Last Saturday morning at Bible Faith Outreach Orphanage Christmas was celebrated. It was quite a special time as for the children it was their first time hearing clearly why it is celebrated and receiving presents as well. For me it was a hard hitting time seeing these kids, but seeing their faces was priceless. It made the front page of one of PNG’s main news papers, please find the story below and linked here.

1. Some of the kids with their presents

Orphans find comfort

These children are not so lucky but thanks to people like Rose

By DAVID MURI

THIS is a notice to all those caring parents out there. What are you planning for your children for the Christmas and New Year festivities? Take them for an odyssey? Or, are you giving away a marvelous banquet for your little ones? Even surprising them with unusual gifts through Santa Claus would be well acknowledged and received. They will be lucky because they have you as a concerned parent who will be right there providing for their immediate needs.

But lives for more than 100 children in Mt Hagen will be different. They will not enjoy the warmth or receive any gift from a parent. Because they have no parents to care for them or to meet their wishes. They are orphans. Some don’t know where their parents are. Many deserted their homes to seek refuge at the city’s Bible Faith (Orphnage) Outreach located at New Town. The place is being run by a Good Samaritan. Her name is Rosa Kepa. She is being assisted by her husband Jiwa and their five children. The centre’s sole obligation is to feed these hungry children a decent meal and on a daily basis. They also try their best to clothe these bereaved kids. They are children of settlers, most who had died of HIV/AIDS. Other s have deserted their homes because of constant abuses - both physical and verbal. The centre has been their mainstay for the past year with Aunty Rosa Kepa their sole breadwinner.

Last Saturday, Aunty Rosa provided a main meal for them. They had breakfast of scones and tea that was followed by rice and hot bisque. They were also given presents ranging from toys, T shirts, jumpers, shoes and sandals. The children were in perfect joy. Aunty Rosa has given a new life and hope to these unfortunate kids. They are innocent victims of their parents’ carelessness. They will struggle to survive for a long time to come. Aunty Rosa says as a veteran Christian for 30 years, she felt obliged to assist the little one who were in desperate need. She said many people want the government to provide for everything but she added that she wanted to give whatever little she had as her contribution towards solving the children’s problems.
She does not want to stop by feeding and clothing them only. Aunty Rosa wants to provide them education. But that dream will require so much funding to fulfill. Aunty Rosa’s other problem is a spacious land to accommodate the growing number of children entering her yard.

She currently rents three houses to accommodate about 20 homeless children. They are being fed by proceeds from street sales by volunteers who assist Aunty Rosa. Sometimes they are surviving from donations from Christians. How will these continue and how will Aunty Rosa sustain her charitable operations?

Will hopefully have a Christmas update and more photo’s in the New Year.

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In the last week of November it was a steady week out at the hangar. Tuesday afternoon around 1600 some of us received word that there were two Twin Otter chartered flights going down empty from Mt Hagen to Madang the next day. Then doing the same Thursday afternoon, but empty from Madang to Mt Hagen. At first it seemed unbelievable, if there were empty flights then it would be going the other way. If there is a spare seat on a flight, then we can fly free. But to have a whole Twin Otter empty to Madang is very rare. “The World” cruise liner was docked in Madang harbour and several tourists were coming up to Mt Hagen for one night. So come 1630 when finishing work, it had been approved by management that Timon, Brandon and myself (the three Hagen singles) would be off to Madang the next morning. That night we took care of booking and arranging everything else.

1. The World cruise liner in Madang Harbour

We departed Hagen at first light just before 0600 on the first flight and arrived in Madang just before 0700. By the time we got into town and checked in at the Madang Resort we were having breakfast at the restaurant around 0800. Both Timon and Brandon are divers and Madang has some of the best diving in the world. So they were keen on diving, I don’t have my ticket yet, but would like to get it maybe next year. The group that we would normally dive with was fully booked and the other group seemed too expensive. So it was decided to go out to Jais Abbn to do some snorkelling. After some shopping and being able to rent a car from another mission organisation. We made it out to Jais Aben Resort and spent the afternoon chilling out by the water, swimming and snorkelling (there is coral reef very close to the resort). We had the water front area to ourselves. We headed back into town and resolved an issue with our resort room that had been ongoing all day. After resolving that we headed out to a restaurant called Coasties for dinner, close to the water. So we had a full day in Madang.

2. The boys @ Coasties - Brandon, Timon & I

The following morning after breakfast we headed out to the Malolo plantation resort which is about 40km’s from Madang. There again we chilled by the beach and swimming. Having the place to ourselves. The sand there is volcanic black sand. It is one of my favourite beaches in PNG. In the early afternoon we headed back into town for lunch, to have Chinese at the Madang Country Club. I had made it clear to the guys that we would have to eat lunch there at least once during our short stay. It had been a while for me since having real Chinese food, too long. We made our way back to the Resort, to check out and wait for the second Twin Otter flight.

