Papua New Guinea Part 3

Week 2, Gabagaba Village

Our drive down to Gabagaba was pretty smooth and uneventful. We had a quick stop off in Port Moresby to get restocked with food and other supplies for our next week’s needs. While we were at the grocery store we met up with some friends, not all by our design. Pastor Hokupu, the overseer of YWAM in the Central Province, a Hisiu native, and our guide for the rest of the trip met us in the parking lot with his young son Eddie in tow. While we were getting acquainted, Eksee, our friend from the first day at the airport drove up with a friend named Dr. Peter. I was intrigued to hear that Dr. Peter was a professor of economics at the local university and had accompanied Eksee in order to meet and develop a relationship with YWAM in general and our group specifically. Once our team had finished their shopping they told us how they had “randomly” run into another team of YWAMers from Sunny Coast (just north of Brisbane) who’d been serving in Port Moresby for a number of weeks and were soon flying out for another outreach in the Philippines. Crazy! I was amazed at all the people that God was connecting us with in only an hour’s time at the local grocery store. We said our “goodbyes” to Eksee and Dr. Peter and tentatively made plans to reconnect with them once we were back in the city in about a week. Our groceries were distributed throughout the back of the PMV in every crack and crevice and all the passengers found whatever open space available to sit on for the hour and half trip to Gabagaba, some even sat on laps and hung precariously off the back. We stopped only once on the way as we had to pull off to let the engine cool down but it was just a few more minutes of driving that we pulled off the paved road and began bumping our way down the potholed dirt road to the coastal village of Gabagaba.

Similar to Hisiu in that it is located on the water, Gabagaba is different in practically every other way. It’s quite a bit larger in population (a couple thousand more) with many churches including a Baptist, Pentecostal, United, another United split from the other, Church of Christ, and a few others. It is divided into three informal sections; the country section located inland containing huts with greater property and garden plots, the beachfront section with smaller grounds and many more huts built closely together, lastly there is a large group of houses (maybe 50-60) located on pilings suspended above the water directly on the bay. A couple of kilometers from the coast a barrier reef keeps most of the dangerous surf from hitting the beach (bad for me…good for them). We arrived around in early afternoon at the makeshift home of the United Church located in the beachfront section of the village. The church sanctuary is a bamboo structure with half walls around the perimeter and a palm branch roof. Comfortable mats woven from palm fronds covered the pebbled dirt floor and another small decorated half wall separated the “common area” from the “clergy area” complete with a long table and chairs and a modern looking iron and wood pulpit. Also, chairs lined both the left side and right side of the building for the elders to sit in during the three weekly services. Upon arrival the team unloaded our gear and ourselves onto a large blue tarp to rest and listen to the formal introductions of the pastor and elders. Greetings were exchanged and we were soon divided into three groups to be accommodated among three family’s households located nearby.

Ryan, a couple of guys from our team, and myself were placed in a small two room hut a few yards away located wonderfully on the coconut palm filled beach overlooking the serene water covered with stilt houses. It was an unusual view, one that I’d never seen before and one that was unbelievably beautiful at times…Straight out of National Geographic. Our Hosts were extremely loving and hospitable even to a fault. As I learned it is the culture to treat your guests (especially missionaries and clergy) like kings even to the point of complete inconvenience of yourself and family. A good example is an evening meal. The best food is prepared, usually rice, fish, and scones or frybread, fruit and some veggies, a real feast. For dessert some sweet local delicacy all the while the family is closely watching to see that your well fed and meeting your every need. When the meal is underway and the guests are busy eating and talking, the family (and often family from down the street) gather together and sing beautiful island style songs with guitar, ukulele, and traditional hand drums if available. The scene is extraordinarily idyllic but at the expense of the hosts for once the guests have finished eating, the leftovers go to the family and when it’s time for the guests to retire to their rooms for a good night’s sleep, the hosts spread our their mats and mozzy nets on the deck to sleep virtually out in the open. Our society could certainly take some notes on this kind of hospitality but at the same time, we felt pretty uncomfortable putting everyone through so much trouble, especially since we were here to serve them. What’s more we began to realize that some of the host families were even beginning to compete against each other to see who could be most hospitable! We felt a little caught in the middle in this and in other ways.

