Several letters found from some locals…

Handwritten note with no date but amongst the early 1963 letters in Ina’s file of copied letters she wrote. I’m sure they had more but somehow these made through the many moves we made. ~Paula

 To Paola Erickson, Lutheran, Mission, Malalo
My dear Mrs. Erickson,
Well, hello. Sorry Mrs. Erickson I have no story to tell you about. Well your stay well at my home but I am so very glad for Paola and Tommy. I make Paola’s a little netbag and put some shells too inside and Bingsu to give Paola. Well I did stay at Labalia. I stay at Buikala with my father and mother. My father be a teacher at Buikala. The Buikala is near Labalia.
Bye Tom boy and Paola

God be with you and me too. Thank you.

1963 February 26
From Miss Gewa Annan, lutheran, Mission Hospital, Madang.
Dear Reverend Erickson,

Well, hello and how are you? This is Gewa, one of the nurses from Malalo. I have been here at Yagum hospital for four years and this year will make five. I finished training last year on December 1, 1962.

I didn’t see you before I left and you also did not see me. But I just hear your name that you are my missionary. So I do write this letter to you. I do know Reverend Scherle much more than you, but I hope I will know you soon. Well, by this letter like to ask you that do you the address of the hospital which father Scherle going to take operation at? If so, then, please let me know, because I like to write him some letter. Thank you. My name is Miss Gewa Annan, and my village is, I hope you know my father already. His name is Bigmalo Annam.
I will stop for now. Wish to see you sometimes. Goodbye. Hello to Mrs. Erickson. Thank you.

Sincerely, Miss. Gewa Annan

Bigmalo Annam, from Buakap. He and Christian were the two main lay people leaders of the circuit, both level headed, respected and the ones everyone listened to.

1963 March 14
Dear Miss Annam,
Bingsu Erickson has just left for a trip into the Buang area and won’t be returning for a little over a week, so I thought that I could tell you, Bingsu Scherle’s address. I’m sure he’d be very happy to hear from you.

We received a letter from him last week, he said he was leaving the hospital after being there for 14 days. He said that his back hurt him a lot and that he could not bend over. He will have to wear a brace for six months and plans to come back to New Guinea when he can get it off, this would be September. He cannot put on his shoes or socks, as he cannot bend that far. They were happy to be able to live in the house that they lived in when they were in America in 1960.

His address is:
Reverend and Mrs. Fred a Scherle
1544 Hullham St.
Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA

Bingsu Erickson was very glad to hear from you and we do hope you are enjoying your work at Yugaum.

God’s blessings to you

Cleaning up the yard

1963 March 20 (a copy)

Dear Bette, Lois, Claude, grandpa, Bruce, Lisa and Leigh Ann
Whew, what a houseful. I’m glad to hear that Leigh is gaining well. I hope that she is a good baby. I bet Lois has her hands full. If you are working again Bette and that you are a pretty exhausted mama by the time you finish work.
I just came up from the dispensary. I was greeted bright and early by a man that had crunched his little finger when some wood fell on it. It was all askew, so I thought it was probably broken and the fingernail was ripped most of the way off, and he had a laceration from the middle of the nail to around the finger. He had done it yesterday, so it was all puffy and full of clots, which made it much easier to fix. I put about 6 cc of Novacaine into it, and then he just got about passed out from pain when I put some iodine on it- poor man. We proceeded to straighten it, and as I got it sewed together again, it was a bit straighter, so I think it was just that the muscle had pulled it askew. I had to remove the whole fingernail. That man is going to have a mighty sore finger for a long time. I wrapped it up with a lot of sulfa, and gave him 3 cc of penicillin, and pray that it will heal well. I also splinted it the best I could, but had a hard time getting him to uncrook his finger. I’ve come away along since I nearly fainted when Claude told me about his thumb. I don’t do a very neat job of suturing, but I hope it will hang together. I’ve had six emergency cases since Al left a week ago into the mountains. We hadn’t had any for quite a while before that.

I just found out that it would cost $61 to get a gauge and a humidifier or oxygen tank and that the hospital will keep filling my tank for me. So if the money from Bethany and you and from Trinity and Stevens Point, we will have enough to get it.

We are trying a new experiment. The people are now starting to earn some money so everyone has a bit. The people weren’t doing very well in keeping our Dr boy and food so he just walked out one day and didn’t come back. All that left us high and dry, but I refuse to take over the dispensary, except for emergency cases. I said it was up to them to solve their own problem. So we closed the dispensary for one week. We had some girls training for nurses at the Mission Hospital that had graduated but wouldn’t come back to Malalo until the new dispensaries finished. Well we persuaded the girls to come back, but the congregation has to provide a place for them to live and food plus a salary of about $30 a year. I don’t blame them for not wanting to come back. At the hospital they would get $120 a year.