3. Beach @ Malolo plantation lodge

After some confusion we made it out to the airport and knew that it would be very tight if we could make it back to Hagen before last light. Due to a few factors we got stuck overnight in Madang with the two pilots. My first time being stuck overnight somewhere in PNG and we were put up in the Madang Resort, pretty good. But there was no benefit for us staying the extra night, as we would go straight to work the next morning. We made it to work the following morning back in Hagen and the two pilots had another big program of flying that day. It was a really great short and refreshing  time away (just getting out of the highlands for a night is so refreshing), plus a surprise. My first time out of the Highlands since July and my first time back to Madang since POC. It was good that Brandon could finally join Timon and me on a trip. I am quite pleased to go somewhere where there is beaches and food (planning on spending Christmas there for seven nights, but is now looking like six nights). When an opportunity like this comes up you have to make the most of it if possible.

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Seemed like a good time to upload some photo’s from this time last year. Didn’t take too many photo’s until i got the new camera after Christmas. Some photo’s from different things back in Sydney. Spending time with my Dad in the city and going to the Star Wars display at the Powerhouse Museum, Christmas day with family, camping (really tenting, not camping) down at Eden with close friends and other random stuff. Enjoy, Merry Christmas.

Christmas in SYD

I was able to return to Australia for four weeks over Christmas 2008 and the New Year to see my Nan who had been diagnosed with cancer a few months prior.

75 Photos

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Back on the second last weekend of November was my first full weekend MAF ministry program. We planned and organised throughout the week for the weekend. The team can vary from program to program, but is normally the same. It would consist of Kambowa (mission co coordinator and two of his sons), Maipson (Engineer), Nevan (Aircraft Painter), Stanley (Engineer Trainee), Timon and I. Come Friday afternoon I was pretty tired, with a MAF van packed with all our equipment, we departed work once the other MAF vehicles had departed. Our destination was the Kudjip Nazarene Hydro Church, around forty to fifty minutes from Mt Hagen. We travelled along the Highlands Highway and was my first time driving out that way for a while. Kudjip is home of the famous Nazarene Mission Hospital. The village where we were heading is only five minutes drive from the hospital. It took us only around thirty minutes from Kagamuga and Pastor Jack (assistant Pastor) met us before the hospital.

1. Nazarene Church with Pastor Jack

Pastor Jack directed us to the village and to the church. As we arrived, there was a crowd waiting to meet us at the church, from old ladies to little kids. They were really excited to see us and we were introduced to some. The church is close to a river and is quite a nice place looking across the valley. We setup our gear to start the program that night. As soon as it was setup we were taken to a house where we would be staying the weekend, a haus kunia (grass house). There waiting for us was apinun kai kai (dinner) prepared by Pastor Jack’s wife and a few other ladies. A mumu (ground oven) of pork, vegetables and fruit.

2. Around the fire & having tea - Stanely, Maipson, Nevan, Kambowa & Joshua

After eating dinner and a quick time of prayer, we were off back to the church to run the Friday night program. After a time of worship lead by the church and waiting for people to arrive. As normal we were welcomed and the team introduced themselves. First up would be me to share my testimony, how I came to Christ and how I came to MAF. Afterwards we showed the Jesus film in Tok Pisin, followed by a talk, two women gave their lives to Christ. It was a really good night. After packing up the equipment and talking with some people, we finished late and headed back to the house. Where we hanged around the fire and a have a tea, before going to sleep. It wasn’t a comfortable sleep for me, lots of constant waking up throughout the night to reposition.

3. Our beds

I was looking forward to my Saturday morning sleep as there wasn’t too much planned for the day. But we were staying in a village, people get up when the sun does. I couldn’t believe how much noise and activity there was at 0600 in the morning even in the house. I was tired and needed sleep, but it just wasn’t possible. After laying there for some time I got up for breakfast, Wopa crackers around the fire. The plan for the day was to go for a walk up to the local’s prayer mountain, around an hour to an hour and a half walk. Pastor Jack guided us with some of the boys from the village. As we walked along this road to the mountain, it cut through different villages throughout the area. Which I learned rounded off at around four thousand people, and here we were just in one village interacting with several communities in a larger community. Along the way we saw and greeted a lot of people, saw great scenery and saw the result of the earlier Nazarene missionaries in the area.

