Wednesday, July 4, 2012

The Land of the Oompa-Loompa?

I’ve met an Oompa-Loompa. Indeed, I’ve even give out candy with them. You don’t believe me? No one believed Willie Wonka either.

“Of course they're real people. They're Oompa-Loompas...Imported direct from Loompaland...And oh what a terrible country it is! Nothing but thick jungles infested by the most dangerous beasts in the world - hornswogglers and snozzwangers and those terrible wicked whangdoodles. A whangdoodle would eat ten Oompa-Loompas for breakfast and come galloping back for a second helping.”
― Willie Wonka, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Of course, my experience occurred in college. Strange things happen in college.

Did I mention that I was an Oompa Loompa too?
 
So, even though Loompaland seems to resemble Papua New Guinea and Oompa-Loompa sounds deceptively close to Ukarumpa, don’t be fooled—this island I live on is far more eye-opening and amazing than the reported home of mere snozzwangers and whangdoodles!

Ukarumpa (oo-kar-UM-pa) is our primary linguistic center for Papua New Guinea (and in some services, for the Pacific region). It is dedicated to the support of Bible translation, church engagement, and community development around PNG and has quickly become my home base as I travel around the country.

While I can’t provide Everlasting Gobstoppers and dancing orange men, I would like to share with you this 4-min video tour of Ukarumpa that I put together back in May for my friends at Centennial Evangelical Free Church, my sending church. They kindly posted it HERE on Vimeo for me since that would be exhaust my own internet capabilities. Take a look!