Where in the world are the wilsons?

School Holidays

2009-07-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends.

Second school term has finished and we (Narelle, Rachel and Megan) are on school holidays. Hurrah! The three girls did a quick trip this week up to North Eastern Victoria to visit Narelles family for a few days. Rose and Rex run a dairy and beef farm. The girls had so much fun on the farm helping milk cows, ride motor bikes and tractors. The pups were a huge hit, as was the slightly crazy hyperactive kitten. Lovely to catch up with our country family.

These are the days of our lives....

2009-04-13T15:55:00.000-07:00

Megans 9th birthday party

Rachel and friends, Space Expo at school.
Rachel, Meg and Sandy - seeing if they could fry an egg on the ground on 46 deg. day. (Didn't work)
Sandy off to work, Girls off to school.
Happy Easter Friends!

Hello good friends around the world. We hope you all had a beautiful easter time.

It has been so long since i have written anything on this blog, but it is now the Easter holidays so thing have quieted down enough to reflect a little and write about the last few months.

February saw our state confronted with some of the hottest weather in 50 years. It was awful, especially one horrific week that got up to 47 degrees her in Melbourne. In desperation, we dragged out mattresses into out dining room ( the only space in the house with a air conditioner), in order to get a little sleep at night. The whole state was quite literally in ‘melt down’. Trains stopped working, electrical plants blew up, we had ambulance shortages and hospitals were full of sick over heated people...it really was horrible.

On one of the hottest days in February, the fires came. 172 people lost their lives as the fires swept through a number of our communities. My (Narelle) uncle and aunt in Marysville lost their home (the entire town was wiped out). Another family friend lost his two teenage daughters. Everyone seems to know someone who was affected by the fires.

It was a terrible couple of weeks following the fires. Our whole country morned for those who lost loved ones and property, and as the high temperatures persisted and fires still burned, we worried about flying embers. It was hard not to stress. The air was still full of smoke haze, and we could smell the smoke from the back burning.

We were not in any direct danger, but our kids school is situated at the base of a mountain area and in a dense bush area. The school closed on a few occasions for fear that the fires might come too close. Fortunately for us, it never came too close.

During all of this, the kids had got back into school life. Both Rachel and Meg love their new school teachers, and are making some lovely friendship with their school mates. Their little lives are full of school, after school activities, sports, dance and music.

I also started my new job at a local school as a Teaches Aide in February. This has been the perfect job for me right now. Keeps me well and truly busy, but also lets me be around for the children after school finishes each day. I am really enjoying the work, great co-workers, fantastic kids and plenty of work that is challenging me and it is very rewarding.

So we are all working hard at new relationships and new jobs. We are still very much in the typical first year of re-entry. We sometimes feel overwhelmed by life and exhausted by all there is to do... but we understand that it takes time to adjust back into ‘normal’ life, and we are trying to give ourselves space and grace.

Anyway, we just wanted to say hi - and thank you again if you have been praying for us. Drop us a line, we would love to know how your doing! xxx

Garden delights

2009-01-25T12:53:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite things about our new life in Australia is the garden around our house. Apparently the previous owners had very green thumbs, and loved their garden well. It is a delight! Every week we are surprised by new buds and blooms, and even though it is horribly dry here at the moment and we are restricted in watering due to the drought, the garden has slowed, but not stopped revealing its treasures.

We have also taken the opportunity to grow some of our own vegetable. We have lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, coriander, basil, parsley, chives, and strawberries growing.
There are water buckets all over the house, and every unused drop of water (and some used, like bath water) is collected for the vegetable patch. Our girls are learning how to be ‘water wise’ adn conserve every drop.

Update

2009-01-14T23:52:00.000-08:00

The girls with their Grandparents, Kev and Kath...

Sandys brother Allan was able to pop in when in transit to New Zealand...so nice to catch up and show him our new home and life here in Melbourne.
The joys of life in Australia...beaches and more beaches.

Sandy took the girls with a big group of friends to watch the 20/20 cricket in Melbourne last week. Loads of fun was had by all! (Thats a PNG flag - the kids were trying to be spotted on the telly!)
More Beach shots.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS!

May God bless you each one in the year ahead, and may your knowledge of His love grow over this time.

We wanted to update you of our circumstances. God has been ever faithful. He has provided for us in the most beautiful and gracious ways. Not only have we been given a beautiful home to rent, a fantastic school that the children love, a wonderful new church family, the rekindling and renewing of precious old friendships, the joy of family close by….and then Sandy was offered a job on Christmas Eve! Oh what joy…and relief!

Sandy will be working in flight operations management at a flight school down in Moorabbin Airport. This was a fantastic answer to prayer – and we want to thank you all for your prayers for us. Narelle was also offered and accepted a teacher’s aide job at a local school that fits in beautiful with Rachel and Megan’s school hours. We really are gobsmacked at Gods perfect provision.

Sandy begins his new job next week, and Narelle starts when school commences at the end of January. We go back to work rested, refreshed, a little more adjusted to life in the 1st world and confident that God has us right where He wants us.

Thank you for love and support – and please, keep in touch!

Christmas Day

2008-12-28T15:51:00.000-08:00

A few pictures of our Christmas Day with Melbourne family.

Christmas Greetings

2008-12-22T23:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,
We want to send out our greetings and love to all of you around the world at this Christmas time. All our love,
Narelle. Sandy, Rachel and Megan Wilson. xxxx

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY RACHEL

2008-12-03T11:51:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we celebrated Rachels 10th Birthday. We had a wonderful time together with family and new school friends - and a few old friends! (Smiths from MAF happened to be in Melbourne!)

Our New Home

2008-11-15T12:24:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends!

We are finally in our own home, our drums with all our household goods has safely arrived from PNG, so this week was busy with unpacking and sorting.

It has been a long, gradual and some times difficult time settling back into life here in Melbourne. We knew this re-entry time would be tricky, and it has been a real challenge. However God is always good and is watching our every step. We were blessed with a wonderful little house for our first 2 months where we waiting for our goods. It was perfect! God is so good about the details, we look back in awe at his timing and provision.

Originally, I (Narelle) had planned to home school the children until the end of the year. However, we decided quite early in the piece that we wanted to remain in Melbourne (rather than take a job in another city) to be near family and friends. So we bit the bullet and enrolled the kids into a beautiful Christian school. They LOVE it, and we have all benefited from the stability of routine.

Sandy has been job hunting this whole time, but now the kids are in school I have joined him. It is looking like Sandy will have a job in the next few weeks (we are waiting to hear confirmation this week.

We are renting a friends beautiful home – another awesome provision from God. Our friend had to move overseas at short-term notice, so he has done us a wonderful deal on the rent. We are unpacked now, and it feels like home. We are still looking for a church locally to join.

Thank you all SO much for your prayers and support. We will let you know how we are doing again soon. Loads of love, from the Wilsons xxxx

Back Home

2008-09-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

Hello friends!

We are HOME in cold but beautiful Melbourne, Australia and today Sandy and I celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary.

It’s a good time to look back and reflect on all that has taken place these past 12 years, and marvel at Gods goodness to us.

It is a strange time for us right now as we are between jobs and homes, but we are excited about all that is before us. We have got a car, a home for the next 6 weeks (house sitting in Vermont) and I will continue to home school the kids until the end of the year.

Please continue to pray for us as Sandy gets into study and exams over the next month to transfers and upgrades his pilot licences and then proceeds to find a job. Pray for the girls too as they are lonely for their friends, and finding this time difficult. We would love to have a job and a place to live by January so that we can get the kids into school by the start of the New Year.

Thank you for your support and prayers. God is faithful and good, and we sleep well at night knowing he is in control.

Iona, Scotland

2008-09-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Our time in England and Scotland has been busy and fantastic. As we know this will be our last visit for a long time, we have taken every opportunity to enjoy moments with friends and family as well as see some sights.

A big thank you to all of you who have housed and fed us, it was so good to see you all. We are sorry we didn’t get to see lots of our other friends in the UK. Our time has gone so quick. Please keep in touch.

A special highlight from our time in the UK was an over night trip to Iona, a gift given to us by generous friends.

We were blessed with two of the most perfect weather days to enjoy our time there, and so we did!

It is not easy to get to Iona. About a 2.5 hour drive from Aberfeldy, we got to Oban, then took a ferry to Mull, then caught another smaller one across to Iona – but it was well worth the trip.

For those who don't know, Iona was the place where Christianity was brought to Scotland by an Irish missionary (Columba) in the 500s.

We only got there about 3 in the afternoon, so we spent the rest of the day checking over the abbey and other old sites on the island.

Especially wonderful was the night service we went to in the Abby. The whole place was lit up by candle, and they conducted the most beautiful communion service. I assumed it would be very 'high' church, and certainly the structure of the service was formal, but was pleasantly surprised at the ease and relaxed atmosphere. A group called the 'Iona Community' live and work on Iona and maintain the abbey and run the church life. I found it a very moving thing to sit with about 100 strangers from all parts of the world in the magnificent 14th century abbey, as we simply shared communion together. It was beautiful.

The following morning we woke to clear skies and an incredible sunrise, so we had an early breakfast and went and hired bikes down at the village and spent the rest of our time riding from one end of the island to the other. At lunch we had to catch the ferry back to Mull in time for our 3 o'clock ferry back to Oban....we had meetings the next day right up in the north of the country.

