Papua New Guinea - Week 1

Hey everyone!

I wasn’t sure exactly how to go about communicating all the incredible stories and experiences I had in Papua New Guinea, but then Dad recommended going chronologically...so here we go.  These are the adventures of Week 1 in PNG.  Also, sorry about the lack of pictures...the internet isn't quite up to par.

From the very start, we saw God come through with an answer to prayer.  Our whole school needed to bus up to Cairns airport, about 4 hours north of Townsville.  Days before we left, there were incredible amounts of rain, and the roads up to Cairns were completely flooded in several places.  We were meant to leave on the 28th of December, but on the 27th, it still didn’t seem likely we’d be able to make it by bus up to the airport the next day.  We started praying, and praying hard.  There was no “plan b” if we couldn’t bus up to the airport - we wouldn’t be going to PNG any time soon.  Low and behold, morning came (very early morning, I might add) and we set off for Cairns to make our 12:00 PM flight to Port Moresby, the capital of PNG.  On the way up, we stopped at a gas station for a rest, and when people found out we made it through from Townsville, they were astounded.  No one else had really attempted it yet, but the way was clear for our bus.  The river right along the road was filled to the max, but just that morning the waters had receded enough to let us through.  God is good! We started out our journey to PNG with an answer to prayer, which was the perfect way to start and only a taste of the things we would see to come. 

Upon arrival in Port Moresby, we quickly learned what celebrities we were.  Traveling around the city in a bus, we could wave at anyone, and they would smile and respond so warmly.  It’s not often they saw a bus full of white people, and they were eager to welcome us into their country.  For the next two nights, we were to stay in the Governor’s house, which we were all quite excited about.  We came to a house surrounded by razor wire, which quickly reminded us that we were no longer in Australia, and the girls were swiftly told that there was no going outside without at least 3 men walking with us, and certainly not at night and only when absolutely necessary.  Needless to say, we spent the whole next day inside the house, still blessed with electricity, a shower, and a flushing toilet.  We didn’t realize it at the time, but we were being quite spoiled, and we wouldn’t realize it until we arrived at our first village. 

I know that before I left, I mentioned in a blog our main form of transportation was to be a dingy.  This turned out to be a whole adventure in itself.  When we finally got to the docking station where we loaded the dingies, we were told it was going to be a 6 hour ride to Baimuru Station, the village our team was trying to get to.  When we first set off, it was like being in a movie.  We traveled on the river; smooth sailing, wind in my hair, sunglasses on, beautiful tropical riverside all around us.  I was thinking “Man, if this is the life of a missionary, count me in!”  Well, it wasn’t quite that pleasant the whole time...to say the least.  We came to the end of the river system, and it was time to go out on the open water - meaning the ocean.  The water was a little choppy, but we decided to go anyway; we didn’t have much of a choice.  It quickly became pretty unpleasant for our bums to bounce up and down on the waves, but it wasn’t too awful; just a speed bump here or there.  But as we went, it seemed to get much worse.  The waves were bigger and harder to avoid.  Then we noticed the dark cloud up ahead and the rain in the distance.  We were heading into a storm.  Before we knew it, we were being pelted with heavy rain, and most of the ride was spent in the air between waves rather than on the water.  We started to shout the lyrics of a worship song over the sound of the storm and praying our hearts out -

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
Every high and every low
Oh No, You never let go
No, You never let go of me
I can see a light that is coming for the hope that holds on
There will be an end to these troubles but until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You

As trying as the hour or so we spent in the storm was, it was such a great time of praising God no matter what.  I actually know what the disciples were going through when they were caught in a storm and Jesus was sleeping on the boat (Matthew 8:23-27).  We were reminded so strongly that God was with us, and we had nothing to fear.  As much as we wanted to ask Jesus to wake up and calm the storm, I was reminded how silly it is to fear when He’s right there with us anyway.  It was so awesome to praise Him in that time, just leaning so strongly on his everlasting arms.  

