Having been basically on our own since 2000, it is always nice to have visitors come. What a pleasure it was to have Bryan and Shara Moritz and their two young boys up here in the Dom with us for five weeks. They are fellow NTM missionaries working on the support side of things in PNG. They came up here, taking a short sabbatical from their ministry in maintenance at our field office/school, in order to immerse themselves in Pidgin English. They had great fun getting out every day to spend time with our locals to practice hearing and speaking the National lingua franca. They stayed in the Wuests’ house. We got to enjoy their company and just having another missionary family with us. It was a blessing.
Towards the end of their stay, more friends, Phil and Fiona Emery with their son Jared and a friend Meagan, came to visit overnight. During the night it rained heavily causing a landslide. Sunday morning after doing some investigation, we realized that they were not going to be able to drive out.
We are a drive in location so like those dependent on good weather for flights, we are dependent on good weather for our road out to the main highway. Our road is about 7 kilometers to another road which is another 7 kilometers to town and the highway. The 2nd road is paved so not an issue, it is just our first 7 kilometers.
The last time the Emery’s visited us in 2006, we had a massive landslide and they had to be picked up and their vehicle left here. This time another fellow missionary who lives at one of our field centers gave up his Sunday afternoon to come meet the Emerys at the landslide and take them home.
Four days later yet another fellow missionary came with supplies for us which our local friends carried over to our truck and carried the Moritz’s things over to the returning truck. It definitely takes teamwork to make things work.
The landowners are holding out for compensation from the Provincial government so we do not know when the road will get cleared. We are looking forward to our partners coming in but at this point we just are not sure how that is going to happen. Please pray that the road issue can be resolved and opened again.