Anyway, it was a fabulous time and an amazing place to visit - truly the cherry on the cake of our time in the UK.

Love to you all,

UK Rambles

2008-08-22T00:21:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends!
After a wonderful two weeks with our South African family, we have come to the UK to complete our final work with MAF, and say goodbye to many who have supported and prayed for us these past years. Our first few days were in Folkestone, Kent at our MAF UK offices. The team at MAF UK have been incredible to us in their support and help over the year - we will miss them all. Now we are in Saffrom Walden, just outside of Cambridge with family and supporters. This sunday we are at Seven Oaks at a church meeting, then off towards the West of the country to visit with more family and supporters.

Recharging the Batteries

2008-08-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

Greetings from South Africa!

We have been here in Johannesburg a week already, and have another to go before we head north to the UK.

It has been fantastic to be with our SA family again and especially fun to meet our beautiful new little niece, Caroline, daughter of Allan and Trish.

Allan and Trish have graciously opened their home to us, and let us rest and relax…just what we have needed after weeks of packing and planning for the future. It has been good to be still for a few days and re-charge our emotional and physical batteries before heading into all the new things before us.

Sandy’s father Neil turned 70 this year, and for a special birthday present, we got him a ride in a hot air balloon. Sandy and Allan accompanied their Dad for his special day. They got out there early, and the balloon took off as the African sun rose in the sky. It was awesome. Afterwards, we all went out for a family birthday brunch.

Official goodbye MAF PNG

2008-07-15T00:16:00.000-07:00

Today we had our official goodbyes at the MAF hangar – Sandy still has two weeks in country, but they wanted to say goodbye before the girls and I fly out tomorrow. Like all good goodbyes, there were tears, and cake, and a present, and hugs and more tears. It is lovely to be loved and appreciated. Thanks guys for the great farewell.

Family

2008-07-14T02:44:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest challenges leaving home to go and work in another country is leaving precious family behind. However; our experience has been that God has provided us with beloved adopted brothers and sisters, and cousins and uncles and aunts for our children – a huge family of God. These are some pictures of our sweet family here in PNG who have loved us, encouraged us, challenged us and prayed with us as we have journeyed together in PNG.

"A friend is one who strengthens you with prayers, blesses you with love and encourages you with hope."

2008-07-14T02:34:00.000-07:00

I took this picture at 6.30 am this morning as Sandy headed off to work. Our view from the front door - a magnificent sunrise, and gift of Gods hand to kick start the day.

Our last prayer letter from PNG - with all our love.

2008-07-08T14:42:00.001-07:00

July, 2008

Dear Friends,

It is with mixed emotions that we sit down to write what will be our last prayer email from PNG. It is always hard to say goodbye.

We want to thank you all again for your constant prayers, love and support. Your partnership with us over these past 12 years in our work with Mission Aviation Fellowship has been invaluable. We simply couldn’t have done it without you. We thank God for you! Thank you for making it possible for us to be here.

Our last month here in PNG has been exciting as we have seen the arrival of a new aircraft to the program. It really has been the ‘cherry on the cake’ of our time here in P.N.G. Sandy was given the job of collecting the caravan (C208) from Cairns in Australia a few weeks ago, and he has been flying non-stop ever since. It is always a treat to be a part of the introduction of a new aircraft, so we thank God for this Caravan and pray that MAF would use it well here in PNG, to the glory of God!

We were thrilled to hear that MAF has appointed a new program manager for our PNG program. Please thank God with us, and pray for Patrick and Alison Williams as they plan and prepare to come to Mt Hagan in the next few months.

Tomorrow all MAF International staff will be meeting near the town of Garoka for our annual four day international staff conference. Please pray that this would be a refreshing and encouraging time as we worship and learn together and catch up with one another. For our little family, this is a poignant time as we say goodbye to precious friends and co-workers from around PNG.

As we step out to start a new chapter in our life we would ask that you pray that we would be able to lean deep into God and trust him for our future. We are in need of jobs, a home and a good school for the children, as well as a church family. Please pray that we would not be anxious, but be able to work hard at what we have to do and trust God for our needs.

Please also pray for safety as Sandy flies his last few weeks here, and as we travel first to South Africa, and on to the UK to visit with family and friends, and take part in the last of our obligations to our supporters and co-workers in the UK. We will be travelling all of August and into September, returning to Australia on the 17th of September.

We will write again as we hit the road on our last furlough with MAF – until then, thanks again for all you do for us, but especially your prayers. We are so grateful to each one of you.

With Love,
Narelle, Sandy, Rachel and Megan Wilson
Mission Aviation Fellowship
Papua New Guinea

RISE 08

2008-07-08T14:03:00.000-07:00

RISE 08 was the name of this years MAF PNG international staff conference. RISE is a 4 day retreat, and this year’s theme was FREEDOM.

We had a fantastic time with 46 other families. We relaxed together, ate together (THANKS ROSEMARY!), learnt together (THANKS PHIL AND JULES), prayed and worshiped together.

It was an awesome time and so precious to Sandy and I as we said lots of goodbyes to good friends from around the country.

Packing...one last time.

2008-06-17T22:19:00.000-07:00

It has begun - the great Wilson pack of 2008. Let the fun begin.

...more Caravan party pictures.

2008-06-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

The New Caravan...

2008-06-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

Last week Sandy flew down with another MAF pilot to Australia to collect MAF P.N.G’s newest addition aircraft, a Caravan (C208). It is always a treat to help introduce a new aircraft into a program. When the boys flew the plane into Mt Hagen, staff and MAF family came to check out the new bird, and to celebrate together over a meal. Joy flights followed. A great days work!

Latest Wilson Prayer Notes

2008-05-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family.
Greetings from Mt Hagan.

We hope this note finds you all well and enjoying the challenges of life where-ever you may be. We have some good news since our last prayer letter. Sandy was issued his permanent residence visa for Australia soon after we wrote. This happened a lot quicker than we were told it would take, so as you can imagine we were very happy about that. Thank you for praying about this with us.

The Wilson’s are all doing very well up here in P.N.G. Life has been as busy as usual with the normal routine of school, flying, and other MAF related activities. One big item of news this past month, a landslide in the town of Gera, on the only road between here and the coast, caused major chaos. All of Mt Hagen and the surrounding regions rely on this road for transport of goods. With the road cut, we did not receive any supplies, including fuel for almost a month. The MAF families were all given enough warning to stock up on essentials, as the shops were soon out of stock. Fortunately, a detour was built and the road is open again in much quicker time than first anticipated. A great relief to everyone.

With all the usual activities of life, we have had the additional challenge of job hunting and planning for our new life back in Australia.
As our departure date creeps towards us (16th of July for Narelle and girls, 30th July for Sandy) – ever so quickly, we have begun sorting through our household goods and planning to start packing in a few weeks. We only have two months left here in P.N.G, after which we are planning a quick trip to Johannesburg on our way to the UK where we will participate in our final MAF commitments. These include meetings at our headquarters for de-briefing, medical checks and of course, final visits with supporters.

August
19th – 21st England: Folkestone/ Hastings area

21st- 24th London, Seven Oaks

24th-31st- Bristol / Bath / Cotswolds (based near Wotton)/ Plymouth

September

2nd- 15th Scotland: Crieff / Perth / Banff / Edinburgh

16th London, fly back to Melbourne.

We will be in these regions within the dates indicated. If you would like to see us, please feel free to contact us via email and we will try and plan a visit. We are really looking forward to catching up with friends and family, and sharing, for the last time, about our life here in P.N.G with Mission Aviation Fellowship.

A HUGE praise point – we have been offered a house to live in for the first 6 weeks we get back to Melbourne – this was a wonderful answer to prayer, as it takes the pressure off us having to rush to find a home straight away. God has been so good to us, and we know he will provide for all our needs.

Please continue to pray for us as we continue to make plans. Sandy has been applying for jobs back in Australia, but we have nothing certain as yet.

Please pray that God will provide Sandy with a good job, a home for us to live in, and a good school for the kids. Please also pray that our family would have peace through this time of lots of ‘unknowns’ – especially for Rachel and Megan.

Thank you all so much for your love and support. Please let us know how we can pray for you!

Love always,
Narelle, Sandy, Rachel and Megan Wilson

Mission Aviation Fellowship
Mt Hagan
Papua New Guinea

Gera Landslide

2008-04-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Hello friends. Sorry it has been so long since we wrote on this. Life is ever busy. One big item of news, a landslide in the town of Gera on the major freeway between here and the coast is causing chaos for people in this region. We are fine, having time and money to stock up on supplies. Many local people have not been so fourtunate.

The following report was in a local newspaper…

" Papua New Guinea ministers are calling for a state of emergency to be declared after a massive landslide in the Highlands region caused chaos for four provinces. The PNG government has declared a natural disaster zone on the Okuk Highway, at Gera, outside Kundiawa town in Chimbu Province in PNG's Highland region, where businesses have begun controlling food and fuel distribution as panic buying sweeps the region.

