Hey Everyone!
After finally getting resettled in being back here in PA, I can finally sit down and continue to unpack all that went on in PNG. At the end of week 2, we were on the move again. It was time to officially leave Baimuru Station. But we had a slight problem - we had neither a dingy, a driver, fuel to get us to all the villages, or a sound system because ours had broken the night before. It was Saturday morning and we were planning on leaving around noon. Needless to say, we spent most of the morning praying. Right next to where we were staying was a church where children were singing hymns, and during our prayer time they started singing "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms". It was like a breath of fresh air, the perfect reminder that God had us in His hands. Before we knew it, a dingy driver had agreed to go the whole way with us over the next 2 weeks for free! Praise God! Soon after, our team leader went to the one store in Baimuru Station and found a small radio system that we could plug an iPod into - exactly what we needed to hold us over until our big sound system was fixed. Praise God! Now, the one outstanding problem became a fuel barrel. We didn't need it immediately, but we didn't know when the next time was that we'd be in a place that had access to a fuel barrel. For now, we had to settle without the fuel. Off to Koravake (core ah VAH kee)!
At this point, we gained four members to our team - 3 dingy drivers and 1 translator. These 4 men proved to be such an incredible blessing to our team, bringing so much more than just driving the dingy and translating our words during programs. Dairo (dy ROW), our translator, turned out to be a local missionary who passionately preached God's word all over the Baimuru district. When he translated, it wasn't just the spitting back of the words we said, but he said them with the same or more conviction that we did. He was respected and loved in almost every village we went to, and spoke so much truth into all our lives. He started to teach me the language, and was so gracious as I pronounced things wrong and asked constant questions. Jimmy, Simon, and Gabby were our dingy drivers. These three guys became such good friends to us, and we saw so much happen in their lives during our time with them. You'll definitely hear their names come up.
(Gabby and Jimmy)
(Me and Dairo)
(Jacob and Simon)
(all the girls in our freshly weaved hats)
That night, we had a program to do. During our planning time, we gained a great sense of expectation for that evening. As we left our accommodations to go to the program site, it thundered. Rain meant no program – but we knew God had something on His heart for this group of people for us to share that night. We started praying hard for the second time that day. The storm was obviously coming; we could see the clouds moving toward us, heavy with rain and constant with thunder. We arrived at the program, and as Dairo lead worship we continued to pray. In the middle of the worship session, I remember looking up to the sky and seeing something that took my breath away. Stars. When a storm was on the doorstep – stars. I could literally see a line in the sky where the storm clouds halted and the stars began. Clouds surrounded us, but stars were directly above us like a hole in the sky. God had stopped the rain, halted a storm in its steps, so that we could speak that night. It was amazing. The next day, we saw some of the fruit of what God wanted to accomplish in that village.
Sunday morning meant a church service. We had yet to do a church service, so us girls were excited to break out our “mary-blouses” that had been given to us in Baimuru Station. That morning, we gave a message and offered prayer with an emphasis on people recommitting their lives to God. Up to this point, there had been sparse responses. It’s not about numbers, but this morning the numbers were a small testament to what God was doing. About 50 people came forward, ready to make a true commitment to God. The people who came forward were people who we saw in leadership in the church – people who by coming forward admitted that they didn’t have it all together. It was so awesome to pray for them and see people find freedom from whatever was holding them back. It was such an encouraging morning of ministry.
(ready to go to church)
That night we had to move on again. We were told we were going to stay in Kapuna Hospital for the rest of the week. None of us knew what to expect at all, but we were happy we’d have a place to stay. We arrived and they showed us the place we were going to stay, all of our jaws dropped. We looked into a room with a kitchen, running water, a shower, a flushing toilet, electricity from 7-10 pm every night, and real mattresses and beds with already set mosquito nets. It was like we walked into a five star hotel compared to the villages in which we had been staying. By the western world standards, it was worse than a cheap motel – but for us, it was all the comforts that we’d been going without. That week, I slept like a rock in the comfort of a mattress on the floor.