4. Coming back down the prayer mountain

After we had been shown the local school where some kids have to work at least an hour to every day, we went up to the prayer mountain. It was a quite a nice experience up there and to be invited up there. After a time praying in a group, we got to go off by ourselves to different parts of this mountain, was quite a spiritual refreshing time. On our way back to the village, we were trying to beat the rain, which started to come down heavier on our arrival back. On our arrival back we were again met with lunch prepared for us, again pork, vegetables and fruit. After lunch we were going to have a waswas (bath/swim) in the river, but one of the team members was coming back from Port Moresby after an exam, so we decided to wait for him. So in the mean time, I thought I would have a power nap for ten minutes or so as we waited, as he needed  to be picked up. I was so tired I was completely out of it and slept for a while. Maipson who was to be picked up, ended up walking to the village by asking for directions. Once Maipson had joined us, Pastor Jack took us to the river. But not where they normally wash, but where they sometimes go to swim. Where we went is called by the missionaries at the hospital ‘suicide gap’. As there is a water fall, then two rock faces either side. You can safely jump off the rocks into the river and be taken down stream. During our bathing there, we had a lot of fun jumping off the rock into the strong current. The water was pretty cold, but bearable, it was really refreshing to have a swim. On our return from the river we started to prepare for that night’s program. Later on we headed back to the church and set up the equipment again. I left a documentary going the search for the real Mt Sinai after explaining it to the people, mainly kids, as we had dinner up at the house. We had to have the generator going that night, as there was a blackout and the hydro was damaged by a storm. Interesting though to go to a village with electricity.

5. Waswas at suicide gap, Maipson jumping & Pastor Jack

After dinner we started up the Saturday night program, with MAF awareness. It still amazes me how many people, especially those who are served by MAF are unaware of who MAF really is. Followed by that we showed the End of the Spear movie. This was the one thing the church leaders had requested for us to do while with them. As in the 90’s there had been tribal fighting in the area for a few years, with quite a few people killed. Still after that time there is still a lot of bitterness in the community. After showing the movie, Timon did a talk following the movie, people were quite convicted and challenged. Again we packed up the equipment and talked to a few people.

6. Timon speaking after showing End of the Spear

That night in the house we hanged around the fire and again giving thanks for another good night and day. After another difficult night’s sleep and an early wake up, was breakfast. For the church service, the church would lead worship and one of us would preach, Maipson was on for Sunday morning. Again setting up the equipment with the generator, waited for the service to begin, as Sunday school finished. The service was quite good, each village church is different. The church leaders expressed their gratefulness for us spending the weekend with them, as they did over the weekend. They were very happy with the program we ran and time spent with them. The ministry team emphasised that even though being an encouraging and strengthening time for them, that they needed to rely on the Lord’s strength to continue, not on the ministry team. Following the service and packing up, I thought we would be released so we could return home and catch up what we needed to, especially for the white single guys. I was quite exhausted too. We were invited back for lunch and asked the church leaders and visiting church leaders from other churches to join us.

7. Sunday lotu - women on the left, men on the right (except Stanley, haha)

Following lunch we were farewelled by everyone in the village. We were really taken good care by Pastor Jack, his wife and relatives. Someone gave up there house for us to have it to ourselves for the whole weekend. We were fed three meals a day, where quite normally in PNG there is one meal, dinner. It had been a special weekend and God had been at work. We boarded the MAF van at the church to depart and the crowd followed us to farewell us at the church. Unfortunately the senior Pastor was not there for the weekend as he was away sick and one of our Engineers Albert James who lives in that village was in the Septik for his uncle’s haus crai (funeral). We departed Kudjip and travelled back to Hagen. We dropped off the equipment at the hangar and then I started on dropping people home. We got home around mid to late afternoon, and I started to catch up on a few weekend things.

8. The haus kunai where we stayed in the village

It really was a great weekend, despite struggling with tiredness and being a busy weekend. It would be my last MAF ministry event for the year. I asked for the following Monday off to recover and to catch up on my weekend jobs. Each time in a village is an amazing experience, to live in a village and amongst individuals, it is another world. It seems like such a long time ago, but was a great opportunity to minster and reach out to this remote community, which we are grateful for. The people and the church were strengthened and encouraged over the weekend.

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On a Saturday back in November, Daniel and I planned during the week to head out of town to have a BBQ by a river with his family. It had been a while since I had spent time with Daniel’s family. Dan is a national Engineer with MAF and is one of my closet friends here. Sandra his wife works in accounts as well. As I did my weekly shopping that Saturday morning, I grabbed supplies for the afternoon. Early in the afternoon I drove out to the Kagamuga compound to pick them up. They also had grabbed supplies that morning too, so we had plenty for the five of us.