Thousands of people directly and hundreds of thousands indirectly are suffering in the regions, PNG officials said. Hospitals in the Enga, Chimbu, Eastern and Southern Highlands Provinces now fear vital oxygen and other gas supplies will run out within days. Enga Province's, Mt Hagen Hospital Medical Services Director Dr Michael Dokup said lives were at risk as every hospital in the region was affected by the landslip. "It's not good, all hospitals are feeling the pinch," he said. "Our gas supplier told us they have run out of oxygen. "We've got enough gas for two more days, and our fuel is gone down too," he said. "We've told all surgeons to only conduct emergency procedures," he said.

The weekend landslide was triggered by rain and falling limestone which caused a large volume of soil to crash down and cover 150 metres of highway. PNG Transport Minister Don Poyle surveyed the destruction that displaced 3000 people and crushed 80 homes and gardens.

Electricity and the supply of other essentials have been cut off along the Highlands' main transport line, he said. "It's a big mess and difficult because the earth is still moving and the area is very unstable," he said. Polye said a team of experts had flown up to examine the area while an alternative road for light vehicles was being re-opened.

"We need a state of emergency because it affects four provinces, mining and oil fields," he said. "Thousands of people are hurting, but the whole region is suffering due to the landslide," he said. Authorities believe it will take a month before the road is passable again. Landowners and regional representatives have attacked the PNG government for ignoring their past concerns over three previous landslides in the area. "

Thanks Derrick Buntrock for the pictures.

Home School Camp

2008-04-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had a MAF PNG Home Schoolers Camp. It was a great three days full of fun activities. We had daily devotions and worship times, played games, went on bush walks, arts and craft’s, a movie night – a great time of community fun and learning.

Wom Beach

2008-03-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

Our last day in Wewak was spent at the beach.

Beautiful Pasam Falls

2008-03-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we hiked through the bush down to a place called Pasam Falls. It was so beautiful - waterfalls with these gorgeous water holes. Everyone swam, and we had a picnic. The big people hiked further down the valley to big falls down the bottom. My poor knees were protesting (i had to literally crawl on my bottom down the mountain), so i stayed with the kids. An amazing place. We were all so sore the next day, but it was SO worth it!

Wewak Fun

2008-03-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

This was the approach into Wewak. We got there just in time to see the Wewak churches Good Friday march from the air. Dinner with the MAF ex-pat families in Wewak.

Easter in Wewak

2008-03-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

For Easter this year we decided to go and visit friends in a town on the north coast of PNG called Wewak. We had a fantastic time with our friends, and got to enjoy some of the amazing little spots in that part of the world.
Thanks Lisi and Phillip, and Nick and Paula for looking after us! We love you guys!

Dentist Trip - MAF style

2008-03-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

Rachel has had a nasty abscess on her gum for a few weeks. After a course of antibiotics, the abscess hadn’t healed up so a trip to the dentist is in order. There is a national dentist in Mt Hagen, however we were told that he does not have equipment to do x-rays, and more often than not he lacks basic equipment. We were advised to go to a Mission station at a place called Ukarumpa. Fortunately, three other MAF families from Mt Hagen also needed to go to the dentist, so we charted a plane and flew out.

We were up early, and at the airport by 6.30. We had a fantastic flight in the little Cessna 206, it was such a beautiful morning. We arrived at Ukarumpa in time for our appointments by 8.30am. Ukarumpa is a SIL mission station, with its own school for ex-pat mission children (both day students and boarders), hospital and dentist. Apparently it is the largest Christian Mission Station of its kind in the world. It is used as a base for mission families who are translating the bible in remote parts of PNG.

Poor Rachel had two teeth pulled out. They were both babies and both had bad infection in the roots. We had a lovely gentle American missionary dentist who took x-rays, and talked us through the whole thing. Rachel was very brave, and coped okay with the three injections, and two extraction's...although she is exhausted tonight and she will never again believe her mothers promise of ‘it wont even hurt!”

We were all finished at the dentist by 10am, but the three other MAF people who were with us all had appointments as well (including our pilot!) So we walked around the town for a few hours, and had fun doing some shopping in the mission supermarket (that had lots of fun American products that cant be found in any other part of PNG...marshmallows, chocolate chips, corn chips - you know, the essentials :)

We took off at 3.30, and almost had to turn back due to a fantastic storm, but Geoff (our pilot) was able to get ahead of it to get us home safe and sound by 4.30.
And that was our trip to the dentist.

Megans 8th Birthday

2008-03-18T20:38:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday we celebrated Megans 8th birthday with a Island Princess party! Loads of fun. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGGY XXX

Latest Prayer notes...

2008-02-28T13:08:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends.

Life is very full and busy here in Papua New Guinea. The work (like most) is never ending, and the challenges often appear insurmountable. Thankfully, we have a very big God who sees the potential for good in everything and everyone and who walks with us each day, helping us through the tough stuff. We simply couldn’t do it without his grace and empowering.

Since we last wrote, we have had a wonderful two weeks holiday in Cairns (North of Australia) in early February. This was probably the most restful and refreshing holiday we have had ever had as a family. Narelle’s parents (Kath and Kev) flew up from Melbourne to be with us for a little of that time, a fabulous treat. We thank God for this time away. We came home to PNG full of energy and ready to get back into the work God has given us.

As already mentioned, our MAF program life seems almost ridiculously hectic of late. Partly this is due to the fact that it has been holiday time, and many families go away for well-deserved breaks, but it means less people around to carry the load. Fortunately, everyone is back home now and things are getting back to normal.

We have also been operating without a Program Manager, our manager had to resign due to illness in December. Since then, we have had our leadership from our Cairns office commuting up here a couple of weeks of each month to fill the role.
Please pray for our leadership as they are looking for a new person to take on the role of Program Manager for the PNG MAF program.

Another reason it has been so crazy, is that we have had a run of unexpected maintenance work needing done on several aircraft, so our engineering teams are working long hours to get planes back into the air. They work as quickly as they can, but it is important that they don’t rush jobs, and keep our aircraft safe. When maintenance problems develop, planes are stuck on the ground, program schedules get backlogged (our pilots are flying on Saturday to compensate), passengers get cranky and sick people who should be moved to be where there they can get medical treatment can die. There is an awful lot of pressure on everyone.
Worldwide, M.A.F is in desperate need of more engineers. We can only fly if we have people on the ground willing to work to keep our planes in good shape. Please pray that God would prompt the hearts of qualified engineers into overseas mission work. Pray that our team would cope with the extra pressure that we are experiencing at the moment.

Please also pray for our M.A.F families who were evacuated out of Chad (in Northern Africa) a few weeks ago due to rebel attacks on the city of N’djamena. Thank God they got out safely, but please pray for our local staff that could not leave the country and for peace in Chad.

Some personal news. After much prayer and discussion, we have decided that when we finish our contract term in PNG in July (08), we will be resigning from MAF and returning home to Australia to live. This has been a hard decision to make, as we have enjoyed our time with MAF immensely. However, we feel strongly that it is time to go home. After 12 years away, it is going to be a huge adjustment, but we are excited as we step out into a new way of life.
Please pray for us as we seek Gods direction regarding work, and where we should live when we go back. Please also pray that in our remaining 5 months here in PNG, we would keep focused on the job at hand, and finish well. Please also pray for our little girls that they will cope with leaving good friends, and starting over again.

Please continue to pray for safety in the air as our pilots fly, and for wisdom and energy for those supporting us on the ground, and our leadership as they run whole operation.
With love and thanks,
Sandy, Narelle, Rachel and Megan Wilson
PNG, Mt Hagen,
Papua New Guinea

Chad Evacuation

2008-02-15T13:18:00.000-08:00

This is the press release that MAF UK issued following the evecuation of MAF staff from NDjamena, Chad last week. Please pray for peace in Chad.

4 February 2008
Mission Aviation Fellowship evacuates from Chad
Following evacuation from Chad to Cameroon on Friday, Mission Aviation Fellowship families are now preparing to return to their home countries.

On Saturday, rebel leaders advanced on Chad’s capital, N’Djaména causing thousands to flee. Following two days of heavy fighting, the government claims they have driven the rebels out. However, rebel spokesman Abderamane Koullamalah said rebel forces made a tactical withdrawal from the capital to meet up with reinforcements coming from the east with fresh ammunition and supplies. Rebel leaders also say they are giving civilians a chance to flee before launching another attack.

Aid agencies have reported many dead bodies on the streets and hundreds of people being treated in hospitals.

MAF’s team remained in safety in Cameroon over the weekend. But with Chad facing much instability, MAF’s Country Director Mike Riley wrote to say that families would be returning to their home countries.

Reporting on the last few days, pilot Mark Liprini shares, ‘Obtaining reliable information is extremely hard. Sources are often contradictory, and when things really hot up the cellphone network is switched off and often the landlines are cut as well. Driving on the streets becomes extremely dangerous.’

Our team slept at the hangar on Thursday night as the most reliable reports indicated that the rebels were very close to N’Djamena and planning an attack. On Friday, the situation appeared to calm and the families returned to their homes on the MAF compound.

Mark continues, ‘Suddenly it flared up again. And violently. One of the Chadian staff rushed to the compound and urgently informed Mike that we had to evacuate immediately!

‘The families grabbed a few items and the bags that were already prepacked, piled into their cars and made their way through the streets of N’Djaména back to the hangar. The four-mile drive bypassing the presidential palace seemed to take forever. Heavily-armed soldiers were everywhere, blockades were going up and things were unbelievably scary.’

