I spent all day Saturday going back and forth to the Hostess Center where they keep household items such as dishes, sheets, towels, furniture, and appliances. I was able to get some towels, another set of sheets, a few more dishes, a mop, and a broom. There is an extra front load washer in storage so the hostess center coordinator will check into switching it with my twin tub. The twin tub is quite tedious and is hard on clothes so I am told. (Have I mentioned the twin tub is tedious?)
Seventeen of us went to dinner in Goroka Saturday night to celebrate Daniel’s birthday. Daniel is from former eastern Germany and works in our computer department. We stopped by Sobego to pick up two other missionaries living there to go with us. Sobego is the field headquarters for the highlands region. It is very pretty. Most of the houses for the career missionaries there are somewhat modest so the people can become accustomed to what it will be like when they go into the tribe. We ate dinner at Pacific Gardens. I had a nice steak dinner for 42 kinas which is about $17 US.
We went back to Lapilo and had cake for Daniel. Then I learned there was another medical evacuation so I stopped by the clinic to observe again. This was a little girl who was going into ketoacidosis. She had not been previously diagnosed as diabetic. I stayed at the clinic until 12:30 AM when most of the paperwork was done. They are not able to fly at night unless it is life or death so it was morning before they left to Australia. There was one time the case was so serious they lined vehicles to light the air strip so the plane could take off. But with the mountains and cloudy nights, it is not really safe to do so. The team did not stay in Australia because the pilots are needed back to deliver children out to their parents in the tribe this week. The school is going on a 3 week break.
Today was my first church service. The men rotate speaking. The message today was on faith based on Hebrews 11: 1-7. The choir sang a beautiful song about strength. A missionary from the field gave an update about their work with a tribe in the island region. They are about a year into the work and are in the relationship building phase. Phase One teaching begins with creation and goes through the presentation of the gospel of Christ. I am still learning what the other phases encompass.
I spent the afternoon continuing to wash dishes and, of course, taking my Sunday afternoon nap. Jody and his wife, Marcia, come today to hang a blind in my kitchen window, remove a broken stopper from my sink, and fix my shower curtain rod. The sink stopper is one that you screw into the drain and I broke the handle so I had a sink full of dirty water. Lena stopped by with a DVD player that she had found in the Mission Barrel. The Mission Barrel is where missionary place items they no longer need. Now, I need to find a TV to serve as the monitor so I can watch movies on a screen bigger than my portable DVD. If I can’t, the portable will do fine. Tomorrow is my first day in the clinic.
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. “ Hebrews 11:1
Shirley Falls - Connecting You to Tribal Missions in Papua New Guinea
