A Day

This week I thought I'd give you a glimpse into one day of life here. Friday morning I was up around 6:30 to start the day. I dressed, made breakfast, had my devotions, and fed the cat. Then at 7:30 I walked over to the clinic. My clinic helper arrived the same time I did, so I unlocked the door and brought out firewood for the waiting patients to build a fire. I got a marker and numbered the hands of all the patients that had arrived so far, then I went into the clinic and made sure my medicines were ready for the day. (I precount and bag them with instructions, so I don't have to fix them for each individual patient as they come.) I continued numbering other patients as they arrived. Then around 8:15, Erick, a short term missionary, gave the clinic announcements and preached a gospel message. Then we started seeing patients. There were only ten patients that morning, a very small group, so we were done by 10am. The last two patients were two little girls from one of our church families. Their mother asked if we could use some strawberries and leaf lettuce (both rarities here). I said we would be delighted. She said that she was headed down to her garden and would bring some up later. So I offered to just come with her to her garden, so that she would not have to climb back up to our house.

 

We walked together to her garden, probably a 10-15 minute walk. Gardens here are huge -- about the size of a small field, and most people have three or four in different locations. I picked strawberries, and she cut leaf lettuce and peas. I loaded them all in a bilum (a string bag used to carry just about everything here) and headed back to my house.

 

When I reached my gate, Erick called to me. A man had come to the clinic for treatment. He had been struck on the head with a stick about 7am that morning. He is from a town several hours away, so he had left immediately and just arrived at 11am. We took him inside and cleaned up his head, shaving the area around the cut. Erick sewed it up with six stitches, while I assisted him. By the time we were finished with him, it was noon.

 

I came back to the house and wrote a prayer letter (which should hopefully go out sometime this week). Then about 2pm, I made lunch of pumpkin soup and grilled cheese. I think the only thing store bought was the cheese as the rest was purchased here in the bush or made from scratch. Next, it was time to head down to the church for the youth meeting. We had 20-30 teens attending. We played volleyball first (with a ball that American teens would discard as too flat and too old), then went inside for Bible quizzing and Bible study time. We are working through James, so the study and questions were from the second half of James 1. The youth meeting is being run by Erick and his wife Kara. Kara, however, had lost her voice, so I led the quizzing time.

 

After the youth meeting, it was time for fellowship. On Tuesday and Friday evenings, we go to a national home and hold a mini service, inviting those from the neighboring houses to come and hear the gospel. This particular night the fellowship was quite near the church. We packed nearly 50 people into the 8x12 main room of a national grass woven house. Of course, we were all sitting on the floor around a firepit with smouldering coals. It was raining by the time fellowship was over, so we had a rather wet, dark, 20 minute walk back home. It was about 8:45pm when we got home, so I made a sandwich for dinner and went to bed.

 

Obviously not all those things come up every day, but nothing was incredibly unusual either. It is just part of life and ministry in this village that I am thrilled to call my home.

Rain

Well, the first week without the Smiths (the senior missionaries here) has come and gone fairly uneventfully. School continued as usual, although Karen and Tiffany (the school teachers) have been fighting various illnesses. They have seemed to alternate being sick, but have not had to cancel any school as each has just filled in for the other. They have 21 students in 3 different grades, so they keep rather busy.

 

We continue to average around 25 people each clinic day with maladies ranging from parasites to malaria to bronchitis to cuts and scrapes. Friday seemed to be baby day as I saw several infants who seemed quite ill. I gave out a lot of liquid antibiotics and hope they will recover soon. Although I am able to spend only a limited amount of time with each patient, it is a blessing to be able to speak a word for the Lord here and there. (All of course hear a gospel message before the start of clinic.) This past week, I saw Pauline, a lady I had met during my previous stay here. She seemed to be a faithful Christian then, but has since backslidden and no longer attends church. I talked to her briefly in clinic but hope to go to see her in her home soon. I tried to see her Saturday but she was away in her garden (some distance from her home). Please pray that I will get an opportunity to speak with her, that the Holy Spirit will be at work in her heart, and will guide me as to what I should say.

 

We have been a little concerned about our lack of rain lately. It is supposed to be the rainy season, but we have had no rain to speak of for many days. We had prayed for the rain to hold off during the special opening services a few weeks ago, and the Lord answered, but the rain has not returned to its normal schedule since then. This is a concern because all the water we use (for drinking, cooking, showers, toilets, and laundry) comes from rain that we collect in large water tanks. Our tanks were only about half full, not a good sign in the middle of the supposed rainy season. All that to say, last night it rained quite a bit and then it rained again today. I must admit this has completely changed my attitude toward rainy days:-)

 

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Supply Runs

My luggage did indeed arrive on Wednesday as scheduled. The short term missionaries here had been very generous with their clothes, but it was definitely nice to have my own things again. The boxes that I shipped ahead of time have been trickling in as well, so I feel like I am really setting up housekeeping here.

 

Last week was a fairly normal week with clinic Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; church Sunday and Wednesday; outreach Tuesday and Friday; and prayer meeting on Saturday. I am seeing 20-25 patients on each clinic morning. They come from villages as far as several hours away. It is good to be able to try to help them with their sickness and also know that they are hearing the gospel, maybe for the first time.

