Packing and Travelling to Papua New Guinea

On Monday, January 28^th, Scot and I were completing our packing of clothing, food items and medical supplies to bring with us to PNG. Scot carefully weighed the bags after each adjustment. Travelling internationally, we were allowed 2 bags each of 50 pounds, in addition to a carry-on. We made use of all space and weight!

On Tuesday, our children dropped us off at the St. Louis airport and we began the tedious and lengthy process of travel to Kudjip, Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. We were originally scheduled to depart STL at 6:25 pm and fly into Dallas/Ft. Worth.  Next, a 16 hour flight from DFW into Brisbane, Australia. After a short layover, we were to fly from Brisbane into Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, a 4 hour flight. After Port Moresby there is a short one hour flight into Mt. Hagen and then a 30-40 minute drive to Kudjip Village and the Nazarene Hospital located there. That is how the travel was supposed to be. However, because of the severe weather all the way from central Texas through St. Louis and up into Canada we were rescheduled through Los Angeles. We arrived in Los Angeles in good time and were boarded onto the flight for Brisbane. At this point, we sat on the plane at the gate for 4 hours with mechanical problems! Upon arriving Brisbane, the last flight of the evening for Port Moresby was soon to depart. Scot and I made the plane, but our luggage did not! We knew we had missed the connection between POM and Mt. Hagen and would have preferred to overnight in Brisbane, but we did not have an Australian visa. We arrived in Port Moresby in the evening. After filing a lost luggage claim, we took a taxi to the Wellness Lodge to spend the night. We were wait listed for the flight the following morning and were fortunate to get seating.  On arriving in Mt. Hagen, we were happy to see the friendly face of Joanie Goosen, a volunteer missionary at Kudjip, waiting to pick us up. The following day, we were reunited with our luggage!

That concludes the saga of packing and travelling to Papua New Guinea. As anyone who has ever travelled to PNG will tell you, this is not an unusual travel adventure! We are now happily settled into a two bedroom house on the hospital station. It is newly built and very comfortable; it is called “Stone House”.  We are glad to be back with the missionary families here and our other PNG friends. Scot is still at the hospital today and will have medical news to report later.

In addition to keeping us and our family in your prayers, there is a specific prayer request from PNG. “Please pray for PNG missionaries and nationals at this time due to increased tensions and security concerns regarding the Melanesian Nazarene Teachers College.”