The church hosting us was the United Church of Gabagaba, as mentioned previously they met in the yard of one of our host families in an open air bamboo church. This wasn’t by their design but out of necessity since they felt compelled to split from the other United Church due to a lot of confusing circumstances, of which I’m still not clear on. The result was that their offending congregation ended up with the historic church building and parsonage. Thus, they didn’t have anywhere to meet. Into this mess, our team was flung with the earnest desire to see God do amazing things. We especially hoped for the steps toward reconciliation to be made, though we couldn’t help but feeling like a pawn in the whole war of wills.

A similar schedule was set as we used in Hisiu with the differences being the extra church services that we attended and helped to lead on Wednesday and Friday mornings. We conducted our workshops once again with the villagers responding by showing great interest and eager cooperation. Ryan floated around this time taking in the different teachings while I helped to lead the workshop on evangelism as I had before. As in Hisiu, I had many in my group who were either not Christians or backslidden, so it was my privilege to lead them through prayer and counseling into a new relationship with Jesus or back to the Faith, what a joy!

Many house visits were made in all sections of the village, with a majority of our visits made in the houses suspended out on the water. As can be expected, once a person out there gets sick or physically immobile it’s very difficult for them to see anyone, especially to attend church. So, it was our blessing to venture out at low tide over the trash covered beach (praise God for immunizations!) and onto the black muddy flats to the crude wooden ladders which led up to the planked deck and our inviting family or ailing individual. Each meeting was an encouragement and very touching as the people were endlessly loving and willing to receive any prayer and/or words of blessing. Through these visits many were prayed for, recommitments to Christ were made, and one man was fully healed from debilitating back and leg pain due to years of heavy construction work.

Many of the DTS students had opportunities to teach the Bible in formal settings, on the Wednesday of this week one of our young women was told to get prepared, that evening at a large gathering she was to teach. She was full of nerves and doubt not knowing what to teach on. We prayed for her and encouraged her as she was clearly fearful to the point of tears but ultimately we had to entrust her to the able hands of the Holy Spirit to help and direct her. The gathering occurred at the local Pentecostal church located in the center of town. The large building suspended over the shoreline had a deck that connected the street to the building and it was on this covered wood planked deck that we presented out program. At least 150 people turned out for this outreach, many of whom were young kids. The target audience of teens and young adults were seemingly absent but many could be seen on the fringes and in the shadows listening in secret. The small waves lightly broke on the sand beneath our stage as we opened with prayer and some fun kids’ worship songs. As the waves were unending, I prayed that all would know that the love of God was even more consistent and powerful. The team performed a number of skits, some quite silly and others with a more serious tone. It didn’t much matter as the children laughed gleefully at all of them. There were two or three testimonies shared with their impact reaching deep into the hearts of those listening, especially those secretly in the shadows. Even when the rain began to fall making things uncomfortable for those outside of the shelter and noisy for those inside, as Jennifer stepped up to share her Bible study, all ears and eyes were open and intent on her. What her text was and what she said exactly escapes me, but she spoke with such anointing, power, and sincerity that each person listening could tell that God’s Spirit was at work. Once she completed her message, Pastor Hokupu stepped up to the mic. and began to beckon anyone who desired, to respond to the call of God. To come forward for prayer, to give their lives to God for the first time, to recommit their lives to Him, for anyone who needed prayer for healing and as he made the appeal, they began to stream forward. Over thirty people made their way forward for prayer and counseling. Some gave their lives to God for the first time, many more recommitted their lives to the Lord, and some were healed. As the time of ministry continued most danced and worshiped along with the team who led up on stage or mingled among the crowd. It was quite a precious experience as God showed up powerfully and ministered in the lives of practically everyone in attendance.

