Sleeping in my own bed again...

Well, this trip has officially come to a close. Last night I was able to sleep in my own bed again ... good to be home! The travel actually went very easily. The connections went without a problem, all luggage arrived, and I didn't get overly stir crazy on the 14 hour flight from Sydney to LA. (Having an AC power outlet at my seat was great!)

On the trip home, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to describe my experiences. I look forward to sharing a report and showing pictures for you who are close by, and I'm exploring ways to share some things with you who are further away. I look forward to thanking you personally, but I'll also thank you here for your prayer and encouragement and financial help. What a privilege this trip was!

And now to grade papers as they slowly come in! (They have reading reports due now, and then a project due in November.)

So just one thought now: Going on an adventure like this heightens my expectation that I need to live by faith, looking at each day as a day when God will be at work in the world around me. I realize that I have to choose to do that now that I'm home, rather than just figuring that I can handle 'normal life' on my own. God is at work, shaping us and using us. I pray that He will help me be actively aware of that work each day, walking in hope and obedience.

The Dialogues @ University of Goroka

Here I am at "The Dialogues @ University of Goroka." It was a satisfying evening. The session was all in English. Unfortunately there was other noise and they tended to be soft spoken, so sometimes I had to ask multiple times to know what they said. But the good news is that people were (after warming up a little) willing to speak up!

We studied Luke 12:13-21 when Jesus told the parable of the rich man with a rich field. The big challenge was to discover what it means to be 'rich toward God' rather than wanting to gather treasures to ourselves. I pray that it was helpful to the students.

They were very kind. I took along two MSU t-shirts as gifts. There were about 6 students who were there for the first time ... so having learned from Campus Crusade :-) I gave the shirts to 2 new people.

Now I can't wait to get back to MSU and report to The Dialogues @ MSU about my experience doing the same thing in PNG! What a privilege it is to have been able to met with them.

Final sermons done!

So we have finished the preaching in this course! I've heard 30 sermons in the past week ... and listened to all of them! Generally it was quite good. I am very pleased with the progress. It has been significant to get to know these men and hopefully play a role in their growth as pastors.

These last two days the pastors have been preaching through the book of Titus (multiple times). What a great book! I can't wait to preach it myself sometime! One of the key concerns these pastors had at the start of the course is that they have many people who have not been putting into practice what they were taught. In Titus 2:1, Paul tells Titus that sometimes people don't realize what exactly it looks like to live according to the truth. It is one thing to say that we should avoid ungodliness; it is something quite different to be specific about what that might look like in daily life. Paul then goes on to give rather specific instructions to Titus about the types of things he was to teach each group of people their society (young, old, men, women, and slaves). I challenged the guys, and now I am challenged, to take the risk to be clear enough when we preach about what it looks like to live according to the truth. It is risky ... will I get it wrong? Will people not like it? Will it seem like I'm judging people? But Paul commanded Titus to do it. Because knowing and believing sound doctrine doesn't automatically result in living according to it. We need to be taught and challenged.

So having taught others, I have now been taught, and I need to put it into practice!

Now I've got to review my notes on their preaching and give them feedback. Hopefully I'll get that done by tomorrow mid-day.

Tonight I go to a speak with a group of students at University of Goroka. Essentially I will do what I've been doing with the Dialogues at MSU on Sunday evenings. It will be fascinating to see what happens with this approach in a very different setting.

Tomorrow after grading I will go to the New Tribes center here in Goroka then Sunday I travel to Sydney. Monday I have a day to explore Sydney and then Tuesday I take the long trek back to Haslett.

Thanks for your interest in this adventure, for your prayer, and for those of you who contributed financially to help make it possible! These things are all greatly appreciated!

A very good day!

So we had the first group of preachers today on their second sermon, and it went very well. Perhaps the most rewarding thing was a pastor who finished up his sermon and immediately broke into a great big smile! We had 7 strong sermons. They were concerned but they really learned things I have been trying to teach them, and they could tell even as they preached that it was going much better.

I am very thankful ... and a bit relieved! I felt the pressure of someone who has pushed people, wondering if it would work out.

Now I am going off to a help session for the other students who have to preach tomorrow. I'm hoping it won't go three hours, but we'll do what needs to be done.

Thanks for praying!

An encouraging day

Thank you for praying for me and my interactions with the students today. I think it went well. I know there was some 'sticker shock' when they saw the grades, but I think they handled it pretty well.

