PNG (Feb) Day 1 & 2: On campus at UPNG!

Hello friends - it me, Dan, this time.  I don't imagine that the blog will be as fun to read as it was when Kaylynn writes it, but she's not with me this trip.  So, I'll try my best! Gung Ho!

Day 1: flight from Auckland to Papua New Guinea on Tuesday 19th

After 2 1/2 hours sleep last night (18 Feb), I woke up at 2:45 am and caught the shuttle to the airport at 3:30.  On our last trip to Fiji, my suitcase handle broke, so I was walking like a gorilla dragging my suitcase up our right-of-way hill (almost 1/10 of a mile) - I'm glad it was dark so no one could see me.  I was moving fast because I could hear the shuttle at the top of the hill and i didn't want it to drive away without me.  I was so hot (on a cool night) that I opened the window and let the cold air blow on me for 30 minutes to the airport.

My two flights were both about 3 hours long (with a 2 hour stop in Brisbane, Australia), and I slept at least 2 hours on each flight - so it made it go quickly.

I had a great visit with Eva (the wife of George who passed away last May), our PNG team leader, and made plans for the next 7 days.

I'm staying at the MAPANG Missionary guest home which is where I usually stay in Port Moresby (here is a link: http://www.mapang.org/).

Day 2:  On campus at UPNG

I spent 3-4 hours on the campus at UPNG today and saw each of our other 4 staff missionaries (I'll get a picture tomorrow).  Since this is their first year
 of being responsible for the ministry after their director, George, passed away last May, my goal is to help them make decisions and own the ministry for themselves.  We had great discussions that we will continue throughout the week.  I'll explain more later so that I don't bore you now :-)

At registration last week, they handed out 606 First-years (Freshman) gift packs that contain things to help them get settled into life on campus as well as a copy of the Jesus Film on DVD in 8 PNG languages.  In these gift packs, we include a response card inviting them to our Alpha party (this Saturday).  In the past we have had up to 50 turn in cards, but this year we only have 4!  The staff don't know why, but they are thinking of alternative ways to invite the first-year students this Saturday.  Please pray that 40-50 will show up on Sat. and that we can put them in discovery groups led by upperclassmen.


I also had another good hour+ with Eva.  She's our team leader and it is truly amazing that we are on the same page as each other.  She tells me what she told the staff and every time it's exactly as I would have said.  it's almost like we're both listening to the same God!    :-)

Note: after i wrote this, I ran out of credits for the Internet, then it took me another day to get reconnected - thanks for being patient :-(

Dan