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
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