I just had a 3 hour help session in preparation for the sermons tomorrow and Friday, working one on one with anyone interested. I will probably do another one tomorrow evening for people who didn't make it in today. They are certainly making progress on news ways of thinking.

On the other hand, I hate to leave them now ... they are starting to see what we're working on, but I wish I could take them further! The good thing is that I have assigned a project for them that will help them apply what we've learned over the coming months.

So 2 more days, listening to sermons and giving feedback. I pray that God blesses these days of preaching that they would continue to grow spiritually and in their skill as preachers.

Lots of people...

So one of my misconceptions about PNG was that there wouldn't be so many people. I guess I figured that because it was so mountainous and had so many different language groups, the people people must be pretty spread out. Well, I expect that this is often true, but it isn't true in Goroka. It seems that there are people everywhere. And they all seem to be going someplace. A huge number always seem to be walking down long stretches of road. And of course there are lots of people on the beds of trucks. Actually, it is theoretically illegal to have any part of your body 'outside' a vehicle except if you need to signal for a stop or turn. Apparently they aren't too active in enforcing that! (Actually this is a very lightly loaded truck ... sometimes I'm a bit bashful about the pictures I take ...)

Another surprise is that things are actually pretty expensive. I figured that being in the developing world, the dollar would go a long ways. Actually, things are quite close to the prices at home, whether it is eating at a restaurant or buying gas. Part of it is that so much has to be imported. Part of it may be due to corruption. I really don't know much ... except that my expectation of my dollar buying a lot more here than at home turned out to be false.

On a more serious note, if you would pray for my interactions with the pastors in my class, that would be great. They preached their first sermons yesterday and today, and tomorrow I give them their grades. I also made a digital video of their preaching that they had to watch (there is an office computer here that they all used). I've heard indirectly that they weren't very pleased with their preaching. Well, they'll discover from the grades that I wasn't always completely impressed either :-(. Actually, they did well, but I know I am pushing them, and I know that many are preaching in their 3rd language, so I realize that it is very hard.

So, my prayer is that I would be gracious and encouraging while also giving them helpful feedback. And I pray that they wouldn't be discouraged by the grades. The good news is that they get to preach another sermon on Thursday/Friday, and the goal is that they would learn from this feedback. And I'm going to offer them that if they do better on Sermon #2 than on #1, then I'll give them the second grade for both sermons. So everyone still has the potential for a good grade ... but it will be a shock anyway.

And it has been great to see the improvement even between Monday and Tuesday. I am hopeful that, with what we'll cover tomorrow, they will make significant strides by the next day.

It is a privilege to work with them and I do pray that this experience will make a significant difference in how they approach their preaching. After all, that is why they signed up for the course!

Thanks! -- John

A 7 sermon day

Today was the first day for student sermons. It is quite an experience to hear 7 in a row! But it is also very satisfying and challenging to listen to your students try to put into practice what you have been teaching them. So now I'm in the midst of giving them feedback. Tomorrow we have 8 more and I don't want to get behind!




Today was also a big day because I got to go for a flight with MAF! It was incredible! I sat in the very back of a twin engine otter. We made a quick trip out to a village to carry back coffee beans which provides income for the village.

Sunday afternoon

So it is Sunday afternoon here. I went to church and it was fascinating! The people are very enthusiastic singers! The youth and the men had Sunday School classes in the same building with cement floors, so you could hear a lot between them, and both groups sang heartily so there was an interesting blend of songs!

This picture is before church began. Almost all of the women and children sit on the left side and almost all of the men sit on the right. By the time the service started it was basically full.

All of the singing both in church and Sunday School was a capella, and to introduce the song the leader would sing the first line or two as a solo, then we would all begin. Almost everything was in pigeon although we sang "It is well with my soul" in English.

I preached and was translated. It was a great privilege. I hope it was of some value to the people.

Tomorrow my students begin preaching in class. It should be very interesting. They are preaching from the book of Jonah. We will certainly have heard plenty about this reluctant prophet by Tuesday afternoon!

So what day is it anyway?

I realize that the dates on the blog post don't always align with what day it is here. I should be clearer. Right now it is Saturday afternoon. It is a quiet day. No class. I've graded the work students and just went to try to find them to give them their feedback. Either they're gone or sleeping, and I chose not to disturb them if they were sleeping. So I'll try again later.


