Man's Best Friend

How can I best describe Sheba? From what I have been told, She was a mixture of Rottweiler, German Shepherd, Doberman Pincher, and Great Dane! She certainly wouldn't win a beauty contest. With those genes you think she would be an incredibly fierce watchdog. On the contrary, she was nothing but a big, gentle, teddy bear. However, because of her size the nationals were terrified of her. The children loved to hear her big, deep, "Woof" and would purposely call out to her trying their best to get her to bark.

When we arrived in PNG we inherited her from some other missionaries that had gone home. She very quickly wormed her way into our hearts and home. At first she wasn't allowed into the house but in only a matter of weeks she had managed to soften our hearts and find her place in a corner of the kitchen on a red blanket. She always expected to be part of the family.

She was my constant shadow and companion. No matter where I went or what I did she was right on my heels. If I was in the laundry room she would come and sit by the washing machine as I loaded it. When hanging up the clothes she would sit under the clothesline. If I was weeding the flowerbeds or garden, she would lay beside me as I worked. She would joyfully welcome us home at the end of the day, desperately trying to wag a tail she didn't have, running around to both doors of the car to make sure that both Bill and I had come home.

She loved food and would have eaten non-stop all day if allowed. If we were sitting at the table eating, she would moan and groan loudly, as if in pain, letting us know that she sure would like to share in the meal with us. She loved to eat mulberry's from our mulberry tree and would guilt us into feeding her some.

Being a typical dog, she loved to dig. We had holes all over the yard and it would vex Bill to no end. As fast as we would cover up the holes, she would dig them again. It was a never-ending battle.

Wednesday evening I was working in the kitchen fixing dinner and Sheba was lying on her blanket by the front door. She had been fine all day. We had worked in the garden together that morning and she had been her usual self running around barking at birds, sniffing out every corner for the yard, rolling in the grass, etc. Bill came home and Sheba stood up to great him. Then as she lay back down, she sort of just flopped and her head hit a kitchen chair with a loud thunk. Bill laughed and said, "Sheba you silly dog!" He thought she was just being lazy and couldn't lay back down quick enough to go back to sleep. But after a few seconds he said, "Hey, something is wrong. She is breathing funny."

I went over to investigate and sure enough, she was in obvious respiratory distress and appeared to be semi-comatose. After about 15 minutes she sort of came to and seemed to want to go outside so I opened the door for her. She walked to the top of the stairs as if she wanted to go down and then promptly collapsed. Bill carried her back inside to her blanket where she promptly lost all bowel control. I cleaned her up and just sat with her for about an hour, stroking her head, telling her I loved her, and crying my eyes out. We finally went to bed fully expecting to find her dead in the morning.

But to our amazement she was still alive the next morning and seemed much improved! When I opened the door she promptly got up, went down the stairs, relieved her self, came back up, ate some food, drank some water and seemed for the most part to be back to her normal self! She appeared a little bit wobbly on the legs still, but not bad.

I needed to go in to work with Bill on Thursday so we left her alone all day presuming she was doing better. However, when we got home that evening we immediately saw that she had relapsed. While her breathing wasn't as distressed as the evening before she still had very rapid respirations and became extremely short of breath with any movement. Other then taking a few bites of food that morning, she had not touched her food. This is a dog that LIVED for food. I tried to offer her some bread, her favorite treat, and she just turned her head away. While alert, she was extremely lethargic and weak, not moving at all except to struggle to her feet occasionally to get a drink of water and then she would collapse back on to her blanket. It was so sad. While I was fixing dinner Bill lay in the hammock next to her singing her little songs and stroking her head so she would feel loved.

Friday morning it was evident she wasn't going to recover. She still hadn't touched her food and she couldn't make it down the stairs to relieve herself. For the most part she just lay limp and unresponsive, her breathing still stressed. There is one thing I can't stand, and that is watch an animal suffer. It is more then my heart can bear. We had no idea how long she would hang on like this, so we arranged for Dr. Boone, an Adventist Doctor in town, to come and put her down. (We have no Vets in Goroka)

Friday afternoon he came, and she just quietly went to "sleep" with Bill and I stroking her and telling her what a good dog she was and how much we loved her. We buried her in her beloved red blanket right in the middle of our flower garden under the mulberry tree -crying our eyes out.

