Bonding

Last weekend Bill and Briana flew to Tetebeti to take the Union President, Pastor Davai, to a campmeeting being held there. Unfortunately neither Bill nor Briana are photographers so I don’t have many pictures to share. It took about a half hour hike to get from the airstrip to the campground. Suddenly, as they were hiking along, several people covered in leaves and mud leaped up out of the bush and started wildly dancing and singing on the trail in front of them. This was their welcome committee. This campground has been permanently built by church members for their district meetings. Bill and Briana, along with Pastor Davai and his wife, were assigned their own little hut to stay in. Baths were taken at the local spring with all the women going at one time and then all the men at another time. Apparently Bill’s reputation as a guitar player has travelled far and wide because someone brought out an old battered guitar and begged Bill to play along for congregational singing. Bill obliged them even though playing on such an abused instrument was painful for him. It was a great father/daughter bonding weekend.

Meanwhile Betsy and I were doing our own mother/daughter bonding by both coming down with a miserable cold. In spite of this, we joined the AAS team for a two hour drive up to the town of Lufa on Sabbath, where another campmeeting was being held. Roger had been invited to preach and hold a baptism afterward. The town of Lufa sits at the base of Mt. Michael. At 12,303 feet it is the 2nd highest mountain in PNG.

(Mt. Michael in background)

The stage was decorated with sweet potatoes, taro, bananas, grass, etc. I found it a bit amusing as I don’t personally find roots very attractive.

The baptismal “tank” was a hole dug in the ground, lined with a tarp, and the water covered with flower pedals. Ingenious to be sure!

After the church service the pastor invited us to his home for lunch. As we were walking to his home this little old man took it upon himself to be Roger’s “bodyguard”, keeping everybody at bay with his stick and umbrella. If you got to close you got a good womping!

A feast was prepared for us.

There was no furniture in the house but we were graciously invited to sit on the floor to eat our lunch.

As we were leaving, the church members brought us more food to take home with us.

This old grandma just loved Betsy and kept kissing her hand.

Along the drive we passed many of these little “gas stations.” I guess it gives you enough fuel to make it to the next “gas station.”

Being the artistic person that I am, I always get great enjoyment out of seeing signs of creativity. I absolutely fell in love with this little hut with its heart shaped windows.

Thus ended a perfect Sabbath for all of us.

New Arrivals & Celebrations

June 7 was a very happy day for Bill and I as our girls arrived home from college to spend the summer months with us. I look forward to this time together all year long!

Briana graduated May 9 with her degree in Graphic Arts. We are of course very proud of her.

On their way to PNG the girls stopped over in Brisbane to spend the weekend with their cousin Katrina.
Things felt a bit lonely around our house after Sheba died so we decided to add this new addition as a surprise for our girls. Mishy was an extremely wild cat that started hanging out in our yard. At first I couldn't get even remotely close to him without him hissing and running away to hide. But after much patience we actually have him coming inside to eat and hanging around us all day - although we still don't dare touch him unless we want to risk some serious wounds!

June 29 was another exciting day as we eagerly awaited the arrival of Roger and Linden who were ferrying our brand new airplane over from New Zealand. We hung a large welcome banner over the hanger doors and decorated with balloons and flowers.

Yes, the new airplane looks like an identical twin to our other PAC 750XL. In fact, shortly after its arrival a group of pastors was flown out in it. Upon landing they asked, "When is the new airplane arriving?" When they were told that they had just flown in it, they started whopping and hollering with delight and amazement.

Staff gathered around Roger for a prayer of thanksgiving for the safe arrival of our new aircraft.

A belated Happy 4th of July to all. Our girls and some of the AAS staff went to Madang for a weekend of fun and sun.

They all arrived back Sunday afternoon and gathered at our home for a good old American 4th of July celebration. Well, it was the best we could do in a foreign country! We had a traditional picnic with potato salad, baked beans, roasted corn on the cob, lemonade, and home made ice cream.

We built a fire and roasted marshmallows. A real treat as they cannot be purchased here but Dalena happened to have a bag stashed away and generously shared with us all!

We even had a brief fireworks show of sorts. The Millists brought over an emergency flare and lit it for a few moments of glory. Hey, you have to be innovative in the mission field. All in all, it was a wonderful evening together with family and friends.