The countryside is beautiful! This is the dry season, but it is drier than usual.

I met a family that lives where there are no reasonable roads to get there. So they fly in and out. They are there for about 12 weeks at a time and then fly out for 2 weeks. And they love it! The only electricity they have is from a generator 3 hours a day, but that charges up batteries for things like computers so the kids can do their homeschooling. And all of their appliances are run by LP gas. Quite an adventure!

A clinic and a storage shed

Here is the medical clinic here at the Goroka Bible College. The wife of the man I'm staying with is a nurse there. She is in the States awaiting the birth of their first grand child.


And here is a storage shed. You'll notice that it looks distinctly like a shipping container ... because it is. If you know the "Pineapple Story," you have some feel for the trouble with the concept of 'ownership.' These shipping containers are actually one of the most secure ways to store things. If it's not bolted down...

So today we finished the first week of class. Many of the pastors are heading home to their families and churches. Because of that, on Monday we won't start class until 1pm so they can travel on Monday to get back in time for class.

One of the challenging issues of teaching this class is the experience level of these pastors. The average time as pastors for them is something like 15 years. So the question is what they are going to learn by taking this class. I've challenged them to use this class as a time to try something new in terms of their preaching, and I've suggested a few things. This is a safer environment than experimenting in their own pulpits! And taking the DMin courses at Gordon Conwell did the same for me ... it pushed me to try something I would never have tried, and now I can't imagine *not* doing what they challenged me to do. So I am excited about having them try things out this next week.

This weekend for me, I am preparing to preach on Sunday. I am also working to get feedback to my students on draft outlines they turned in. An amazing thing in this country that has such remote places is that cell phones are now pretty broadly available. So for those who are going home, we are going to TEXT their feedback to them. So even here in PNG, we're using educational technology in innovative ways!

Going to market

Yesterday I got out a bit to see around. One fascinating trip was to the market. Lots of sights and sounds and smells and feelings! We now have a great variety of fruits for me to try that I haven't had before!

In terms of class, I am trying to blend the rest of the new material I want to cover with times to practice what we have already done. In a short class like this, a big concern is that new things will make sense in the class but all too easily be forgotten once the two weeks are over. So today I'm going to try to model the sermon development process I've been teaching. I hope it will be valuable for them.

Thanks for praying for them and for me in this process.

My class

Here I am with the students in my class. They are a humble and soft-spoken group. I am encouraged by our interaction. We've only met two days but it seems that people are more and more willing to speak up and we are able to have back-and-forth dialogue. I hope that what we are doing is helpful. I think it is, but I also think that some might be a little overwhelmed.

I'm working to get them prepared for their preaching starting next week. Doing all of this material in a short time is good while also challenging. It goes quickly!

Some images from Goroka PNG

A great group of students!

It is exciting to have completed the first day of class! I have 15 students, most of whom have 10+ years of experience as pastors. Some live and serve in remote villages while some live in larger towns. One lives in the midst of ongoing tribal warfare. Another is living by faith as he serves as a traveling evangelist, being largely dependent on the food that they grow in the family garden. All of them express a great heart for their people and a passion for preaching God’s Word. It is humbling to be with them. What a privilege to play a role in helping them further develop their gifts of communicating God’s Word through preaching!

I think that class today went well, although that is always a bit challenging to judge as the teacher. Because of missing a day of class with my ‘travel interruption,’ we met from 8 until 1pm. We covered a lot of content as well as studying the Word and praying together. They also began their study for their preaching through the book of Jonah. It is encouraging to see the nods and affirmations as we study together.

One of the big ideas is learning how to give and receive constructive feedback on our preaching. I am challenging them to disciple other future leaders and preachers by engaging them in thinking through what makes a sermon better or worse. For their project, they will have to ask people to give them feedback using a semi-structured form. While getting valuable feedback about their own preaching, I am also hoping that they will be teaching others what good preaching is made up of, and helping stirring in the hearts of some the call to preach.

I have been invited to preach at a local church on Sunday, and then to speak at a local university next Friday to a mixture of Christian and non-Christian students. I am most honored. I am trying to develop a sense of the people through the descriptions these pastors are giving of their people, but I know I am only scratching the surface. I pray that God might use the novelty of a professor from the US to draw the attention of others to Himself.

