Introducing The Team

Bill left for Port Morosby last Sunday for a 5 day Safety and Lead Auditor course presented by Southpac Aerospace. It was extremely beneficial with a lot of good information and he is very glad he attended. Meanwhile, at the home front, I spent the week taking a crash course on accounting and Peachtree software. The Millists just boarded the jet a few minutes ago to leave on their year end furlough. I have been delegated to do the accounting while they are gone. Carol Millist usually does the job. Wow, talk about trying to ingest a LOT of information in a very short amount of time! I feel like my brain is in overload. Wish me luck! But a least I had a week. Bill on the other hand has had only a few hours with Roger this morning (since he was gone all last week) to review everything he has to do as acting director in Roger's absence. It was a bit frantic to say the least.





I thought I would introduce you to the team today so that you can put faces with names.
Above is Roger Millist with his wife Carol. Roger is the director of our Aviation Program.

And here you see Brooks and Susan Payne. Brooks is our maintenance director. And that is our team for now. We have another pilot family, Bennett and Dalena Spencer with their baby daughter Annah, waiting to come as soon as they have work permits in hand. We are eagerly awaiting their arrival.

Follow the Bible

This has been a busy week  with lots of mission flying. But probably the highlight of my week was picking up two pastors in Mt. Hagen who were carrying a very special Bible around PNG as part of the "Follow the Bible" Program. This is a General Conference initiative to encourage everyone to spend more time reading and studying their Bibles. The G.C. had a large Bible printed with every book of the Bible written in a different language.  This Bible is on a two year journey traveling around the world. It began in Manila in 2008 and it will end up in Atlanta at the G.C. session in 2010. For more information on this story and to follow the Bible on its journey click on the link in the upper left hand corner. This Bible reached PNG around the middle of March and is now making its rounds around the country.

As we landed in the town of Chimbu we were greeted by approximately 300-500 church members. Well, leave it to the Eastern Highlanders of PNG to know how to give a proper reception! As I shut the engine off there was a group of church leaders waiting to great the pastors that we had just brought.

Standing behind them was wave after wave of different groups all decked out in their finest uniforms.

First up were a group of Pathfinders who ceremoniously marched around the back of the airplane with high steps and white gloves. 

They proceeded to receive the Bible from the pastors, then marched back around to the front and with great fanfare placed it on a special box they have made for the occasion. 

The box was somewhat reminiscent of the "ark" from the old testament sanctuary as it had rings on the corners and a pole along each side. Four Pathfinders picked it up and carried it on their shoulders. (Note the Bible sitting on top)

Everyone took off marching along behind it. Here go the rest of the Pathfinders.

The school children waiting for their turn to start marching.

Here go the mothers of the church, proudly marching along.

The part I liked the best was a truck parked off to the side proudly displaying a banner on the front, a huge wooden Bible "billboard" on the back, and a loud speaker tied on the roof blaring out music.

They even had a drum corp thumping away. Eventually they all marched off to town accompanied by a police escort.

I thought this was the end of the adventure, but not so. Apparently the Bible made the rest of the trip down to Goroka by truck. Sabbath morning we were invited to join the celebration being held in the town soccer field. Here you see faithful Adventist gathered out in the field.

As mentioned before, we are in the middle of rainy season. Every day it rains buckets and the ground is so saturated there is just no where else for the water to go. When you walk on the grass it feels like a sponge and mud and water ooze around your feet. Here are Bonnie's feet after walking through the field. Now I know why the Bible says a host always washed his visitors feet!

This however did not detour the church members from coming out in droves to enjoy the occasion, including us! Everybody just brought their own mats, pieces of plastic, gunny sacks, etc.  to lay on the ground to protect them from the mud.  Here I am with Brooks and Susan Payne.

Here is the large wooden Bible on the back of the truck that I mentioned earlier.

 

A temporary platform was built for the ceremony. Here the Bible is being passed off by the Pathfinders to the pastor.  A church choir stands in front ready to sing.

I was taken up by this little old man whom I was sitting next to. He was so diligently studying his Bible which was very old and worn.  I was amazed that he could actually read as so many of the elderly are illiterate. It was evident that the Word of God was very precious to him.

There were a few uninvited guest!

Here you see the gathered church members sitting under umbrellas to protect them from the intense sun. When it is raining you see very few people under an umbrella. They don't seem to mind getting wet. In fact time and again we have seen people walking with umbrellas folded up in the middle of a rain storm. They are waiting for the sun to come out and THEN they will use their umbrella. It makes for a very colorful scene.

That evening for vespers the Bible made its way out to Kabiufa, our Adventist Academy where we live. Here you see some of the students standing in readiness to welcome the Bible on its arrival.

The pastors solemnly carrying the Bible into the church.

The Kabiufa church was packed out to the max. Every inch of space was taken up with people sitting all over the floor as well as on the benches.  I wonder...when this Bible reaches the USA will we reverence it as much as these people have?  Will we take its message to heart and try to spend more time each day in Bible study and prayer? I hope so. Now I can say that not only is God's Word a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, but also that I have carried it in the back of my airplane. 

Our New Home

I thought I would take you on a tour of our home this week. This is the driveway leading up to our house. It actually requires 4 wheel drive to make it through the mud.

You just have to love the challenge of it all!

This is our lovely little house. It is the perfect fit for Bill and I. We are very content here.

When the power works it is great. However, the power is off more then it is on, so that creates its own challenge at times. We just have to readjust our thinking. There is a solar hot water heater on the roof that works great. Water is collected off the roof into large water tanks (in the left corner of photo) and is then pumped into the house. The only problem is, when there is no power, then there is no working pump which equals no running water or hot showers in the house. When that happens we just collect our water in a bucket outside from this water tank and haul it into the house. At least the source is close.

While Sandia mountain will always hold a special place in our hearts, we do enjoy this view from our front porch.

This is our fearsome watchdog, Sheba. (Just kidding) Actually she is a lovable old teddy bear of a dog. We inherited her from some old missionary friends of ours who have returned home. She and I have quickly become buddies.

Now for a quick look inside. This is for all you who wondered what I had in all those trunks. Fabric, fabric, and more fabric. Plus a rug or two thrown in for good measure. (smile)

This is the kitchen. I just stenciled the "brick" wall this week as I thought the room was too white. The entire house will get a paint job as soon as we get the paint ordered.

The tiny but adequate bathroom.

And last but not least, the bedroom. Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Trip to Rabaul

Last Sunday Roger and I flew seven Union officials up to Rabaul to visit some of our church educational institutions.  What follows is a few pictures along the way.  Here we have left Lae (the point Emelia Earhart took off from on her last flight) and have reached the first island group to the North.

Here we are flying along the Southern coastline.

On approach into Rabaul, the tower gives a report of which way the ash is currently blowing from the active volcano which is within 15 miles of the airport.  A number of years ago the volcano exploded massively destroying the town of Rabaul including the airport.  They have now built a new airport just across the bay.  The town has a new section across the bay, but much still lays buried in ash.

Here are most of the Pastors as we unloaded.  Two others are not in the picture.

On departure, we turned right a bit to stay well clear of the volcanic ash.

Here you can see what is left of the older volcano and town area.  What used to be the airport is now just a massive mud slide area in lower right of the picture.  Needless to say, one always wonders when the volcano will erupt again?

After island "hopping" back, we are just crossing the Northern coastline of the mainland and you can see some of the mountain range as we head back for Goroka which is located in the highlands.

The flying in PNG is as varied as the weather.  A big variety of flavors on any given day.