I believe God created animals for us to love and cherish because He knew they fill a special place in our hearts that nothing else can. Sheba died on Easter Weekend. As I spent Sabbath nursing my wounded heart I reflected on the death and resurrection of Jesus. It struck me as never before that this is a time to celebrate the victory Jesus had over death. Our time on this earth is but short and soon we will never ever again have to experience the pain and sorrow of death! Because of Jesus it will be banished forever. And that is something to truly rejoice about.

A Day in the Life of a Missionary Husband

In my last blog I shared how missionary wives often just carry a supportive role. It is good for us to actually get out into the field once in a while and be reminded why we are here. This last weekend I had the opportunity to go out flying with Bill and it was a wonderful and encouraging experience for me.

Bill had a heavy day of flying scheduled for Friday, so we left home at 6am so we could be wheels up by 7am. Our first destination was the coastal town of Madang where we took a plane load of staff from Pacific Helicopters for some R&R at a resort there.

From Madang we flew down to Lae where our Union headquarters are located. We picked up a load of Bibles, school supplies, and a church elder.

(Lake by Lae)

Our next destination was the town of Popendetta which is our mission headquarters for the North East Papua Mission. For you WWII buffs the Japanese had several bases around the Popendetta region and it was the site of some of the most desperate fighting of the war. From the air you can clearly see several horseshoe mounds scattered around the airstrip that are apparently the remains of gun emplacements. At the airstrip itself there is an old wrecked B25 on display.

(School Children helping unload school supplies)

We dropped off the school supplies and church elder and continued on our journey down to Alotau, a little town built on the shores of Milne Bay – another significant WWII historical site. The Japanese were attempting to reach Port Moresby (the only remaining Australian stronghold in PNG) via the famous Kokoda track. In a flanking move, the Japanese landed at Milne Bay but were repulsed after a bloody 10-day battle with Australian troops. I have been told that this was the very first battle of the war that Japan lost. The coastal towns and little islands of PNG are full of WWII relics. It is really quiet interesting.

(Milne bay airport)

We dropped off the Bibles for the mission and met up with the director of the Provincial Government Health Department. He had a load of medicines and health workers that needed to be delivered to the remote village of Agaun up in the mountains. He was so grateful that the plane was available to deliver the medicines and thanked us over and over again for the service. He said it normally takes about two weeks to hike in any supplies to this region.

The flight out to Agaun had spectacular scenery with sharp, razorback mountains, deep gorges with rivers rushing through, and half a dozen waterfalls feeding these rivers. You will never find a more beautiful country to fly in then PNG!

(Aguan airstrip)

The entire village came running out to meet the airplane. I was sitting in the open cockpit and I gave a casual wave to the villagers that had gathered. I was greeted with a great roar of enthusiasm.

(Health workers unloading medical supplies in Alotau)

After making our delivery we returned to Alotau to refuel the airplane for the remainder of the trip. There is no fuel available at the airport so Bill had to special order 7 drums of fuel earlier in the week to be delivered to the airport where we found it laying in the grass.

The fuel of course has to be hand pumped into the airplane.

The week before, Bill had taken out several teams of pastors and their wives to some of these remote islands in order to nurture our church members there. Now we were heading back to pick up all the team members. We decided to spend Sabbath with our church group at Misima. Leaving Alotau, we flew off across the ocean for an hour, passing dozens of little islands in route before arriving at Misima around 5pm.

Misima is an absolutely spectacular mountainous island. Unfortunately my camera could not do it justice. It was extremely rugged with little gorges, inlets and waterfalls everywhere. The crystal clear water was intense colors of turquoise, greens, and dark blues. It was just so beautiful I could hardly take it all in.

There were dozens of little fishing villages along the shoreline.

The end of the island tapers off to flatlands, and this is where the main town and airstrip are located.

