UPNG - Aussie Project - Day 3: "The Aussies have arrived (but my friend is moving away)"

Peter and the one who calls himself Dan

This morning I wake up a bit more refreshed than yesterday (actually yesterday morning was not good), and headed out to a coffee shop at the local mall.  I went to see my good friend, Peter, whom I've known since 1991.  He was the leader of our ministry in PNG when we lived in the Solomon Islands and I would come over and see him from time to time.  A lot has happened since then, but we have still managed to see each other every year or two.  He's a pastor now and has been pastoring the United (Methodist) church at the UPNG campus for 2 years now - but last month they moved him to a smaller town up north in the mountains (Goroka).  It will be sad not to see him whenever I come by the UPNG campus, but I'm excited for him and for Goroka.  There is a teacher's college there and he has done well with teaching the students how to disciple others.  Here's a picture of Peter & I.

Shei & Nathan, who we met in Australia last year

After lunch we went to the airport to pick up the Aussies.  It was great seeing them come out of Customs, especially Danika, who came here 2 years ago and felt God calling her to come back full time (hopefully by January 2015).  We also saw Nathan and Shei again - they were in the picture from my blog yesterday.  They were at the conference last July when our 2 staff girls were there - had come up after the girls had spoken and said that they felt God saying to them to come to PNG.  Nathan was the first to see all his support come in, and then some - God has him here for a reason!

Playing cards after Aussies arrived (Danika with blond hair)

Shei, it turns out, is best friends with the daughter of friends of ours who we spent a lot of time with in the Solomon Islands (when their daughter was a baby)!  It's a small world - she's a delight to have around!

We had several games after dinner to help us to get to know each other, which were lots of fun, and afterwards I saw 3 groups (of 2-3) of Aussie’s talking with PNG’ers – it was very encouraging!  We really need the PNG staff & students to be able to share very personal things if we want the Aussies to help us correct our weaknesses.

This is supposed to be shaped like a giant heart :-)

Oh, I had asked you to pray for our students – here is an update (it’s going to work out well, I think):  We were praying for 10 students (plus our staff), 5 guys and 5 girls.  We have 3 girls with one coming Friday (in 2 days) and the other coming Saturday.  Samantha, who is coming on Saturday, is a key student leader.  We have only 1 guy (and another who said he’d come, but can’t be reached by phone), but this is Isaac, our Student Life president for this year. So, for most of the time, we’ll have 6 students, and 4 staff, and myself.  The students who are here are all very excited and committed to discipling other students and training them to disciple other.  I’ll write more tomorrow.

Sorry this is a day late, due to several factors :-/