One of the main goals of our Interface program here in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is to expose students to what it means to be a missionary and how you would go about planting a tribal church. Each program, as a culmination of all they’ve been learning in the classroom, we take them into a tribe where they’re able to see an actual church plant in progress. This is often the highlight of our students’ times here in Papua New Guinea as all the “facts” they’ve been learning are suddenly a reality. In July I had the opportunity to co-lead a team of six of our students into a tribe in New Irealnd for seven days. Although I've been into many tribes in PNG, this is one of the only times I've seen a church plant in progress and it was a real eye opener for me, and a huge encouragement.
We took a two hour plane ride from the Highlands up to the Island of New Ireland. From there 10 of us crammed into a double cab pick-up with all our luggage and travelled two hours down the coast before heading up into the mountains for just over an hour. We couldn't resist the ocean water and blue skies so we had to make a few stops along the way!
Brian, Ashley, Jake, BK, Fallon & Tiffany were the students along for this trip (two other groups of seven students went elsewhere) and we had a lot of fun together.
After 1 1/2 bumpy hours up a broken-up limestone road, our home for the next week came into view. There were three missionary homes, and ours was the one on the right, visible here.
The scenery took us from palm tree-lined beaches to tree fern-covered hills. The tree ferns gave it such an eery feel and none of us would've been suprised if a dinosaur had torn out of the bush.
This lady was peeling taro (a root vegetable similar to sweet potato) with a piece of shell.
Two of the missionary ladies hosting us spent a lot of time with the students showing them around and helping them get to know the people and the life of the tribe.
We tend to ruin their gardens more then help them, but this lady was kind of enough to let us try our hands at planting taro. In the Highlands, if you help in the gardens more often than not they'll replant it all when you leave.
We took a walk down to a local "watering hole" where the water comes fresh out of a rocky hillside.
I was the cook for our week in the bush and it was a fun challenge to feed up to 15 people every day. The main kitchen at Interface had done the majority of the prep work for us already beforehand, which was a huge help! After supper, our evenings were usually spent with the missionaries. They would role play different scenarios that you might face as a tribal church planter, and the students were challenged to work as a team to figure out how they would theoretically deal with each situation. They all got a real taste of the joys as well as the hardships that are faced in this kind of work. It was a stretching experience for all of us, although I was sometimes thankful I had the excuse of hiding out in the kitchen to clean up!
This is a new church building built by a different denomonation who is wanting the missionaries to come teach them through the Bible. This small group of people left their former church because they no longer agreed with what was being taught. It was pretty bold of them to leave the way that they did and it's exciting to know that they'll soon be hearing the true talk of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice that brought us life (the teaching starts in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and establishes a foundation through the Old Testament before introducing Christ). We got to sit in on one of the pre-teaching sessions while in the area.
Two women, who are now believers, do a skit to clarify a point.
There are a small handful of believers in this area, but they are faithful and committed. We got the chance to sit in on one of their teaching sessions. One of our students was trying to encourage them by saying, "You are so blessed to have the Word of God and to know the Truth." One of the believers gently responded with, "It's not enough to know the Truth, you have to believe it." They were a solid group!
Listening to the teaching.
When North American believers get together, more than likely we'll talk about sports or movies or what we did that week. When these believers get together all they want to talk about is the Lord and His goodness and grace in their lives. Makes you really re-evaluate your priorities.
Our trip into the tribe had ended and we made our way back down to the coast, making a pit stop at Cathy's Eels. Pretty much one of the neatest things I've ever experienced. For a $2.50 "donation" and a can of Besta Tuna (for the eels...they're picky eaters), you can stand in a river and pet wild eels.
There must have been atleast 10 of them that showed up and they would slither through your legs and loved to be pet!
We were all sorry we only brought one can of tuna as the eels didn't stay for long.
We had an extra day at the coast before flying back to the Highlands so we enjoyed some time at the beach.
A quick trip to the market completed our tribal adventure. Those are live crabs wrapped up on the ground.
As we were all talking about our trip on the way home, we realized that the first things that came to mind were the "cool" things that happened like petting eels and snorkeling. Those were the things that had been the most immediate fun and brought on the quickest memories. But we encouraged eachother to hold onto the more long-lasting memories - the testimonies that the believers gave of their hope in Christ, the encouragement the missionaries left with us to be obedient to Christ no matter where He leads because He is ALWAYS faithful (their lives being true examples), and the reminder of how much Christ has saved us from and how powerful His grace is that He would choose to love us and use us as we put our faith and trust in Him.
There's lots more pictures to see HERE if you're interested!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for commenting! :)