It really was so exciting to have the call of GOD stepping out into the unknown not fully realising how primitive the people were and the remoteness and isolation that we were going to have to live with. But how exciting in spite of the challenges and when GOD is for you what can be against you.
After leaving Australia, landing in Port Moresby then catching a flight to GOROKA we were then taken by 4WD to the isolated villages of IMAKA some 5-6 thousand feet above sea level
WOW, what a bumpy bumpy drive, we had never ever been on such precarious slippery muddy roads that traversed between extremely tall grasses on either side when not in areas of steep ravines. And if that wasn't enough from time to time, much to our horror, small dark skinned muscular men with deep frowns on their faces would emerge out of these grasses with bows and arrows or machetes in their hands. Wow what an awesomely scary sight yet the sort of welcoming committee members we so amazingly were to get to love so deeply.
Fortunately on arriving at the Mission Base the mood changed as young children and their parents greeted us with loving enthusiasm.
Well here we were, not really knowing what to expect and what roles we were to play, surrounded by foreign people speaking in languages not understood and a process of thinking for us yet to unravel and attempt to understand. These were people not too far removed from their times of cannibalism and poison practices. We had landed in a country not too far removed from our very own homeland Australia and PNG at that time had only recorded a population of about 2.5million but with 700 distinctly different languages and a thousand different dialects.
These people had no writing or coding skills, no smoke signals with which to communicate so had to send messages by hollering out from high places and bearing in mind that their language could only be deciphered within a small proximity due to the ever changing dialects and language.
The Mission base was well established and had a First Aid centre which Gloria was to run after receiving training in Tropical diseases, they also had classes in which they taught Pidgin English to the native population as a broader facility of communication, which is the vernacular in which we would eventually communicate. Due to the diversity of languages and dialects to learn one particular language as well as time consuming would be of little value once you relocated from a rather small specific area to another.
Once sufficient numbers had learned to communicate in Pidgin English we could then conduct Bible Studies and further aspects of educational advancement. Whilst across the whole region of Papua New Guinea there was very limited material in tribal language the NEW TESTAMENT was widely available in PIDGIN ENGLISH.
Cultural conceptualisation for understanding WHY and HOW their rationale is I have always maintained is more beneficial than language itself.
For example: I recall in my early days asking a national to go and get a spade...well when I next saw this person some days later I asked why they had not followed my instructions which they said they had. We bandied around this matter for some time until I realise ...I HAD NOT INSTRUCTED HIM TO BRING IT TO ME...he had gone and got the spade and then left it wherever he desired. Many such situations were to be learnt by us.
One another occasion I advocated some penalty for one who had misbehaved then relented on mentioning the penalty. I was informed that words spoken hastily also had to be followed through or else I would lose respect as a person who did not keep their word.
The ladies of the village were concerned that Gloria and I had no children so to us.. embarrassingly; they proceeded to demonstrate the requirements.
Fortunately the area was known as Fertile Valley so for us it all worked as our two children were born.
Whist preaching the Gospel over the hilltops and sweeping people into The Kingdom of GOD was what I had envisaged, I also learnt that one had to be jack of all trades, even if you wasn't.
All construction of buildings, concreting, electrics, vehicles, roadwork and whatever were to be carried out by the Missionaries and constant repairs on roadwork's in particular were part of the required commitment. HOWEVER, outside of those demands we were able to spend much time doing as we formerly thought. Such a ministry, both physical and spiritual were very demanding but nothing that could not be accomplished by a couple of young enthusiastic Missionaries.
Trips to town were once a month generally and had to be critically timed between torrential downpours that would flood the rivers and cut off the opportunity of returning home safely. These things became a part of the norms we got to accept and function within; and Oh, never a hurry, no way, patience was the fruit of The Spirit that one was required to live by.
So here we are, settling in, learning customs, culture and a new language with which to communicate...took 3 months on that one, and of course over the hilltops away days at a time doing what we so wanted to do.
Our little home sat on the hillside with one end propped up with timber sitting on large stones to stop the timber sinking into the ground and unknown to us also "primitively" permitted the house to "SWAY" and only learned about the earthquakes when one night our house shook incredibly and furniture and things began to rattle and creak. We rushed out in the middle of the night freaking out only to be confronted with hilariously loud laughter as our Missionary friends to them saw the funny side of it. We were to learn that earthquakes of 5 and up were a common occurrence and then we could virtually predict them by the eerily still of nature preceeding a quake or an earth roll. Oh another test male Missho's were put through was to be taken down a valley track and the left to get back to the top. Unknown to the newby was the oxygen demands this would place on his body at such unfamiliar altitudes. Halfway back up the mountain track one's lungs would be seemingly on fire and gasping for air yet too terrified to stop in case you never got the energy to proceed further. Once at the top you would lay petrified and painful, gasping, gasping, gasping, while your Missho "mates?" looked on laughing hilariously. A prank the newbie could so unmercifully play on other newbies or visiting teams.
