Holding the Center When Everything Moves
The following is a summary of the letters for November 1964
Malalo Mission Station
Seasonal Shifts and the Weight of Distance
November opens at Malalo with a deceptive gentleness. Spring presses forward—flowers bloom again, trees that shed their leaves flush green, and fruit hangs heavy and sweet. Pineapples ripen, bananas and papayas pile up in bowls, and strange melon-like fruit cluster against slender trunks. From a distance, it feels abundant.
Yet abundance does not mean ease.
Malalo sits as it always has, high on its 500-foot hill above Buakup village, catching breezes from the Huon Gulf. The houses Fred and Edna Scherle rebuilt after the war still stand—long, open, made for air and endurance rather than comfort. Paths wind down toward the sea and up toward the school and church, worn smooth by decades of feet. The bell tower still marks the hours. But beneath the familiar rhythms, November stretches the Ericksons thin.
The sense of distance sharpens this month—not only the distance from home in Minnesota, but the distance between stability and fragility, between what holds and what threatens to unravel.
World News, Local Realities
Letters from home carry news that feels oddly close and far at once. President Johnson has secured his position, Hubert Humphrey is Vice President. Names and elections ripple across the Pacific, touching Malalo only through thin blue airmail pages. Ina notes it, glad for stability, then turns back to the pressing immediacy of her days.
At Malalo, politics are measured differently: by whether boats run, whether children stay healthy, whether supplies arrive, whether the sick survive another night.
Kristi: Fear at the Center of the Family
November is shaped decisively by Kristi.
After receiving her smallpox vaccination, Kristi suffers two more convulsions. The memory of October’s seizure is still too close, too vivid. Ina wastes no time. She brings Kristi to the hospital in Lae, where tests follow—lumbar puncture, skull x-rays. The waiting is almost worse than the procedures.
Nothing appears wrong. No tumors. No hidden cause.
The doctors call them childhood convulsions—something she may grow out of. Phenobarbital becomes part of their daily life. Kristi grows wobbly, unsteady, but alive. Ina stays in Lae longer than planned, watching every breath, every movement, unwilling to leave too soon.
For Ina, this is no longer clinical nursing. This is motherhood stripped bare. The calm faith she has relied on professionally is tested personally. She holds fear and trust side by side, learning again how little control she truly has.
Lae: Civilization and Overwhelm
The unintended stay in Lae stretches on.
Boats fail one after another. The speedboat Al bought refuses to run. The Victor is gone to Madang. The Kuli refuses to start. Parts have been awaited for six weeks. Without boats, Malalo might as well be an island unto itself.
At one point, a hired speedboat brings them only partway. From a village five miles from Malalo, the children are ferried home by canoe. Ina walks.
Paula and Tommy respond to Lae in unexpected ways. Surrounded by other children, they bloom—loud, boisterous, alive in ways that surprise their mother. Ina watches with a heavy heart, realizing how quiet and watchful they have been at Malalo, clinging to her skirts, absorbing more than they release.
Lae gives them noise and play. Malalo gives them safety and structure. Both matter.
Photos from early 1960’s Downtown Lae, Ampo Lae guest house where missionaries stayed, pool at Lae.
Alvin in Motion, Again
Alvin moves constantly through November, stretched between responsibility and frustration.
He gets the speedboat running long enough to return to Malalo, though it fails again later. He travels to Salamaua to dedicate a bush building at a government school—an invitation that quietly signals respect in a context where missions are often viewed with suspicion.
The sawmill at Sawet remains a steady ache. Logs are delayed. Boats are down. Crews must be paid while machinery sits idle. And then comes the most discouraging blow of all: the brand-new Dolmar bush saw—nearly $2,000 and hard-won after months of effort—fails almost immediately. One of the first enormous trees cut with it turns out to have hidden WWII shrapnel embedded deep inside the trunk. The instant the blade strikes metal, it shatters, ruining the saw Alvin had worked so hard to acquire for cutting the giant rainforest timber. Mechanics must be summoned from Madang—if they can even be found.
Alvin feels the weight of leadership keenly. He sees how new missionaries struggle, how quickly frustration turns into blame. He remembers how the Scherles absorbed some of that strain before him. Now, with the Littles newly arrived, he prays for patience—for himself and for them.
The Dispensary: Holding the Line
With the doctor boy on strike, Ina works full-time in the dispensary once again.
Sick people come steadily. There is no boat. Supplies are thin. Still, no one dies. Ina marks this quietly, gratefully.
