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