Ok, so I’ve been quiet for a while, but we’re still alive and well…

Let’s see, as of the last update, we were supposed to go sailing on the 16th, which we did.  We were a little bit worried we wouldn't be able to go because it was extremely windy when we got up, and there was a small-craft advisory too, but we went to meat the guy who owns the yacht anyway and he was more than excited to go out, so we went sailing anyway, despite our best use of logic.  It was really fun, we kinda just sat there and let the guy get us out into open water, and then we ate lunch and went snorkeling.  It was really cool, and got some underwater pictures.  We also saw a couple sea turtles.  One sea turtle saw us and didn't look thrilled, it actually looked like it just messed in its shell, and it was pretty funny.

We also helped with two confirmation classes again, singing songs and playing games.  Everything is really running together for me, so I don’t remember details and exact dates.  We also helped out at the Angel Network food pantry, and a car wash a local youth group was doing.  They were raising money to go to a church camp in Wisconsin, so we are pretty excited for them.  We had a free afternoon one day, so we went to see “Blades of Glory” and it was really funny.  Emily and I have wanted to see it for a while, because we need a new movie to quote from.  We had two services on Sunday that we helped lead, and we hung out with two kids of a pastor we’re working a lot with while he and his wife went to some function.  We did a whole Saturday Night worship service at one church and they treated us to dinner afterwards at a really nice local place.  Like a true Lutheran group they asked us “out for beers” with them, we said ok, as long as they had food too, because we were starving.  I had some really hot chicken wings, and they were amazing.  Josh rented a moped one day, and he has a funny story from it.  I think Josh and I might go next week and rent some for the day; it’s a great way to see the coastal areas.

Today we had some free time, so Emily, Liz, Tara, and I went for a hike up to Makapu point.  It’s supposed to be a great place to watch whales because you can look out from high above the water level over a whale sanctuary.  We didn’t see any whales, but we did see a sea turtle and some great views of the Oahu coast, as well as the Makapu Point Lighthouse.  It was really windy too, so that made some of the walking and leaning-over-the-edges interesting.  We took some neat pictures which are now online; I also included a 3-D satellite image of Makapu Point from Google Earth, which provides an interesting perspective on where we were walking.

It was weird to think today that we have exactly two weeks left in Hawaii.  It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were in the shivering cold in Minneapolis, waiting to get on a plane and go someplace with natural heat.  Then I look at pictures of our team from that time, with our pale white skin, excess body fat, and my hairless face.  Time has definitely passed, just very quickly.  We have come a long way; we have been on a long journey.  To know that we only have two weeks left in this portion is rather refreshing.  We have been greatly enjoying our time in Hawaii, but there comes a time when not even the daily presence of an ocean breeze can make you feel quite as rested and renewed like a bed in your own home.  Until next time…

Life is good, God is great!

-Kyle

Time only seems to go by faster and faster…

I know it’s been nearly a week since the last update, but now that we’re back in the United States, sometimes it seems that there are less things that seem worthy of sharing.  Sometimes everything just seems too familiar to feel the need to go on and on about the stuff we’re doing.  Then, I realize, “Ha!  We’re in Hawaii and they’re not!”  Needless to say, the pace of the ministry is not quite as full as it was in PNG, so there is in a way less to write about, but I’ll do my best.

This past week has been kind of a blur so I don’t really remember what days we did what things.  I think it may be because coming from PNG where everything is very new and different and vivid, it’s easy to remember things because there are many distinct things from each day to separate them.  Nevertheless, this past week found us in a few churches doing a few different things.  We went to Our Savior Lutheran Church a couple of times.  That’s the church we went to for Good Friday service and the youth director intern is a former college classmate of Tara’s from Concordia in River Forest.  We were able to set ourselves up to do a chapel service for the day school they have, as well as a confirmation class hangout.  The chapel service went pretty well.  We sang some silly songs and talked a little bit about our time in Papua New Guinea.  We heard from the intern that the students and teachers both thought it was the best chapel ever, so that was a boost for us!  The confirmation class didn’t go quite as well as the chapel, so we’re glad for what it says in Isaiah about God’s words not returning to Him empty.  I just hope they were God’s words…  But anyway, it amazes me how different the youth can be in America form the youth in PNG.  I find it really interesting that most of the stuff I learned in my Elementary Education classes at college wouldn’t apply in PNG because I learned about all these learning disabilities and social disorders that require hundreds of different teaching styles and strategies, but most of those things I learned how to compensate for simply don’t exist in PNG.  I find it interesting that a country with a renewed status as a third-world nation doesn’t have half the student-related problems a Western society has.  That’s not to say that the education system in PNG is any better, because they are grossly under funded at all levels and public education isn’t free.  However, I heard one missionary teacher we met from Scotland say that if anyone comes to PNG to teach and has any problem with the job in terms of the actual teaching, they aren’t fit to be a teacher.  He said it was the easiest teaching job he’s had because the students for the most part know the value of the education they are getting because of the monetary affect it has on their lives to be there.  Needless to say, the confirmation class was a little bit less than attentive, and a little bit more than goofy.  We are definitely back in America.