Within an hour, our team was airborne for Garoua, Cameroon. By Saturday morning, it became clear that it would be too dangerous to return. N’Djaména airport was closed to civilian flights and there was intense fighting around the airport and in many parts of the city.

MAF staff will return home, leaving behind in Chad all they possess except the clothes they are wearing and a few small items in their bags.

Mark concludes, ‘Yet despite all this, the Lord’s presence and comfort has kept the team in good spirits and a sense of calm has been present. There is already talk by some of the team members that they want to return to Chad to complete the work God has called them to.’

Home Again

2008-02-09T01:55:00.000-08:00

After a fantastic two week holiday break in Cairns, we are back home tonight in Mt Hagen. We are happy to be home and feeling wonderfully refreshed and rested, and glad to hear that things have calmed down considerably since last weeks violence in town. Thanks for the prayers!

Trouble at home in Hagen

2008-02-06T13:28:00.000-08:00

While we have been enjoying a relaxing holiday here in Cairns, life back in Hagen has been very stressful this week. Below is a article I took from one of the local papers. Please pray for peace in Hagen.

Schools located within Mt Hagen remained closed yesterday as parents kept their children at home as tension was still high despite heavy police presence and normalcy beginning to return.
All business houses in the city opened their doors for normal businesses yesterday after shutting their doors on Monday.
Highlands police divisional commander Simon Kauba said yesterday police reinforcements from Simbu arrived on Monday and were now patrolling and monitoring the city.
Mr Kauba said that two mobile squad sections from Port Moresby and Lae would arrive sometimes this week and boost the police manpower in the city.
He said that the fighting had stopped but tension was still high.
He said he was trying to bring the leaders of the two warring groups to the peace table.
Mr Kauba said that so far six people are confirmed dead as a result of the clash between the locals and the city settlers who are predominantly from Enga.
Some local residents are blaming the police for failing to manage the situation when the clash erupted last Sunday over a drunken brawl at a party in a local hotel.
However, Mr Kauba said that the killings had already taken place in the morning.
He said that when police arrived they were outnumbered by two of the biggest tribes in Mt Hagen – the Jikas and Moges.
Mr Kauba said police manpower were stretched to the limit because when they were controlling people and traffic on one side of the city, fighting was raging on the other.
Meanwhile, Lord Mayor Lucas Mek has described his city as a “cowboy town” because there is no law and order.
Mek told The National yesterday that his city needs 1,000 strong policemen to maintain law and order everyday.
Meanwhile, 40% of the work force in Mt Hagen General Hospital are not at work because of the clash.
Hospital authorities closed some of the their operations due to a depleted workforce, who stayed away from work because of fears of their safety and damages to their residences in the settlements.
Acting director of medical services Dr Guboro Urae told The National that the hospital authorities only allowed the emergency section to operate.
He said that the hospital was also running out of medical supplies like oxygen for patients because the oxygen supplier, BOC Gas had closed down due to the clash.
Police in Eastern Highlands, meanwhile, have been instructed be on alert to contain any spillover effects of the violent crisis in Mt Hagen.
Provincial Police Commander Supt Teddy Tei yesterdays issued instructions to his officers in both outstations and Goroka town to maintain close surveillance on residents and businesses in the province.
He also urged highway hatrols along the Highlands Highway to be alert for possible harassment and hold-ups of the travelling public, especially those affected in the ethnic violence.
He brushed aside unconfirmed reports that two Eastern Highlanders were injured in the ethnic clash in Mt Hagen last weekend.
“I warn people not to speculate and spread rumors likely to cause panic to disrupt peace and unity among the community.
“I do not want people to drag the problem to Eastern Highlands province," Supt Tei said.
He warned that police would come down hard on anyone found to be spreading rumours.
All the provincial police commanders from the Highlands region will be meeting in Mt Hagen today with Police Commissioner Gari Baki and Internal Security Minister Sani Rambi to discuss the situation in Mt Hagen city.

....and more

2008-02-06T02:57:00.000-08:00

More holiday snaps

2008-02-06T02:53:00.000-08:00

HOLIDAYS

2008-01-31T13:39:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends, greetings from beautiful Cairns, in Northern Australia. We have been here for a week already for a two week holiday. Narelle’s parents, Kath and Kev, flew up from Melbourne this week to join us, and we are have a fabulous time all together. It is hot and muggy, but its perfect holiday weather for slow days and hours by the pool.

H20?

2008-01-05T00:56:00.000-08:00

The water was off for a few hours the other day, and when it came back on, it came out like this. I’m glad to report, the water cleared up in a few hours….and yes, we do filter all our drinking water up here.

Happy New Year

2008-01-03T13:59:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to you all!
Sorry we are late saying it. Its been a busy last week, as we are back at work and school now and into the normal swing of things.

We hope that each of you have a healthy, and safe 2008.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Nana

2008-01-03T13:04:00.000-08:00

On the 27th of December 2007 my (Narelles) Nana, Edna Joy Maddock went home to glory. Today, back home in Australia, our family are holding a thanksgiving service for her life. As we are not able to be there, I wrote the following to be read out at the service.

Dear Nana,
We have spent so much time in the last ten years writing letters to one another, I thought it appropriate that I write one last one to say goodbye.

I will miss you terribly. You have been a constant source of love and encouragement in my life. I know that you have prayed for me since I was a wee babe, and all through my childhood and as I have grown in life and in my relationship with Jesus.

You gave me a card once, and on it was a little verse that read ‘ May your life be as beautiful as God intended it to be’. I know that this has been your prayer for all of your grandchildren. I have had such confidence and peace knowing you were praying this prayer constantly for my little family and me. I will always be so grateful for those prayers, I know I would not be the person I am today without them.

Your strong faith and love of God has been an example and challenge to me. You were always so deeply passionate about the Bible, and you loved to take time to exchange your ideas and deep thoughts regarding His word – you really loved Gods Word. You filled your life with it. This is something I will always remember, and it will always challenge me in my faith journey. I would love to be more like you in this area.

I am sad that we didn’t have more time together over these last years, and yet you were so supportive as Sandy and I left Australia to work overseas. Your letters were as constant and as encouraging as your prayers – it didn’t matter where we were in the world, they would always find us. I think secretly you would have loved to have kept your family all together, close and safe. You had no choice but to adapt to the call and direction on each of our lives, as we have packed up houses, boarded planes and headed off to different corners of the world. Thank you for letting us go, and for keeping in touch despite the miles.

I am grateful for the times we had together. My favourite moments were those when we would sit at your kitchen table, cups of tea in hand, and we would pour over the family photo albums and you would tell me stories of people and places long ago.

Your amazing memory always fascinated me. How on earth did you recall those exact dates and names of places and people from years ago? You always remembered birthdays, anniversaries and special dates. I would always smile with both amusement and amazement when you would write lines in your letters like... “ This day, 32 years ago, Poppa and I drove out to the Henty Field Day with the boys”. Or… “It was 55 years today since we got the water tank put up at the back of the house”.

You really did have an amazing mind. I can just see you up in heaven dishing out dates and recalling events with family and friends. What fun you will have! Unfortunately, I was not blessed with your genes in the brilliant mind department, so I am grateful that you took the time to write down our family story. I am thrilled that my children will have a chance to read those accounts and get a glimpse into the lives of our family from years ago.

So Nan, I must finish now and I am not going to say goodbye. Just see you later – because we will all be together again one day.
We will always love you and endeavour to pass on to our children and our children’s children the good things you have given us. My heart is so full of joy to know that you are well in body and mind again, and you are with your beloved Saviour and precious family and friends gone before.

I will finish with Poppas favourite verse from Isaiah 40:31
Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength,
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not be weary; they will walk and not faint.

Love, Narelle, Sandy, Rachel and Megan. xxxx

Celebrating Christmas

2007-12-28T13:58:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Day, we gathered in Mt Hagen with 6 other M.A.F families to celebrate Jesus birth. Much laughter, food and fun was had by all. When we got home we had phone calls and emails from our family around the world. A beautiful day!

Home School Christmas Concert

2007-12-17T13:15:00.000-08:00

The MAF home school kids entertained us on Saturday night with a fantastic concert and Christmas celebration. Great fun.

Flood Relief

2007-12-12T17:11:00.000-08:00

This was sent to us to encourage us in our work, a great shot and a great story.

This was taken at Boure in the Oro Province. These people have lost all their gardens in floods after a cyclone - no food for a fortnight until the day this was taken. The RAAF used Boure as a forward supply destination for cargo that was then shuttled out by MAF and small helicopters. The people had a meal when the first load of supplies arrived then enthusiastically unloaded Caribou and loaded helicopters and our Twin Otter, sweating in the hot sun all day - hard physical work as tonnes of supplies passed though this place. They kept this up all week - even till today when our Otter dropped a load of fresh vegetables for their community - their first fresh vegies (we had only done shuttles out of this place before today). As you can see from the photo, (remember they had just had their first real meal in a fortnight) they were fully engaged with our crew.
Enjoy...

Thanks to Tom Teal Sinclair for the report, and Richard Marples for the picture.

The Bread and the Wine

2007-12-12T02:18:00.000-08:00

A friend sent this to us this week. Her son was expressing his understanding of communion – I think its beautiful!

