PNG End-of-Year Trip - Day 10: "Shop Talk"

I decided to go into the corner of the lobby at our guest house for a short "quiet time."  After awhile, the converstion floating over to me from the other end of the room seeped into my consciousness.

It was familiar talk...different accents maybe, but very familiar.  A few young families were comparing notes of ministry, island living, what to do to prevent malaria, flying out to remote places, etc.  Canadians, Americans, Germans...all experiencing like-circumstances, all having similar goals.

Shop talk seems to breed comraderie.  What a privilege to be a comrade of this particular shop!

PNG End-of-Year Trip - Day 9: "Cleaning Out!"

Today was our second go at clearing the out-dated stuff from our office.  Whew!  It's been hot, dusty, mosquito-laden, heavy work.  Who knew in a few short years technology could make so many things obsolete!

We threw away all the Jesus Film movies and reels.  (It's now all digital.)  Film strip splicers, stamps that require ink pads (and the ink's all dried up), everything on cassette tape, personal notes from two directors ago, anything mold damaged, water damaged, bug damaged or rat damage,or just plain broken...all got chucked out.  You can see the floor now.  Some things that previously couldn't fit into the office have now been brought in.

Although we wiped down surfaces, it still needs a good clean...but now you can get around to clean it.  It's nice that we all did it together so that we all know what's there.  We feel a lot more organized.

PNG End-of-Year Trip- Day 8: "Reading!"

A day off.  Yahoo!  This introvert is about peopled-out.

While Dan somehow listened to a ballgame over the internet, I listened a little, too...and then I read, and read, and read...until my eyes are blurry.  (Dan, of course worked on computer stuff.)  You'd never believe it, but I found a fiction book in the little library here, by an author that's been out of print for years.  I read her books in high school.  What a treat to find it here now.  (Yes, so the political situation is very dated...I just skim that part and get back to the action.)  I know I've read this book before as I recognize the title, but I remember nothing of the story.  (A new perk of being middle-aged!)

I feel like God has been looking out for me.   I feel glad to be cared about.

 

PNG End-Of-Year Trip - Day 7: "Celebration!"

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll just say a few things and leave you with several photos.  Mostly I want to say THANK YOU for all your prayers and support.  This was a very special celebration - full of thanks for all God did this year, as well as honour given to the late Eva Puipui, much loved mentor to these students.  Greg overheard two students say that this was the best event that they'd ever been to.

Lillian encouraging girls

Dan giving the challenge to "keep on"

Giving my devo

Silly group photo

Honouring graduates

Greg with disciple, Mark

Bats filled the trees around us

PNG End-of-Year Trip - Day 6: "Getting Ready!"

I've been asked to do a short devotional at our Student Life "Omega Celebration" tomorrow.  I found this verse (1 Chron. 28:20) in my devotional book:

This verse was written by David to his son Solomon.  David had the heart and vision to build a temple for the Lord, but knew God didn't want him to be the one to build it.  Although God gave instructions for the construction of the temple to David, He wanted Solomon to build it.

After David gave this task and advice to Solomon, he died soon after.

I thought this advice would also be good for the students to hear.  They've heard George and Eva Puipui's vision, received their training, and, now that George and Eva are gone, the students are still left with the task of reaching their campus (and their country) for Christ.  It seems God believes in passing the task forward...

PNG End-of-Year Trip - Day 5: "The Usual!"

Another quiet day at the office!  Staff meeting, time in the word, discussing, deciding, sharing...doing the work.

After the staff meeting was suppose to be a board meeting, but only one board member showed up.  So...we'll try again tomorrow.

Hey, I think my rummy-headed tiredness is wearing off some.  I actually took a shower this morning and didn't try to shave my legs with the razor cover still on...AND...I didn't take a shower with my glasses on!

PNG End-of- Year trip - Day 4: "Tell Me a Story!"

Today has been a day of meetings and paperwork.  While talking with our staff is fun, the paperwork isn't so much.  The good thing about staying at the missionary guest home, however, is that not only do interesting people with interesting ministries come through the door, but they're people with stories.

I've found myself in the last two days hearing about an event in someone's life being alluded at the dinner table.  I've started piping up, saying, "Tell me the story!" What rich experiences and adventures people have had!  It seems this place would be a writer's paradise.

Just tonight I ate dinner with an 80-year-old woman everyone refers to as "Grandma."  She's lived all her life in PNG.  (I don't know where she originated from...possibly New Zealand.)  She raised her family here, buried her husband here, and she lives far out in the bush somewhere.  It seems she broke her hip, had to go to Australia, and now she's returning (with her daughter and a walker) back to the bush.  They mentioned at dinner (in an off-hand manner) that to get home involves a flight and at least a 4-hour canoe (motor boat) ride. !!!  I can't imagine!

