We're support staff. We are on about Bible Translation in Papua New Guinea. So what does it mean to be 'support staff'.
Well it means a great many things, but one of the most recent was to cover our friends Ben and John and Beth in prayer.
Ben and John and Beth were heading into their village to do Bible Translation work and training.
I've been to their village.
We were praying over obstacle #1 and #2. I'll let Ben share:
Tadji airstrip is one of two operational airstrips in Papua New Guinea that still has the steel perforated Marston Matting that was used during WWII for quick and portable temporary airstrips. Nearly 80 years later, we're still landing on it. However, tall grass frequently grows up through the holes in the steel matting and makes it unsafe to land. We asked you to pray that we could land here and avoid an additional 8+ hour road trip from Wewak. After praying for the day's activities, praise the Lord that our veteran pilot got us to Tadji, circled once at low altitude to check the airstrip, and then safely navigated his landing against a strong headwind.
I've taken this flight and landed, the alternative road trip is very taxing on the body. It is polite to call it a 'road trip'. A road trip implies music, snacks, comfort. This is much more like a sojourn. Unless you've lived it, you won't really get what I mean from that so I'll move on, suffice it to say, when you arrive at your destination you're exhausted.
So my family and I, our Bible study, everyone prayed that they would be able to land, and the Lord provided!
Obstacle 2: (from Ben)
Can the truck make it through the rivers and the mud?
Once we landed, our friends from Pou, where the language of the same name is spoken, were ready for us with their pickup truck. We loaded up and headed out to Arop. Our teammate Beth reports that the river now normally flows down the path of this road.
Maybe you saw the video I posted last year about the 'river road'. This is one crazy journey.
One of the things you hear Christians say is 'pray for travelling mercies'. Before I came here, that meant having a nice comfortable air-flight, a safe flight, not losing your luggage.
Now it means, arriving in good health without your cargo capsizing, without your truck being washed down river, without major injury or worse.
It's funny to me because I never could relate before, when watching movies of people driving jeeps through the jungle. I used to think 'that looks like so much fun!.'
But when you've done it a few times, it stops being 'fun'. In this case, the journey is NOT the point, arriving to the destination and being able to do Bible Translation is the point.
So we are supporting them in our prayers, and in any other practical way we can (technical support, moral support, caring for family staying behind, sending supplies, whatever they need).
That's just a glimpse at one of the things support staff does.