 

Randy Smith, the senior missionary, made a trip to town last week to get supplies. The pilot for the helicopter we usually use is going on furlough soon, so we really stocked up this time. There were six flights in with the fuel, food, and other supplies to keep all of us going for the next several months. When you think about supplying 12 people (7 Smiths, 4 short termers, and me), it takes quite a bit of stuff. We are hoping to keep supply runs to a minimum during the pilot's six month furlough, as the helicopter we will have to use instead is much more expensive.

 

The Smiths left today on the helicopter's last trip to go to Port Moresby, the capital. Their children's passports are expiring February 9th, so they have to go to the US Embassy to renew them. They will also take a short vacation there, and so will be gone for two weeks. Please pray that all will go smoothly in their absence. Erick Duprey (one of the short termers) and Silas and Paul (our preacher boys) are splitting up the preaching responsibilities while they are gone.

 

Thanks so much for your continued prayers and support. What a blessing to know that the Lord is in charge of all things and will work them out for His own glory when we depend on Him to do so.

Another Week

Another week has started here in Kiari. Last week was a busy one with the special services for the church opening. The Lord really blessed as 10 people made professions of faith, and many Christians made decisions. We didn't have clinic on Wednesday because of the services, and had rather a small group on Friday.

 

Thank you so much for your prayers for my luggage. After many phone calls, my luggage was located in Port Moresby and sent on to Goroka. There another missionary was able to pick it up from the airport. It should reach Kiari on Wednesday via helicopter. Yet another blessing from the Lord.

 

I am really enjoying being involved once again in the ministry here. There is a definite satisfaction in knowing that I am right where God wants me to be. 

 

Please continue to pray for the ministry here and the for the growth of the baby Christians.

Safely Here

It seems like it has taken me a bit to post an update but things have been rather busy. I landed safely in Papua New Guinea on Monday. My only issue with the flight here was that my luggage didn't make the trip with me. It apparently was left in Los Angeles. It has made it to Port Moresby (the capital of New Guinea) now, but I am still having some issues with customs. Please pray that we will be able to work it all out. It isn't a huge deal, but it would be nice to get my belonging, especially as I was carrying some things for the other missionaries.

 

Other than that, everything is going great. We landed in Kiari, the village where I live, on Wednesday. The road from Goroka (the nearest town with an actual airport) has been closed for over a year, so we get to our village either by helicopter or on foot. It was wonderful to be back in Kiari. It was good to see some of the people I remembered, and I was pleased to discover that I remembered most of the Pidgin (their language) that I had learned.

 

We have had clinic twice so far. On Friday, we had 36 people. That is the most since the clinic was reopened in November. (A short term nurse has been here since July preparing the clinic for my arrival.) Monday was a smaller group of 10.

 

Also, this week we are having special meetings to celebrate the opening of our new church building. People were invited from 13 sister churches all over the province, so there are a lot of people here. Some of them walked for two days to get here, as the closest Bible-preaching church is about a six hour walk from our village. We have two guest speakers here to preach, and are having two services and two Bible classes each day.

 

In many ways, I feel like I never left, but I am thrilled to be back. Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

 

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I'm Off!

Well, the day has finally arrived. I leave for Papua New Guinea today. It's hard to believe the time has actually come since it has been anticipated for so long.

The last few weeks have been busy with various activities and last minute details. I have enjoyed catching up with friends and spending time with my family. It's hard to imagine how different my nephews will be in four years, considering how fast they are growing up.

I fly out of Atlanta at 5pm today, headed to St. Louis, then on to Los Angeles. From there I have a fourteen hour flight to Brisbane, Australia. Then I fly to Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, and then on to Goroka where I will be met by Missionary Randy Smith and his wife. If all goes as scheduled, I should arrive at 1:05am Eastern Time on Monday, January 5th, making it a 32 hour trip! We plan to spend a couple days in Goroka, then travel by helicopter out to our village of Kiari.

I will not have internet access in Kiari, but hope to continue to update the blog via email. Thanks once again for your prayers to this point, and please continue to pray as I enter this next phase of the ministry.

Commissioning

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy, but things are starting to settle down, at least a little. Most of the time since my last post has been occupied with packing, shipping boxes to New Guinea, and wrapping up the details of my life in Springfield. My sending church, Grace Baptist in Springfield, had a commissioning service for me on December 6th. It was a wonderful service! John Van Gelderen, an evangelist friend, was the speaker, and the Lord used him to accomplish one of my goals for the service -- to motivate people to faithfully pray for me and for the ministry in Papua New Guinea. There were about sixty people in attendance, representing several supporting churches.

The following Monday, we loaded a rental truck and left for South Carolina, arriving on Tuesday evening. The trip was mainly uneventful despite a deluge of rain for the first five hours of traveling. I am now staying at my dad's house in Greenville, South Carolina until my departure for the field on January 3rd. I still have some details to care for, but the pressure has lessened somewhat. Thanks so much for your prayers during these days. The Lord has been and continues to be abundantly faithful.