An Unusual Location

A very funny notice popped onto my ipad while trying to boot onto the link to the mission server:  "It looks like you are logging on from a very unusual location. Please verify your account."  Yes, a very unusual location indeed! So after many strange messages and connectivity issues, it's a joy to finally get online and share another perspective of the ITEC trip to PNG.

I've been journaling fairly steadily so will pick and choose various snippets from the week for all who are praying for our group, with our team thanks for your partnership in all that The Lord is accomplishing.

The journey itself was memorable.  On the third day we finally arrived in country and made it to Wewak. We had some trouble around customs lines, baggage claim and reticketing in Aussie, and then our flight was canceled when we reached Port Moresby, but Air Niugini took good care of us. We were greeted by white smiles and trays of iced apple juice, (John, we discovered, is a Christian songwriter who leads worship at his church!), and treated to a glorious hot dinner, a much-needed shower, and four hours sleep at the exotic Lamana Hotel before the final leg of the journey here. It was like traveling through time to a forgotten era and across continents to another world, and The Lord met us with perfect refreshing when we needed it.

Outside of traveling with such a wonderful team, the BEST PART of the trip was the delightful stream of people I met and awesome conversations along the way. A fascinating author from Bali, a gorgeous model from NYC, a young gold miner, a native real estate developer, a handsome woman from Fiji, an attendant from Nepal, an elderly Philippino couple, a hiphop kid from LA... just a few of the great memories. From the very first seat mate, there were wide open opportunities to share and pray with people who said were made to think about God in a way they never had before. Thank you Father!

Since our arrival, the days have been a blur of heat and activity but what a blast being back here! Everywhere we go, we find people eager for friendship and ready to smile in this laid back Polynesian culture of Papua.

I wish you could smell the air and hear the bird calls across the lush green landscape of coconut palms, lemon trees and bananas. Now I am surrounded by a chorus of crickets and can't help but be reminded of the God of Crickets and Thunder. He is faithful, ever-present, and able to use everything for his glory!

We can see the ocean and the town airport from the porch of where we're staying.  (It was an answer to prayer when one of our members finally got his luggage after about three days, so it's good that we are so close to it.) Throughout the day we notice planes and choppers drifting in and out, but even they seem unable to rush in this climate, the sound of their motors dulled by the thick sultry air and dense humidity. With one exception...

Friday afternoon we heard a big chopper coming right over the rooftop. Everyone rushed outside to watch a man hanging out the open door taking pictures of the team project where they are connecting the two bases with power. They danced around up there over the coconut trees and twirled and darted around to the kids' delight, and gave us a good show that reminded me of when my kids were little. Home school always came to a halt when we heard a plane or chopper buzzing overhead.

It's a great life for kids. The local families hosted a potluck dinner for us the night we arrived and I was amazed at how many were gathered. What a great group! A whole new generation of MKs ran circles around our tables and skateboarded out the door, and there was enough home made pizza to feed a small army, with a fantastic variety of toppings.

Speaking of amazing food cooked from scratch, Deb and Linda have done a remarkable job planning small feasts for the crew. Deb is up before the crack of dawn grating, mixing and baking delectable goodies to surprise us all and the menus blend the familiar with a touch of exotic PNG flavors and market foods. Red papaya, sweet kaukau, buttered cheese pitpit, susu bananas and coconut greens are my favorites. (The sour sop I put in the fridge turned dry and was not at all the way I remembered it. Sorry guys!) Of course, the best part of kitchen duty is the company and I love being with these wonderful women. We are always laughing, but especially when Linda's wearing her miner's headlamp!

For me personally, coming to PNG is all about making connections and I've so enjoyed the chances to get to town and the big open market, sharing with the locals wherever possible. Amidst heaps of mulis (lemons) and aupa (spinach greens) and piles of smoked fish and bananas, as people shuffle around making exchanges and carrying bundles on their backs, I enjoy shaking hands and "storying" or chatting with people from the outlying villages.






One old woman came up to me and said she remembered me and actually had tears in her eyes as we held hands and reminisced. "Yu lapun meri bilong Sepik!" Yes, I'm an old timer from here. Another couple of guys remembered me and Frank from the time we went into Malamanda. He was just a boy he said, but he remembered clearly.

Other highlights include the women's Bible study with a few of the national workers on base, surprising Linda on her birthday with a nice gathering of women, making breakfast by 'torch' flashlights and candles due to another power outage, and the meaningful times of sharing with the team. I think these who have traveled so much of the world have a special appreciation for the cultural humor stories and I thought Linda would laugh until she cried when I told the one about Frank shooting the chief's wild turkeys!

Even as I'm writing this now, we're having yet another outage and the clothes are soaking in tubs, unable to spin out for hanging on the lines. These outages certainly highlight the significance of the team project to wire generator power to the base. The guys have been working hard in extreme heat and bugs, dealing with shortages of tools and a few equipment failures and malfunctions. Please pray that all the wrinkles will be ironed out in time to complete the project.