Amidst the greatness of everything....scared and worried spirit pacifiers connecting to The HOLY SPIRIT....the many, many miraculous realities because of the GOD AWARENESS. the feeding during famines, the wellness of the mortal man and so the list goes on, there were times of TESTING...lack of finance..yet GOD PROVIDED..... Life threatening experiences from angry villagers..but GOD gives you courage. The demands of your time, your body, your spirit until you can take no more..but GOD brings you through. Just the sheer isolation, locked into and immersed in a culture so foreign yet in all of that and more, wanting to be no where else but where GOD wants you to be.
Hit by a truck, threatened by angry tribes people, given up to die as I lay in hospital, the possible still birth of our prematurely born first child and many other adversities fade into insignificance against the backdrop of THE CALL.
Many would visit and wonder how we could hack it, but to us it was and has been the greatest era of our whole lifetime.
WE have seen more miracles than one could imagine. Two separate instances in different locations of children raised from the dead.
We have witnessed GOD UNRAVEL a whole fellowship and put it back together again.
Prayed for pets and see them restored to health instantly or the next day.
Received GOD GIVEN FAITH to witness these and more..... supplies provided, miracles of healing and health for our children when suffering complex Tropical illnesses amongst other things... GOD ALWAYS came through.
If there is anything we have learnt from such an awesome privilege as having such a call is THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD.
These are just titbits of info relating to those first four years.
Our next adventure was to return to PNG based on GODS determination to prove Himself again.
This time no support..whoa backup on that one. No practical or earthly means of support, though I have mentioned elsewhere that though I was given a blank cheque by a business man and the offer of a job on arrival in PNG.. GOD instructed us not to embrace either.
From thereon unfolded for us those things one only reads about in books as we served a fresh term of four years in the service of GOD in the field of HIS calling...... HALLELUJAH - AMEN
There is more to The Story.......if you care to Go back to TOP of the Page and click on ....... GREEN BUT KEEN or any of the other Headers ..............Useful Tools can be found under Titbits Header
After leaving Australia, landing in Port Moresby then catching a flight to GOROKA we were then taken by 4WD to the isolated villages of IMAKA some 5-6 thousand feet above sea level
WOW, what a bumpy bumpy drive, we had never ever been on such precarious slippery muddy roads that traversed between extremely tall grasses on either side when not in areas of steep ravines. And if that wasn't enough from time to time, much to our horror, small dark skinned muscular men with deep frowns on their faces would emerge out of these grasses with bows and arrows or machetes in their hands. Wow what an awesomely scary sight yet the sort of welcoming committee members we so amazingly were to get to love so deeply.
Fortunately on arriving at the Mission Base the mood changed as young children and their parents greeted us with loving enthusiasm.
Well here we were, not really knowing what to expect and what roles we were to play, surrounded by foreign people speaking in languages not understood and a process of thinking for us yet to unravel and attempt to understand. These were people not too far removed from their times of cannibalism and poison practices. We had landed in a country not too far removed from our very own homeland Australia and PNG at that time had only recorded a population of about 2.5million but with 700 distinctly different languages and a thousand different dialects.
These people had no writing or coding skills, no smoke signals with which to communicate so had to send messages by hollering out from high places and bearing in mind that their language could only be deciphered within a small proximity due to the ever changing dialects and language.
The Mission base was well established and had a First Aid centre which Gloria was to run after receiving training in Tropical diseases, they also had classes in which they taught Pidgin English to the native population as a broader facility of communication, which is the vernacular in which we would eventually communicate. Due to the diversity of languages and dialects to learn one particular language as well as time consuming would be of little value once you relocated from a rather small specific area to another.
Once sufficient numbers had learned to communicate in Pidgin English we could then conduct Bible Studies and further aspects of educational advancement. Whilst across the whole region of Papua New Guinea there was very limited material in tribal language the NEW TESTAMENT was widely available in PIDGIN ENGLISH.
Cultural conceptualisation for understanding WHY and HOW their rationale is I have always maintained is more beneficial than language itself.
