Joey is Coming! Joey is Coming!

Joey has an unquenchable thirst for coconuts... and I mean unquenchable!  When we arrived in Madang one of the first things that we did was get to the market to purchase coconuts (kokonus).  Jim and I started joking that the locals were going to have to chop down palm trees to supply the demand.  The next day the landscapers arrived at the SIL guesthouse property and fell 3 trees!  Coincidence ~ I think not!

Something that was amazing regarding fresh coconuts in PNG.  Young coconuts are so full of water they nearly spray it out from the pressure inside when cut open.  We were able to pour 2.5 glasses worth of coconut water from just one coconut.

Slowing Down

Imagine its Monday; you wake up at 6:35am and realize that you need to be at work at 7:00am.  You rush out the door, toothpaste still smeared on your chin and jump in the car.  With only fifteen mins left before you need to be at a meeting you pull into a Wendy's.  You order, pay and get your hot breakfast in five minutes  flat.  Leaving the parking lot you drive to work on a well maintained road and make it to work on time with a full stomach.  That is America, but this is a story about Papua New Guinea.

Coming from a culture that runs on efficiency and speed then arriving at Port Moresby felt like I was walking backwards.  We exited the plane and immediately started........ waiting.  My first experience with this was customs.  We had a one hour gap between our flight into Port Moresby to Goroka.  In this one hour gap we had to purchase temp visas, wait to clear immigration, collect our bags, pass inspection and check into our flight.  Like a elephant jumping through a hula hoop - "this just ain't gonna happen".

One of the things I realized was my expectation of how things should go needed to change.  As we continue to prepare for PNG this thought makes me think on my need to rest completely on what the Lord allows me to accomplish in a day, week, month, year, life.  I may have lofty goals and noble goals that are worth pursuing but a heart set to only pursue goals causes anger when I do not achieve them - resulting in sin.  Here is a great text for thought and I need to think on it more often:

James 4:13-16
"13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil."

How have you been viewing your daily goals?  I would encourage you to think on James 4:13-16 throughout this week in light of daily goals, and please pray for me that I would do the same.

PNG Trip Photos

Below is a slideshow of images from the trip - Enjoy!



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Exploratory Trip 2013

It has been 1 week and 3 days since I landed back in the USA from the trip to PNG.  The trip was beneficial, exciting, new, and in some ways long (especially away from Lorie and the kids).  The team was on a total of 11 flights with continual transitions in weather, scenery, and culture.  I continually saw God's provision in making this trip productive.  The picture above is a photo of Dinanget from the small Cessna that we took to fly into the tribe.

I was able to shoot a good amount of photos as well as video of PNG and some of them have been uploaded to Flikr.  If you are interested in looking at them you can follow this link:  Papua New Guinea 2013.

The picture that is posted above is an areal shot from the Cessna right before we landed.  This flight into Dinanget was one of the highlights of the trip for me.  With the low floating clouds in the Finisterre Mountains of PNG I felt as though I was drifting right through them - you could almost touch them.

Even after being back for 10 days I am still trying to get back into a normal routine (like posting on time!).  I will be getting more information posted as I am able to process more of the trip!

Thank you to all that have been praying!

Hello from Papua New Guinea!

What an adventure!  After 6 flights, 5 cities, and various types of planes we made it to Dinanget.  

The first few days of travel have been exciting, tiresome, and at some points - weird.  The flight from the USA to Australia had amazing inflight entertainment, dinner and breakfast, and snacks.  My mind was unable to shut off in anticipation, so I slept for only 1.5 hours.  With the time change we lost 1 day in flight and arrived in Australia early in the morning. 

We flew from Sydney to Brisbane and had a night at a hotel so we could catch a flight to PNG early the next day.  Brisbane is an amazing city!  The skyline is beautiful and the majority of the city has a massive river that moves through it.  There is a public transportation system that uses massive catamarans to fake people to different points in the city.

After leaving Australia we arrived in Port Moresby and everything slowed down.  We had only 1 hour from our landing to get to a connecting flight for Goroka.  After waiting in line for our temp visas, then waiting to pass through customs we had already missed our flight.  We had to catch a shuttle to a hotel for the evening.

The next morning we went back to the airport for our flight to Goroka.  The plane was a twin engine turbo prop (loud and fast).  We arrived in Goroka and walked out if the plan onto the Tarmac.  The baggage claim was a metal table by the chain link fenced exit.  We were picked up by New Tribes staff and taken to Lapilo for the evening - we had an early flight the following day.

The team was up at 4:30 am in preparation for the Cessna flight into the tribe.  We took two flights into Dinanget due to the weight of passengers and cargo.  The flight was incredible - I felt As though I could touch the clouds.  The landing was bumpy but the bush pilot proved his skill landing in these remote runways.

We enjoyed hearing the testimony of a tribal man named Falex.  He explained how God had changed his heart at the hearing of the gospel.  Seeing his sin in light of Gods word and desiring to serve as a result.  He pleaded that we would continue in our training so that Gods word could continue to come to other tribes in PNG.

There is yet another week to go and the former week was so packed.  I am excited to see what The Lord has prepared for us.