First Day of Outreach #2

We had a lovely week in Port Moresby and today we took a short sail out of the port and around the outside of the bay, where several villages are. These are so much different from the ones we visited on the Bamu River. Kouderika (code-a-reeka) was the first village my optometry visited today. It was about a 15-minute boat ride from where the ship was anchored.

Our new volunteers are made up of some DTS students from Townsville, just starting their outreach, and other assorted volunteers from around the world, as before. There are about 25 of us left over from the last outreach that includes the professional sailing crew, ywam staff and a few general volunteers from the last outreach. We fit in there somewhere!!

Whereas the Bamu villages were very primitive, this village had city water piped in and a readily available spring. Many people had cars and electricity too, but it was still what I (as a Westerner) might call a “slum”. It’s Easter weekend, as you all know, so many of the teenagers in the village are away at “Easter Camp” so we had lots of adults and little kids around. I learned how to say good morning in their local language (Daba Namona) and when I got to shore, I started singing like I was Nat King Cole singing “Mona Lisa” but using the words for Good Morning, Daba Namona! It was a hit and about 30 kids “adopted” me for the day! It was fun getting to know them in between my work with optometry! My duties on the optometry team range from registering people to doing reading and distance tests to just talking and engaging people. Many people spoke English so being understood was not a problem!

Donna is leading a Community Engagement team in the same village today. She’s enjoying developing the team, leading them and encouraging and releasing the PNG members into greater leadership. They had a good day with the kids and playing with them.

The other really cool thing about this village is that they have a huge tree that looks like it should be in the movie Avatar!! It was just huge and we had our clinic under its shade. It shaded all of us plus another 40 people easily!! I’ll ad a picture to show you!

After we got back to the ship today we were allowed to take a swim off the back of the PNG! About 30 of us took advantage of the warm waters and chance to swim and splash around! It was a lot of fun!

Tomorrow is Easter for us, so Donna and I have agreed to lead a Sunrise Service for anyone who wants to attend on the ship. I’m not sure who, if anyone will come, but we will have a good time anyway. I’ll do some worship and Donna will do a devotional on the meaning of Easter. Remember, there are some people on board who are not Christians, so although we don’t do evangelism, we also don’t hide who we are. We are accepting and open for conversation and by the end of the time, many people are open to the idea of a personal God and relationship with him!!

The Lord is Risen!!! He is Risen, Indeed!!