That night we did not quite make it Baimuru Station.  We got about a third of the way there and stopped in Kerema, one of the bigger villages in PNG.  All of our stuff was soaked through and through.  Again, we were blessed with a government house: hot showers, electricity, flushing toilets.  We went to bed content, expectant for more traveling the next day. 

The next day proved to be an adventure too.  It was New Year’s Eve, and we loaded the 2 dingies again, and expected a 4 hour ride to Baimuru Station, thinking we’d finally arrive at our destination.  Well...we were wrong.  About two hours in, our dingies stopped, and told us we were in Baimuru Station.  They unloaded our belongings and drove off.  We soon found out we weren’t in Baimuru Station, but left halfway in a village called Maipenairu.  In other words...they ripped us off.  Big time.  They purposely only brought enough fuel for half of the journey, so they had no way of taking us as far as they promised. 

Maipenairu turned out to be the perfect place to be stranded in a country we had never been to before.  One of the main YWAM contacts lives in that village - she is one of the leading YWAMers of PNG.  The village itself was beautiful and well-kept, and the people were so warm and inviting.  We quickly had a place to stay, but we were still in somewhat of a predicament.  We had no dingy, no fuel, and not enough money to ensure we could get enough fuel to get to Baimuru station, go to all the villages, and get back home.  We stayed the next couple days in this village, doing ministry and getting to know the people. 

Now there was a decision to make - we had two choices: 
1. Stay in Maipenairu and go to the surrounding villages - the safe and comfortable option
2. Take a huge step of faith and go on to Baimuru as planned, trusting that God would work out all the details of dingy, money, and fuel - the risky unknown option. 

After asking God what He wanted, we decided to go on to Baimuru Station, despite that fact that we might not be able to get home if we went that far.  I know, it sounds crazy!  Yet, on Sunday morning, we said goodbye to the people we had already fallen in love with, loaded all of our stuff and all ten of us into one dingy and set out.  We only had enough fuel to get the dingy to Baimuru Station, and were expecting to have to completely refuel the boat so they could return to Maipenairu.  After two pleasant hours in the river system, we arrived, finally, at Baimuru Station.  Praise God!  Here we even saw a miracle - they had enough fuel to get all the way back to Maipenairu without us refueling them at all!  It’s like the fuel doubled in the engine while we were traveling or that it wasn’t used at all or that it multiplied or that it was preserved.  Who knows?!  It was amazing.  It was such a strong confirmation that our stepping out wasn’t foolishness, but just trusting in a God who held it all completely in His hand.  We knew we were in His will, and that’s the safest place we could ever be. 

Week one was over, and we already could look back and see God’s faithfulness written all over our journey.  If we weren’t dependent on God when we started, we certainly were now. 

Reliving the memories,
Nikki

Back in the Western World.

Hey Everybody!

I know this is a very long awaited blog entry.  Since coming back from Papua New Guinea, I’ve been faced with more than one problem – a missing computer chord, a cyclone – you know, just the norm.  Just to clear the air on a few things:

1.       The flooding was in Queensland, my state, but not in my city (Townsville).

2.       Cyclone Yasi, the category 5, did hit Townsville, but everyone is completely safe and a lot of our time is being spent picking up fallen trees.  God’s hand of protection was so strong in light of the size and strength of the storm. 

Now, about Papua New Guinea.

As an overview, it was the most eye-opening experience of my life.  I witnessed a quality of life that is simply appalling when compared to the standard that we have as a western world.  I also witnessed a nation that is at the perfect place to be discipled by God’s word in every area.  The harvest is ripe in PNG, and it was such a privilege to be part of the work God is about to do in that nation. 

I know you’re probably wondering “Nikki, what did you do in PNG?”  Well, let me tell you!

