Purpose Asia

I came in the door and dumped my stuff on a chair. It had been a tough few days and I felt exhausted. Then I noticed the note on the table from my roommate that invited me to grab the smoothie she’d made for me from the fridge and to join her on the back porch for some time in a hammock to enjoy the evening scenery. I smiled and grabbed the smoothie she’d made for me. It smelled of sweet fresh strawberries, banana and pineapple. What a perfect end to the day. My roommate knew just how to cheer me up even when she herself had been very sick for the last week. I thanked God for such a thoughtful roommate and headed out to the back deck. I breathed in deep as the screen door swung shut behind me. The evening air was fresh and the view was amazing.      I turned to my roommate with a look of gratitude. “Thank you,” I said, “I really needed this.” It was true. I’d had a really tough few days and, in the generous and encouraging way that typifies ...

Me in the Kodiak plane with the patient (photo by Mandy Pehrson)      Far above the ground we kept our little hospital. Expert eyes flitting from our patient to his I.V. ensuring that he remained stable. Periodically we checked vital signs and compared them to previous ones. We'd been working all afternoon to evacuate our patient from our rural clinic in the highlands of Papua New Guinea to a hospital in Australia. Now, we were in the air on the 4-hour flight from the highlands out over the Coral Sea to Australia. Our patient remained stable as we prayed for good flying weather and safe travel.      The dense black of the night pressed in around us in our tiny, rumbling Kodiak plane.  Time crawled forward as we watched and waited for our arrival. Another hour and a half of night lay before us before we would reach the safe haven of Cairns, Australia (pronounced "cans"). Who knew a flight could feel so long. However, God had been gracious...

At the end of this week I will have been back in Papua New Guinea (PNG) for a month. It’s hard to believe. I can hardly believe it myself. In the last month I said goodbye once again to friends and family in the USA, packed my bags, flew around the world, resettled in my apartment and restarted my job at the clinic here in the Eastern Highlands Province of PNG. What a whirlwind. It’s been such a joy to reunite with my Papua New Guinean and missionary friends and to start jumping back into my life here. However, it’s also had its challenges. Transitions always do have challenges. Because the center where I live has a population of primarily missionaries it means there’s a lot of flux and change as people leave to go to villages, or go research new language areas, or go home for fuloughs, or return from furloughs, or come for the first time, etc, etc… It’s a place of a lot of transition. There’s been changes in how things are done at the clinic and who does what. There have been changes ...

“It is finished.” So rang the redemptive words from the tortured lips of Jesus on the cross. The debt owed to God’s perfect justice is paid in full and the task is accomplished. This year is the first year I’ve had a lot of time during the week before Easter (Holy Week) to ponder what Jesus did for me and all its implications. I was lost, like a sheep without a shepherd; defenseless, doomed, unable to save myself. I stood under the just wrath of a perfectly holy God who required that I live up to His holiness or suffer the judgment for breaking His standard of holiness. There was no way, I could never live up to that standard and I knew I stood condemned. Then, like a life raft to a drowning man in the ocean, Jesus came and placed Himself between me and God’s wrath. Jesus, being perfect and completely holy said, “take me instead.” He suffered what I should have suffered and then offered me restored relationship with God as a result of His fulfillment of the blood-debt th...

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 tran...

" How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on... when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back?  " ~Frodo Baggins in The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King For all the Lord of the Rings junkies out there you'll understand it when I say I'm feeling a but like Frodo at this point. His journey of 13 months changed his life. My journey over the last 13 months has changed mine. Now, as I plan and finalize my return to Papua New Guinea (PNG) in less than two weeks, I feel like I'm trying to pick up the threads from an old life. I'm the same ..... but different, and my old life is the same ..... but different. Life, like a stream, is ever changing and much has changed both here in the USA and in PNG. I was thinking about this in relation to goodbyes in particular the other day and it struck me. Having to say goodbye is like sustaining a wound: you may be able to bring the two edges back together but it will n...

A plum tree beginning to blossom in Portland I close my eyes and breath it in deeply. The soft air of a coming spring, the scents of myriads of ethnic foods mingle with the shyly budding plants. I open my eyes and watch the traffic rush past brightly colored town houses and brick buildings that house tiny mom and pop shops. Jazz music wafts from a nearby restaurant. In 28 days I'll leave the Pacific Northwest to go back to Papua New Guinea (PNG). Hard to believe. I'm starting to get this strange sort of excitement and hope I did not feel the first time I left. I did leave with hope and excitement the first time, but this time, they're different. I really feel God has something new he wants to do in me and my ministry. What is it? To be honest, I'm not sure, but I know he has something new and that's what makes me excited. There's new challenges this time. More uncertainty and emotion attached to leaving and I'd be lying to say it's easy or even a con...