Into month three in Papua New Guinea….I love this place and
love the people. Yes, some days are difficult
(and what place isn't!) but overall, it is a joy to be here, to be serving God,
teaching the students, getting to know new people, working on the language.
On Wednesday, March 6th
the station was hit with strong winds and rains, and they called it a
cyclone. 15-25 trees went down, and the
most damage was on a home that Missionaries to Vanuatu were staying in. It's completely a God thing that Jenny and Bennett,
the wife and oldest of the three boys, escaped without harm. Jenny had been preparing dinner in the kitchen
in one side of the house when the storm suddenly blew in, but felt God telling
her to go hide in the bathroom on the other side. She and Bennett got into that room just prior
to the huge tree landing on the kitchen side of the house. The other God thing was that the house had
just been remodeled, with a new support beam put up the center and new supports
put into the bathroom as the others had started to rot. The repairs done, helped to save their
lives! So, in the midst of the storm,
God provided for them, and he continues to do the same for all of us. This reminds me of the storm in Matthew
8. Jesus could have prevented the storm,
but He chose to use it to demonstrate His power! He also could have prevented this storm, but
instead He is using it to show how He is a God of protection, reliable in the
midst of the storm and a provider of all that is truly needed.
After the storm I was without power for over 2 days, andsome
waited even longer. Being without power
is nothing new to Kudjip station. Papua
New Guinea has the most unreliable power supply of just about all the third
world countries. The station did have a
hydro that was washed away about 7 years ago, and a new Hydro power plant is
being worked on currently. The project
should be finished within the next year.
Power here goes out just about every day, some times for just a few
minutes, sometimes for hours. Sometimes
it will go out numerous times in a span for an hour, really fun when you are
trying to shower, wash clothes or do dishes, grade tests, or make copies on the
copier!!! In the week that followed the
storm, the power was even more unreliable.
I got to the point where I just would expect it not to work, and planned
accordingly for my classes, and all daily activities. No power to make copies- no problem! Just
write out the quiz on butcher block paper, have the students copy the questions
and answers onto their notebook paper! (Only
problem was this takes three times longer to do!, so much less time to lecture
on the next topic!) But then a funny
thing happens, the power does come back on.
But you are so use to making do without it, that you forget to use
it! You start to light a candle, or use
a flashlight to read at night, instead of turning on the overhead light. You use alcohol gel to clean your hands, when
the bathroom sink actually does work! You
decide to go for a walk instead of a run, so you won't need to shower as
bad! You have dinner at 5:00 when you
are not really hungry so you don't have to cook/eat in the dark! Doing all these things was not too much of an
issue, life was ok, we made it work. But
when the power is on, it seems really silly to do some of them!
This got me to
thinking about God, and His power. It is
readily available to all of us, all the time. Sometimes we choose not to use it
though. We don’t ask for His help, or
we don’t believe totally in His word. He
is right there, just like that light switch, ready to be our ever present help
in time of need. How often do we not let
Him turn the power on? How often do we
sit there in the dark of our lives, making do, telling ourselves, "This isn't
so bad, I can handle this", when He is right there, ready and waiting for
us to turn to Him and His power. I was
very thankful for that reminder this month.
I have a tendency to be very self-sufficient, which is a good thing (at
times!) It also can get in the way of
God really using you, or you limiting God.
I have relied on God even more in this past month than I have had to
previously, because the nature of things required it. He would reveal a new area of my life, or a
new place for growth, and I just have to give it to Him. When He shows you a new "light
switch" in your life, let Him turn the power on! Or if you have never experienced His power, the
power of belief in Him, the power of forgiveness, don't sit there in the dark
any longer. Life in the light is so much
better!
So my main lesson this month is to be ever thankful for God's
power, to never forget that He is right there, at work. Sometimes His power is visible, sometimes it
is not, but unlike the power in PNG, it has never, and will never fail me or you!
