It seems like only yesterday that I left for my 6-week outreach in Papua New Guinea. I really can’t believe how fast time flew! We flew into Port Moresby, PNG’s capital city, and traveled 8 hours by truck and boat to reach the first village called Moro. Upon landing we were met with a warm welcome by the whole village and people from surrounding villages. They greeted us with singing, dancing, and food. It really felt like a hero’s welcome. Our hosts were extremely generous and hospitable to us in every way, clearly reflecting the Papua New Guinean way of treating guests. In Moro we really tried to develop relationships with the villagers on an individual basis. The people were really easy to talk to and were quick to smile and wave whenever you walked by. Packs of children followed us wherever we went and were so fun to play with. In the evenings we held church services and taught about waiting on the Lord, clearing your conscience, and on identity. There is no time for the people there, so they were eager to listen to us for hours on end. We really fell in love with the village and the people, so it was hard to leave for the next village.
After spending 2-weeks in Moro, it was time to move on to Merreke. As we left Moro we were showered with parting gifts by the villagers. We had to hike for 3 hours to reach the village and were completely exhausted by the time we reached it. In Merreke we stayed at a pastor’s house and slept in a tree house. In Merreke we held programs 3 times a day teaching about the same topics that we had learned in lectures. At one of the programs, I got the opportunity to speak for 2 hours about Lordship. I embraced the opportunity and got my message across successfully. I also participated in various skits that we did. As in Moro, we also developed close relationships with many of the villagers. I really developed a close relationship with one man in particular. His name in his language means banana in English, and since I couldn’t pronounce his name, I just called him Banana. He had been coming to our programs, and half way through he came up to me and told me how touched he was by what we said. He said that he had fallen away from the church years ago and had decided to change his life. I continued to develop a relationship with him and his whole extended family. A couple of the girls and I got the opportunity to pray for Banana’s father who had been crippled by malaria. Reality really hit me in the face when I met him. The whole family was encouraged by our prayers, and were going to continue praying for him as a family. By the end of our stay there, I had my PNG family and father was able to walk to the beach by himself. Two weeks in Merreke flew by and it was time to move on to the next village.
We had more goodbye presents showered upon us as we were leaving Merreke and moving on to Hari Babo. Thankfully we only had to hike about half an hour to get the next village. In Hari Babo we only ran a few programs because we really felt that developing relationships with the people was what we were there for. One thing that I was really led to do was to start an interdenominational prayer group. The pastors of three different denominations in the village and about 50 church members gathered together for an extremely moving prayer group. It was the most powerful prayer group that I have ever witnessed. Everyone, including myself, was greatly encouraged after the prayer meeting and the churches were completely united for one goal. After a week and a half in Hari Babo, it was time to start making our way back to Port Moresby for our flight back to Australia. We were showered with more gifts as we were leaving, and people from Merreke and Moro came to send us off. It was really hard to say goodbye.
This is the last week of lectures and it is basically to debrief us and to prepare us for going back home. It's hard to believe that 5 months went by so quickly!