He looks at the plate and then takes the smallest piece of bread (that's where the whole explanation started - he felt like he needed to tell my why he was taking so long carefully scoping out which piece of bread he wanted to take.) Then he went on to explain..... the bread is the body of Jesus, so he takes the smallest one, because it is the little baby. (At this point he wanted me to put my bread next to his - which thankfully it was bigger than his so still fits in with his theory - I am the mommy bread....) So his is the baby bread. Then he puts it in his mouth, but he doesn't chew it, he just puts it up on the top of his mouth until it gets "easy enough to swallow." In other words...soggy.... Then he swallows it whole, because he doesn't want to break up the baby. Then, he takes the juice, and drinks it. And that's the blood. So when he swallows the juice, it becomes the blood again and it hits the baby bread in his tummy, and because it's the body of Jesus, it comes alive again when it gets the blood part. They mix together and become alive, "And when I swallow the juice, and it's going down to my tummy, it doesn't even say 'I'm trying, I'm trying'.... It says 'we did it!! We did it!!! And that is how Jesus lives in me, Mommy."

And that, my friends, is what communion means to my son....not bad, huh???

Bikes and Bush Creatures

2007-12-07T15:33:00.001-08:00

Our next door neighbors son has a pet Tree Kangaroo, and this morning we spotted them both out for a nice bike ride.

Christmas in Mt Hagan #2

2007-12-05T14:17:00.000-08:00

Nativity scene in local shop. Coming to see the baby Jesus.

Christmas in Mt Hagan

2007-12-05T00:25:00.001-08:00

Here in Mt Hagan, people are gearing up for Christmas. School is out, and people have begun holidays so the town is pumping with the crowds.
The shops are full of tinsel, and carols have been playing for weeks already. We especially love the life size singing and dancing Santa that our friendly grocery has set up in his store. He is a jolly fellow; bopping away and singing a never-ending melody of ‘jingle bells’. He is a bit of a crowd pleaser. There always people standing around him. And rightly so. Not only is this big plastic man dancing and singing, he is dressed in bright red from head to toe and he has white skin and a large snow-white beard. It is no wonder that people, young and old alike find it hard to keep their hands off Santa.
Last year, we were (quietly) delighted to see Santa fall over several times after receiving non-to gentle inquisitive prods and pokes from people walking past. The storeowner would yell at his customers, and poor Santa would be propped up again – it didn’t seem to affect his jolly attitude, although his face was getting pretty banged up. This year, our store owner has thought ahead and plastered a large sign in pidgin on Santa chest saying… “Everyone, please don’t touch Papa Christmas. It is not good. He will fall down. Thank you!”
Lets hope Santa is left alone to dance away many more Christmas’s in Mt Hagan.

Happy 9th Birthday Rachel!

2007-11-24T21:24:00.000-08:00

Rachel's 9th birthday was celebrated yesterday with a karaoke/dance party with all the girlfriends of the community. Great fun and vast quantaties of junk food was enjoyed by all. Mum is exhausted and ready for bed, Sandy is recovering from all the karaoke (we borrowed a friends play-station 'sing star') at a friends place decompressing with some play-station golf. Girls are calming down in front of a gentle movie -everyone is very mellow despite the sugar. Cant believe we have a 9 year old on Monday - where have the years gone? HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL KATHLEEN!

Daily Bread

2007-11-15T14:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, I just had to put this one in. Yesterday I made dough for bread rolls in the bread maker. First the power went off, and so it sat for about 3 hours before the power went back on - only to discover I was short about a cup of flour in the mixture. So I re-set the whole thing and added more flour, and finally, 2 hours later it was ready to make into rolls and put into the oven, so I popped it on the bench ready to go. I got distracted and totally forgot about it, we had guests and we all went out to the club for dinner, and came home to find the dough almost off the bench. We finally got the rolls into the oven by about 9pm that night. They were a bit tough (he he).

HAIR

2007-11-15T02:10:00.000-08:00

As a special treat this year, MAF (bless em) organised a hairdresser to attend our annual family conference in PNG. Most of us cut our own hair up here, so this was truly a big deal!

Jill Watson – hair stylist extraordinaire flew up from Cairns and generously donated her time and energies to cut and colour us all to our hearts delight. Not only that, she also spent time before her trip fundraising by cutting friends and families hair and having them donate funds towards the products she would need for her trip, so that it would cost us nothing.

We worked out that she cut and colored 53 heads of hair over a period of 6 days, and all without the normal first world conveniences. She lugged buckets of water when there were no taps, worked in some tricky places, and put up with power outs all without complaint and a great sense of humour. We all came away feeling beautiful, spoilt and all the richer for having spent time with Jill.

Thank you Jill! And thanks to her hubby Tim for allowing her to come up and spoil us. God bless you both.

2007 MAF PNG Family Conference

2007-11-12T23:10:00.000-08:00

2007-11-12T23:04:00.000-08:00

2007-11-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

2007-11-12T22:56:00.000-08:00

2007-11-12T22:51:00.000-08:00

Getting to conference....MAF style

2007-11-12T21:29:00.001-08:00

MAF PNG Conference

2007-11-12T17:52:00.000-08:00

We have just returned from a four day MAF conference out bush near the town of Goroka. It was a fantastic time of fellowship. About 150 of us got together from all parts of the country, and we had a group from Cairns come and minister to us over the days. The kids had a blast in the kids program, and us big people enjoyed catching up with our workmates and worshiping together. Here are a few photos of our trip back yesterday. More photos coming.

In the Air

2007-11-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

The last couple of months have seen quite a few interesting and challenging flight days. There seems to have been a larger than usual number of medical evacuation flights needing done. These medivacs have ranged from mothers with complications during labour; a man with an infection in his hand that had turned septic and the poison was starting to spread up his arm; a lady with multiple wounds to different parts of her body and these were turning septic; a man with probable TB and he was so weakened that he could hardly walk anymore; and a lady with a broken arm.

One of the real challenges in Papua New Guinea is that many of the villages do not have a clinic, or only have very basic level medical care. The challenge for MAF is often trying to decide which of the calls for a medivac a genuine, or urgent, and which of those are just trying to find a way for the plane to come to their area because we have not been able to get there for a while, and there is no real medivac need, (this has occurred before).

Another big challenge is that in many remote areas of PNG are the communities are very poor and people do not have the money needed to pay the seat fare for a medivac. MAF has a fund that can be used to help communities pay for the fare, however it is often a case of again trying to work out if the need is genuine or not.

There have been a number of conferences in Mt Hagen that MAF has been able to help transport the pastors from the bush into town in order for them to attend. It is always a joy to know that we can help out the local churches in this way. It is not glamorous work, but it is rewarding and worthwhile.

I have spent a bit of time recently on my regular flights, talking with missionaries who live in the bush areas. These families really do live in challenging situations and environments. Listening to some of their stories about tribal fights that occur around them; or about the steady progress of translating a book in the Bible; or how a few more people have responded to the gospel; or how witchcraft still has a big hold on people’s lives. I realise what a joy it is to be able to spend a short while talking to them, encouraging them and being encouraged by them, I realise that the small box of vegetables that I deliver make their life a little bit easier.

It is because of all the above that MAF exists and that we as a family are working here with MAF, it is about serving and caring for others. It brings us great joy, and it is such an honor to serve our fellow Christians and the remote communities in PNG, and to hopefully be a witness for the Lord in what we do. Please pray that God would sustain us in our work, and give us wisdom and patients and His love as we operate in this challenging place.
Please also pray for more pilots and engineers to come and work on our programs around the world.
Sandy.

Footy Fever

2007-09-29T01:57:00.000-07:00

Today we had a gathering at our house to watch the Australian Rules Football final, Geelong Vs Port Adelaid. Friends came with their projector and big screen, about 25 of us squished into our lounge, and we watched the game in style. Geelong won by a mile, and i am told played the best footy ever! (- my hubby is a big fan).
A great afternoon of entertainment!

International Prayer Day

2007-09-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was the Mission Aviation Fellowship International Prayer Day, and as all the staff gathered out at the airport to pray together, some of us Mums celebrated Prayer Day with an afternoon designed for our kids. It was a wonderful to hear the prayers of our children, as they prayed with love and concern for their friends around P.N.G. Afterwards, they wrote cards of encouragement to all the children at the other bases. A lovely afternoon. We are blessed to be a part of such a great community up here.

The Joy of Fresh Food

2007-09-27T02:02:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do each week is to organize veggies for my outstation family. Each MAF town family has an outstation family who they keep in touch with (email...via satellite or radio), and buy fresh fruit and vegetables for each week. Many of the outstations have very limited supplies for fresh food, so it makes all the difference in the world to receive a cold box full of lovely fresh food. It is such a joy to be able to help out our friends in this very small way.

Mt Hagen Heats Up

2007-09-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, we experienced our first full security lock-down in Mt Hagen due to rioting in town. This meant that we had to remain on our compounds, and have passports and another important items on hand in case things escalated and we needed to be evacuate out of town. Thankfully, it only lasted for a few hours and as things calmed down, the lock down was lifted. We all felt safe and calm as the trouble in town was away from any MAF housing and seemed related to just the shops in town. As we did school with our kids, we could hear a lot of gun fired and see the smoke from the fires in town.

The following is an acticle from one of the local PNG newspapers describing the events of the day...

