Last night (April 19) we got an email from the field of PNG informing us that an earthquake had struck our village area last Sunday and toppled our house over. So our fellow missionary, Will Tallman who works in the next tribe over drove out to our place to check things out. The house was indeed knocked off its posts and pitched forward about five feet. The house is still in tacked but sitting on the ground like a beached whale. Our garage was also knocked off its moorings, thrown downhill ten feet and twisted sideways. It is basically ruined. The property all around the place is buckled badly as you can see from the photos. Our road into our place is impassable for now. Our former partners’ house that used to sit 25 yards up from us also collapsed and is partially slid down the embankment that runs the length of the wide ridge of mountain side we all live on. To clarify; our partners left over ten years ago and the land owner has been living in that house since. (See album of more pictures).
The area of damage extends from just below our property all the way up to the main village. Many of our Dom neighbors have lost their homes too, plus gardens due to the combination of rain soaked soil and the quake which caused their gardens to slide downhill. (As you can see in the picture that says Dile’s House). They are all in collective shock, scared and wondering what to do next. How we wish we were there to help them!
For over 27 years our house has rode out dozens of earthquakes and tremors without a problem. All this damage is the result of many months of relentless rain and then a whopper of a quake that shifted the plates right underneath us, buckling the ground as much as three feet and basically “tossing” our house to the ground. The rain continues to be a problem for everyone and will hamper any attempts on our part to go in there and clean up and repair things. This will add of course to the security issue of our home and belongings. Like everywhere else on earth we have people who will vandalize and loot if given the opportunity. We will just rest our hearts in the Lord and leave those concerns to Him. There is nothing of course that we can do about it from here. We don’t know how much damage there is inside of the house as they weren’t able to check inside.
We are so very thankful that no one was hurt in this. We are thankful too for our fellow missionaries that went out of their way and quickly got out there to inspect and do whatever they could to help. One of them was able to call us and send pictures to our email via his cell phone right there on site in the Dom. Isn’t technology wonderful (most times)?
What do we do now? We don’t know yet. The situation is complicated and we are waiting on our field leadership to advise us. We need to be proactive but we need to wait on the Lord as well. This may possibly mean heading back to PNG sooner than planned. That option has its complications too. So please pray for wisdom and direction for us.
Yours in His service,
Jim and Judy Burdett
Dom (dome) Tribe, Papua New Guinea