The next day, we received a tour of the hospital, and it wasn’t very uplifting. We soon learned that health was such an overwhelming issue for these people. The wards were not air-conditioned and had no mattresses or bedding. We saw patient after patient lying on the floor or on a hard wooden bed. One of the girls on my team had already graduated university with a biomedical science degree, and she told us in the privacy of our own house that the treatments they had for things like Tuberculosis were incredibly ineffective and behind the times. The disease could be treated and cured in a facility with the proper equipment, but this facility had neither the money nor the means of receiving, operating, or maintaining such equipment. People were dying of a disease that is completely curable. Keep in mind, this was in no way out of neglect by the owners of the hospital, who were missionaries that came over years and years ago to start this facility, but because the hospital was free and the nurses volunteers, it in no way had the money or the personnel to support the equipment and facilities that we would deem acceptable. It was simply heart-breaking. Like I mentioned, the nurses were volunteers. The hospital ran a training school, which was an incredible ministry, and they were taught not only medical procedures but also raised up in their faith. But, most of the students who came would get the training and then take it to another hospital (though there are few to choose from) where they would be paid for their work. Just a quick shout-out: If you have a degree in nursing or anything remotely medical and would like to spend some time in missions, check out Kapuna Hospital in Papua New Guinea – www.kapuna.org.
(A woman and her newborn)
(Inside the ward - sleeping on the floor)
One morning, we did a program at the hospital for the patients and anyone else who wanted to come. One of the boys while he was talking had Isaiah 49:1-4 laid on his heart to share, but it didn’t seem to tie in very well with the program. None of us thought much of it, and were sure God was going to use it but never planned on seeing the fruit of it. That afternoon, we were relaxing in our house when a woman came over. She looked to be in her mid-twenties and spoke English well. She began to tell us her story. She said she had a sickness that gave her a lot of pain whenever she would do any labor at all, and it was something about a hole in her heart. She had had it for many years and it affected everything she did. She was staying at the hospital for treatment and check-ups. A while ago, she felt very strongly that God was calling her into missions, but knew she couldn’t go with this condition so she believed that one day she would be healed. That morning, she had gone to our program, and when Isaiah 49:1-4 was read, she got awfully excited because that was her life scripture. She said that as soon as it was read, she knew she would receive her healing that day. Afterwards, she went to her ward and fell asleep, but was jolted awake and she felt for sure she must come see us. So, she did.
And that’s where we found ourselves. Up to this point, we hadn’t seen a healing, though we had prayed for it several times. Yet, we all gathered around this woman and started praying. It was probably ten minutes before we stopped praying, and we asked her how she was feeling. She said “I think I have received my healing.” And we’re like “Wait – say that again.” She calmly told us how as we were praying, she felt “something like Colgate” (so, a cold fresh sensation like you get in your mouth when you brush your teeth) come over the pain in her heart. It then chased the pain across her chest, down her back and came out “in a bad smell.” At that last part she laughed and got a little embarrassed. Up to this point, she was calm – but then she asked us, “Can I jump?” We laughed and told her she absolutely could if she wanted. She then stood up and started jumping and praising God. We sang some worship songs, and in the meantime she sang along and did some push-ups and continued to jump. She said that she could never do anything like that before or she would have horrible pain. She left soon after and we were all so excited, that no one could sit still. Oh, and just to make the day sweeter, it was my dad’s 52nd birthday! Happy Birthday Pops!
(All of us with the woman that was healed)
When we went to Kairimai (CARE ih my), we saw something yet again. Before the program we prayed and asked God what to share, and got some really specific words for the village. We did our program, and it seemed the people were uninterested and unresponsive, but we were sure of what we shared and knew that if it impacted even one person, then it was worth it. Soon after the program was done, Dairo came over and told us that he had to explain to several people that we hadn’t talked to the pastor or the elders before our program about what we should share, because it was so spot on to what the village was going through. He told them that God had spoken to us, and they were amazed. It was pretty cool to know God had truly spoken so specifically to us, and we weren’t crazy.
(A family I met in Kairimai)
(Michael and a precious little boy)
(Notice the bandaged feet - Markus decided to play basketball without shoes on. Not his best idea...)
In Kala Lavi, we found out that we were the first white people this village had seen. We met a lot of scared children because for all they knew, we were aliens. The village was very small and had never had international missionaries come before. They had no church and no rain collection tanks that we saw in other villages. That meant they had very little knowledge of the God they worshiped, and they had to drink from the very dirty and infected water of the river. This definitely gave us a new perspective. We could only imagine how many of these little villages are almost completely unreached.
(just too cute to leave out)
(Bubbles!)
On Friday, it was time to travel again. We were now going to be spending every night in a new village. This was a significant shift in the way we had been doing ministry – only taking day trips to different villages. We found out quickly that it was definitely going to be more tiring, but a real adventure to meet and greet so many people day after day. Week 4 coming soon…
Praying it all makes sense,
Nikki
Hey Nikki Awesome post. Kapuna is my home...lived there for 16 years. My parents help run the hospital there. I know well all the places you talked about. Have visited Kala Lavi heaps of times:) I know Dairo well:) Was the lady you prayed for Becky Lau? If it was she is my addopted sister. Come back for a visit some time. My parents said they loved your visit. Big Blessing. Janai
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