A new nurse manages reasonably well during Ina’s absence, though confidence is fragile. Training local staff remains slow, uneven work—but essential. Ina is the only European medical presence in the entire circuit. She knows what that means, even when she does not say it aloud.
Some villages had huts where pills were dispersed by 'Doctor boys', a derogative term. Some training provided to them so important pills dispersed to villages.
Loss, Separation, and Shared Grief
News reaches Malalo that June Prange’s father has died.
June teaches nearby at Bula girls’ school, only a long walk away but worlds apart when grief strikes. Ina reflects on how cruel distance can be—how loss arrives without the comfort of presence. June bears it bravely, but Ina feels the ache deeply.
Years later, this moment will echo again, remembered at Ina’s own funeral. But in November 1964, it is simply another reminder that mission life exacts its cost quietly, repeatedly.
Voices from Home: Estelle’s Steady Thread
Estelle Titus’s letters weave Minnesota into Malalo’s fabric.
She manages slides and newsletters, keeping Malalo’s lifeline open through churches, women’s circles, and quiet supporters. She writes of faithfulness, of voices heard over telephone wires, of gratitude expressed and recorded somewhere beyond human bookkeeping.
She longs to come—to teach, to babysit, to help Ina—but age, money, and policy keep her home. Instead, she carries Malalo in letters, prayer lists, and packed envelopes.
Her words remind Ina that the work does not stand alone. It is held by many unseen hands.
Children Growing in Small, Ordinary Ways
Back at Malalo, life slowly re-forms.
Kristi plays again, steady for now. Paula asks questions—about grandparents she barely remembers, about a world she knows mostly through stories. Tommy climbs constantly, drawn upward by some inner compass.
One teacher’s wife gives birth while Ina is gone. Another missionary prepares to leave. Phyllis’s departure looms, three weeks away, nearly unthinkable.
Life moves on, even as it aches.
Preparing for Christmas in the Heat
As November edges toward December, Malalo begins to look ahead.
School will close until February—the hottest season is nearly unbearable. Missionary children return home from boarding schools in Wau and Australia. Singing begins to replace lessons.
Government school students come to Malalo to sing carols in simple English. Christmas pageants unfold on the lawn. Pine trees—barbed and difficult—are decorated anyway. An Advent wreath appears, handmade by a neighbor, delighting the children.
American teachers may come for Christmas. The sawmill family too. Hospitality, as always, will stretch resources and hearts alike.
Faith Without Illusion
Ina writes honestly this month.
They blunder. They guess. They grow weary. Boats fail. Machinery breaks. Children fall ill. People leave.
And still, the message remains glorious.
They pray for clarity of mind—to proclaim it purely, truthfully, without distortion. They ask for strength not to quit when quitting would be easier. They remember those who pray for them across the ocean.
November does not resolve neatly.
But Malalo holds.
Not because everything works—
—but because love, calling, and faith endure even when they do not.
As November loosened its grip, Malalo did not so much slow down as empty out. Illness eased, boats limped along, visitors departed, and what remained was quieter—but not calmer. The house, once full of voices and shared burdens, grew suddenly spacious. December arrived not with rest, but with heat, waiting, and the unspoken knowledge that the work would continue without pause.
The following are the actual letters for November 1964:
1964 November 6
Letter written by Ina Erickson from the Malalo Mission station to Durward and Estelle Titus Box 224 Route1, Carlos MN USA
Dear folks,
It is good to hear that President Johnson is safely back in power, and Hubert Humphrey is the vice president. He surely has worked a long time for something like that. We’ve really had some busy times. Spring is dawning as more of the flowers bloom, and some of the trees that lost their leaves are green as ever. It is the pineapple season, and we have been having plenty of nice bananas and papayas, A fruit that grows on funny little trees, and has fruits like muskmelon clustered near the top of the tree around the trunk.
November 11.
What a time. Kristi has had two more convulsions after she got a smallpox vaccination. So I brought her into the hospital, they’ve done a lumbar puncture and skull x-rays and have found no evidence of tumors or the like. So attribute it to childhood convulsions that she may grow out of. She has only had slight fevers with them. I’ll have to keep her on phenobarb now for a while. She really got a doozer of a reaction from the smallpox shot. She hasn’t had any more since we’ve been in Lae.
We had come to Lae last week on a speedboat that Al had bought. Then before we could get back, it refused to run. Our boat the Victor has gone to Mandang and theKuli, which is the boat. Also refuses to run. We’ve been waiting for parts for six weeks. So we’ve been without a boat. We hired a speedboat to take us to a village 5 miles from Malalo as that’s where our speedboat was laid up. Al got it going, but it stopped again and we couldn’t get it going. So someone rode the children and Home on a canoe and our walked.
