A commercial helicopter company in Goroka called one afternoon reporting one of their pilots had engine failure and sent a mayday as he went down. Contact was lost and no further information was received. The doctor and nurse grabbed their emergency gear and ran to our soccer field where another helicopter picked them up. It took some time to find the downed helicopter in the dense jungle and there was nowhere to land. Thankfully, the pilot was fine. The rescue helicopter had to hover over the pilot so he could climb aboard.
One of our missionaries in her early 30’s found a small mass near her armpit in July. Our physician took ultrasound images and sent them to a radiologist at the Mayo Clinic. The images were suspicious for breast cancer so the missionary was sent to Australia for a mammogram and needle aspiration which showed very suspicious cells. She returned with her family to the US where she had surgery this month. Her lymph node dissection was negative and her treatment will be radiation and tamoxofen. The family will hopefully soon return to PNG.
We had two missionaries injured in separate motor vehicle accidents. One man was driving a truck that rolled down a 70-foot embankment and the cab of the truck was severely crushed. He does not remember the accident and very little about what occurred after it happened. The medical staff spent several hours examining, x-raying, and cleaning and suturing wounds. He had suffered a concussion, back pain, and neck pain. He is still recovering from his injuries. The second man was driving a motorcycle on the highway when a lady stepped in front of him. He laid down the motorcycle in an attempt to avoid hitting her but she was hit anyway. He was treated at our clinic and released. She was taken to the hospital in town. There is no countrywide road network in PNG and the roads are generally in poor repair. Crowds can form quickly after an accident and react emotionally and violently. In each case, God provided people to protect these men from harm in this way.
September 16th marked the 35th anniversary of PNG’s independence from Australia. Although many of the living conditions in PNG have deteriorated since their independence, this is still a young country struggling to develop. The NTM center here at Lapilo offered a day of celebratory activities to the local nationals and the missionaries. The day starting with
the attempted raising of the PNG flag (unfortunately the wire broke) and the singing of PNG national anthem. Next was a parade of bicycles, clowns, and decorated trucks and golf carts. There were all kinds of activities booths from horse shoes to a two-foot tub filled with water and marbles. The goal was to remove, using your toes, as many marbles possible from the tub within a certain time frame. The best booth was the “Flushed Away” where someone threw a ball at a lever that was attached to a toilet sitting above your head. If hit, the lever triggered the toilet to flush!
That weekend I went to the Goroka Show which attracts people from across the world. Thousands of people were there over a three-day period to see about 100 tribes gather to display their traditional dress, dance, and music, and to compete for best in show. The show began in 1957 when Goroka was a tiny outpost station and was organized by Australian patrol officers who brought tribal groups from different areas to perform. It was amazing to see their wide use of nature to construct their dress with each tribe having its own unique sense of style.
On the night of the 28th, I was honored and amazed to be sitting in the mountains across the street from where I live with 200-300 nationals listening to a missionary, Iteve, from Yagaria. Yagaria was one of the first tribes with which NTM worked and they are now providing outreaches to many areas in PNG. Iteve spoke in pidgin since several different tribes were there and pidgin is the common language. He thanked the local community for letting him teach and the missionaries for coming to PNG. He discussed how hard it was for missionaries to come leaving behind family, money, and more. He said the first missionary came to the highlands in the 1950s and was eaten. Another one came and he was eaten. But God kept sending missionaries and Iteve is so grateful they did come because now he knows the Lord. The man who led Iteve to the Lord is still a missionary here in PNG.
Iteve talked about the Holy Spirit and about baptism not being from water but from the Holy Spirit. He acknowledged that the God of which he spoke is the God of the entire world and of all nations. No matter from where a person comes, the same God is in control. He was teaching about Jesus and that PNG believers need to be witnessing to their neighboring villages. You could feel the presence of the Lord. I was truly blessed to be part of this historic moment when PNG missionaries are teaching God’s Word to other PNG people.
In talking the next day about the teaching; Bonita, the work meri for the clinic, told me her grandfather was a cannibal until one day he was eating an arm and the hand rose up to slap him in the face. He never again ate another human. The last known cannibal in this area was the father of another one of our workers here at the center. He has died.
Not to make lightly of the sacrifices these early missionaries made, but this was sent to me this week: Two cannibals meet one day. The first cannibal says, "You know, I can't seem to get a tender Missionary. I've baked them, stewed them, roasted them, and barbecued them. I just cannot seem to get them tender." The second cannibal asks, "What kind of missionary do you use?" The other replied, "You know, they have those brown cloaks with as rope around their waist and they're sort of bald on top with a funny ring of hair on their heads." "Ah, that's it!" the second cannibal replies. "No wonder - those are friars!"
PNG national anthem:
O arise all you sons of this land,
Let us sing of our joy to be free,
Praising God and rejoicing to be
Papua New Guinea.
Shout our name from the
mountains to seas
Papua New Guinea;
Let us raise our voices and
proclaim Papua New Guinea.
Now give thanks to the good Lord above
For His kindness, His wisdom and love
For this land of our fathers so free,
Papua New Guinea.
Shout again for the whole world to hear
Papua New Guinea;
We're independent and we're free,
Papua New Guinea.