Thursday was a planned day off with the church family gathering for a picnic on a beach about two or three kilometers across the mouth of a river and south down the coast. We crunched into two fiberglass dinghies and motored our way slowly to our remote destination. Once there, some jumped directly in the water for a swim while others piled onto the shore and under the nearest tree for shade. Many of the church’s families came with us bringing all their young kids, probably forty or more, most under twelve years old and all clamoring for the biggest guys on our team to hurl them off of their shoulders into the water. It was great fun and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Many coconuts were consumed as well as mangos and lollies. Soon, the tide began to recede and the signal for departure was made. We piled into the watercraft and made our way back to the village. It is hard to describe the experience of motoring our way back with the other boat next to us full of singing children and families worshiping God on a clear sunny day with the water whisking by and our team together soaking it all in, certainly a scene that will stick in my mind for quite some time.

Friday came around quickly as we were planning on leaving for Port Moresby on Saturday morning. The day began with a church service at the United church were I was again privileged to share a Bible study this time answering the questions, “What do I do now that I’m a Christian?” And, “How and why do I do it?” I brought in a number of verses but mostly focused on the Parable of the Talents in Matt. 25 and the sending out of the twelve in Mk. 6. We had so many people excited about their new found or renewed relationship with Jesus and I knew that they now needed some biblical direction for their service. Yukari led out in prayer in Japanese, her native language and some of the local Hisiu YWAMers helped in worship and other parts of the service. It was well attended and the message well received. For the rest of the afternoon we enjoyed fellowshipping with the villagers and our teammates as we headed north up the beach to explore and take in the sights. On the way back we headed to the long manmade rock jetty that extended about a hundred meters out into the bay with an old dilapidated wooden wharf at the end. Many of the locals fish from of it and at times the kids especially enjoy leaping and back flipping from it into the calm, deep tropical bathwater. In the evening we enjoyed more of the villagers’ exceptional hospitality as they threw a huge extravagant farewell ceremony for us. Hundreds of villagers of all ages gathered as the evening wore on and performed various hula type dances with traditional and some more modern music. Gifts were given and many hugs, handshakes, and well wishes were exchanged. At the climax of the night, well after midnight, the M.C. of the evening our host pastor, announced to everyone’s delight that we’d be allowed to stay for a couple more days through Sunday with arrangements for our departure to be made on Monday. This gave us some more time to do house visits, to fellowship and to experience village culture, an amazing opportunity and blessing. We didn’t have any formal programs during those days and enjoyed being able to blend in (as well as we could) to the village and host families, once again it’s hard to describe the acceptance and hospitality that we were offered during this extended visit. When Monday arrived it was truly hard to leave, though it was evident that our time was up, any longer and the saying about the correlation between fish and guests would have been proven true. We crammed into our van (Yes, no PMV this time!) and drove our way back to the big city. My eyes feasted on the countryside as we drove along, it wasn’t at all what I’d expected. On the way down a week previous we had little to no exposure to the sights as we were in the packed PMV but now the colors and wide variety of geography and vegetation were clearly evident and I was amazed by the difference between this area and the land to the north by Hisiu. That view was thick with impenetrable jungle, tall trees, Jurassic undergrowth, and an occasional swollen brown river passing by. In the distance you could see the base of large steep mountains but due to the weather much of the peaks were enshrouded in ghostly clouds. Here in the south there were rolling grassy hills with differing shades of green interrupted occasionally with islands of palm trees and jungly underbrush. These rose in elevation as they marched away into the distance creating deep and more thickly jungle covered valleys both broad and narrow. Even further away these foothills could be seen butting up to the steep walls of a mysterious mountain range, the Stanley Range. Don’t let the docile name mislead you, it reminding me of something out of King Kong, I’m sure there are some crazy prehistoric leviathans up there!