1. La Bestia in it’s natural habitat

We headed out along the Highlands Highway and I released that the Landcruiser had not been past Kagamuga since I have had it and was really the first trip out of town region since a MAF ministry program last year. As we drove along, there was rain clouds in the horizon and as we got closer it started to rain. The boys were really excited to be driving out to the river, especially Timothy. First off we drove to Kindeng which is around 20-25 minutes from Kagamuga to have a look at some land for sale.

2. Dan & Sandra cooking

It continued to rain and we headed back down the highway to a river called wara (river in Tok Pisin) Tuman. This was our planned destination to BBQ by the river, but there was no longer a driveable road down, only very soft sand (which looked like a good place to get bogged). So we continued to head back down the highway towards town for a while. We reached a turn off, which we took and continued down a road, which took us to a river called wara Komum. I drove as far as I could along the river and we found a spot. The spot was across the river, so it meant walking across a cold 0.5-1m strong flowing river with our stuff.

As soon as we got there the boys went for a swim, we carried stuff across to the other side. As we got setup on the rocky beach, Daniel got a fire going to cook on. Daniel and Sandra took care of the cooking while I  help prepare. We had sausage sandwiches which was really good and enjoyed the outdoors. We had beaten the rain clouds coming back, but they were lurking around and it held off while we were there.

3. Wara Komun

The boys continued to swim and play in the sand after a late lunch joined by Sandra. While Daniel and myself chilled out on the rocky beach and talked. It was just a refreshing time to get out of town and the atmosphere of Hagen to be in the wilderness. The water was quite cold and still having a cold I didn’t want to try swimming, it was hard even for a sick Aquaman. What I liked about it was that you could start off up river travel down river by the current, only thing missing was a sandy beach (normally sand gets washed away if there is some or is sold, so most rivers in the Western Highlands have rocks). Crossing back to the car was again difficult, the river having a strong current, plus being cold (water running down off mountains is quite refreshing) and the rocks being slippery.

4. Daniel, Gregory, Timothy & Sandra

We packed up, dried off and headed back home. It was a great afternoon just to get out of town and spend time with friends. Even though it was only a few hours, it was a refreshing time. There is not a lot of things to do in Mt Hagen, but there is plenty to do and see outside of Hagen you just have to make it happen.

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At the end of October three of us sat the PNG air law exam. The last exam required to get your first PNG license. The original plan went back several weeks, where I had planned to sit my last airframe exam in Port Moresby. Then sitting air law the following week, allowing me to submit for my airframe licenses to the CAA as soon as possible, rather than waiting for another exam sitting. I knew it was not impossible, but knew it would involve a lot of effort.

1. Daniel, myself, Laz, Maipson & Auda

I had five weeks to study for my airframe exam, which I studied consistently for the last three weeks leading up to the exam. I had struggled balancing work and study with all my other responsibilities. The thing was being so tired and working overtime prevented me from studying at times or made it quite hard. So I was studying each weeknight and on Saturday. The airframe exam I would sit in Port Moresby, which meant flying there and overnight there. So this added a little more pressure on passing.

After sitting the exam in Port Moresby I returned to Mt Hagen and started to prepare for the CAA air law exam. I only had a week to prepare and seemed too much. But since we had been able to finish the C check on the Twin Otter on time, the three of us were given four hours a day to study at work leading up to the exam. One of our senior Engineers ran through air law with two of us throughout the week. It is an open book exam, the first I have ever done for Engineering, but you still need to know your stuff. and there is a lot. The Friday before the exam, I received my airframe result that I had passed.

So on the Saturday, the three of us sat the air law exam at the special sitting in Mt Hagen. We had two hours to answer fifty questions almost half the questions of the last exam I did. But in the end I had a few questions that I was trying to answer and was a rush for time. As I didn’t get to go through my answers like I normally do, I wasn’t too sure how I went. The following Wednesday morning we received our results and all three of us had passed. It really was a big burden lifted, all this time trying to get licensed under different systems of maintenance and doing exams on subjects that I have covered before during my training.

That night we went out for dinner at a hotel restaurant buffet. Two other Engineers who had previously passed the air law exam at the special sittings joined us, along with others. It was a special night, especially as it has been many years since a national Engineer had applied for his initial license, now there was four of them and myself.

So the next day four of us went to have out medicals done, which was an easy going medical compared to ones I have experienced in the past. Spent the rest of the day completing paper work and everything that was required for the license application. We were able to get the applications done to CAA’s Port Moresby office by lunch time on Friday. So the waiting game has begun as we await applications to be processed. So it is an exciting time to finally reach this point on applying for my initial licenses, but especially seeing four national Engineers applying for their initial license.

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