We also went to Calvary by the Sea Lutheran Church a couple times.  Went once to hang out with a confirmation class and once to help out with the Angel Network.  The confirmation class at Calvary went much better than it did at Our Savior, but the kids were pretty distracted and goofy there too.  The pastor at the church was on the Youth Encounter team New Vision in the 80’s when that team went to PNG.  So he has similar experiences to us and knows a lot about what it’s like to be on a ministry team.  We sang some songs and talked about what we did in PNG, and what we do in general.  It was a lot of fun to sit in on a confirmation class and peek into the minds of Junior High kids.  On Thursday we went back to Calvary to help out with their Angel Network program.  The Angel Network is a government-awarded program that seeks to help the homeless and impoverished families in Hawaii.  There are a lot of homeless people in Hawaii, especially on Oahu.  The Angel network was started to provide some much-needed care to those families.  The ministry used to have a food pantry, secondhand store, and provide room and board, but now it is limited to being a food pantry and a place to get a hot shower.  I imagine it’s hard to believe a place like Hawaii with all its millions of dollars coming in every day from tourism being a place any less than utopia, but there is a “dark side” to this island paradise as well.  I would also assume that there isn’t much funding coming from outside Hawaii for programs like this because it’s so unbelievable.  However, we enjoyed helping out there and encountering some of the best faith stories imaginable from many different people.  I might add that it would probably not seem like a surprise that the people most affected by poverty in Hawaii are the native Polynesians.  It’s too bad really, because they were probably forced to be very generous with their land when the developers came in.  I find that there are many things in Hawaii that are similar to the way things are in Papua New Guinea.  It’s a good reminder of the blessings we have and the numerous resources we have.  Oh yeah, and for those of you feeling the crunch from the gas pump, Hawaii was at $3.05 per gallon today, and in PNG we found prices ranging from $3 to as much as $8 per gallon.  Swallow that one as you swipe your credit card to take away some of the sting.

Friday we spent the day at Pearl Harbor.  We didn’t get to see everything we wanted to, but the things we didn’t see are free, so we’ll go back again before we leave Hawaii I’m sure.  We got to go on the USS Missouri and tour the cabins and stuff, it was pretty cool.  We also wandered around the museum a bit.  We were going to take the boat out to the USS Arizona Memorial, but when we arrived at the park, the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was docked and was getting ready to leave.  So by the time we were ready to go out to the Arizona, they had the whole harbor shut down for the massive carrier, loaded with billions of dollars in fighter jets and helicopters, to head out to sea.  It was kind of a bummer that we didn’t have time to get out over the Arizona, but seeing the Ronald Reagan do its thing was pretty neat.  Definitely a great place to learn some U.S. History first hand.

This morning we led the entire worship service at Prince of Peace.  They had the typical Sunday-after-Easter crowd of 40 people, but where two or more are gathered, New Dawn will be there and ready for ministry.  After the service some ladies wanted to take us out for lunch and chat about our experiences, so we found a restaurant inside the hotel and had a nice chat.  The people in the congregation at Prince of Peace are very first class.  We don’t think we have ever felt as welcome as we do there.  Everyone wants to take a little bit of time and talk to all of us, which is great.  It just goes to show that hospitality trumps funding when it comes to ministry.  Next time you complain about your church having no money, think about how the disciples must have felt when they went out and set up churches everywhere.  Talk about budget cuts!

