SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST MISSION
International – Papua New Guinea / Malawi Africa
P.O. Box 60150 Ndirande Bt. 6 Blantyre Malawi /
P.O. Box 233 – Mt Hagen (WHP) Papua New Guinea
Tanggi Mission Station – North Koroba, Hela Province, PNG
Missionary / Evangelist: Peter A. Halliman
Email: panagioite04@gmail.com / Website: sgbm-malawi-africa.com
Date: 15th May 2022
Proverbs 29:2 — When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
Psalms 12:8 — The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
Dear Pastor, Church, and All Supporters:
This report will deal with the theme of the above verses. I must tell you both the good and the bad of what I face here in PNG. Here, the generation we live among has no sense or idea of law and order. Eight hundred and fifty tribes make up this island, and the government does not have a handle on crime, violence, or law and order. In the past few years my vehicle — the Land Rover — has been shot up; bullet holes still exist. I was graciously given a class-3 law-enforcement bulletproof vest by a young sheriff in the church in Memphis, TN where Bro. Ray Angus is pastor. I wear this vest each time I go out.
Just last week I was at a transport company workshop working on the mission truck. I went to a hardware shop for some items. Passing through the main public market we overheard people talking about dangers on the roads. Not knowing what was going on, I continued with four men in the vehicle.
It did not take long before we ran into a hornet’s nest. Going in the same direction were up to ten lorries loaded with men painted up and armed with machetes, iron pipes, axes, guns, and rocks. As they drove in tandem, any vehicle they approached had windows smashed and people attacked. This procession continued all the way to the Airport, eight miles out of town.
The Airport closed and flights were aborted. All shops were locked up and barred. Glass from vehicle windows littered the roads. I pulled into a gated hardware yard and waited.
One thing I know: the Mt. Hagen township was under siege. All roads entering and leaving were roadblocked — not by Police or government authorities.
When I bought the Land Rover from the UK in 2004, I had the glass specially treated to be smash-proof against hand-held objects, done in Johannesburg, South Africa. In Malawi I once ran through a riot roadblock where a brick was catapulted at my window and bounced off without a mark.
This past week, as I was caught in the traffic and firearms were discharged, two rounds hit the windscreen. The projectiles did not pass through. GOD’S sovereign protection? Yes. Did it have anything to do with the glass treated in South Africa many years ago? I will let you decide.
PNG is not the PNG I was born in and grew up in. The government has suspended new firearms licences and issued a public mandate that anyone caught with an unregistered firearm will face life imprisonment. Yet the black market is rife with illegal weapons — and those who have them will not surrender them.
Where does this leave me?
In His Name,
Missionary Peter Halliman