(Misima airstrip)

The church members were so excited that “their airplane and pilot” were coming to spend Sabbath with them. It had been 8 years since they had any kind of visitation from pastors or missionaries! They gave us the royal welcome showering us with flowers and joyfully escorting us to the little church where they had a feast waiting for us.

(Misima SDA church)

Several years ago, when funds were being raised around the world to purchase the new airplane the people of PNG gave what they could to help. While the amount may seem a pittance according to our American standards, to these people it was true sacrificial giving and because of it they have a strong sense of ownership and proudly embrace the airplane as theirs. This particular group made a goal for every member to give 10 kina. They dubbed the airplane “Our 10 kina airplane.” This was their first opportunity to see the new airplane that they had “bought” and they were just so proud of it. They would excitedly tell everybody they met that this was “their” airplane. It truly was a humbling and touching experience.

Bill had brought his guitar and how they loved singing with him.

Then they begged him to share some aviation stories. So he obliged, giving them a lesson on how an airplane flies (they loved that!) and sharing some of his flying experiences over the years. He tried to sit down once but they asked him to keep telling stories. Later in the afternoon they complained that he hadn’t told enough stories!

After the church service we all trouped down to the beach for the baptism of 18 new members.

Ok all you head elders - we have discovered a new duty for you. Just before the baptism you must don your snorkelling gear and swim around the beach area making sure there are no dangerous creatures underfoot for the pastors and baptismal candidates to step on.

The church members had the beach all decorated up pretty with flowers for the baptism. Throughout the baptism they would throw handfuls of flowers out onto the water.

After lunch we were taken on a tour of the little town and then attempted to take a nap before the evening meetings began. But the heat was so unbearable it was almost impossible to rest. The evening meetings lasted until 10pm and everybody sat with rapt attention throughout the whole thing – even the children. The children were all sitting on the concrete floor at the front of the church. One by one they gave way to sleep. By the end of the service the floor was covered with sleeping children sprawled all over the place. It was so cute! At the end of the service they called our team to the front and showered us with gifts, thanking us over and over again for visiting them. It truly was a spiritually uplifting Sabbath and I don’t know who was more blessed - them or us.

(A sampling of some of the gifts we received)

Sunday we left at 6am because Bill had another heavy day of flying. The entire church showed up at the airstrip to see us off. Some of them had been there since 5:30am just to make sure they didn’t miss watching “their” plane take off. It was an emotional goodbye.

(The Misima team of pastors and wives)

Now it was time to go pick up the rest of the team members. We flew back to Alotau where we left off our group that had been in Misima with us. After refueling, we then flew out to the extremely remote island of Woodlark to pick up the next team. Wow! Who needs Hawaii when you have this? The sand was so white it almost blinded you and there was no one crowding the beach. Bill only allowed me enough time to run down to the beach and take a picture. I didn’t even get to put my toes in the water! Now how sad is that? This is definitely a place that is begging for a revisit.

(Woodlark airstrip runs right next to the beach)

From Woodlark we flew to the island of Kiriwina to pick up the last team members. Kiriwina is part of the Trobriand Islands group. Yams are a very important part of Trobriand culture. They are more than just a food staple – they are a sign of prestige and a tie between villages and clans. The quality and size of a yam is very important. As part of a good will gesture our team was given this huge yam as a gift. (The yam is packaged up in these leaves that Bill is holding) It was probably 4 feet long – I kid you not! If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it.

(One very large yam inside this package)

(Looking inside the leaf package at the huge yam)

From Kiriwina we returned to Alotau to refuel and pick up the rest of the team we had dropped off earlier and then headed back to Popendetta, dropping off all but two of our team members. We picked up a couple of students and flew them to their home village of Kira on our way back to Lae, then dropped off our remaining team members in Lae.

(Group photo of all the team members)

We picked up a load of building supplies for Kabiufa and found Terry McHugh (our Union Accountant) waiting to see if he could hitch a ride back to Goroka with us. We arrived back in Goroka around 5pm tired but happy after an eventful weekend. While the trip was fun and exciting for me, it was just work as usual for Bill. This is typical of what our pilots do on a daily basis, bringing encouragement and hope into the lives of so many people.