Well to provide food, I suggested that everyone bring two pence – pennies every time they come, and if they didn’t have money, they should bring food. While food is a little hard to come by now, but they have to pay or the girls won’t stay, so there is no relenting. These people think only in shillings, which is 12 pence. They brought their shillings the first morning, and they were quite astounded when I gave them 10 pence for one shilling. They got 10 “other monies “ -that was a pretty good deal. The dispensary has been full every morning and no one has objected to paying. The new nurse is able to suture, so after this, I think I can turn most everything in this department over to her. The aid is pretty good with sores, so they get adjusted and acquainted with the set up. I will just be able to fade out of the picture and that is what we are trying to work ourselves out of a job.
I’m telling you if heat continues, we’re just going to have to find a new residence. It isn’t even noon yet and it is 110° in the sun. There’s an occasional breeze, but most of the time it is very calm. It is only 90 in the shade. We have only little showers, no good heavy rains so our food and water situation still hasn’t alleviated. Our little stream that has been supplying our bathroom is dry so when our water tanks are dry again, we will have to leave Malalo until it really starts to rain again. Fred Scherle had watched that stream for several years and it seemed to be always flowing so thought it would be a good water supply but they never have had it this dry for this long. We haven’t had a good hard rain since before Christmas. I just looked at the thermometer again and it is about 120°.

We’ve all been quite well. Lately, the kids have a little croup, but with sulfa it is getting a bit better. I’ve been trying to get a bit of sewing done since clothes don’t last. The thread rots so fast that every few months I have to sew everything.

Paula and Tommy are growing so big both in actions as well as size. Paula announced that she was leaving for Lae, she had a yellow diaper bucket full of toys and her doll and blanket. It is an eight hour walk but she didn’t seem to think that she needed food or clothes. We shook hands with her – a New Guinea custom, and said goodbye. But she didn’t get any further than the front steps, I guess it was getting too dark. Paula chatters, all of the time, hardly a waking moment is silent, especially with questions. What is this and what is that. One day she wanted to know all the parts of the tricycle. Tommy mimics most everything she says, and wants to do whatever she does. They enjoy their New Guinea playmates a lot. We don’t have any nearby, white neighbors, so they don’t have any white playmates for months on end. They don’t seem to be frightened of them when they do meet up with them though.

Paula with Metegemengs children Reuban, Micheal and I do not remember the little ones name

We find New Guinea a good place to raise kids. There are no vehicles to be concerned about and I’m home almost all of the time so they feel very secure and happy. We had very little trouble with discipline and can really regulate what they hear and see without TV. Their education won’t be as broad as in some areas as it would be growing up in the States, but then there are many things they will learn about life in the raw that will be very beneficial to them.

You know I was so proud because I found a way to sterilize my things in the pressure cooker? Well, when I went to use my gloves and things, they were all mildewed from being in the plastic bag that I put them in to keep the cockroaches out. I opened the bag to air them and had it full of little ants that eaten the rubberband I had put around to hold the wrappers on. But now I have tied the stuff with string then after I take it out of the pressure cooker, dry it in the oven and then put it in the plastic bag. I’ll get a workable system yet! We’re starting a prenatal clinic once a month and a baby clinic once a month and village visits for the age of in different villages each week. Will have to see how it works.

God‘s blessings to you all. Thank you for your letters and prayers, and we really appreciate both. We pray too that all things will look up for you.
Love, Ina
1963 March 16  (a copy)

Our playground with the station kids - the veranda where all the toys were kept.

Dear aunt La, (Alvin’s Aunt )

Thank you so much for your letters, prayers and your generous gifts. We certainly are warmed by your care and concerned. We are grateful for your ever ready testimony. God surely does work through prayer. It is a powerful tool Christians have been given, and all we have to do is use it. It is strange how easy it is to use it and how often it goes unused.
God has been very good to us in New Guinea. We have met many wonderful people, both native and white people. We don’t live close to any other white missionaries, but do get to the nearest town quite often at least once in two months, and sometimes every six weeks. We shop via the Mail. A big boat (Simbang) brings our supplies from Madang to Lae (which you can find on the map) about once a month and then our little boat (the Victor) goes to pick them up and bring them to Malalo. We get mail once a week. Each Saturday night we wait and wait for our boat to come back from taking paying passengers delays so that we can get our mail. Then we spend most of the evening reading.

Paula and Tommy feel quite at home here. They have many native playmates. The native children enjoy playing with Paula and Tom have many, many different toys.

