Brisbane

Well, I'm here safe and sound in the Brisbane airport again. Unfortunately, I just found out my next flight to LA is way behind schedule, which means that customs and everything in LA is now compressed into a 20-30 minute window at best, and at worst, I'll land in LA after my next plane to New York has departed. So... if you read this between now and sometime Sunday morning EDT, please pray that all goes well! Thanks!

That said, my last few days in PNG were relaxing. I had some time to myself in the hotel to kind of reflect on everything. This morning's sunrise (as seen from the POM airport as I was boarding my plane) was beautiful, and it made for a nice last glimpse of PNG.

That's all for now, as my internet time is almost up. Hopefully I'll be home in less than 24 hours!

Final week

I can't believe it's already time to say goodbye to PNG. My plane leaves Ukarumpa Friday morning, and then I'll leave Port Moresby Sunday morning. Has it really been a month and a half already? It went so fast, probably because I enjoyed my time here so much. I'm excited to be coming home again, but I'm definitely going to miss it here too.

Everyone here who hears about all I've been able to do will inevitably say something like, "wow, you've really seen almost everything" or "you've jumped in with both feet" or (my favorite) "you've really jumped off the deep end, huh?" (no, I'm pretty sure that wasn't supposed to be an evaluation of my sanity :)

Looking back, it really is incredible how many opportunities I've had and how many things I've done. You've already heard about most of them through my blog entries, but I didn't really explain that it's not normal to do all this in less than two months here. For example, there were some people at the Kuman dedication a few weeks ago who have been working with SIL for eighteen years and had never before been able to go to a dedication. Then, I was not only there, but I was also one of a few people who actually got to help sell and distribute the New Testaments. I've gotten to live in a village for a week (Elim), eat several mumu meals, take part in a Scripture check (Minimimb), see the impressive mountains and beautiful coast of PNG in all my travels, land on a dirt airstrip, take my first helicopter ride, and more. I've really been blessed to be able do all this.

It also seems that God led me to come at the perfect time for the finance office. They started using a new computer accounting system in the month of May, so I was here for the first end-of-month cycle. Even though sometimes I was only doing data entry or rolling coins, it was a help to the full-time workers there who were trying to learn the new system, which meant that they weren't able to work as fast as normal. We were able to mail May account statements out to all the SIL members here by June 10th (I think it was that day), which is apparently about as fast as it's ever done. And as I've shared before (early in my time here), I realized how everything that's done has importance to the ministry, even some of the small things that seem boring or insignificant.

I'm also going to miss many of the wonderful people here. Many families and individuals have done a lot to make me feel welcome and at home here, and I've enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know them. Last night, Mrs. Bandy hosted a going-away dinner for me. (and she even made shoo-fly pie! many of you probably have no idea what that is because it's a regional dessert from PA, and those of you who know what it is probably also know how hard it is to find it anywhere else)

This might be the last time I update from PNG, since I will be taking my computer in to the computer centre soon so that they can take it off the network and know to stop charging my account for internet access. I know that I won't have an internet connection at my hotel in Port Moresby either. Please pray for me as I travel back this weekend. I will have to stay two long days in the POM hotel before my first international flight departs. Then, I'll get up very early in the morning to catch my first flight to Brisbane, which leaves at 6:40 AM on the 13th. From there, I'll have a short layover before flying across the Pacific to LA and then another short layover before my next flight to JFK in New York, which lands at 5:20 PM, still on the 13th, yet more than 24 hours after takeoff in POM (don't you love the way the international date line works?). Pray that the short layovers don't become an issue if there are delays on the flights or through customs.

I also want to say thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement throughout my time here! I have definitely felt God close to me. Thank you for praying for the Kuman dedication; all of the Bibles were able to arrive on time. Also, the visa situation here is not resolved, but it is certainly much better. I don't know of any families that were not able to get their visas and passports before they left the country, though some had to wait until the very last day before their departure. Currently, there are still many visas to be processed, but the stress levels are very much reduced.

Yonki - Elim Lodge

I think this last week will be the most memorable part of my time here in PNG this summer. The Ukarumpa youth group took a missions trip to help the Sommer family start their new ministry, and I was able to join them in that.

First, here's a little background on what the Sommers are doing. They have recently bought a portion of land along Yonki Lake (the reservoir created by the hydroelectric dam that powers about a third of PNG) and will be starting an orphanage there for AIDS orphans. You probably don't know this, but unless something drastic happens, PNG is only about 10-15 years away from being devastated with AIDS like some of the sub-Saharan African countries. Normally, PNG operates on what is called the "wantok" system, where relatives will always provide for each others' needs. This has worked for years, but now there are a lot more orphans, and the system doesn't always work. Relatives either don't have enough resources to do their part, or they will tend to shun orphans because they are afraid of AIDS, or they are ashamed of the parents' actions that caused the situation.