Tomorrow is a time to relax, a true day off in Hawaii for New Dawn.  We were going to go snorkeling with the pastor at Calvary by the Sea, but a member of his church decided he wanted to take us out on his yacht, so we’re gonna do that instead.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we do go snorkeling too, we’ll probably just have a private reef to do it on instead (kinda like when we went in Madang).  It will be a good chance to get a little more sun and enjoy the part of Hawaii we tend to think about back on the mainland.  In any event, we’ll try not to enjoy ourselves too much as to not offend anyone back home still grumbling about having a white Easter.  If you wait three weeks we’ll be coming home and we can bring some nice weather with us, so long as you don’t mind a daily rain or two.  Oh well, not everyone is called to be a missionary in Hawaii.  Somebody has to go to Alaska too…

Life is good, God is great!

-Kyle 

We only get four more weeks in Hawaii…

This past week has flown by for us here in Hawaii.  Between shopping, sunning at the beach, eating plenty of long lost American cuisine, and or course, doing ministry, time definitely flies when you’re having fun.  We’ve spent the last week pretty much recovering from jet lag and a lack of greasy American food.  We’ve also been buying new clothes since the clothes we had with us in PNG have pretty much been retired from being “functional” attire (never mind the fact that we left most of our clothing in PNG because we needed the extra luggage space and weight).  Today as well as Saturday we went to Waikiki beach for a little sun and relaxation.  We all have horribly crooked tan lines from the various apparel we wore in PNG, and since we feel it is crucial to the ministry to become immersed in the local culture we are serving, we have to look the part.  And really, how can you spend five weeks in Hawaii and not go to the beach?

Many of you know from a past blog that I have a deep, basic need for Dr. Pepper (some people may throw around words like “obsession” or even “addiction” but I just ignore that kind of talk, which makes people use words like “denial” and “stubborn”…).  Anyway, since I have this need for Dr. Pepper, I bought a 12-pack the first chance I got.  This case of soda-pop only lasted a couple of days however, but luckily our contact has a membership at Sam’s Club, and we now have bulk Dr. Pepper, so I’m quite comfortable.

Yesterday (Sunday) our ministry in Hawaii officially started.  We did a few songs during the service and introduced ourselves and what we’ve been up to for the past few months.  The church is quite interesting because the services are held on the second floor of an older hotel in Waikiki.  Prince of Peace Lutheran Church (http://www.princeofpeacewaikiki.com/) is set up to be a church for tourists, and is literally an international congregation.  Next week we’ll do the entire service for the church, so it will be interesting to see how things turn out.  Everyone at the service was very friendly however, and we were taken out to lunch by a couple from the church.  We’ve been eating out a lot actually, which is kinda strange, but I guess it beats rice and sweet potatoes every meal.

We have the next month reasonably filled with a variety of ministry opportunities at different places.  We also hope to have some time to see the places that Hawaii is known for, like Pearl Harbor and the beach (all of them).  None of us have any grand plans for taking up surfing, but we may some back with a few more slang terms in our vocabulary.  Four weeks seems like a long time, but then again, so did 2 ½ months before we got to PNG.  When it’s all over, it seems much shorter.  In no time at all we’ll be getting on a plane and heading for the mainland.  I hope that our time here in Hawaii will be just as memorable as any other time in the ministry.

Like is good, God is great!

-Kyle

Aloha!

After four airports, three plane rides, two layovers, and one heck of a long time without sleep (about 36 hours), we are in Honolulu.  We are also all ready to hit the wall.  It seems odd to think that our time in PNG is over, but we’re really looking forward to five whole weeks in this island paradise.

