16th of September

....is independence day here in PNG. This last week they celebrated 35 years of independence. It is one of the biggest holidays here with festivities all over town. A few of us men from the center went in to town to see the celebrations and got a few pictures which you can see below.
A pastor from the village next door passed away on Thursday leaving behind a wife and 3 girls. It is another reminder of the urgency of getting the Gospel to those who have never heard. Several of the families here gave some small food gifts to the family to help feed all the people who would be coming for the service. While delivering the food we stopped to talk to one of the men who has helped with language learning. He has been sick with a fever so we dropped off some cold (clean) water for him and the conversation turned to "white man's" magic water. These people call themselves "Christian" and some are even called "Pastors" but they are hopelessly lost.
The kids are coming down on Friday to stay for 3 weeks and some ladies taught Christine how to express her feelings about them coming. "mi amamas long lukim ol, taim ol i kam." Which means "I am excited to see them when they come." We will also have our first language check this Thursday to see where we are and what we need to work on. The language check will be a written grammar check and an oral check, and we would appreciate your prayers as we will be sitting down with a villager and talking with our limited Pidgin at the direction of a language consultant who will determine what level we are at. The only nice thing about our first language check is that since we started out not knowing anything we will have made great progress.

Enjoy the pics of some celebrations during Independence Day.