We have a little mountain climber vehicle that we use for hauling all of our supplies up and down the mountain. Tommy calls it a tractor and loves to ride in it. Believe me no one goes anywhere without him in it. If they try, there is war.
Al and I really are struggling with the language. This is so important to effective mission work. It is so frustrating not to be able to talk and to express ourselves. Just trying to do simple things is a chore on a day-to-day basis. Al has come along real well. He had preached several sermons and Jabem. Oh, it is a struggle.  I thought he did real well. He said a schoolboy could have done better. To be able to preach in another tongue is quite an accomplishment and I have more respect for bilingual people. The New Guineans seem to pick up other native languages quite readily. Most of them know, at least three. Every other village has a different language. If we could get one common language, it would really help to get to know the people. We have what we call a church language that is used for the church service so everyone can understand the service. Nearly everyone speaks, Jabem – the church language, so that it is what we are learning.

Paula is getting to be such a talker. She rattles on and on in both English and Jabem. Tommy chatters away, imitating her.

I hope the winter hasn’t been too bad there. My folks in Minneapolis have been having quite a time this winter. I guess they really have had the cold weather. I don’t really mind missing them too much although a little snow would be nice for a change. We do quite a bit of medical work here. There is no hospital for 30 miles so any emergencies are brought to us. We have a native nurse that does real well. We did have a Dr boy until a month ago when he left us. So now I have been working a little more at the dispensary.
Ends abruptly

1963 March (a copy)

Dear Nick and Millie,

It is quite a warm afternoon. Paula is sleeping and Tommy is out playing in the sand. We have just had enough of a breeze so that it isn’t too unbearable. This morning when I woke up, my feet were cold even with a blanket on. It felt so good. It was a crisp morning for New Guinea and we all felt like we could really get some work done. This has been a dry season and during the dry season, it’s usually very hot by 7 AM- the sun is very hot. So when we have a lovely cool morning, we really appreciate it. Paula has changed considerably since you last saw her. She’s quite tall for her age having her mom‘s long legs. She is very slender. She will be three in May. She helps me clean and set the table. She helps Tommy out. And we do get such a bang out of her feeding Tommy. Tommy is a very busy one and a half year-old. He loves to play in the sand with trucks, tractors, and cars. Enjoys making life interesting for the chickens, dogs and cats. Pulling their tails and carrying them around upside down. He is always eating. As soon as he is out of bed in the morning, even if it is still dark, he wants his cereal which usually means three dishes. Nothing like starting the day right with a good breakfast.

Yesterday we had such a lovely day in a village down the coast. They had a district meeting so representatives came from each of the congregations of the Jabem speaking people. The village had gone to a lot of work and built a special bush house for the guests to stay in. Al spent the weekend there with two other missionaries. Phyllis, our teacher, and the children and I came over on Sunday morning. They don’t have a church in the village as the people walk two hours to come to Malalo for service on Sunday. They fixed a shelter out of bamboo or framework and benches and cover the roof with coconut fronds. It kept the sun out pretty well. Then they dug holes in the sand and stuck more branches from the coconut plants in the sand like trees. This protected the village people from the hot sun as they attended service outside. The people lined up and shook hands with us when we came in again when we left. I saw various sick people as I always do no matter where I go. One had had a very heavy branch fall and hit her on the back of the neck. We will probably have to take her to the hospital later.

Paula and Tommy found some of their friends there, so had a good time romping in the sand, chasing dogs and cats. They drank coconut, milk, and chewed on coconut until it was time to eat. They like the bread that they make out of their sweet potato, like taro, so they were filled by the time we had our dinner.

Some native girls fixed potatoes and fried some canned meat like spam and onions and warmed up some beans for us. They had a table and benches for us to eat on. A lovely breeze is blowing off of the ocean. The village is right on the beach so we could watch the surf rolling as we ate. The water is always such a deep blue and especially beautiful when it has white caps dancing merrily on the breakers rolling in.

It was so lovely to spend a few hours with these other missionaries, we have so limited contact with other missionaries that we really enjoyed the contact that we do have on these occasions.
You both are in our prayers. The picture Al took of you both before we left turned out real well so we see you each time we open our photograph album.

The language is still our biggest problem. Al especially understands a lot of it but we still don’t know enough of it to express ourselves adequately. Just to tell little stories is a big job when one is trying to use another language. We do hope and pray that this will improve. Our new church is finished now and ready for a paint job. The benches for the inside aren’t finished either but we hope they will be soon. The dedication will be a very big affair and we will have a lot of company. I will have to tell you about it. There has been no date set yet as we have been having very dry weather so people don’t have very much food. They always have a feast and kill some pigs and cows and plenty of taro for everyone.

Thank you for your unceasing prayer for us and our work. It does mean so much to both of us have such wonderful friends do think and pray for us. Pray that we will continually see God well in his work, and his word. In our business, we forget how much we are dependent upon God for his love. Without his love the work here worse than useless. Pray that Christ will dwell in our heart each day. May God loves sustain you both through each day and give each day some purpose. Our love to you both.

In Christ, Al and Ina.

The Malalo church under construction. In the foreground is the foot path from the beach to the station house towards the left. Looks like the Tract grip on its way to the house.