For example: I recall in my early days asking a national to go and get a spade...well when I next saw this person some days later I asked why they had not followed my instructions which they said they had. We bandied around this matter for some time until I realise ...I HAD NOT INSTRUCTED HIM TO BRING IT TO ME...he had gone and got the spade and then left it wherever he desired. Many such situations were to be learnt by us.
One another occasion I advocated some penalty for one who had misbehaved then relented on mentioning the penalty. I was informed that words spoken hastily also had to be followed through or else I would lose respect as a person who did not keep their word.
The ladies of the village were concerned that Gloria and I had no children so to us.. embarrassingly; they proceeded to demonstrate the requirements.
Fortunately the area was known as Fertile Valley so for us it all worked as our two children were born.
Whist preaching the Gospel over the hilltops and sweeping people into The Kingdom of GOD was what I had envisaged, I also learnt that one had to be jack of all trades, even if you wasn't.
All construction of buildings, concreting, electrics, vehicles, roadwork and whatever were to be carried out by the Missionaries and constant repairs on roadwork's in particular were part of the required commitment. HOWEVER, outside of those demands we were able to spend much time doing as we formerly thought. Such a ministry, both physical and spiritual were very demanding but nothing that could not be accomplished by a couple of young enthusiastic Missionaries.
Trips to town were once a month generally and had to be critically timed between torrential downpours that would flood the rivers and cut off the opportunity of returning home safely. These things became a part of the norms we got to accept and function within; and Oh, never a hurry, no way, patience was the fruit of The Spirit that one was required to live by.
So here we are, settling in, learning customs, culture and a new language with which to communicate...took 3 months on that one, and of course over the hilltops away days at a time doing what we so wanted to do.
Our little home sat on the hillside with one end propped up with timber sitting on large stones to stop the timber sinking into the ground and unknown to us also "primitively" permitted the house to "SWAY" and only learned about the earthquakes when one night our house shook incredibly and furniture and things began to rattle and creak. We rushed out in the middle of the night freaking out only to be confronted with hilariously loud laughter as our Missionary friends to them saw the funny side of it. We were to learn that earthquakes of 5 and up were a common occurrence and then we could virtually predict them by the eerily still of nature preceeding a quake or an earth roll. Oh another test male Missho's were put through was to be taken down a valley track and the left to get back to the top. Unknown to the newby was the oxygen demands this would place on his body at such unfamiliar altitudes. Halfway back up the mountain track one's lungs would be seemingly on fire and gasping for air yet too terrified to stop in case you never got the energy to proceed further. Once at the top you would lay petrified and painful, gasping, gasping, gasping, while your Missho "mates?" looked on laughing hilariously. A prank the newbie could so unmercifully play on other newbies or visiting teams.
Amidst the greatness of everything....scared and worried spirit pacifiers connecting to The HOLY SPIRIT....the many, many miraculous realities because of the GOD AWARENESS. the feeding during famines, the wellness of the mortal man and so the list goes on, there were times of TESTING...lack of finance..yet GOD PROVIDED..... Life threatening experiences from angry villagers..but GOD gives you courage. The demands of your time, your body, your spirit until you can take no more..but GOD brings you through. Just the sheer isolation, locked into and immersed in a culture so foreign yet in all of that and more, wanting to be no where else but where GOD wants you to be.
Hit by a truck, threatened by angry tribes people, given up to die as I lay in hospital, the possible still birth of our prematurely born first child and many other adversities fade into insignificance against the backdrop of THE CALL.
Many would visit and wonder how we could hack it, but to us it was and has been the greatest era of our whole lifetime.
WE have seen more miracles than one could imagine. Two separate instances in different locations of children raised from the dead.
We have witnessed GOD UNRAVEL a whole fellowship and put it back together again.
Prayed for pets and see them restored to health instantly or the next day.
Received GOD GIVEN FAITH to witness these and more..... supplies provided, miracles of healing and health for our children when suffering complex Tropical illnesses amongst other things... GOD ALWAYS came through.
If there is anything we have learnt from such an awesome privilege as having such a call is THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD.
These are just titbits of info relating to those first four years.
Our next adventure was to return to PNG based on GODS determination to prove Himself again.
This time no support..whoa backup on that one. No practical or earthly means of support, though I have mentioned elsewhere that though I was given a blank cheque by a business man and the offer of a job on arrival in PNG.. GOD instructed us not to embrace either.
From thereon unfolded for us those things one only reads about in books as we served a fresh term of four years in the service of GOD in the field of HIS calling...... HALLELUJAH - AMEN
There is more to The Story.......if you care to Go back to TOP of the Page and click on ....... GREEN BUT KEEN or any of the other Headers ..............Useful Tools can be found under Titbits Header