Friends from Papua New Guinea

Six-and-a-half years ago, Daniel and I took a 5-week hiatus from life and traveled to Papua New Guinea {PNG}. Daniel had just graduated from college and we were planning on transitioning to Charlotte, NC when we came back to the States. I had my mind set on taking some type of big trip before we settled into the business of post-college life. I also had a desire to go back to PNG and show Daniel where I had lived for the first six years of my life.

When I first presented these ideas to Daniel, he was a little reluctant. He thought that a 2-week vacation would be plenty of time to take off... wouldn't it be better if we stayed in the USofA? I dug my heels in and proceeded to persuade him to go along with my plan. This led us to a week of camping in Oahu, Hawaii {which is free if you take your own gear} and then 4 weeks in PNG. We spent our first 3 weeks with Andy and Catherine Scott in the highlands – mostly Mt. Hagen where I lived as a child. We were able to take some quick trips into the bush including a trip to Drima where our Land Cruiser "fell through" a bridge on our way up the mountain. Oddly enough when this happened, Andy was in the process of telling us he had only fallen through this bridge once {before}... 20+ years ago when he crossed it with my Grandpa. How's that for strange?

The Scott's persuaded us to go down to Madang for a week to spend some time with Jason and Sheryl Moriarty {they also convinced us to take a scuba diving course, which we did}. Jason and Sheryl were gracious hosts. We were able to meet some of the local Christians and they carted us around Madang, showing us the touristy things and taking care of us when Daniel contracted malaria... We initially thought Daniel was having some ear problems from scuba diving and he sat on the boat while I did our last open water dive alone. I came up in time to see Daniel puking over the side of the boat. I figured he was sea sick, but it turned out he was in the early stages of malaria. They drove us to the doctor and helped us acquire drugs to put Daniel on the road to recovery. They gave us advice like, "Don't tell anyone on the airplane {or at customs in Australia} that Daniel has malaria because they will quarantine you and make you stay in Australia indefinitely..." We took their advice and made it back to the US in one piece {though we did get re-routed through Japan due to a problem with our plane...}.

Anyways, I have lots of stories from our trip to PNG, but I wanted to focus on meeting Jason and Sheryl. I think I actually met Jason when I was in high school, but Daniel and I officially met them in their home in Madang. After our visit, we decided that we wanted to start supporting the Moriarty's in their work in PNG. So for the past 6 years, we have kept up with them and the work that they have continued to do with the Christians in the area.

Four years ago, they came to visit us in Charlotte. We had just moved into our house and started our renovation process. They were good sports and let us put them to work.

This past Saturday, they came back for another visit. This time they have two precious children and we have a finished house. They are trying to determine if they will continue their work in PNG or head to Cairnes, Australia or possibly somewhere in China. These are big decisions for them. We will continue to support them and pray that God leads them to where they need to be. Hopefully we can visit them wherever they end up... I'm already dreaming up our next international trip ;)

Sorry for not having photos with this post, our trip photos are not digital and my scanner is not hooked up right now.