Dear Family and Friends:
Good morning. It is a windy sunny day today. That is a pleasant change as it has been muggy and hot with intermittent rain since we have returned. The smoking volcano usually drops it’s ash off away from us except when it is booming and shaking the house with its loud explosions and then we end up with ash covering everything.
We have all recovered from the Swine Flu we picked up in Australia in transit to PNG and I am finally over the pneumonia I had. We came back to our house covered in layers of ash, gecko droppings, and some suspicious larger sized scat that I don’t like to think about. After washing the floors, linens, walls and utensils we were able to get things back into place. Both our car and the boat are fine and the internet connection works most of the time now.
By the grace of God all of our luggage made it from Australia to PNG even though it was many pounds overweight largely due to home-school materials. . We did receive a partial “missionary” discount letter from the Air Nuguini office in Australia. However, later when we presented the letter at the check-in counter at the airport we were informed that “who ever gave you this discount didn’t have the authority and it doesn’t mean a thing”. So we prayed and asked God for a miracle. Then, “out of the blue” the lady decided to waive the entire overweight amount. And then, in Port Moresby there were two times where we could have been charged extra due to a flight cancellation, but each time Air Nuguini waived the entire overweight amount. Thank you for praying. It builds our faith to see God helping us in unexpected ways.
Alex has had a difficult time because a few days after we returned the stray dog he loved, named Blackie, was mysteriously poisoned. This dog had save both Alex and I. One day we were walking on the beach and a young man came up to us and held out his hand in which he held a 45 caliber handgun. As he was raising it to us, this old black stray dog just came out of nowhere and stood between us and this armed young man. The man was afraid of the dog and left. We high-tailed it out of there and the dog followed us home. We found out it was indeed a stray and from then on, we would feed it our daily scraps. After that, every time Alex would go for a walk the dog would follow him. When Alex would stop to sit down, the dog would sit down near him watching him. So, it was a painful blow to find out this wonderful dog had been poisoned. Then, about 2 weeks ago Alex was having a lot of itching on his scalp. Many things bite here so we screened him for the usual; lice, fleas, or other crawly vermin but there wasn’t anything. Finally he came to me and begged me to shave his head so I buzzed his hair down to the scalp and underneath his thick brown hair was a widespread maze of raised white itchy fungus. Victor prayed over him and we have been medicating him and washing everything in sight. It is now resolving. If you think of him please pray for him as he has had a rough re-entry.
There were many changes in the East New Britain Foursquare Church just in the few months we were away, but this didn’t surprise us. Before we left for the states, one of my prayer partners Pastor Francisca and I (see picture) had been praying and during one of those prayer times we had received a short vision. Another pastor couple had the very same vision at the same time. It was a map of the area and fires were being set where the Foursquare churches were located. The word “purify" came up and we had the impression that God was in the process of purifying His Church. While I think this is happening globally, it has certainly begun here. It would be easy to get discouraged and sometimes we do, but then we remember that God is at work and we are to continue hearing and obeying.
It is great to be back here to see all of our friends. We have finally adjusted back to the culture. Ministry-wise, we have been visiting the more struggling churches each week so that we can preach and pray for the leaders and congregations (see picture). Victor and the Provincial Supervisor are prayerfully seeking the Lord on how to best mentor the local pastors. Initially, the Holy Spirit is directing us to teach the pastors about Leadership Transformation Groups (LTG’s) and to implement the program. So, at yesterday’s leadership training time with the pastors, Victor taught on “The Leader’s Spirituality” and then broke up the group into twos – men with men and women with women. Each week, for the next three months, the groups will meet to confess sin to one another, to read 25-30 chapters of Scripture during the week, and to pray for the lost.
The medical ministry is also coming along. The Lord continues to give us favor with the government and He continues to bring local nurses to the ministry. For the medical outreach later this month with the U.S. team from Northwest Church, for example, we estimate that at least three nurses from the local “haus-sik” (hospital) will be going with us. The East New Britain Province Community Development office, too, continues to support our work especially the HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis awareness training that the nurses do.
We are so blessed to be with the people again (see picture). We share some of the most precious moments with them. For example, last Sunday we were praying for a Pastor and I felt a little hand on the back of my leg. A toddler was rubbing her hand on my leg and then looking at her hand to see if any of the white was coming off. A chicken laid an egg during the climax of the sermon just a couple of feet outside the open side of the church. There were also some young girls who had this unusual decoration on the collar of her dress. It turned out to be a huge, fat, bright yellow caterpillar that stretched out across my hand with delicate purple striping. The girl was using it as “bilas” (decoration) for her special “meri” dress (see picture). This is so different from the U.S. but after the service one of the elderly ladies that I really liked grabbed me and hugged me with a huge smile and started laughing. Very demonstrative for the usually reserved and careful East New Britain Tolai tribe culture and it was like being with a friend back home. We both love Jesus and that is our common denominator.
Please pray for the following:
- The national PNG and island-region Foursquare church – the regional and district supervisors especially.
- The pastors in the East New Britain Province who will be starting their Life Transformation Groups this week. Some of the pastors need emotional healing as well so please join us in praying for them as well (see picture).
- For the Northwest Church team that is coming to minister with us later this month.
- For our Medical Ministry Outreach and for the associated Evangelism outreach later this month. We believe that the Lord has shown us the venue but we need confirmation. Pray that many will be saved and healed and that the sharing of the Good News of Jesus Christ will be strongly anointed by the Holy Spirit.
- For Alex and Nathan, our sons who are two of the most wonderful children in the whole world.
Attempt Great Things For God.
William Carey
