off and put it under the corner of my pillow, and in a few minutes, I would drift off to sleep with the menagerie of jungle sounds lulling me to sleep. Nothing more beautiful than that!

Around two in the morning, I was awakened by something crawling across my neck, down my arm, across my legs -- in fact, there were several of these "somethings" crawling all over me. I reached for my flashlight. MICE! A whole bed full of little mice. There was a nest of mice in my mattress. So much for spraying.

I tore that mosquito net apart trying to get out of bed. I thought I would die. I stayed up all night in a chair looking at the moon over the mountains reflecting on the river. Yes, it was beautiful, but the mosquitos were out in full force. I didn't dare turn on my flashlight, or there would have been a tornado of bugs come flying at me. While waiting for the sun to come up over those same mountains, I prayed and meditated. And yes, it was beautiful. Our house sets on a hill looking down on the river and a mountain range that surrounds us. The house is made of jungle material with a thatched roof and screen wire all around it. There are no windows or bark walls - just openness all around. It is too hot for walls. The house is about 60 feet long and 26 feet wide, two stories. We call it the Hauna Hilton Community Center. Anywhere else, this scene would cost you $200 a night. However, it comes with the bugs, mice, and all the other critters that we have.

One night in Hauna Village ... I would do it again, bugs and what ever. All for Jesus!

Pressing on until our work on earth is done,
Marilyn Laszlo