PNG Mission Project Day 15: This is so satisfying to me!

It's about 8:15 pm, and I just finished talking with Paul Ikupu, our board chair who is from Hisiu. He came over to the guest house to say goodbye as I leave tomorrow, and to say that he's thrilled at what God is doing in his village. He said that the pastor, who we didn't really have a whole lot of contact with, said on Sunday (the day after we left) that he rarely cries when family leaves, but he cried when we left (and I saw this). He also told Paul last night (Mon) that even though he had done this training before, it had never registered to him how seriously important it is to walk with God and share the Gospel with those he meets. Earlier in the day (Mon) he had gone to visit someone in the hospital and shared the Knowing God Personally booklet and this person prayed & received Christ! The pastor was absolutely thrilled! This is so satisfying to me!

Paul said that people who had shown little initiative to do ministry before are excited to reach out to the rest of the village! This is so satisfying to me!

Paul came over also to have me sign some certificates for a make-up training he (& his 2 disciples) will run for those 14 who missed the first day of the training that we ran - this will be Sat 29th June - please pay that more people will get "fired up" on Sat.  I'm including a photo of Paul & I with the certificates. Most of these 14 people are from a different church, which is very exciting!

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Earlier in the day, I taxied up to campus again (UPNG) to spend time with the students. I ended up sitting in the Forum area (the quad) seeing people as they pass by - for about 4 ½ hours. It's actually very enjoyable to me... except that I've been fighting a cold since Friday (the next to the last day in Hisiu) and all the talking didn't help my voice (ribit ribit).

I wanted to at least talk with 6 of the final-year students about applying to join our staff. Yesterday I talked with 2, and today I talked with 4 (see the photo of Henry & I). I also talked (or joked) with Elton (staff) & Samantha (3rd-year), but that didn't hurt my throat too much because they bought me a coke :-) (see next photo).

I just love all these guys and it would be an absolute thrill to work with them as staff members long term! Please join with me in praying that God will call them to our ministry after they graduate (I don't want them unless God calls them).

After everyone but Elton left, he asked me how to set up a blog like this one (see last photo). So for the next 30 minutes we created a blog for him to write... something :-) [Here is his blog (he's just getting started): http://zholteen.blogspot.com]

Thanks so much for praying - I'm sure that this is why God was working so mightily!!