We're Here!

We have arrived in Papua New Guinea.

It took 27 months of planning, support raising, and training. Two attempts at obtaining work permits and visas. Five flights starting in South Africa going through Dubai, Hong Kong, Port Moresby, Lae, and finally Madang. 36 hours total in transit. But we made it!

Thank you to all who prayed for safe travel and endurance. We all slept well on the flights and have suffered very little jet lag. We were exhausted the first few days here, but everyone is back on track, mostly. We're still adapting to the humidity. We've lived in different climates before and even survived 120 degree F (49C) in Phoenix last year—we should make it here!

God's Goodness and Providence

God's Goodness and Provision in the Delay in Work Permits and Visas

• Allowed us to spend another year with our home church where we were able to serve the people we love so much. 
• Allowed us to help our children through some fears they had about coming to PNG. We left with great joy and excitement.
• Meant that we could spend time with Ryan's grandfather on his deathbed, preach the Gospel to him, and for Ryan to conduct his funeral sermon, where he proclaimed the same gospel to family and friends.
• Meant that we were able to identify certain tax and administrative elements of the missions work that needed to change. God provided all the means to make this happen.  
• Allowed Ryan to teach Hebrew at Shepherds Seminary Africa.

God's Goodness and Provision on Our Way Here

• First, Air Niugini only opens check-ins 24 hrs ahead of time, so we were in the air when we were supposed to check-in. 
• Emirates had free wi-fi onboard—just enough for us to check-in and download the boarding passes to Ryan's iPhone!
• At Hong Kong, they couldn't read the digital boarding passes, so sent us to the Air Niugini counter to have them printed. 
• At the Air Niugini counter we were able to pay for the excess baggage—and here is where God's goodness and provision comes in. As we were discussing the baggage I explained that they booked the baggage through from Johannesburg to Port Moresby. The man who helped us had not spent a whole day in the air and was thinking on his toes (our brains were more like mashed potatoes). He realised that if we paid for the baggage to Port Moresby, then we would have to pay again for the flight from Moresby to Madang. To avoid double payment he had to find all 8 of our checked bags, get them through Hong Kong customs, relabel them, and then have them sent off to be added to the Air Niugini flight.
• Hong Kong International is no small airport, and we tested their ability to track baggage! After all the initial admin of about 1.5 hours, another hour passed and they found 5 of our bags. Then after another hour, they hadn't found the last 3. Then after another hour they still hadn't found them, and assured us that they would liase with Emirates and ensure that they got sent to PNG. But they asked that we hang around another hour, and check in with them again. We checked in after 30min and they had found all but one! We completed the payment and they ran off to label the bags they had found. Then he printed our passes.
• It was now 8pm, the flight was supposed to start boarding. By God's grace our gate was just a flight of stairs above. So we ran through security, where one of the bags had to be screened ("too much metal" caused by Sebastian's toy cars!). 
• We raced to the gate, and when we got there, the flight had been delayed! And guess what, during that delay, they came to us and said that they had found our last bag, cleared it, relabelled it, and had it onboard. 
• Many were praying for us and God answered their prayers!
• But the story doesn't end there: We were now 1 hour late when we landed in Port Moresby, and our connecting flight  was leaving in 1 hour. That meant that we had to get all 8 bags, pass through security and customs, then go outside and across to domestic, all in about 30 min!
• By God's grace, one of the airport officials came to our aid. They pulled all our bags off first, while everyone had to wait around us. Then we had three additional personnel each with some of our luggage, rushing us through customs, then security, then over to domestic, then to baggage drop!
• The first thing the man at the  baggage drop asked was: "Your luggage is over. Have you paid?" Ryan said, "Yes, in Hong Kong."  He said," Was your flight booked to Moresby?" Ryan said, "Yes, but I paid through to Madang. Here's the receipt." He checked that the baggage labels said Madang on them. And he said, "OK." Right there, because of the wisdom of the young man who helped in Hong Kong, because of all the baggage hunting and relabelling, and the delay, we saved $2000!
• Then, we ran through two security checks, and straight into the boarding lounge, to the gate, and asked "has our flight started boarding?" And she said, "I'm just about to open it." And so we were at the front of the queue!
• I have no idea what everyone around us thought, but we were thanking God all the way for his provision and the kindness shown to us by Air Niugini and Jackson International's staff.

What's Next