After listening to our hostess interact with people around the table, I asked her what she was like as a little girl in school...for instance, did she like to chatter?  She laughed and said, "Can you tell?"  Then her husband started to say something and they both laughed and paused.  So, I said, "Tell the story!"  It seems her teacher was so exasperated with her chattering that he told her to "shut-up."  This was back in the day that teachers just did not say things like that.  So, our friend went to the open window and yelled out at the passers-by, "My teacher just said, 'shut-up!'"  She got in trouble.  (Dan, who was a bit of a prankster, himself, really liked that story!)

PNG End-of-Year Trip-Day 3: "Independence Day!"

Independence Day in PNG is quite amazing.  Everyone was celebrating which province they were from, yet also celebrating being from one nation.  We saw a shirt that said,  "Land of a thousand tribes, united as one nation, one country, one people, Papua New Guinea."


 The guys got up before the sun to climb a hill and chop down some trees in order to have the poles to make our Student Life stall at the celebration.  The one girl only got 3 hours sleep because she was cooking the food we were going to sell.

Dan had to call about 4 or 5 taxis before finding a driver that was working today.  We went by the office first to pick up all the books to sell at our stall, then ventured out into the crowd at the university.  

My goodness there was a lot of people, a lot of stalls, a lot of cultural dancers, and a lot of smoke from small campfires lit to cook food sold.  I was glad our food was pre-cooked and packaged because we sold it right next to the books.  We also gave away free children's evangelistic tracts (which the kids loved) and resulted in bringing adults over to our booth.

 
Dan was made cashier, and I quickly stepped back from the front lines after I found myself just wanting to give things away.  There was only a couple of chairs in our stall, but I got one because I'm "old."  (Hey, when you find a perk, go for it!)

What a place to people-watch!  I even saw a green parrot happily riding along on a young boy's shoulder...just as if he were a pirate or something.  Our students would be working at our stall, disappear for awhile, and return with their faces painted to the point that I had to do double-takes to make sure I knew who they were.

AND...we made a profit and have some cash to spent on our Student Life end-of-year event!

PNG End-of Year Trip- Day 2: "Looking For Buried Treasure!"

Well, call me optomistic, but since we had to clean out our PNG Campus Crusade for Christ office (which is a room under Eva's house), it doesn't hurt to keep a weathered eye open for an unexpected "find" to turn up.

It was the Puipui's philosophy to never throw anything away...Even broken projector's could be used for parts!  Needless to say, there's a lot to sort through.  One objective for tackling this project today, was to find prizes to give out at our end-of-year celebration on Saturday, and unneeded books or supplies to sell at the Independence Day celebration tomorrow.  (Student Life has a booth in which our students will sell sausages plus anything we find!)

The good news is that we found nice gifts...and as a bonus:  wrapping paper!  I had everything wrapped but one book when I ran out of the paper.  Then Lily called out, "I found more wrapping paper!  Christmas wrapping paper!"  Oh well, Christmas is coming and the book needed to be wrapped, so "Yahoo!"  We also found a lot of stuff to sell!

Also discovered today:  A PNG newspaper article featuring our co-worker in New Zealand, Don Roths!, photos of George and Eva's girls when they were small, about 5,000 extra copies of "God's Word for Today" daily devotional that are 4 years old (Dan was a little frustrated every time he found another box of them!), a couple of old briefcases that the staff guys cleaned up, and a locked petty cash box with no key...which, when shaken, rattles tantalizingly!

There's still a lot to go through in the office, but it was fun finding treasures and feeling a little more organized.

PNG End-of Year Trip- Day 1: "Walking on the Clouds"

I've decided that when I stand up in a plane and I see clouds out the window, it's the closest I'll ever get to walking on air.  I don't feel like that when sitting...just when I'm on my feet.  I think this profound thought would never have occurred to me had I gotten a decent night's sleep.  (I'm identifying with that girl muppet with the band that says, "Fer sure!")

These trips to PNG always start at about 2:30 am with waking up to catch the airport shuttle at 3:30 am.   We fly Auckland to Brisbane, Australia, then on to Port Moresby.  By the time we get to the missionary guest house, it's 3:00pm PNG time (and 5:00pm Auckland time.)  What I could do fairly easily when I was twenty is a different story now.  Both Dan and I have been nodding off at odd times like a couple of old people.

In spite of the fact our brains are a little fluffy (cloud-like!), it was great meeting up with our 3 young staff.  As we look back on a rather hard year in which we lost Eva (within weeks of being diagosed with stage 4 cancer), God has not abandoned us...and in fact, He's done some truly wonderful things.  Those wonderful things are what we're planning to celebrate at our end-of-the-year Student Life Omega Celebration this next week-end.  So much to get ready for, so much to do while we happen to be in town...but the best is just being with these 3 precious people.