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Mission Support Network Newsletter, February 21, 2007 Written by Jack Sample I have finally been able to get connected to the Internet
and get off a report about my travels so far in PNG. A
big thank you to all of you that have been praying for Trevor
and I as we do our best to get our ministry started here in the
land of the unexpected. I had a good trip from Omaha to Port Moresby and was met at the airport by my good friend Peter Oli, the Central Papua SDA Mission President. His picture in to the left. I stayed in Peter and Ruth's home for a week and my first few days were spent getting used the to warm humid climate again and adjusting to the time change. Peter and Ruth took good care of me and we had plenty opportunities to discuss our planned work and what the needs of the country are. We can certainly count on 100% support from Peter. While in Moresby I the opportunity to go out to our secondary school a few miles out from town to visit the Wagi family. Bob Wagi was the farm manager at Paglum Adventist Secondary school in Western Highlands when I was principal there in 1997. He is now the farm manager at Mt Diamond Adventist High School. Bob and his wife Vaseo named their daughter after my wife and it was fun to see how big she has grown. The picture below is of the Wagi Family. Vaseo is on the left and has her arm around their youngest, Vashti. Elana May is the next one in the front and she is standing by Bob. In the back is their oldest living child Jochobed and Vaseo's father who was visiting them when I came. Bob is very knowledgeable in the agricultural field and I hope to be able to have him work with us in the future in helping some of the remote villages develop a cash crop to help them bring lasting services to their villages. Vaseo teaches English at the high school.
On Sunday, I flew over to Wewak which is where the headquarters for the Sepik SDA mission is located. This is the mission that we will be working in once we get relocated to Vanimo. Wewak is the town that I spent the most time in during our 3 and a half year stay in PNG during the 90s. What a delight to be back home again. It didn't take but a day or so to feel like I had never left. The people here are so friendly and I am enjoying getting acquainted with the new mission personnel. The current president was the Secretary of this mission when we were here before so we are already very good friends. All the rest are new to me and we are quickly becoming good friends. I am much encouraged to see that the condition of the mission here is slowly improving and there is a good missionary spirit among the laity as well as the mission personnel. While here in Wewak I am reestablishing my network of friends and business contacts as this will be an important center for us while we work in Vanimo. Vanimo is Northwest of here along the coast and you can go there either by boat or by plane. It is only about a 30 minute flight but the cost is about $100 which is almost what a mission worker gets to take home of his monthly paycheck. The boat is much easier and only costs about $27 or so. I plan to go by boat next Tuesday to see what it is like to travel that way. Once in Vanimo I will begin to build a network of friends and business contacts and try to get some things done while waiting for Trevor to come down. I may try to make a round trip to Jaya Pura to see what that is like these days. I am expecting that we may go that direction for much of our more technical needs as Vanimo does not have a lot to work with. I think it takes about 3 or 4 hours by road to get to Jaya Pura so other than the VISA paperwork for crossing the Indonesian border it should be fairly easy. The one challenge is that vehicles do not actually cross the border so whatever you purchase has to be carried across the border and loaded on to another vehicle to take it home. I still have much to learn and God is really blessing me with great friends and good health. Last night I lead out in the prayer meeting service in a simple bush material church on the beach here in Wewak. There was a good number of members there and we had a good time worshiping together. Thankfully my Pidgen came back quickly and I have actually found it difficult to speak English when I need to. They get a big kick out of that. This happened when I was asked to lead out in a worship service at Mt. Diamond High School and school rules are that you must speak in English on school grounds. I kept going back to Pidgen and having to excuse myself. Trevor has told me that the paperwork is very close to being finished now. NAS has passed their audit with the CAA and the only thing left now is for our plane to be included on their paperwork. This should be a very simple thing but it has to come to the right person's attention and be accomplished before we can move again. So, if you are wanting something specific to pray for, you can simple pray that these words get written on a piece of paper in PNG. Cessna 206 VHAEE God will know the details and work on our behalf. Thank you so much for your prayers. Feel free to reply to this email with your words of encouragement. Jack Sample & Trevor Robinson
Glossary of terms and abbreviations: AAS - Adventist Aviation Services |