Our Dr boy has been on strike so I’ve been full-time in the dispensary full-time. We’ve really had some sick people and no boat but thank God no one has died.
Through events that only happens in New Guinea, we have acquired another boat. We hope it will work out OK as the sawmill needs two boats to pull in the logs.
Phyllis hasn’t even a month left. She hasn’t started packing yet. The Littles came to Malalo on a canoe as their baby had been ill. She seemed better before I left. Apparently malaria.
November 13. Kristi is a bit wobbly on phenobarb, but seems to be improving. I’m still in Lae observing her before we return to Malalo on Monday or whenever we can get a boat. June Prange received word that her father died this past week. It is so hard to be so separated, and have something like that happen. She surely has been brave. Her father was a pastor.1
It’s good for Paula and Tommy to have a chance to play with other children for a while. They’ve really come out of themselves and have become loud and boisterous like normal children. My heart has been so heavy as I’ve watched them. Standby and wide eyed wonder at other children playing hanging on to my skirts.
Al got the speedboat running and returned to Malalo today. He didn’t like to leave without us and we didn’t like him leaving. He is so very thin now. He really has been a frustrating time and we so desperately need your prayers. God has been good. We can rejoice in the love. His son has set us free.
Love, Al, Ina and the children.
Footnote:
1 Note to us from Alvin Erickson. Referring to Ina’s funeral. February 10, 2020. Both June Prange and Carolyn Schurr were teachers in PNG. June and Carolyn were best friends and died within weeks of each other at the end of 2020. They both attended Ina’s funeral in February.
Alvin says this upon Junes death in December of 2020. “At Mom's funeral were two women from our days in New Guinea. One was June Prange who was the headmistress of Bula girls' school about 8 miles away from Malalo. She told me her memory of Mom and myself hiking at night to be with her when we heard of the death of her father. That night had stuck in her memory.
God bless their memory”, Love, Dad
An email Alvin had received in late Novemeber 2020:
In my final in-person visit with June Prange, she shared a wish that her memorial service be held jointly with her partner Carolyn Schurr’s memorial service. A few days later, Carolyn died. Despite receiving hospice care, June was still strong. She made the decision to proceed with Carolyn’s memorial service, and the date was set for this Saturday, December 5.
In the days since, June’s situation has changed. She is now nearing the end of her life; we expect that she will die in the next several days. A wonderful hospice nurse and a core team of caregivers are providing 24-hour comfort care.
In conversation with Carolyn’s family, June’s family, and the Community of St. Martin, we’ve made the decision to postpone Carolyn’s service scheduled for this weekend and instead prepare a joint memorial service to be held in the near future. We trust that Carolyn and June’s communities will be flexible given the circumstances; we believe this honors their most deeply held wishes.
The date of the joint service will be shared by email and on CaringBridge after June dies and is received into the arms of the one who created her. Until then, please pray for June, her caregivers, and all those who need God’s tenderness. We join our voices in the prayer of Saint Augustine, saying, “Watch, O Lord, with those who wake or watch or weep tonight, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend your sick ones, O Lord Jesus Christ; rest your weary ones; bless your dying ones; soothe your suffering ones; pity your afflicted ones; shield your joyous ones; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.”
Please don’t hesitate to contact Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (612.729.8358 // 2730 East 31st Street, Minneapolis 55406 // htoffice@htlcmpls.org) with questions.
With tenderness,
Pastor Ingrid Rasmussen
Bula girls school teachers visiting Malalo. June Prange and Caroline Schurr. This man and woman were English teachers Jalenemo and Alos that got married. Their wedding was the first western wedding in the whole area. It was quite a spectacle for the New Guineans who were not too sure about this. The Erickson’s ran into them in Port Moresby later in 1972 on their way back with grandma Estelle from furlough. Photo 2: Bulu School teachers Phyllis Engebretsen, Carolyn Schurr, Eleanor Unruh, unknown, June Prange
1964 November 7 from Estelle
Letter from Estelle to Gertrude Rasmussen
Dear Mrs. Rasmussen,
Sure enough the slides and printed material arrived safely the day after I called you. I’m real sorry I called. It is pagan or something not to have more faith. Two churches had called, reminding me that one was expecting to use the slides on Sunday nite and one Thursday so I guess I panicked thinking that if They could be mailed Thursday they would still make it. However, faithful you, had them well underway, and they arrived in plenty of season! A handmaid of God! How he uses those who are willing to put themselves in his hands.