After leaving Madang province on the 24^th, we took the long bus ride back to Lae.  This time, we didn’t have to trek across a collapsed bridge, but it wasn’t exactly a joyous ride either.  We were really excited to get back to Lae and have mail and showers.  Once we got back, we collected our mail, took showers, and went to the Lae International Hotel again for more wonderful pizza.  We had a free weekend before taking the boat to Salamaua (on the southern coast of the province), so rested up, nursed our blisters, did some laundry, and prepared for the trip.  It would be our last week in PNG, so we tried to get as much stuff packed away as possible.  Monday morning, we piled aboard a motorboat, and set across the bay to Salamaua.  We stayed in Salamaua for three nights, sleeping in a different village every night, and we walked everywhere we went, for the most part.  We took a canoe one day to go to Salamaua High School, which ended up being a great program.  We saw dolphins on the motorboat ride to Salamaua, and on the way back, it poured, so there were a number of memorable moments from the four day trip to the south coast.  Everywhere we went we were welcomed warmly with a singsing and our programs were fairly well received.  Every morning when we would leave a village and move on to another, we were loaded up with gifts of bilums and necklaces.  We also each got a conch shell will a hole cut into it so you could play it like a horn (I got four by the time we left), and we also got plenty of fruit.  Each meal of every day consisted of rice, kaukau (sweet potato), pitpit (a corn-like tasting plant related to sugar cane) and tapioca (a potato-like tasting vegetable).  We also got a lot of fish, whole fish with heads and teeth and lots of bones.  Josh and I love fish, so we always loaded up on it.  I think my favorite would have to be the Red Emperor fish, but it was all very good, and very fresh.  Salamaua was a place greatly affected by WWII, and so there were some remnants of the war there.  One time when we were walking, we passed a large cannon sitting beside someone’s fence in the village.  On Thursday, we took the motorboat back to Lae, excited to take a shower and nurse our blisters even more.

Once back in Lae, we only had one full day to do some last-minute things before flying to Port Moresby.  We went to the bank, got some last few things at the store, and recorded some songs for the ELC-PNG to distribute.  Then we were part of a farewell ceremony.  A young woman from America has been working in the finance office for the past five years, but has now been called to Guam, so she left PNG about the same time as us.  They had a nice farewell potluck and devotional for us, and we said our last goodbyes.  It was a really great fellowship time.  What was really cool, was that afterwards, a PNG man came in and wanted to talk to Josh.  It turns out, the man went to school with Josh in Washington, and Josh never really got to know him very well at college, so they caught up and chatted.  It’s really funny, because the man had been the pastor of Starkey (our guide in Finschhafen) a few years ago.  Josh was more connected with this guy than he originally thought.  After the meal, an American professor at the local seminary in Lae came and gave us a little touristy drive around town.  We went to the WWII memorial, where a lot of Australian, New Guinean, and Indian (REAL Indian from India) soldiers are buried.  It was a really neat memorial.  Then we went to the Amelia Earhart memorial.  Lae was the last place Amelia was seen before taking off from the Lae airport with her flight director on that fatal flight in 1937.  However, the memorial was less than elegant.  A simple stone monument with “Amelia Earhart” on it, surrounded by an overgrown flower garden, was all that had ever been put in place to keep her spirit in existence in PNG.

Saturday morning, we boarded a bus with everything we currently possess, and rode to the Lae airport, which actually isn’t really in Lae.  In the middle of Lae city, there is an old airstrip that was closed in the early 80’s because of noise.  About 30 minutes out of town, is the airport for Lae, called Nadzab.  Most people think that Nadzab is just a PNG name, but we found out that it means North American Defense Zone Air Base.  The United States had used that area as an air force base during WWII, and it had been updated and repaved in the 80’s to serve as the new airport for Lae.  We learn something new everyday.  Once we got to the airport, we went through security and got our boarding passes.  The security check consisted of a group of officers feeling the outside of our bags, and then looking at our IDs.  An hour later, we were back in Port Moresby, the city we started this journey in.  We went back to the Lutheran guest house we stayed at before, so it brought back some memories.  I remember first arriving in January and not really wanting to be there, but now, we were all very excited to go back and stay there again.  On Sunday we went to church with a man from Chicago who worked for the ELCA in the global missions department.  Then we had lunch with him and some people he was working with in PNG.  We also met the Prime Minister’s personal attorney, and he gave us a personal, behind-the-scenes tour of the parliament.  It was strange, because when we went to the parliament in January, we were told not to take any pictures inside the chamber.  This time, we could take all we want.  I guess it’s who you know.  The man also happened to be the Chief Executive of Air Niugini, which we would be taking to Singapore.  He also was going on the same flight as us to do some government business in Singapore.  We were all secretly hoping he would hook us up with first class seats, but that didn’t happen.

