Papua New Guinea

Ps. 115 vs. 16-18

The heavens are the Lord's, but the earth he has given to the children of men.

The dead do not praise The Lord nor any who go down into silence, But we will bless The Lord from this time forth and forever more Praise The Lord

This was the scripture read at the Baptist church in Mount Hagen, PNG..

I went with Michael and Nicki Duncalfe who have been in PNG for 20 years and been a part of this Baptist church for nearly as long. How lovely to be a part of worship here - even if I didn't know the words to many songs! Mostly the service is in Tok Pisin, but some scripture and some songs in English - and even some announcements etc in both. Michael introduced me as the "boss Mary MAF UK" and  explained (in Tok Pisin) the subsidy situation for the flights and that when MAF flies pastors and bible college students etc that MAF UK raise much of the money from churches and others who want to support the people here and make this possible. Much applause and many smiles at this point. Very many people came to say hello and thank you afterwards.

While the medical evacuations are vital here from villages which have no other route out, it is with flying bible students out to Mount Hagen (and home later) and pastors, for study, training and encouragement that gets the gospel in. The worship leader says of these verse -we must use our strength to praise The Lord for the dead and silent to not praise him! The pastor reminds us that we need to listen to God - "listen for every word that comes from the Father" he says. To do this we must keep our focus on Jesus he stressed. Nicki explains the difference between the expression to look or glance and the phrase used for looking intently, focusing our attention, like it is a matter of the heart. For this they say "lok lok im long" like "look look long"!.

PNG is an extraordinary country to our way of thinking and expectations- the capital is not connected to more than 85% of the country. Roads are not commonplace around the country and the terrain makes it difficult to develop them.

I met the Mills family who were returning from a break in Australia. Dr David Mills works at a hospital at Kompiam. He and his wife, Karina and 4 children live there with access via a road which can be difficult to cross after a lot of rain and when the river is very deep.

They flew to Mount Hagen from Port Moresby (as I did) but then were to overnight and be collected by truck (from the hospital) for the five or more hour drive home to Kompian.

They had a message that the truck had taken many hours to get out of Kompiana and across the river and in all would take nearly all day to get to them now, so they would need to stay in Hagen a further day before they try to return...!

The Mills Family

David explained to me that the hospital supports 6 healthcare centres around in very inaccessible villages. Later I look at a map to see these locations in the highlands and on the edge of the vast swamp regions to the north of the mountain range which the town of Mount Hagen sits. Some of the strips are in areas he says have zero roads; for one he compares 5 hours walk or 18 mins flight, another is  three and half days walk (and that is at local speed which is pretty quick as they are more used to it than we might be !) - or 10 mins by air..! "Without MAF we don't have a health care programme" he said.