ON MISSIONARIES: A PERSONAL VIEW (6)

Our sessions with Professor Pike were intensive, but I must have impressed him because at one of them he asked me, “Franklin (he never called me by my first name), have you thought about attending graduate school and studying linguistics?” I was shocked and said, “Dr Pike, with my college grades, I don’t think I could get into graduate school.” His reply was simply, “Where would you like to go?” I thought for a minute and said, “Cornell University,” which was only a couple hours from where I grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania. Pike, who knew all the leading linguists, contacted Professor Hockett at Cornell who was one of the leading linguists in the world, and he invited me to Cornell. No entrance exam, and I became his teaching assistant.

In my opinion, things like that don’t “just happen”; rather, God was directing and controlling them. Consequently, upon passing all my courses, writing a thesis, and passing an oral exam, I received my MA in linguistics, minoring in anthropology.

I did have one hiccup while at Cornell: I had to pass two language exams, other than English. In addition to Kewa, I chose German, thinking I knew something (very little it turned out) about the language. I failed the first exam (not uncommon I learned) and after my second exam a semester later I thought I had done well. However, I was again listed as “Fail,” so I went to see the language exam supervisor. The test had been to translate a long philosophic exposition, and the “blue book” showed that I had only a few red marks. “What happened,” I asked. “Well,” the man replied, “We have two examiners, an inside one from the university, and an outside one. One passed you and one failed you.” “What can I do?” I asked. He replied, “You can appeal to the Dean.” Note: Missionaries fail, but that is not the end.

I did, and after explaining to the Dean why I wanted to get back to PNG and not study more German, he consulted with my linguistics professor and pardoned me. I would be free to return to PNG after one academic year at Cornell. God was helping me, and we were excited to finally return to the translation work we felt called to do.

After the school year, we went to the SIL summer school at the University of Oklahoma, this time to teach. However, God (and Pike) had another surprise for us. Dr Pike called me into his office one day and said, “Franklin, we want to start a summer school in New Zealand next year, and we would like you and Joice to do it.” Start a school? “Do you have a manual”? I foolishly asked. Dr Pike replied, “No, just talk to Turner Blount, he will give you some ideas.” That was my orientation!

During our first summer in NZ, we had another surprise. We had just started the school and did not know any of the university professors, although the university allowed us to use some of their classrooms. One day I received a telephone call from Professor Charles Fries, from the University of Michigan, who was Pike’s mentor. He and his wife were vacationing in NZ and Pike told him about the new school. “What can I do to help you,” he asked. We met and he volunteered to give a guest lecture on English grammar. He had written a book on the subject and was well-known in academic circles. With his help, I got to meet several university professors, who then sponsored our summer school.

We spent a total of four summers in New Zealand, two in Auckland, then much later, two more at Featherston (in the southern part of the north island). We had friends there who showed us around both islands — truly one of the most beautiful countries we had ever seen.

I aways have Proverbs 19.21 in the back of my mind (“You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail”), and the words became dominant in 1965 when we returned to PNG.

We had believed we would be devoting our time entirely to the Kewa translation, but when we arrived at our center in Ukarumpa, a branch conference was about to take place. All the missionaries would be on hand to elect the Branch director and his Associate. It turned out that the members now wanted two Associates, one for Language work and one for Support work. I was elected as the Associate Director for Language Affairs for the next two years.

Another team was asked to take over the work we had been doing in the (East) Kewa area, perhaps thinking that we would remain in administrative work. We had already agreed to start the SIL summer school in New Zealand, but we first began doing our Associate Directorate Language work, which meant visiting 35 different language areas and, in several cases, giving language exams to our members, as well as assisting with linguistic and anthropological problems. I had become a consultant-missionary, something we had not planned on!

Sometime during those two years of administration, a linguistics professor from the Australian National University (ANU) visited Ukarumpa. I had never met him, although we had corresponded. Quite unexpectedly, he invited me to apply for a PhD at the Pacific School of Research Studies at ANU. “However,” he said, “You had better hurry because you are getting old.” I was 33 and did not feel old. However, I applied immediately and was accepted. I had trouble getting out of college, but had received an MA from an Ivy League school, and was now going to be paid to do a PhD at a prestigious university in Canberra, Australia. Not what Joice and I expected when we joined WBT and SIL as missionaries!

Karl Franklin