SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST
MISSION OF MALAWI
PO BOX 60150 BT. 6 BLANTYRE MALAWI AFRICA
TEL. 265-999-741-007 or 265-888-751140 (mobile)
Missionary / Evangelist: Peter A. Halliman
Email: phalliman@africa-online.net / or brothersinthebush@yahoo.com
Website: sgbm-malawi-africa.com

(Eze 3:17) “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.”

0600 hrs we started the day, camp was being taken down and things were packed up for our departure to another point. We had some coffee and sweet potatoes for breakfast and by 0900 hrs we were packed and ready to start our hike to the next place. One thing I would like to say regarding the Revival meeting, at the beginning of the meeting Pastor Ayane had told me that he didn’t think he and the church folks would have enough food to keep us through the week, I had replied to him that if we put the LORD’S work first, then the LORD would provide for the temporal things. We had started the meeting, and through the week the food seemed to just be enough, I am reminded of;

(1Ki 17:12-16) “And she said, As Jehovah thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in the jar, and a little oil in the cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it forth unto me, and afterward make for thee and for thy son.

For thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, The jar of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that Jehovah sendeth rain upon the earth.

And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.

The jar of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spake by Elijah.”

At the end of the meeting I asked the Pastor, was not the food enough through out the meeting? He replied, indeed it was. I asked did not we end the meeting with more food then what we had started with? He replied, yes indeed and in fact we were taking some of the meat from the Mumu with us as we were departing and this would continue to feed us for another two days.

We set off and hiked for five miles coming to our next destination Eganda Baptist Church. This church also has an interesting background some of which I will share. I wrote much about this church in my reports of 2004, and 2009 so I will not be redundant however I will share what I believe to be pertinent to this trip. We arrived, set up camp and there was already a good crowd waiting to worship together.

It was already midday and the rains were near, therefore we did not delay. The house was filled with mostly women as this church long ago had lost many of the men (husbands) for one reason or another, leaving mostly women as members. In fact over the past ten years this church has been through two pastors and due to the fact that the previous pastors tried to become dictators instead of shepherds. These women had been taught Landmark Baptist doctrine, and know it very well; they are a strong group of members and embrace the Truth, as we know it to be. I had encouraged them in 04, and 09 and told them to keep this issue before the LORD and he would supply them with a good pastor. He did, and I wrote much about him in my 09 reports. His name is Pastor John Hetaya, he is a born Huli, but called to pastor this church among the Duna people. I said all that to say this, since my trip of 09, the LORD had blessed this church with some new members, four (which were men).

We started the services and had a wonderful time in the LORD, there was a short recess and then we congregated again for another service. It was time for the afternoon chores, the rains had already set in, and soon night would be approaching. Dinner was heated up from the left over pig meat from the Mumu. We had our baths, and dinner then spent some time talking about the work with the men in one of the bush houses.

Another day in the LORD had ended and it was time to switch off our headlamps and call it an evening.

My day started at 0500 hrs, not that there was so much work to be done, but I am one of those persons when I wake up, I get up. I don’t see any profit in lying in bed after I have woke from my sleep.

Being still dark, out I made my way to the bush house where Bro. Hepe was and organized for the coffee to be made. I spent some time in studies as I knew today also would involve preaching at least twice.

The morning was quickly passing, people were coming in and soon the churchyard was filling with folks who were coming to worship. Several had come from as far away as two and three hours. We started our services at 0900 hrs and with the building packed full it seemed as though the singing would lift off the roof. I have to wonder how the singing will sound in heaven with all the host of heaven itself praising our LORD.

The preaching lasted for almost an hour and half and then we let out for a short break, as there would be another preaching service before the noon meal of the day. I would like to insert something here about the timetable of preaching, not every crowd of people are the same, not every Christian is on the same level, and what may seem long to some, may be short to others, and what may seem short to some, may seem long to others. I often relate it to our physical eating… not every meal is eaten at the same timetable, and certain foods require more chewing, thus, the time. I believe at this point in my ministry, having preached amongst different cultures and peoples that it is in the developed world where we really have things calibrated. Most of GOD’S people are not prepared to sit for more then half an hour of preaching, add some songs, and a couple prayers and that is the worship service. Deviate from this any and most folks think the ‘unpardonable sin’ has been committed.

The late morning service was started, and soon after we had finished the singing, there was a group of ten men who came in and sat down. From the appearance of these men they were of importance and seemingly held honourable positions amongst the people.