We're not only meeting new missionaries from many corners of the world, but seeing a couple families who grew up with my kids and even lived in our dorm has been delightful. Brooks and Nina just completed and dedicated the Yembi translation and now work here as Sepik administrators on the base. And  Brandon and Rachel are now working on an island off the coast about 5 hrs by motor boat, in seas that are sometimes too rough to travel.

Chatting with their 11-year old daughter Brianna I asked how she likes living in PNG and if she's looking forward to furlough.
"No, everyone should come here for furlough," she said. "I don't want to leave!"
"What do you want to do when you grow up?" I asked.
"I want to be a medical missionary, in India," she said excitedly.

I've also enjoyed reconnecting with Tim and Laurel, a Canadian family who did their jungle orientation with us years ago, and now they're preparing to go back into April River in a couple weeks. As it turns out, there's a couple from their tribe who are out here in the hospital or "haus sik" recuperating from a paralyzing fall and head injury, so I rode along with them to visit, stopping at the roadside market to buy food.

As we pulled in the long driveway,  a white jeep ATV with headlights on was coming out with a dead body followed by a truck filled with grieving family--a stark reminder of the grim circumstances surrounding so many. The hardworking and clean pressed staff workers make valiant efforts but I walked through such heart rending conditions in these sweltering wards. Despite such filth and poverty I met the sweetest people, open to the gospel, and even the kids who live there were ready to laugh and just be kids no matter what.

While Tim and Laurel stood by their friend strapped to a gurney and suspended for physical therapy, I wandered the hallways, shared my market foods and sat in wards to "stori" with people about the hope of heaven and why Jesus died on the cross. Every opportunity has been a joy and privilege.



I found a quiet desktop in the office and started writing a letter to the Iwam Sios (church) with the Iwam Bible at my side. Please pray for the chance to communicate a message of encouragement to the people we lived amongst for 16 years.

Looking at a field map of all the tribal locations in the library I recognized some of the study books lining the old shelves. Opening the covers, I saw the unmistakeable penmanship and letters of my late husband's name in some of his old favorites. There was Newell's Verse by Verse of Hebrews and Lloyd Jones' Romans commentaries... Holding these somewhat moldy old books in my hands and looking at Frank's name, I wept. So sweet to reflect on living for the things that will last for all eternity! So glad we did!

God has certainly been giving us some memorable treats along the way. Saturday night we went out to eat at the new hot spot on Wewak Hill where we helped start the Seaside Academy and managed a dorm of missionary kids near town. What a great memory! This new Wewak Boutique has an air-conditioned dining room lined with mounted artifacts and Asian inspired decore. Several of us ordered the croc tail in curried coconut sauce which was delicious, but we were too full to sample the "chili pepper chocolate soup" for dessert.

Surprisingly, a room at this hotel runs k450/night (roughly US$200) but I thought they were nicer with gleaming hardwood floors and private patios than the pre-fab container condos on the beach that run k1000/night or about US$400!  My, how things have changed!

Not everything has changed however. Our whole team was also able to spend a morning at Wam Beach for a picnic lunch and a little snorkeling around the live reef. The warmth of the water, accessibility and nearness of the viewing, and the varieties of fish and stunning sealife still put the Great Barrier Reef to shame. Shane even saw a lion fish just 20' from shore.

I wandered down the beach and met a family who manages the Ella Motors in town. The wife comes from the Highlands and like me, enjoyed talking. (Imagine that!) When I asked about her faith and spiritual life Linda mentioned that she still chews buai (a betel pepper chewed with lime like a mild narcotic). Wherever you go, people think we have to clean up our act in order to have a relationship with Jesus but at the end of our visit, she stood and warmly hugged me in gratitude as we said goodbye. A big theme of this trip has been the unmerited and unfailing love of our Heavenly Father.

Speaking of unfailing love, and looking ahead this week, Tom, Linda and I are hoping for the chance to fly back into the tribe where Linda and I once worked at May River. The biggest challenge in getting there is that the old airstrip is now covered with trees and has reverted to jungle. There's not even room for a chopper to land. Pilots and planes are scarce, and a river trip has been discouraged due to pirates with semi-automatic weapons. So a huge prayer request has been to coordinate a flight by float plane while we are here.

***It was somewhat dismaying to get the report from the Samaritan pilot that they found a leak in the hydraulics on that single float plane in the region during its 100-hourly check last week. Now we are asking prayer to get the needed repairs done, a part flown down from the Highlands in time, for a trip either Thursday or Friday of this week.***

***Another concern was how to communicate with the Iwam since there is no radio in there. (This is another problem we hope to remedy and bring a radio and battery in for them.) So just before lunch today I hopped in the truck with Brooks and we went looking for someone from PIM (Pacific Inland Mission) who has radio contact with a group about an hour downriver. The first time to the house there was no one home but the second time back I was able to write a message to be sent in and now we're asking prayer that word reaches the people before our visit. Please pray that we will be able to find our old friends and grown 'kids' and encourage them.***


So, between loads of laundry and stacks of dishes, the women have been keeping busy too. Everyone on the team is employing the gifts God's given to see the whole project move forward. We couldn't do this alone!

So we run the course set before us, remembering the joy it is to be yoked with Jesus and united with the body of Christ.

Thanks to all for your prayers and support!
Karen