FIRE CHAOS

MOUNT Hagen City was in chaos yesterday as looters and policemen battled on the streets while ill equipped firemen realised their worst nightmare with two buildings going up in flames.
The city virtually came to a standstill. Traffic jams, gunshot exchanges with stone throwers, teargas and looting became the order for three hours from 7.30 to 10.30am.
Most of the major business houses and government departments remained closed all day.
Only a few shops opened doors in the afternoon after firemen contained the flames from spreading.
All businesses closed in fear of the large rowdy crowd that looted the two adjoining burning Tang Fe buildings and several others in the city’s Waghi Parade.
Others offices and stores put under threat by the spreading fire when the city’s only operating fire truck arrived about half an hour later were the National Development Bank, PNG Power administration block and several other stores including the newly opened PC & JY Woo store.
The Mt Hagen fire station is right in the city and less than a minute’s drive from the fire.
The fire allegedly started between 6.30 and 7.30am in the kitchen of one of the buildings and was fanned by the wind to the adjoining building.
The owner of the shops, Robin Fong who lives in one of the buildings, was still inside with his family suffocating from the smoke when police ordered security personnel to break the doors and rescue them.
While fire fighters were battling with the flames, looters flooded into the buildings while overhead, the flames soared.
The looters by this time numbering in thousands succeeded in completely ransacking the two burning Tang Fe and nearby Friendship.
The buildings were completed gutted but the fire was prevented from spreading.
During the early stages of the fire, shop owners in the block, especially Asians, battled with looters who outnumbered them and ransacked all stocks.
Attempts by police to prevent the looting failed earlier until reinforcement arrived.
Sporadic battles between police and looters flared up along Waghi Parade and Ninji Drive – the city’s main streets.
The drama sent students scattering all over the city. Many students were seen fleeing out of the burning stores along with other looters with arms full of store goods.
Police, unable to quell the larger group after repeated attempts with automatic gunshots into the air and teargases, physically manhandled the few they were able to grab hold of.
The main Highlands Highway was blocked off by the large number of spectators and looters. The city’s other main streets were jammed with people.
First photo :Derrick Buntrock
Second :The National

Latest Prayer notes...

2007-09-09T17:25:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone, we are so happy to be back in our little home in Mt Hagen, especially after an interesting trip back. We had a 12 hour journey that due to delays, a missed flight (because of delays) and more delays took us 36 hours. The airlines put us up in Morsbey in a nice hotel, and provided food for the duration, so we came back not too badly traumatized :)

Here is our latest prayer notes...

Dear Friends,
Yesterday at lunch I ripped open a packed of dry pasta and dumped it into a pot of boiling water. As the water bubbled away, about 30 little dead weevils floated straight to the top. I smiled and thought, ‘ …yes, we are definitely back in Papua New Guinea’. Despite the weevils, it is wonderful to be back home again. Thanks to all who prayed for us while we were on the road these past two months.

Thanks also to all those who have prayed regarding the elections here in Papua New Guinea. There have been a few incidents of violence, but on the whole this election was declared fair and peaceful. Now that elections are over, things have quietened down in Mt Hagen, and we are back to the usual buzz and flow of city life.

We give thanks to God for peace in P.N.G over this time, and for his protection over our local staff and their families, and the M.A.F properties (our homes and the hangar and office facilities) over the election period.

Our time in South Africa and Australia went well, and although it is always hard living out of suitcases and trying to home school on the move, we really enjoyed the time we had with family and friends. Thank you to all who prayed for us while we travelled.

It is good to be back in our own home and busy again with life here. Sandy has got back into his work flying half the week, and helping out with the flights operation office the rest of the time. Operating in P.N.G provide never-ending challenges on just about every level. Please pray for Sandy, and the whole staff here as we deal with the often complicated obstacles to daily operations. Please pray for wisdom, patience and sensitivity to Gods leading. Please also continue to pray for safety in the air for our pilots.

I am back in the schoolroom with Rachel and Megan, and picking up on my M.A.F responsibilities. Some friends and I decided to start an informal ladies bible study, and I have offered to have it at our house one afternoon a week. Please pray that this would be an encouragement to the ladies that attend. While we were in Australia, I started some correspondence study that will qualify me as a Teachers Aide (to help me with home schooling, but hopefully also in aid of employment when we go back home one day). It is just a one-year course, but I am excited to shake the dust balls out of my brain, and enjoy the discipline of study again.
Please pray for Narelle, Rachel and Megan as they move around town and work at home, for safety and opportunity to serve our neighbors and encourage and support our fellow M.A.F workers.

We would love to hear from you, please let us know how we can pray for you.
With much love, and heartfelt thanks,
Narelle, Sandy, Rachel and Megan Wilson.
Mission Aviation Fellowship
Papua New Guinea

"Pray that our God will make you fit for what he's called you to be, pray that he'll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy, so that it all amounts to something."
2 Thessalonians 1

Snow Day

2007-08-25T20:03:00.001-07:00

Rachel and Megan have never been to the snow before, so as a special family treat while we were up near the mountains, we decided to take them up to Falls Creek. The day was spectacular, clear blue skies and no wind. We hired toboggans and had a fantastic couple of hours zooming down the slopes. We took a chair lift up to the plateau, until it became too cold to enjoy. Great fun day.

Life on the Farm

2007-08-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

We are just back from a quick trip to North Eastern Victoria to catch up with some family and friends. Kelly (Narelles cousin) and Dave put us up for a night, and we had a great time catching up and enjoyed the country air. The girls had a ball riding and grooming 'Rose' the Shetland pony, who is due to have a foal in October - how cute! We got to meet Jack and Chase - 6 month old sons of Narelles cousin Shari and Robbie, and Rose, Rex, Beth and Josh joined us for dinner. Narelle also caught up with her high school best friend Megan, and her beautiful little boy. There never seems to be enough time to see these precious people, but we are so grateful for the moments we had with all.

Footy Fun

2007-08-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

Sandy took Rachel and Grandma Kath (Narelles mum) to the football last weekend. They had a grand old time together with some family friends. Geelong won, so they were all VERY happy. Bill Bryson in his book Down Under referes to Australian Rules Football as "a very popular form of loosely contained mayhem". I whole-heartily agree.

Megan and I gave the game a miss, so we went off and did some Christmas shopping together in town. This is a necessity, as there are not many shops in Mt Hagen and we have Christmas and birthdays for the next 12 months to think about.

Visa Update...

2007-08-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

Great News! As of last Wednesday our work permits for P.N.G have come through, HOORAY! Thanks to those who prayed!

A bit of background on this particular drama. The PNG government issues work permits for mission groups for a three year period and then renews all of them at the same time (even if you just entered the country a few months previously). It just so happens that M.A.F.s renewal coincided with the election period so the process took a bit longer than normal. Most of the work permits have been renewed for MAF, but there are a few outstanding , ours included.

We have expressed our passport to the P.N.G officials in Brisbane, and hopefully they can process our visas and get our passports back to us by next Thursday, as we fly out the next day - Friday the 31st.

Visa woes, a prayer request

2007-08-20T01:21:00.000-07:00

We are looking forward to returning to our home in Mt Hagen in Papua New Guinea, our flight home has been booked for the 31st of August.

We would appreciate your prayer though, as it seems that there have been delays in getting our work permits and visas. Please pray that our work permits would be issued this week, so that we can get out passports up to Brisbane where our visas for P.N.G are processed.

This usually takes about 4 or 5 days, so if we haven't got our work permits by the end of this week, it looks like we will have to extend our time in Australia. This in itself is not a terrible thing (some might even say, 'whooo! More shopping and holidays!'), however we are needing to get back home and back to work.

Please pray that we get some results this week. Thanks!

And now, for some more Melbourne family shots. This was last Friday, we took the train into the city for an afternoon at the Melbourne Museum. A great day out.

The people beside us.

2007-08-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

I stole this quote off my brother and sister-in-laws community blog theashram.blogspot.com .

"We shouldn't seek the ideal community. It is a question of loving those whom God has set beside us today. They are signs of God. We might have chosen different people, perhaps people who were more caring , cheerful, intelligent and like-minded. But these are the ones God has given us, the ones he has chosen for us. It is with them that we are called to create unity and live in covenant."

(from 'community and growth' by jean vanier)

Beautiful Melbourne

2007-08-11T02:31:00.000-07:00

After a week of bad jet lag we have settled back into off-field life and soaking up the the joys of being back in Australia.

Each morning we continue to work away with the girls with school, but our afternoons have been full of shopping and catching up with family. Its been so great to be with Narelles Mum and Dad, and also Geoff (Narelles brother), his wife Sherry and their boy Isaac. Here are some pictures of our time so far.

Down at Willamstown, one of our favorite places in Melbourne.

Grandma Kath (Narelles mum) with her Grand babies. (Dad/ Poppa had to work this day).

Geoff , Sherry and Isaac.

Meggy having fruity fun at Science Works.

Megs on the giant couch at Science Works

Fun on the Puffing Billy train with Grandma and Poppa.

Jet Lag and Road Trips

2007-08-03T02:18:00.000-07:00

Our girls have got to be very good flyers.

Jet lagged parents, in transit.

Hello Friends.
Last night we arrived back in Melbourne, Australia after busy month traveling over South Africa. We caught up with a number of our supporting churches and loads of wonderful friends and of course, our family. On our way to Cape Town we stopped in Maseru, Lesotho for two nights to visit with some good friends there. It was a treat to catch up with people we used to work with down there.