Monday morning we got up, ate breakfast, packed up our stuff, and went out for lunch.  We decided to eat our last meal at the place we ate our first meal at, Big Rooster.  For those who didn’t read about it earlier, Big Rooster is the McDonalds of PNG.  However, instead of everything being made with Grade D beef, everything at Big Rooster is made with huge, fresh chicken.  After eating all of my meal, as well as parts of Liz and Tara’s, I had consumed about ten potatoes worth in fries, and probably about one whole chicken.  It was grand.  After lunch, we headed back to the guest house, loaded all our bags into the van, and headed for the airport.  When our plane took off, I wondered how long it would be before I would go back.  Most people who visit PNG are said to get the PNG “bug” and have to return again.  It’s an easy country to want to visit again, the people are first class, and the experience is one of a kind.

Roughly seven hours after leaving Port Moresby, we touched down in Singapore.  We had heard stories telling of the greatness and majesty of the Singapore airport.  We eagerly exited the plane and entered the vast, wonder-laden terminal and began to discover its treasure.  We arrived at 8 pm, and didn’t have our next flight until 6 am.  After hitting up the McDonalds, we spent the next ten hours plundering the riches of free internet, flushing toilets, drinking fountains safe enough for babies, and unlimited places to take power naps.  The one weird thing about the airport was the security guards.  We found it a little strange that on the customs and immigration form, there was a note that said trafficking drugs into Singapore was punishable by death.  However, we didn’t expect to see security officers armed with automatic weapons.  They didn’t just have these little squirt-gun looking BB guns strapped to their backs, no.  Each guard had both hands firmly gripped around a gleaming Uzi.  I think they meant business about the drug thing.  Luckily, they didn’t find the one anti-malaria capsule I had in my pocket.  What a relief!

After our adventure in Singapore, we took a morning flight to Tokyo, during which we were served the nastiest breakfast United Airlines has to offer.  It was some sort of omelet thing, but airline food doesn’t ever start out at the gourmet level.  In fact, the only potential that exists in airline food is to get worse as it’s served, which definitely applied here.  However, I may be slightly biased in this particular case.  After another seven hours aboard a flying tin can, we landed in the early afternoon in Tokyo.  Tokyo airport doesn’t have nearly the shimmer that Singapore’s airport possesses.  Fortunately, we were only there for five hours.  I just kind of sat around and got my cell phone charged up and ready for our arrival in the United States.  At about 7 pm, Tuesday night, we took off from Tokyo and headed for Honolulu.  It was a very empty and very bumpy flight.  I tried to sleep, but that’s something I don’t do well on planes, I’ve discovered.  At 7 am, Tuesday morning, we landed in Hawaii.  It was strange to take of at night and arrive the morning of the same day.  Let’s just say I’m ready for it to be Wednesday.

Once we got on the ground in Honolulu, we went through immigration.  It was kinda nice, because as the immigration officer signed my card and let me through, he looked at me intently and said “Welcome home.”  It was at that point that I realized that I was home.  Even though home was really another four airplanes away for me, I was in America.  Going through customs was a breeze.  None of us got searched, questioned, or scanned, and we soon found ourselves outside by the pickup lanes, waiting in the fresh, Hawaiian air.  Soon our contact arrived, and we were off to breakfast.  Then we went to our place of residence for the next five weeks and took real showers and wonderful naps.  After our nap, we went for dinner (we slept clear through lunch, and we didn’t care).  We found a Taco Bell, which is like an oasis of junk food, and very much amazing.  The girl at the counter knew we weren’t from Hawaii (nobody but the Polynesians are really considered Hawaiian) and asked us where we were from.  I told her Papua New Guinea.  I think that’s gonna be what we say from now on, because it gets a much better reaction than “The Midwest.” 

So here we are, back home.  A new journey, filled with potential of unknown variety.  They’ll be plenty of ministry opportunities here, and plenty of time to enjoy this beautiful place too.  Much like Papua New Guinea, we have a feeling Hawaii is also a land of unexpected events and memories.  It’s a new day, a ‘New Dawn” if you will, for our ministry.  Surf’s up Jesus!

Life is good, God is great!

-Kyle