I'm Back in Papua New Guinea

-

Rain is falling steadily outside my windows today. The fitful wind has stilled and now the showers are coming down in steady sheets. I’ve been back in Papua New Guinea (PNG) for a little over a week now and my brother left today to return to the United States of America (USA) after helping me settle in and getting a chance to see what missions looks like here where I work. Funny, I think my brain and spirit are trying to catch up with the whirlwind of the last few weeks.

Before I left home there was a week or two of busy preparation, goodbyes and logistics. Then, I was swept off onto an airplane back to my work that I’d left over 9 months ago in PNG. The hubbub of my return and my brother’s visit kept he and I busy all week. Now, I sit at home in my first real chance to contemplate what has occurred in the last couple of weeks.

I am so excited to be here again in PNG and to have the opportunity to start working at the clinic again. However, with every transition you have to go back to the Lord for strength for the new challenges that transition presents. Going home last year had the challenge of having to leave my work, and friends here (both Papua New Guinean and missionary) and I did not know when I would return. Coming back here to PNG presents me with the challenge or readjusting to life here in PNG, with trying to reintegrate with my work at the clinic, and getting used to being separated from my family and friends back in the USA once more. I was contemplating this today and realized that though every transition is difficult, God has been and is faithful to help me in each and everyone. He is not a God that is far off but one that is close. Just as Hebrews 4 says, Jesus is not a high priest who cannot sympathize with us but he’s been like us in every way but without sin. I’m so grateful that Jesus walks with me in every transition and understands all that I am going through, both challenging and happy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brokenness, Hope, and the Now and Not Yet

-
Image
Moonrise near my home       I stood in the shower, in the first truly hot shower I’ve had in over a week, the seeping cold slowly melting from my body. Words kept forming on my lips and in my heart in prayer for the twin baby who was rushed to the hospital today. The other twin died the day before yesterday and now the second was in unstable condition at a hospital about 30 minutes away. The babies are relatives of a dear friend and my heart broke in unintelligible words in the shower. It had been a rough day. One woman was brought in without a pulse and it became evident shortly into the resuscitation that she was too far gone. At the same time another baby was fighting for its life hooked to tubes and fluid bags, its fearful mother watching with wide silent eyes as staff worked on her little one.      Less than a month back to my Pacific island home and the black wall of suffering has already slapped me full in the face. The haunting reality of our broken world and the faintly glimme
Read more

A Creepy Crawly Welcome

-
Image
  Asiatic rhinoceros beetle  Flicking on the light I walked down the stairs to my basement. I had only been home for a few minutes but wanted to check the house and see what I’d need to do to get it into shape after my long absence. The upstairs was clean and tidy and ready for me to start unpacking and the whole house had been cleaned a couple of weeks before. I went down the stairs and turned the corner. I pulled up short. There if front of me was the huge inverted corpse of a spider, curled legs frozen and dangling in the web of another spider. The dead spider was at least an inch across and had to have been quite big when it was alive. Taking a broom from the wall, I poked at the dead spider, just reassuring myself that it was indeed dead. I shuddered and stepped around the web, making a mental note to clear away the cobwebs downstairs as one of my first chores. I’d only gone a step or two when I stumbled on a rhinoceros beetle that was struggling on its back. It angrily flailed it
Read more

Seasons

-
Image
 Note: I wrote this back in August and forgot to publish it, but it was too good not to share. So, you guys get two blog posts this week. :) Ukarumpa with a lovely double rainbow over it  The smell of freshly roasting coffee and rain glide through my window into my office. The weather is turning cooler and more foggy but the rain has slacked off as we creep into the dry season. And so we make another determined march through the seasons, ticking off the months in their turn. In the northern hemisphere Summer is tantalizingly close. Schools are finishing up their year and kids are counting down the days until break and endless hours without homework or classes. Right now some friends and I are studying the way God’s story starts in Genesis and wraps through the whole Bible, weaving in and out of what feel like unrelated stories and poetry and pronouncements of doom should the people not repent. But as we look for the common thread of God’s story I can see God’s rhythms of creation and g
Read more