Nature in the Wild

In the pristine jungle around us there is all kinds of evidence of God’s handiwork. Every day when we look out our windows we see evidence that there is a Creator.

There are hundreds of different species of butterflies here in our jungle. Starting with the first naturalists, such as Alfred Wallace in the 1800s, down to the modern collectors of the present, they are all awed and amazed at the vast variety and multitudes of these amazing insects. We have about 200 butterflies in our collection now, and we continue to search for an unknown species. Right now we are very interested in a small blue butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. We think the little guy may be an unknown variation to science.

We have lots of small animals around us in the jungle. There is the tree kangaroo, a marsupial. It has a pouch that it uses to carry its young, and it lives in the trees, thus its name. Also there is the echidna, one of the only mammals on earth that lays eggs! It is a kind of anteater with spikes all over its body. Sometimes our tribal friends will kill and eat echidnas. They’re considered a delicacy around here!

There are also some really neat plants. One quiet, sunny afternoon, Mom was sitting outside under a mighty woin tree and talking to our tribal “Grandma” about the news in the tribe. They were both weaving bags. Grandma started pulling weeds and said, “Oh look, here is some damburi. This is food, you can cook this with sweet potato greens.” Everywhere there are thousands of edible ferns that cover the landscape, little berries that grow on the trails and in caves, interesting insects, mammals, and all kinds of moss that blanket the mountainside.

After teaching us boys botany from Apologia science books, Mom says she’s awake to the millions of plants that are around us. The tribal people of Southeast Asia use so many plants for all kinds of tasks.

Our new home is much higher in elevation than where we used to live, and we were amazed at the difference in the temperature! We moved from 5,000 feet up to 7,200 feet! It is super cold up here. On one of our first days here, it got down to 52 degrees, indoors! That’s freezing for being right on the equator.

But that doesn’t stop us from exploring! We once discovered a cave near our house. It is a huge hole that goes way deep down into the ground. Our friend Liku crawled down into the abyss until we could not see him. He had a flashlight and said that it dropped way down, down into nowhere! As we were coming out we found another hole. It went through a short passage that led to a small chamber. Hudson caught a small “swiftlet” bird with his hands as we were going in! The chamber was filled with little bird nests on the sides of the walls!

The incredible beauty that we see all around us reminds us daily of the marvelous handiwork of our Creator and Savior who came to Earth as a man, died on the Cross for our sins, and rose again, conquering death.