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.