The wonderful work you are doing at Stevens Point, and I’m sure in any other respect the church needs you cannot be appreciate here and now on sufficient gratitude expressed in words, but the angel who keep the books has them written down and keeps an accounting of their bar reaching influence. So very many Expressed their appreciation and thrill at receiving the circulatory letter. These things keep the lifeline of Malalo open and functioning. Several deaths here so remove recipients here from the list.
Mrs. Harry Bundy- Carlos Minnesota
Mrs. Nick Hintzen-Carlos Minnesota
Mrs. Inger Christie- Carlos Minnesota,
Mrs. August, Schumacher, Miltona, Minnesota, would like to receive the newsletter. It wouldn’t be too much trouble to mail me several copies, and I could forward them to a few people. Enclosed is a dollar for postage.
Is Reverend Phillip Westby of first Lutheran Church in Alexandria Minnesota on the list?
I loved hearing your voice on the telephone. It is sort of a musical, happy voice as it belongs to a very nice person. I wonder how far the Stevens Point short term teachers are from Malalo. Bula is very near Malalo and where Miss June Prange teaches and lost their Australian teacher. Miss Prange was more than burdened. I would love to go and help teach or babysit for Ina or tutor Paula, but the mission board says my 58 years are just too many and the $1600 ticket is beyond my means. And I will carry-on at home doing what we can.
Al and Ina seem to like Graham and Vilma Little the new sawmiller and his wife very much. He is young and vigorous with a keen sense of humor and business acumen, so should a be real addition to their staff. I hope they get someone nice to take Miss Englebretson‘s place.
Are you having these lovely October and November days? They were beautiful along time here. We will try to remember them when the blizzards are blowing and the roads are icy. I drive 12 miles to my little six grade country school.
Much gratitude and God go with you always!
Love Estelle Titus
Ina Erickson’s family. Parents are Estelle and Durward Titus. Sisters Beryl -red, Willa in white and Ina in blue. circa mid 50’s. photo 2: 1967 when Ina was back on Furlough.
1964 November 17 from Estelle ( a rare letter that from Estelle that survived all these years! )
Happy birthday! Most precious wonderful son! I guess this won’t make it in two days, but we think of you, pray for you and talk about your work. Your pictures have been much in demand and people speak of their beauty and realism. They express as thousands of words could not what New Guinea is like, the tearing appeal in the pleasant attractive faces of the New Guinea people, and the shy, bright eyed children to whom you are bringing, the words and spirit of peace and joy and hope of life after death.
We marvel and give thanks for your dedication and devotion, for your sacrifice in parting with all you hold dear (but your immediate family) to go to proclaim the message of comfort and challenge to those who must die eternally without it. When Mrs. Stenson met me after a ALCU meeting in Alexandria, she said “aren’t we lucky!” I was somewhat taken aback. She said “God has chosen our children to proclaim his work.” Her daughter and son-in-law, Olaf Torvik, our home on furlough from Madagascar.
God go with you always, and guide you in the varied and seemingly insurmountable tasks. You face each day, ministering through these widely separated, and hardly accessible fields. It is unconscionable what you must manage a sawmill, farms, fishing projects, stores, coops, -training, people in administrative work in addition to building churches and schools, and yet mountaineering your schedule of church visitation with its ministry of proclaiming the gospel, baptizing, confirming, commuting, marrying, building schools and administrating them.
I sent you some pants. I hope they are small in that. I hope you have developed just a little spare tire. I’m sure with the traveling you must do as well as the endless activity that you have not, and they will fit.
We showed your pictures at First Lutheran, Stevens Point, Forada, Emmanuel and Carlos and Knute Nelson home in Alexandria where grandpa is in for October and November. I have dates at Osakis rest home Mission convent church and Alex. (They share ministers Frieda.) PTA and Carlos, a lady in Texas, wants to use them and I suppose I should send them to Hanska. I hope you are home long enough for a piece of birthday cake.
I plan to write to Phyllis, but the time is so short. She will be leaving soon and I hope we get to see and visit with her. I hope to get Paula ‘s books there before she left so she could explain them to Ina but if Ina reads the teachers manual, you can probably see how to teach them. I wanted to send some first-grade paper to go with the penmanship books. How I miss watching them grow and develop and sharing in their love. I’m sure the friends and neighbors love and cherish them to make up for fond grandparent’s aunts and uncles. I hope God gives a safe delivery and a healthy baby.
