The day after Christmas we headed up the hill to Bung Village to celebrate the goodness of the Lord.
We were royally welcomed by the whole community. The day included singing, speeches, a sermon, a drama, a re-dedication of marriage vows, two graduations, and a baptism, which was followed by a hearty lunch. Wow, what a day this was. The Lord as you will see in the photos below has been working mightily in this place.
The festivities were to start at 8:00 am sharp PNG time, which means that they will start right on time regardless of what time it is. This photo shows all of us, who showed up on European time, waiting to be welcomed.
After a hearty Highland's singsong welcome, we were presented with fresh flower leis. Dan is receiving his.
We marched in between two parallel lines of villagers. We did our best to shake hands with each one. They blessed us by throwing flower petals along our way.
Speaking of flowers this bouquet decorated the speaker's platform or grandstand as they say here.
The youth performed a drama of the Wise Men coming to worship Jesus.
Michael and Doris repeated their wedding vows (and were later baptized). Sue saw tears in Michael's eyes as Dan led them through the significance and the beauty of Christian marriage.
After several welcoming speeches and a sermon, we presented certificates to the youth who had completed a five-book 37-lesson study entitled Rot i Go Antap, which loosely translated means the "The Way to Heaven." This was a more challenging discipleship course than the one we did last year. Needless to say we were very proud of each one who completed the study.
Our graduates are pictured below.
Don and Heather are SIL missionaries. They conducted a literacy teacher training program. This photo shows their graduates receiving their certificates. Literacy is vital to learning the Bible, and these graduates will now be able to teach others in their villages to read.
The baptisms were the last part of the program. We conducted a three-week baptism course for the youth, so that everyone could understand its meaning. However, the symbolism is so powerful that the act speaks for itself.
I baptized three ladies, and Dan baptized Michael and his wife Doris. It was a beautiful setting. The youth had dammed a small creek. The water was covered in flower petals, and a group sung a special baptism song. I was grateful not to be the center of attention. It was slippery going into the water at first, and it was the first time in my life I had the privilege of baptizing anyone. Thankfully the ladies knew what to do.
This last picture is of me showing some children my "dog." I can make a dog with my hands by interlocking my fingers in a special way. (I learned this in the seventh grade in gym class.) It is a great bridge-builder, especially with the children, who are often afraid of me because of my skin color and size.
Some days it is great to be a missionary, and this was one of those times. You may have noticed that there were three missionary couples each from different missions involved in this work. The youth come from at least a half-dozen different denominations. What binds us all together is the Kingdom Mandate to make disciples and to let others know of Him by our love for one another.
Wish you all could have been here. The Lord be praised!
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