Another Woman Named Ruth
In case I left you with a rather gloomy picture of Papua New Guinea, the country is home to some of the finest people and Godliest Christians I have ever met.
Let me introduce you to a young woman named Ruth. She is the daughter of a national pastor and a student at Goroka Baptist Bible College (GBBC). It seemed that no matter what activity I photographed at the college, she was in the thick of things. She is Godly, energetic, athletic, talented, and outgoing, with a warm smile and friendly "hello" for anyone she meets.
Satan doesn't bother with mediocre Christians; he attacks leaders like Ruth. And so he did after I left. Read Lori Smith's heart-wrenching e-mail account:
"It is 2:00am and my heart is so burdened with the trauma of the day that I can not sleep. We need your prayers so desperately.
"This morning at 8:00am on the dot I experi-enced the most difficult moment of my entire missionary career.
"Lorna's [a baby Lori has taken in to nurse back to health] parents had just arrived to spend time with us and their baby when a voice as familiar as my own children's weakly called from my front door, "Mama Lori, he cut me!". It was Ruth, our daughter’s best friend.
"I later found out that she had been washing at the river down at the base of our campus and was walking up to her home in the neighboring village when she was attacked by a strange young adult male. She fought him back holding the large bush knife in her hand to protect her body. As he pulled the knife away it just shred the fingers and part of the right hand into a bloody mass.
"My hands and heart were shaking as we prayed together for strength and began the three and a half hour ordeal of weaving together with sutures each finger and her hand.
"I am not the surgeon she needed in any stretch of the imagination, but if love and prayer count for anything each suture was placed with my heart.
"That time, when she was not asleep from the exhaustion of the ordeal, God gave me the most wonderful time to minister to the greater need of this beloved 'heart-child' of mine whose emo-tions were hurt even more than her physical hand that was torn in pieces.
"Please pray with us for Ruth: healing, pain management, use of her fingers, and emotional healing."
Will you, right now, stop whatever you are doing and begin praying urgently and daily that God will not only heal Ruth's hand, but heal her emotionally, and spiritually. ... that He will enable her to forgive that young man and use this hor-rible experience to make her into a far more Godly woman.
Steel Magnolias
Yep, they have them in PNG too. Magnolias? I'm no flower guy so I don't know about that, but the ABWE missionary women I met there are definitely "steel magnolias!" Let me give you a few examples of their mettle. ... and these are only examples I know of. None of these women go around complaining about their experiences.
- Many of them have been robbed at gun point; some of them several times.
- All of them are robbery targets because they are white and female.
- I photographed one going about her regular duties, despite having cracked ribs at the time.
- I saw another one doing her job even though she had bandaged and severely burned fingers.
- They cheerfully make do without many things and conveniences women in the U.S. consider necessities.
- Despite frequent exhaustion and setbacks, they persist in the face of daunting obstacles.
Pastor John
Pastor John is another one of the many impressively Godly nationals I met in PNG. His testimony is that of a miraculous turn-around. The odds were against this young man, then he met God. Now his God-given joy bubbles up from a changed heart. He's a GBBC graduate, the assistant pastor of the Kerowagi Baptist Church, happily married to Jessica, and the proud father of twin sons Jabez and Jordan.
More to come...
In the Slammer ... Really!
Rich Ernst didn't waste any time. I had barely met Marcia and dumped my backpack at their guesthouse in Kerowagi before we turned around and headed to the Barawagi Prison, picking up two women from the church on the way. They join with other local churches and ministries to conduct weekly services in the prison. Barawagi is one of several regional prisons in PNG that house the worst offenders -- both men and women.
As we entered the prison, Rich casually men-tioned that he and I would soon be face-to-face with murderers, rapists, etc. ... no intervening bars, wire, or glass, just nose-to-nose. And me fresh from a close encounter with armed "rascals" who had relieved me of most of my camera equipment! I'm embarrassed to con-fess that I hadn't even been involved in any kind of jail ministry to this point. Yet God gave me peace and calm nerves during the entire visit.
Those who have visited American prisons would probably snicker at Barawagi's rather casual security. Sure it had guard towers, concrete buildings, iron bars, and high, razor wire-topped fences, but that's where security seemed to stop. Maybe it was because I was with Rich and Marcia, but all I, or the others, had to do was sign in -- no searches, no lectures about what we could and couldn't do, no nothin'! 'Welcome to Barawagi and have a nice day.'
My first stop was the women's facility. Marcia explained that many of the women here are jailed for killing their husbands, rival girl friends or wives. Yet the blue and red uniformed inmates welcomed Marcia and the other believers with hugs and tears and I was treated to beautiful choruses as I snapped a couple group photos.
Marcia Ernst greets a Barawagi inmate.
More to come...