I am also thankful for the time with missionaries here at the college. Their stories of God’s faithfulness are most encouraging and challenging. And what a great ministry this college has of developing the current and future leaders of the churches of Papua New Guinea! Surprisingly, many if not most people in PNG would consider themselves Christian, but apparently few have anything more than a formality. One of the great challenges for these preachers is to reach the heart of people who figure that going through the motions is good enough.

This week class focuses on content that I present as we prepare for their preaching next week. Each night I am making adjustments and preparing for the next day while also trying to learn names and faces. I am doing well in terms of the time zone and have been healthy, for which I am very thankful.

So thank you for praying! And please keep praying that God would use this time to further sharpen these men as those who proclaim God’s Word to change lives for His glory!

-- John

In PNG and ready for class!

Finally, I have arrived in Goroka, PNG, and class begins tomorrow morning! The final flights went well, and my missing bag showed up in Goroka before I did.

I've met a few of my students ... there will be 15 in all. We begin at 8am tomorrow (6pm Monday for you who are in Michigan). I'm excited to get under way!

I'm staying with an ABWE missionary family who are connected with the Bible college here. It will be a great experience!

It was fascinating to fly over much of this country when traveling up from Port Moresby. Lots of jungle and winding rivers and mountains. It will be great to see more of it!

Please pray for my interaction with my students, that the class would be valuable for them and that I would learn from them.

I'll let you know how the day goes!

Now in Sydney

Just to update you, I'm in an Internet cafe in Sydney. The flight from LA went well but now Delta has misplaced another bag. They say it should be no problem to get it to PNG with me tomorrow. We'll see.

I emailed a missionary here in Sydney who recommended a good church and good activities for the day, so I'll take a look around. It is winter here ... okay not like a Michigan winter, but I may have to buy a sweatshirt somewhere (mine is in the missing bag!).

I talked with a retired pastor on the plane for quite a while. It was very encouraging.

So, given the delay, I think I'm doing pretty well. As long as I can stay away until a reasonable bed time tonight, the time change should go pretty well I hope. Then another day of travel and we begin class on Tuesday morning.

Thanks for your interest and prayer! -- John

Anyone for Los Angeles?

Unfortunately I have been given some time in Los Angeles. There was confusion by the staff in Grand Rapids about a possible delay with my original flight, so they put me on a flight from Grand Rapids to Detroit and then Detroit to LA. And that flight was delayed and I missed my flight to Sydney. And the kicker is that my flight from Sydney up to PNG only goes every other day, putting me in Goroka on Monday evening instead on Saturday evening, and thus *after* the first day of class.

So there are some things to be thankful for:
* Thankfully the delays weren't weather related, so the airline paid for a hotel room here in LA and a whole $6 for each meal today!
* I was able to be in touch via email and then to talk via Skype with my contact in Goroka last night. That was *very* helpful and encouraging.
* It looks like I may be able to get on a Qantas flight up to Port Moresby, PNG by Sunday noon, and it actually appears that I can still get to Goroka by Sunday evening.

All in all, it seems like things are going amazingly well. I have to make some calls today and then get to the airport early today in order to work out details.

The first step in the adventure! I pray that I and my luggage will be able to make it to Goroka by Sunday evening so I can begin class in one piece on Monday.

Thanks for your concern and prayer!

-- John

Preparations continue...

I'm now just one day away from leaving for Papua New Guinea. I feel like I'm pretty close to being ready in terms of the course. The bigger push is to finish up things that need to be done here before I leave. But I think I'll get some sleep and be ready to leave tomorrow!

Here are some details for my travel:
* I leave on Thursday (7/29) at 5:30pm from Grand Rapids, and arrive in Goroka, PNG on Saturday (7/31) at 4:40pm. (Goroka is 14 hours ahead of Michigan time.)
* I leave Goroka on Sunday (8/15) and spend 2 nights in Sydney, Austrailia, arriving back in Grand Rapids at 9:45pm on Tuesday (8/17).

I am very thankful that people's contributions for this trip are sufficient to cover my expenses as well as help students with expenses and even provide them with Bibles to take back to their churches! Thank you! My hope has been that the class would have significant practical value for my students, not just a way to get credit. I'm so thankful that you have helped me down this road already!

Would you pray...
* For wisdom as I finalize my preparations for the class and begin this coming Monday morning!
* For strength and perseverance in taking care of responsibilities here that need to be finished before doing to PNG.
* For my family as they continue with the adventures of life here in Michigan while I'm gone.

Thank you! -- John