My team of 10 went to the Baimuru district of the Gulf Province.  We went to a total of 18 villages over the month we were there.  In each village, we’d pray, ask God for the message He wanted to share with that specific village, plan a program and then present it.  After the program, we offered prayer and saw people really stepping into God’s call on their lives.  In this time, I saw first time commitments, recommitment, reconciled relationship, and healing.  When we spoke out what God told us to, He anointed it and made it effective for His kingdom.  It was really awesome to go into a village we had never seen before and could barely pronounce the name of, having a message given to us by God and to see how spot on that message was for each village we walked into.  God spoke so clearly and so specifically, and His heart for this nation was made so abundantly clear as each day passed.  Besides that, it was a lot of just building relationship in all our spare time.  The most precious moments I had were always in conversation or quality time spent with the people – hearing their stories, their experiences, and learning about their culture. 

Over the next couple blog entries, I’ll tell you some specific stories – but I thought it would be good for you to get a good handle on what the culture is actually like before I start spouting the dozens of experiences without any context.  So…here we go.

First of all – it’s beautiful.  Think of the paradise you see in the movies and you’ve got PNG.  The nature is breath taking.  Just a few pictures...

The people live off the land in the village areas.  There really aren’t jobs anywhere in the villages and no income.  Inland, they eat a ton of fruit – watermelon, pineapple, guava – you name it.  On the coast, it’s a lot of seafood – crabs, prawns, fish.  All of these things, I definitely enjoyed to say the least.  Nothing like fresh crab for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!  Their staple food, however, is called sago (pronounced SAY-go) .  It literally is tree.  There is a certain palm tree (the sago palm) that they chop down, shred the inside, beat literally to a pulp, and make a variety of foods out of.  Here are some pictures of that process…

 The men's job - chopping the tree down and making it into shavings.

 The women's job - pouring water over it, beating it with a stick, and filtering it until the pulp comes out.

The product of all the work.

They mixed sago with everything – they had coconut sago, shark sago, sago bread. Their creativity with the stuff was incredible.  That being said – it didn’t really taste the greatest.  At first, we were all pretty apprehensive about it, but once we saw the process and the work they took to make it, we became a lot more appreciative.  For the month we were there, we ate a lot of sago, basically eating a tree.  Talk about fiber.  It really showed us how incredibly resourceful these people are.  They are such good stewards of their land and what they’ve been given.  There was no such thing as waste in PNG.

PNG has a tribal mentality, especially in the rural village areas.  Every person and village belongs to a tribe, and all their loyalties lie within that tribe.  Chiefs and leaders are still in place, and they receive the utmost respect.  That sense of loyalty is even stronger when it comes to family.  Very often, whole families live in the same village all right next to each other, and everything is done for the benefit of the family.  If one person is successful, the whole family benefits.   Men definitely are considered superior.  In our culture, it’s often “ladies first” to get food or anything else, but we learned quickly that in their culture, it was always “men first”.  I don’t think the boys on my team minded it too much, but it was definitely a different mindset to step into. 

Education, especially in the Gulf Province, is a rare privilege for many kids.  I met 10 year olds who were only in grade 2, and 20 year olds just going into grade 9.  Families have to save up for years to send their children to high school.  Because there are no jobs in the villages, fathers leave their families and go to a city to get a job, staying away for anything from 6 months to 5 years just to get their kid into school.  To finish grade 12 is quite a task, and most never get there.  It was a heart-breaking thing to see. 

In the villages, we learned quickly what privileges we have in our western world.  Bucket showers, hiking to the toilet, drinking rain water, having only 4 outfits, and hand washing laundry were a reality check for all of us.  A toilet you didn’t have to walk on logs or boards to get to was such a blessing.  We have lots of interesting and rather humorous stories about learning to live this way.  It truly made us realize how much we live in excess and what the bare necessities really are. 

Needless to say, coming back to a western culture gave us more culture shock and going into PNG.  We've already given away so much clothing and losing electricity for a couple days because of the cyclone didn't phase us one bit.  It has completely changed my perspective. Next time I enter a blog, we’ll have some stories!!  Thanks to everyone so much again for all your support and interest – I can’t tell you how much it means to have that from home.  God bless!

Still adjusting back to normal life,
Nikki