Views on the road to Maseru, and in Maseru. View from our friends house.

Undoubtedly, the highlight of our trip was a relaxing week by the seaside down near Cape Town, where we stayed in a friends holiday house. Narelle was still busy with school with the girls each day, but our afternoons were spent by the sea. The kids spent hours chasing the waves and collecting seashells. Our house overlooked a bay where the whales come to stay for the winter, it was awesome to see these beautiful creatures playing and breaching in the surf. It was truly amazing. We came away feeling refreshed and rested.

Sandy's Mum Joyce, with our girls in Johannesburg

Furlough Travels

2007-06-28T14:05:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends!
This morning we are flying to Port Morsbey - Brisbane - Sydney for the first stage of our furlough travels.

We fly to Johannesburg on Sunday where we will be for all of July. Early August we head to Australia for a month. We hope to catch up and report back with our supporters, both individuals and churches. We will be back in Mt Hagen at the end of August.

Looking forward to seeing some of you soon!

Arm update

2007-06-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

We ran back out to the Kudjip hospital one Wednesday for a check up of Megs arm. Occasionally, these types of breaks can pop back after they have been set, so a check us was needed. Megs had a x-ray, and her arm is healing nicely. Dr Samson, our visiting Orthopedic Surgeon put a hot pink cast on her arm - of which she is very proud! Thanks to those who prayed, we have been so blessed to have good care for Megs over this time!

Pizza + Climbing Trees = a Broken Arm.

2007-06-23T17:35:00.000-07:00

Waiting for a x-ray at the hospital at Kudjip

Sore arm.

On Friday night, we were having a lovely end-of-the-week pizza night with a couple of other MAF families, and our Meggy fell our of a tree and hurt her wrist. Lesson learnt... slippery hands from greasy pizza and tree climbing do not mix!

Fortunately, David Mills (a family friend and doctor) happened to be in town. Dave and his family normally live out bush a couple of hours drive away, so we got him to look at her arm and confirmed that Meggy had indeed broken her wrist, and a trip to the Kudjip hospital was in order.

Dave kindly offered to come with us to the hospital the following morning, and set the arm himself (saving us hours of waiting in queues). When we arrived at the hospital the next morning, we were delighted to discover that there was a Orthopedic Surgeon from America visiting the hospital for a few weeks, and he was more than happy to help us out. God really looked after our Meggy!

Chicken Dinner

2007-06-17T02:24:00.000-07:00

Our friend Ed took these out at a village, a little pre-dinner workout.

All in a days work

2007-06-17T00:22:00.000-07:00

Back To Work

2007-06-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

Sandy has been back in PNG for 6 weeks, us girls have been home for 2. Here are some pictures from the past month. Our friend Richard (another pilot with MAF) had a baby born on a recent flight.

The month of May - Dads 60th Birthday

2007-05-19T03:59:00.001-07:00

Narelle's Dad Kev celebrated his 60th birthday this week. In true Maddock style, we took to the beach....where all good memories are made. Coffee and walks in Queenscliff, fish and chips and sandcastle fun in Point Lonsdale. A beautiful day.

The month of May - Mothers Day

2007-05-19T02:57:00.000-07:00

Mothers Day was extra special this year for me (Narelle) and my brothers Geoff and Brad. It was the first time in 10 years that all of us were home in Australia to celebrate the day with our mum, Kath. We all live overseas, and although we get to see each other every few years, it was the first time we have all been home at the same time. Certainly, reason to celebrate!

The month of May - the Wedding

2007-05-19T02:27:00.000-07:00

Hello friends.
It has been too long since we last wrote, but this month has been a crazy succession of travel, jet lag, happy reunions, celebration and fun.

Allan and Trish's wedding was delightful - a brilliant, emotional but very joyful time. The girls looked beautiful in their flower girl dresses, especially next to their cousins who were looking extremely smart in their suits (first picture). Allan and Trish looked amazing (with Sandy and Allans mum and dad).

Sandy is now back in Mt Hagan at work with MAF. The girls and I (Narelle) are still in Melbourne with family till the end of the month.

Leaving on a jet plane

2007-04-25T23:20:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we are heading to Johannesburg, South Africa for a fun full week of celebration and the marriage of Sandy’s brother Allan to his lovely fiancé, Trish.

Rachel and Megan are over the moon with excitement as they have been asked to be flower girls for the wedding, and Sandy is a groomsman.

Sandy will return straight back to work in Mt Hagen following the wedding, but the girls and I (Narelle) will stop off in Melbourne for 3 weeks with my family.

My father (Kev) celebrates his 60th birthday in May, and all his kids are coming home for the celebrations. It will be a full house with Geoff, Sherry and their little boy Isaac and my younger brother Brad is also coming home for a holiday. All of us kids usually work and live overseas, so it will be a very special time to be all together with Mum and Dad, our first almost-complete family reunion for 7 years. We are sad Sandy cant join us all, but he will need to get back to work for MAF in Mt Hagen.

The beautiful people of PNG

2007-04-24T04:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Caulders for sharing the pictures.

Buai Smiles -WARNING! The following might gross you out.

2007-04-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

Many locals here in Mt Hagen chew ‘Betel nut’. It is harmless on its own, but mixed with lime it becomes ‘buai’. It gives people a high, (not unlike nicotine) and is addictive.

Our PNG cultural notes tell us that ‘betel nut is chewed in some areas to formalise greetings, cement relationships, conclude negotiations, restore peace and appease spirits.’ Any and every occasion calls for buai. You only have to observe the bright red stained smiles around town to know that it is certainly the drug of choice here in Hagen.

Once chewed, the remains are spat out, it is a red as blood and stains everything. Walls and walkways get splattered, and when it rains, the water runs red and pink down the street, washing the buai away. We will be driving along with a mini bus in front of us (taxi - jammed full of people), and out the window comes a stream of red spit. (I wont let the kids wind the car windows down for fear that we will get hit by some ones buai spit).

On top of all this, this delightful drug causes all sorts of cancer of the jaw and tongue.

No shoes required on a MAF flight

2007-04-02T02:48:00.000-07:00

These are the days of our lives...

2007-03-28T02:24:00.000-07:00

Hello friends.
Life is good and busy here in Mt Hagen for us all.
Sandy days are full to overflowing with flights and MAF related work. I am kept busy with school with the kids, hospitality, market shops for our outstation family and generally keeping the house hold together.

This week Sandy spent Tuesday night down the south of the country in a village called Kawito. Earlier in the day, one of our other pilots had a prop strike when he taxied over a pot hole in his 206 after landing, the ground was slick with mud after rain, so he didn't see the hole, and the tuning propeller hit the ground.
Sandy flew down with a engineer to asses the damage. The guys decided to fly back to Hagen in Sandy's plane, and return today with the larger aircraft, and a spare engine, and a team of engineers to install it into the damaged plane, and fly it back to Hagen. Once back in Hagen, the damaged engine can be tested properly and repaired.
The local communities are responsible for the up keep of the airstrips here in PNG, and they work hard to try and keep the strips in good condition. However, heavy rains, wild pigs that love to rip up the soil, and natural springs that can pop up overnight make for interesting challenges in the maintenance of strips.

Back at home, our side of town is in a bit of a chaotic state, as the roads are being worked on this week. Roads are closed while repairs are done, and detours often find us going into the opposite direction we really want to go....but its all for a good cause, and we look forward to driving straight again soon.
On Tuesday night, we had a little taste of tribal waring that can take place in the highlands. The highland people are notoriously ‘bel hat’ (hot hearted), their fuses are pretty short and when they pop, they pop most spectacularly. Down the road from our compound is a squatter camp where some highland people are living. Fights are fairly normal, but on Tuesday night we had a full on confrontation between two tribal groups.
It was rather strange to be in bed reading a good murder mystery, only to have it interrupted by a mini war down the road. Such is life in the highlands of PNG.
(this picture was taken at the Mt Hagen Market opening singsing events... NOT from tuesday night!)

It was all spears clashing and blood curdling screaming and some gun shots mixed in as well. I felt completely safe, we have a guard on our compound and he and some other local blokes who live on our compound were at the gate watching the drama. The kids slept through the whole thing and it all calmed down after a couple of hours.

Megans 7th Birthday!

2007-03-23T02:28:00.000-07:00

Our baby turns 7 years old tomorrow. Today we had a big party with all of Megs MAF girl friends. It was a 'come as your favorite movie character' party - we had a pirate (from Peter Pan), Poo bear, Dorothy (from the Wizard of Oz) and quite a few princesses. A great day!

Missionary Love : a version of 1 Corinthians 13

2007-03-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

If I speak fluently in another language but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I wear the national dress and understand the culture and all forms of etiquette so that I could pass as a national, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love endures long hours of language study and does not envy those who stayed home.

Love does not exalt his home country, is not proud of his national superiority, does not boast about the way we do it back home, does not think evil about his new country.

Love bears all criticism about his place of origin and believes the best about his new place of ministry.

Love endures all inconveniences.

Love never fails.

Where there is contextualisation it may lead to syncretiscism. Where there is linguistics it will change. For we know only part of the culture, and we minister to only part. But when Christ is reproduced in this place then our inadequacies will be insignificant.

When I was living back home, I spoke like a citizen of my own country, understood like one, thought as one. But when I left my country I put away these things. Now we adapt to a new culture awkwardly, but He will live in it intimately.
Now I speak a strange accent, but He will speak to the heart.