I continued with the service and preached a strong message on “God raising up stones for HIS work”. After the service, the ‘official Mumu’ was being prepared and this gave me a chance to talk with these men who attended the service. Amongst the group were two young men who I had known many years ago and had grown up to mature men, holding leadership position among their people. Being among the Duna Tribesmen, who are of a different temperament then the Huli people. Amongst these men, some were chiefs, village elders, and counsellors, and government appointed village magistrates. They had come to visit us, hearing that we had come to do the LORD’S work. Many of these men knew me, and as the years had passed by we simply had lost contact. They wanted to officially greet us, welcome us into the Duna area (as the custom is), and to assure us that we had their full support for what we were there for, namely the LORD’S work. The different ones took time to rehearse history how my father had come amongst their people many years ago bringing the Gospel and had he not many of their people would still be living in darkness. There were two young men in their thirties who were brothers and sons of a great chief and renown warrior years back who had risen to leadership positions among their people. They wanted to assist us in getting back to the Tanggi mission station with a vehicle, so as we talked about the details it would entail two vehicles to carry our gear and the men who were on patrol with us. This was organized, certain men were sent to prepare the vehicles, and however it would not be until early morning hours before they would come to collect us. We were served the food from the Mumu and we concluded our day with discussions amongst the church members, and several visitors who had come to visit with us. The day passed into night and we packed up for our journey back to the Tanggi mission station.

It was at 0200 hrs when a messenger was received that it was time to go, we quickly took down the tent, and broke camp and walked a short distance to the main road where the vehicles were waiting. After we set off it was three hours to the mission station, we unloaded, thanked the men, gave them a small offering for the fuel and hiked up to the house from the main road. At 0500 hrs we unpacked, sorted through our clothes and packing equipment to be washed and cleaned, then my wife and I laid down to get some rest until 0900 hrs when we rose to continue through the day with the duties before us.

This day was spent in washing, cleaning, and hanging out the camping equipment, tarps, backpacks, clothes, cookware, hiking boots, just about everything we had was dirty, muddy, and nothing short of a good scrub and wash would do. Living in the Southern Highlands of PNG, one has to take into consideration the daily rainfall and as I have stated many times it is like clockwork, there is the usual rains most of the night, and almost every night, then there is at least one session of rain during the day, (usually in the late afternoon) for about an hour, in addition there can be the late morning rain. Here at Tanggi mission station, it has been recorded many times, four hundred inches per annum, that comes out to (1.095 inches per day) theoretically that does not sound like much, however when you live under that rainfall it seems like the heavens just open up. In Malawi as a comparison, there are three months of a (rainy season), and we average during that time (0.88 in.) during the ninety days of rain, per annum would be (0.219 in). There were different folks who came here to Malawi over the years and were here in the rainy season so they will have a fair idea of the rains we receive, taking that and comparing to the rainfall in PNG, you will get a good picture of the rainfall there. Most everything dried except some of our clothes and these had to be hung up on the veranda and in the house. With a hundred percent humidity factor it is hard to get clothes to dry even when they hung up.

We prepared our dinner early as we had not eaten that day, and further to this we would be making a trip back to Mt. Hagen to restock on supplies and collect some funds. The evening was spent in this preparation and by 21:00 hrs we called it a day and blew out the candles.

00:30 hrs we rose in the night, and with candlelight and our torches we finished some packing, and made some coffee. At 01:45 hrs we departed the house at Tanggi for our hike to Koroba government station where we would find public transport onto Mt. Hagen. It seems like hiking in the night the journey always seems further, perhaps it is because one cannot see much further then a few meters in front of them. We were with Makana, Hepe, Koyane, and James Kiruba so they shared the two backpacks which we had with us. The hike is twelve miles and though it’s on the main road (stone, and gravel) the terrain is up and down hills making for a challenging walk after several miles. Time passed as so did the miles, and after three hours we arrived at Koroba where we found public transport, which took us onto Tari where we would find transport again to Mt. Hagen. At 0700 hrs we arrived in Tari, and boarded a thirty-seated bus going to Mt. Hagen. For the next ten hours we would endure the journey on this bus packed out to the seams with people, and cargo. It is a long ride, and seems to be longer if someone else is driving (at least for me) that is.

We arrived in Mt. Hagen and caught a smaller bus to Bro. Ekere’s place where we would put up. The day had been long, we were tired, hungry and dirty from the ride, we were fed a good meal, took our baths, and called it a day by 20:00 hrs.

Today our day started at 0600 hrs, had some coffee and prepared to go into town to take care of business. I had purchased a solar panel with the necessary wires, battery etc… to use as a power source when we first arrived in PNG. I was experiencing problems with the charging, so I had brought the package with me and now needed to return where I had made the purchase to find the cause of failure. The system was checked and the fault was found where the wire is inserted into the power source on the back of the solar panel, the wire they had fitted was the wrong size (too big) and was not reaching the copper contacts within the sealed box, therefore it was not charging the entire time we had been using it in the bush. For over a month I had been using the equipment (previously charged battery) when it was first purchased till now. They corrected the problem and we moved onto other business. As in Africa, so too in PNG, business does not move quickly, its one thing at a time. If you are in a hurry and need it like yesterday then you are in the wrong country. I needed to make a trip to Port Moresby, and update my visa extension, they used to have a Immigration office in Mt. Hagen but have done away with this now and therefore anyone wishing to conduct business with Immigration are forced to fly to Port Moresby and take care of the business there. It is expensive and inconvenient but none the less it is what it is. We went to the Air Niugini office there in Mt. Hagen and made the bookings for our flight to Port Moresby. Since I did not know how long the business would take to conduct I was not in a position to set the return date and would need to do that in Port Moresby at the time we would know of our return date.