Love always D H, and Estelle.
1964 November 19
Letter written by Ina Erickson from the Malalo Mission station to Durward and Estelle Titus Box 224 Route1, Carlos MN USA
Dear folks,
We’re all back home, and things seem to be settling down again. Kristi plays happily, and hasn’t had any more trouble just yet. We’re expecting the Bagley’s this weekend. I left a message that perhaps it would be better that they not come, but Kristi seems so good. I sent another message that I thought it would be all right. I’m not sure just what they will decide.
The new nurse in the dispensary worked out quite well while I was gone. They still need to gain a lot of confidence, but I hope and pray that we can keep them happy and busy. One of our teachers’ wives had a baby while I was gone. The motorboat seems to be working all right. At first we thought it would be a total loss, but we got enough mechanics to work on it, so that it is running well.
We’ve learned why older missionaries don’t like to help and instruct incoming missionaries through the Littles at Sawat. Everything is so new and so frustrating that when things go wrong, machinery doesn’t work, workers, rebel, supplies, don’t come, the retort comes back, “why in the world did you do it like that, it sure was a dumb way or a dumb idea.” That was our reactions to only we couldn’t find anyone to blame because people were so reluctant to help us, but the Scherle’s caught a bit of it.
We pray that God will help them through this trying, trying time. The logs coming in as the boat is still out for repairs. Six weeks already and no assurances that it will be fixed soon. Waiting for parts. The crew has to be paid while everything is idle. The new Dolmar bush saw doesn’t work which cost $2000, so that has to be visited by knowing mechanic.1 Most likely from Madang is no one here knows anything about it. Al bought a chainsaw to be sent to and it was sent. They sent it to the wharf that we picked up things from and I forgot to see that when we got in the motorboat with I and the kids. Al was really upset as it had been a month since he first bought the thing. But finally it got down to Sawat.
I was able to buy some Christmas cards in Lae this week and so we have to get them out. I’ll send cards to the friends in New Guinea, then most probably the letter to everyone at home.
We’ve the Times magazine account of the election. It seems that H. H. H. had himself a real good time. Now I hope that Johnson can get down to business and get something done.
The boat is coming, so I’ll have to get this down the hill. Al is at Salamaua government school, which is going to dedicate one of its bush buildings today. They asked for a pastor to come over and help them. We were quite pleased. Many of the government people are quite anti-mission but not this one.
Phyllis will be leaving soon about three weeks left. It seems impossible. In a way it would be nice to be leaving, also, but we wouldn’t feel right about not completing our commitment. We beg for your prayers and we remember you all in ours. It surely will be lovely to get together again.
Paula and Tommy, especially enjoyed their stay in Lae. It gives them a chance to cope with civilization, a bit
Love, Al, Ina and the kids.
Footnote:
1 One of the first trees that was cut with the new Dolmar saw had shrapnel in it left over from WWII so the when the saw hit the shrapnel it broke the brand new saw that Alvin had spent so much time acquiring. It cut the super big trees in the forests as seen in the photos.
PS we got Mrs. B money order. Mother just sign your name to them in the future. I had to stand and guess and guess who it was from and just couldn’t remember.
1964 November 29 from Mrs. Lloyd Johnson.
Dear Ina, and all,
I was so glad to hear from you, and that the box finally arrived. I called the president of our circle to tell her and also called some other members because we’ve all been interested to know about you and your family. We do so hope that Kristi is better and all of you are well. I called your mom because I knew she’d be happy to hear we had heard from you. She said they had intended to go to Beryl’s for Thanksgiving day if the weather and the roads would be OK. We happen to get snow and ice on the day before Thanksgiving. We spent the day with my husband‘s brothers and family in town and it was fine to leave the vacation days. I taught Sunday school today and it was 12 below, so only four of the nine kindergartners were present. Pastor Torvik spoke at all three church services this a.m. – about Madagascar. They have a daughter, Carolyn, in 11th grade who is interested in nursing and belongs to FNC. I should tell FNC about you. We have a Christmas potluck dinner on December 14 at the Jefferson senior high at 7 PM. And Sunday school we started singing Christmas songs. Our five year olds are to sing Away in the Manger for the program of Primary department at 3 PM on December 20. Right when you have time. And I hope we can send some more things, certainly hope Kristi is better and we think about you often. Our best wishes to all. Hope you didn’t need to pay duty on the box,
Alice Johnson