And now these three remain - cultural adaptation, language study and love. But the greatest of these is love.

This Week

2007-02-25T19:06:00.001-08:00

Just a quick blog to update you all. Rachel has responded beautifully to the medicine, and is back to her healthy self. Thanks to those who prayed for her! Sandy had a good week away in Wewak last week. He came home on Friday, tired, but happy with the work done. He left this morning to fly back again to Wewak, and will return home on Friday. Have a great week everyone!

A trip to the doctor

2007-02-19T20:53:00.000-08:00

The past week has been a bit of a bumpy one. Rachel had a couple of days in bed with a sick tummy, vomiting and diarrhea. By the weekend she was doing better, but on Sunday night the poor kid was sick again and we decided that we needed to go see a doctor.

Sandy took Monday off work and drove us the 40kms out to the Nazarene Hospital (a mission hospital) in a town called Kudjip. Here we experience our first PNG style doctor visit.
There are no appointments, so we rocked up on time for the clinic to open at 8.30am. Our hearts dropped as we drove into the hospital compound and saw around 100 people queued waiting to get in.

Sandy waited in the car with the children while I went and joined the queue, silently praising myself for thinking ahead and bringing a book to read. I was just getting into my read when the man behind me tapped me on the shoulder, and pointed to a guard who was trying to call me to the front of the line. In our short time in PNG, we have found that our white skins often get us bumped to the front of queues ... whether we want it or not. I shoved my book back in my bag, and with a red face and apologetic nods to those around, I walked quickly up to the front of the line.

Witnessing my hasty advancement through the line, Sandy walks Rachel from the car to sit with me. It wasn’t long before we were ushered into a large room, already full of people and nurses coming and going. We were lead to a small desk and sat with a kind man who took all Rachel's details and asked about her condition. He explained that it is his job to evaluates if people are sick enough to see the doctor. After a few minutes of discussion, he points us to a row of church pews at the other side of the room, and we are told we can wait there to see the doctor.

Here we sit and wait, and wait and wait. It was an interesting time, watching the people come and go. The emergency room was just across from us, and while we were waiting a man was brought in by a big group of his ‘wantoks’ (neighbors). The man had been in a fight, and had had a spear thrown into his back. His wantok were pretty riled up, and we watched one man giving a rather vivid reenactment of the event. The nurses certainly had their hands full! Rachel and I also spent a good 15 minutes watching a beautiful little humming bird try and find his way out of the waiting area, and we spotted at least four rather large cockroaches on the walls. But i think my favorite was watching one of the nurses sitting at her station, picking her toe nails clean with a paperclip. Lovely. The room was full of mothers with babies (there for check ups and to have their babes weighed), lots of elderly people, and others who just looked very unwell. The place was chock-o-block. Rachel was doing okay, but as the day progressed and the room got hotter, the bad smells increased, her poor little sick tummy couldn’t cope.

Thankfully, just as she started to heave, we got called in to see one of the American missionary doctor. Dr Bill was very kind, thorough and helpful. He sent Rachel off to pathology for a few tests and about a hour later, we had her results and were off to get the drugs she needed from the pharmacist. Seems that she has picked ups some sort of nasty amoeba. Fortunately, it is easily treated, and Rachel should be good as new in a few days time.

So, as you can see, we have to be fairly motivated (or just really really sick) to go to the doctor here. All up it took us 6 hours - rather a quick trip thanks to all the queue jumping that went on. Please pray that Rachel will feel better quick, and that the drugs will do their work well. (We took this picture on the drive home.)

Sandy flew out today to another of the MAF PNG bases in a town on the north coast called Wewak, where he will spend the next two weeks training in the area. This training will allow him to flying in to a much wider area from Mt Hagen and once it is completed, Sandy will have flown into more than 100 airstrips in PNG. Please pray for protection for us all as we are apart during this time, and especially for Sandy as he works hard to complete his training.

Where we are meant to be.

2007-02-04T16:48:00.000-08:00

Some days it is really hard to be away from family. This weekend, my 85 year old Nana fainted, fell and broke her hip. She cant hear very well, so I cant call her and tell her how much I love her. She struggles to see, so a note or a email or even a bunch of flowers isn't much good. I want to sit and hold her hand. But God knows.

My soon to be sister-in-law (Trish, Allan's fiancé) sent me this prayer last week, and it has encouraged me when i have questioned our decision to come away from our family again and work in PNG. This is where we are supposed to be.

May today there be peace within!
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be!
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.
(St Teresa)

More on the roads

2007-02-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

And still on the subjects of the roads, some friends took this picture a few weeks ago. They were on their way to Madang for a holiday, and had to pay 50 kina (about $25 Australian) to cross this make-shift bridge as the rains had washed the road away the night before. Life in PNG is NEVER dull! Suffice to say, they plan to fly next time!

The Road Less Traveled

2007-02-02T19:26:00.000-08:00

Any 4X4 enthusiasts worth his salt would love driving around Mt Hagen at the moment. Here, the road less traveled is, without a doubt, the better way to go!

Rachel said to me the other day, (as we wove and bumped out our way to the shops) “How bad do the roads have to get before they will fix them mum?”. Jolly good question. With the constant rain of the wet season, and the lack of drainage, the roads are disintegrating before our eyes.

Word is, that with elections only 6 months away, and politicians busy vying for votes, repair work on the roads will soon be a priority.

2007-01-26T21:34:00.000-08:00

Retail Therapy

2007-01-26T20:54:00.000-08:00

This morning, Sandy and I popped up to the Mt Hagen Market for our weekly fruit and vegetable shop. The new market is such a pleasure after experiencing the old. It is a lovely place to shop! People sell everything from bananas to billums (the bags that people use, made from colorful wool) to Mari blouses (the traditional dress of the ladies here). You can get a live chicken, tobacco leaves, sticks of sugar cane, and every imaginable fruit and veg.

Blessed are the amusement deprived

2007-01-25T00:14:00.000-08:00

We love that our girls are learning to live a simple life here in PNG. There are no fancy parks to take them to, no toy stores to visit. Their bikes, a plank of wood and a stick of sugar cane to chew on is all they need for a full afternoon of fun.

Mum is rather relieved they have moved on to this activity.

Last week the local kids on our compound were going through a fire-lighting phase. They have a old tyre, and a hidden box of matches somewhere, and get a fire going. Our girls thought this was great fun. They raided my cupboard, took half a loaf of bread, a roll of foil and margarine and peanut butter, and made toasted sandwiches over the open flames, and sat around the fire having a picnic with all their friends. Now and again the fire would get a bit big, so a couple of the boys would load up their water pistols and shoot it until it died down. Great fun, but rather hard on Mums nerves.

And you can see from the state of the lawn that we are in the middle of our wet season. Sandy has recorded 200mls so far for January.

Polopa New Testament

2007-01-19T13:27:00.000-08:00

Last week, Sandy had the privilege of flying Ken and Helen Macnaughtan to a place called Mount Tawa.

Ken and Helen were the first white skin missionaries to walk into that community in the early 70’s. Back then, cannibalism was still practiced in the area.

SIL translators, Neil and Carol Anderson have recently completed the Polopa New Testament Bible, and the dedication celebrations were last week.

HAPPY 2007 FRIENDS!

2006-12-31T00:38:00.000-08:00

Some of us MAF staff decided to go and celebrate New Year early on Saturday with a day out to Kudjip, approximately a hour out of town to the east of Hagen. The Church of the Nazarene run a mission hospital out there, so we packed a picnic, applied large amounts of sun screen and went bush for the day.

After a lovely lunch and catch up with friends, we walked about 15 minutes to a river with a waterfall and small pool. The water was freezing, so of course, only the children got in. It was a beautiful spot and a real treat to get out of the rat-race of town for the day.

Christmas

2006-12-29T13:20:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends.
We have had a couple of weeks holiday from blogging, but we are back now.

Christmas eve we had friends over for games and coffee and cake, then Christmas day we were 6 adults and 9 kids - so it was joyful, noisy and lots of fun.

Carols aplenty, phone calls to loved ones, too much food and very excited children....christmas in PNG is pretty much the same as anywhere else. We missed our family very much this year, so it was good to have friends over to keep us from feeling too sad.
Now we look forward to the new year. Happy late christmas everyone - and a safe and blessed new year!

More mumu

2006-12-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

The Mu in the Mumu

2006-12-14T12:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, we know it’s not the pretties cooking method in the world, but the mumu is THE way to cook here in PNG.

Last weekend we had the MAF base end of year/ Christmas party, and we got to witness the seriousness of the art of a mumu. (And some highly entertaining games of volleyball).

Those in charge had the fires lit at 6am and rocks placed on the flames to heat up. Around 10am the meat of the day (pig and chicken) is layered on to the hot rocks wrapped in edible greens, then covered with more hot rocks. On top of those, corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, taro, and more greens are placed. Around 1pm, it was ready to eat.

Each family brings a bowl and all the food is divided up evenly. There was plenty!

It was eaten with fresh ginger on the side, and fresh pineapple for desert.

A great day of fun.

Big Day Out in Hagen

2006-12-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the official opening of the new Mt Hagen Market, and thousands came into town for the party.
These are just a few pictures as we were driving out of town.