The day passed and we went back to Bro. Ekere’s had our dinner, took our baths, and spent some time in the evening fellowshipping and discussing the mission work.

My day started at 0600 hrs, I had my morning coffee, bathed and prepared for the services of the day. Bro. Ekere asked me to preach for that morning and I had already prepared my message the night before but needed to study more, (I am sure every preacher reading this, knows a little about this).

Church services started at 0900 hrs and there was a good crowd, Bro. Ekere had taught the adult Sunday school class and then I preached on “Ichobad”; I fear that the Glory of our LORD has departed from many a folk, and even some churches that are called by HIS NAME.

The day was spent in great fellowship with GOD’S people, many stayed after services to visit and chat with us.

This day was a special day for my wife and I; it was a year ago on this day, which we were happily married by our Pastor Bro. Steve Fulton, one year had passed and though we were in PNG, I still felt I needed some privacy with my new bride; therefore we went to spend the evening and night at one of the local hotels in town. For the American style and class of living this would be nothing to brag about, however I can assure you after living in the bush for nearly sixty days in a tent, sleeping bags, taking bush baths, most of the days mud all over us; that this was quite a treat for us both, but especially my bride. I am sure the women can appreciate this.

We rose up early 0600 hrs, as we wanted to have some breakfast and enjoy some extra time before we needed to check out. We had a wonderful breakfast, and enjoyed our time alone, but the time did come for this to end and we checked out, went back to Bro. Ekere’s and prepared for our flight to Port Moresby, which was at 10:00 hrs.

The flight was on time, and after a forty-five minute flight to the Capitol city we arrived, were picked up by the shuttle bus from the hotel where we were booked to stay. After checking into our room, I called a Huli friend of mine named Lulu, who knew a government minister, who in turn would have his secretary assist us with the Immigration procedures. We were picked up by a driver, taken to the office and the necessary documents filled out and then taken to Immigration. They told us that in a week’s time the passports would be stamped and out. The problem with this was we did not have a week to stay in POM, and would need to leave this business in the hands of Rosemary, the lady who was assisting us. We went back to the hotel, had some lunch, and then prepared to go into town to find some items for my wife.

The day passed, we returned to the hotel, had our dinner and this is where several Huli men who had known me from years ago met me. We visited, talked, and caught up on each other’s lives.

The day ended and we retired to our room, having a switch to turn on lighting, a tap to turn on running water, and a handle to flush a toilet seemed all to much all at the same time. It is amazing how much [time] the conveniences of these services save us in a day, with all this time saved, one would think GOD’S people would be so much ahead of the [unbeliever] in life.

Today started with morning showers, then breakfast, and back to our room for our daily bible reading. I was paged by the front desk stating that we had a visitor, we went down to the lobby to meet who it was, and here unfolds another story. This gentleman’s name is Leve Parindale; he is a Huli by Tribe, and many years ago I looked after him when he was attending school. I would keep him at the mission station and was sort of a father to him. Years have passed and now he is doing well, have managed to head up the landowner’s cooperation, which, work directly with the government and some of the oil companies, which have come into PNG. He wanted me to stay longer in POM to visit, and catch up on things. I informed him that it was expensive staying in POM, and that I only came there to update my visa.

He asked me if he were to pay for another night, would I stay and take some time to visit with him. I told him I would; he sorted out the bill for another night, our meals, and some money for transport. One thing about the PNG people, they don’t count pennies and further to this, if you have assisted them in their life in any capacity they will never forget it and one day they will (if in their power) try to bring some good to your life as well

We spent the rest of the day at a new shopping mall there in POM, again in the US or some developed country, this would not be anything to boast about, but for PNG, it is a big deal. We found some things, which, my wife needed, went back to our room; I worked on some reports and business for the mission work. The day passed, we had our evening meal and called it a day

We were called by Rosemary and informed that we needed to go with her to Immigration to officiate the documentation. She picked us up and we went together, arrived and in the process of about two hours we completed out work. All things seemed to be in order and we left everything in the hands of Rosemary. She affirmed us that she would collect the passports and keep them in safe custody until our return back to POM. I paid her for the services and we went on our way. The rest of the day was spent around the hotel, I took some quite time to study, write emails, and work on my diary. We had dinner at which time Leve came and visited with us for some time. It was time to call it a day and we did so. We packed up, as tomorrow we would depart POM to fly back to Mt. Hagen.