The Sommers plan to build Elim Lodge (named for the passage in Exodus 15:22-27) to care for some of these orphans and to set an example for how others in PNG, hopefully nationals, can do the same. They will be building a house for themselves, a large lodge for cooking/eating, ten huts for the orphans, and some cottages/camping areas for people to vacation, with the hope that they will be able to use those as one source of income and support for the ministry. All this will be within sight of the lake, pictured below.

Monday morning, we packed up and left Ukarumpa. About an hour later, we arrived at Yonki, and spent the next few hours using the Sommers' boats to ferry across to the peninsula and settle in. That afternoon, we started on some of the construction projects we had planned for the week. I was part of the team that used bush knives to clear the tall kunai grass from a large semi-flat area that would become both the playing field and the helipad. Others worked on building a permanent dock along the shore, starting construction of the Sommers' future house, and completing a liklik haus (outhouse) near the haus kuk (cooking house). For the next three days, our schedule was to work on these kind of construction projects (mostly the dock and the new house) for the mornings, then to spend time in the afternoons running a VBS with the national kids from the villages there, and finally to show videos focusing on AIDS awareness in the evenings. This morning we packed up and returned to Ukarumpa.

We had no running water or electricity there, and we stayed in the large prayer house of the nearby village. Here's a picture of the house:

Without running water, we had to carry all of our water up from the lake, then we'd run it through some purifiers so that it was potable. It was still kind of murky, but we didn't mind. We didn't have any showers, so if we wanted to feel somewhat cleaner, we'd have to take soap down to the lake and wash up there. And as you've probably guessed, all we had for a bathroom was a liklik haus. We did all of our cooking with gas burners that we brought along with us, though we did have a mumu with the village yesterday. It was like living in a typical village setting, so that was a neat experience.

For the morning construction projects, I mostly worked on the Sommers' house. I did a lot of measuring and cutting boards and beams for the floor, though we were slightly held back by a lack of tools. We only had one saw (a handheld circular saw), two tape measures, one square, and three hammers. We also had to deal with PNG lumber, which isn't exactly cut to a regulation width and length due to the lack of perfect sawmill facilities. We still managed to get a lot done though. A few national men decided to help us out at the house, so I had an opportunity to practice some Pisin while I worked with them. They always walk around with bush knives, so there were plenty to spare for this picture!

Afternoons were a lot of fun! We had probably 50-60 kids show up from the two nearby villages. We would start with large group games until everyone was there, then we'd do some skits of Bible stories (without having practiced them beforehand) and share a little bit about those and the gospel from Eden to the resurrection, then work on a memory verse before going back to some more games. The kids' favorite games were red rover, "pusi na rat" ("cat and rat", basically cat and mouse), and "pisin, pisin, rokrok" (PNG version of "duck, duck, goose", except they don't have words in Pisin to differentiate between kinds of birds, so we had to do "bird, bird, frog" instead). It was fun to see them getting excited about that, and also to see how the rest of the village would come out and sit on the sidelines spectating, cheering or laughing depending on what was going on at the moment. The kids watched and listened intently to the dramas and Bible presentations we did, so hopefully that will leave just as much of an impression on them. (Some of the dramas we did were the good Samaritan, the prodigal son, and the crucifixion/resurrection of Christ) They were able to memorize the verse by the end of the third day too.

For the video showings, we always had a large turnout. We had brought a generator, projector, screen, and speakers so that we could do that. The first two nights' videos focused on AIDS awareness and prevention (emphasizing abstinence/faithfulness), and the third night's video showed a lot of why the Sommers are starting this ministry. It portrayed a true story of a family where both parents found out they had AIDS and went around to many relatives before they found a brother who would be willing to take their children in after AIDS had taken the parents' lives. The brother's family ended up treating the children poorly in the end. Even though it was in Pisin and I was trying to translate the whole time, it was still moving.

There's so much more I could tell you about the week, because like I said, I think it will be my most memorable experience, mostly because of the time spent in the village and with the kids. I don't want to make this post too long though! I'll end by saying that I got to take my first helicopter ride this morning on the way back from Yonki, rather than driving. That was cool too! It's amazing how it only takes about 10 minutes to get back to Ukarumpa by helicopter, when it's more than an hour by road.