On Friday, March 26th, many of our missionaries (including us) had our suitcases packed and were waiting for rides to the Campus where we were to attend the annual PNG Highlands Conference.
About noon, we received a phone call from our Field chairman telling us that there was going to be a change in the location.
The leadership decided to change the location for safety reasons to the Highlands Headquarters. This is a much smaller facility so adjustments had to be quickly made in regards to lodging and meals. In a matter of just a few hours, things started to fall in place. The missionary families were divided up so that we could sleep in the homes of the Highlands’ staff. Daily, the ITF staff transported our meals to a certain central location. We brought serving dishes down to this place, brought the food back to the homes, and warmed up what needed to be heated. To enhance the unity, the leaders had rotated our meal schedule so that we were able to eat at a different home for each meal. We were able to enjoy the fellowship with new missionaries on the field by doing it this way.
Becky, Kara, and Sharla "painting" cookies for the Ladies Tea.
Since Becky, Cathy, and Rosie were in charge of the Ladies Tea, they had to adjust to the new location, too. The Interface kitchen is equipped with large ovens and uniformly sized tables in a large open-air building. At the last minute, they were confronted with a small oven and kitchen area to bake 50 scones. Instead of making all the scones at once, she and another missionary made one batch at a time. The tables were all shapes and sizes so the decorations had to be adjusted as well. However, it all came together perfectly. Several of the men pitched in to gather tables from several home, to put up the “apron” decorations on the wall, sweep the Conference kitchen floor, set up music, and help in the kitchen in an hour’s time. Darryl was a great help making the tea. He kept the teapots filled!
It was interesting that none of us knew there would be danger during the Conference when we were planning the theme. Friday morning, Pastor John , our speaker from Spokane, Washington, spoke on trials, suffering, and God’s protection from I Peter. He had prepared his sermons with 5 sessions on suffering and endurance. Friday afternoon, the theme of our Ladies’ Tea which was planned months’ ago was “Our Heavenly Father’s Protection”. A coincidence!?! We think not! The Lord knew that we would be in need of this encouragement of His protection from harm and danger at this particular time.
We want to thank our churches for their kind and generous help in sewing aprons, and providing beautiful decorations for our tables.
(Please see the 74 pictures on our photo page under the category Ladies Tea Highlands Conference 2008.)
The ladies missionary group of Wellspring Bible Fellowship in Roseburg, Oregon sewed the aprons which represented “God’s protection”. The missionary wives were thrilled that the ladies in Oregon had included a picture and a biography about themselves. They had fun picking out the aprons and felt very special. Thank you!
Several of our loving churches provided the table decorations! With last minute notice of the need, Becky asked several churches to help out. The PNG mail system is not always reliable. Often they keep packages for months in Port Moresby at Customs without informing anyone that a package has arrived. Marcia, from Hanover Baptist Church in Michigan, said that they were praying for God’s protection for timely arrival. The Lord answered her prayer! All the packages arrived within one week of the Ladies Tea. We want to thank the ladies of Faith Baptist in Wisconsin, Hanover Baptist in Michigan, Huntington Street Baptist in Connecticut, and Concord Presbyterian in Michigan for their generous and beautiful decorations! It made our job easy for clean up and to get the Conference Hall ready for the evening meeting in due time. Also, we want to thank you for the “extras” that you sent. The ladies loved the candies, the soaps, and hair barrettes! We used some of everything that you sent so there was a wide representation of your love here in PNG.
Becky shared and acted out a poem by Don Rounds called Recalling the Importance of an Apron. She compared the uses of the apron to different ways that the Lord protects us from harm, danger, fear, enemies, etc.
Rosie and Cathy led the music with songs such as My Hiding Place, The Lord is my Shepherd, and I need Thee every hour.
Our main speaker was Joan Frank from a church in Spokane, Washington. She brought several ladies with her. Joan spoke an encouraging message on “God’s protection” with some experiences she had witnessed and gone through in Japan. Following that, she gave us a “mini” Bible study in Psalms where we studied several ways the Lord protects us.
The ladies that came with Joan ended our program by treating the missionary ladies to pedicures. We were all blessed with their servant hearts and with Joan’s message.
Thank you for making the Ladies Tea special! We praise the Lord for you!
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