Speaking Schedule, Washington

• Sunday, May 1, AM, Gig Harbor
• Sunday, May 1, PM, Camas
• Tuesday, May 3, 11 AM, Seattle Aurora
• Tuesday, May 3, 7 PM, Port Orchard
• Wednesday, May 4, Kent
• Sunday, May 8, AM, Seattle Beacon Hill
• Sunday, May 8, PM, Everett South

More Hawaii

If you haven't caught on, we really enjoyed our time in Hawaii.  Here's a little more about our time there.

Speaking at kid's camp.

On the first Tuesday we spoke at kid's camp.  We had a beautiful drive across the south part of Oahu to the camp, then had a very fun time speaking to the kids.  The highlight for them was when we dressed one of the young pastors in PNG clothes.  They didn't care that every item he was wearing was from a different region.

Waves on the North coast of Oahu

We went back via a different route along the north coast.  It was a windy day with a very high surf, so we stopped several times to take pictures of the spectacular waves.

Waikiki in the dark!

 

 

 

The only time we could find to go to Waikiki Beach was late one afternoon.  By the time we got there it was dark.  Oh, well.  We had a great time walking along all the stores and the people in the area.  That's our hosts Al and Linda, along with Judy.

I'll try to do one more Hawaii post before moving on to CANADA!

AB

Catchup. Not ketchup.

As promised, I'm going to try to catch up on our travels and deputation.

We took a route home that we've never tried before; from PNG to the Solomon Islands to Fiji to Hawaii.  We did 2 weeks of deputation in Hawaii before travelling on to Idaho and our family.

Scott and Olivia Dooley

The Dooleys took us to the airport.  This is Scott and Olivia.  We successfully avoided overweight charges, got checked in and away to Port Moresby without too much stress.  We spent the night in Pt. Moresby, staying at Mapang Missionary Home.  Early Sunday morning we left for the Solomon Islands.

Airport in Honiara, Solomon Islands

This is our only evidence that we were ever in the Solomons, and not very good evidence, since you probably can't read the sign.  We didn't go through Immigration (so we don't have stamp in our passports), just got off the plane, went through security, waited a few minutes then got back on the Air Niugini flight.

Singers in the Nadi (pronounced "nandi" if you care), Fiji, airport.

This is our only evidence of ever having been in Fiji.  We just went through as transit passengers, so still didn't get our passports stamped.  These young men were there in the airport playing and singing Fijian music for the people waiting in the line for the transfer desk.  After a while I guessed that they were singing Christian songs, based on the fact that some were to familiar hymn tunes.  As I sang along in English I made eye contact with the guitar player, who smiled.  When they finished, he came over, shook my hand and introduced himself.  He confirmed that they were, indeed, Christians, and were from a church there.  What a delightful break in the boredom of standing in line.

Judy with happy little kids at the Living Waters Church of the Nazarene

Even thought it was Sunday morning when we left PNG, we crossed the International Date Line, so it was Sunday morning again when we arrived in Hawaii.  Well, missionaries doing deputation can't waste a Sunday morning, so we got off the plane at 7:30 AM, and were speaking in a church at 12:00! 

This was in a delightful church plant called Living Waters Church of the Nazarene.  They meet at noon, because that's the only time they can get time in the school where they meet (apparently 6 or 7 church groups meet at this school).  They are effective in ministry and evangelism--a significant number in the church are homeless, and many are new believers.  The pastor is R.J. Strickland.  He and his wife were both music majors at NNU, and have a great ministry in teaching music lessons.  In fact, one of the requirements for being in the worship band is taking weekly lessons. 

We don't have any pictures of us speaking there, but we weren't too alert by then.  We were thankful to go to the house where we were staying and take a nap!

More about Hawaii soon!

AB

Update and apology!

OK.  I see how long it's been since I blogged last.  I'm ashamed.  I have lots of excuses, but they probably aren't very interesting to any of you.  Suffice it to say that as we got closer and closer to home assignment time, the harder it got to sit down and do it.  Plus, the internet trouble we've been having at Kudjip made it hard.

Photographic proof that we were in Hawaii.

Well, we are now on home assignment.  We left Kudjip March 12, and flew to Port Moresby, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Hawaii.  We spent about 2 weeks in Hawaii, speaking 10 times--in churches, on the radio, in a preschool, at Bible Studies, and doing a just a litle bit of touristy stuff.  We left there this past Monday evening, flew overnight to Phoenix (no, I don't understand airlines) and on to Boise, arriving Tuesday afternoon.

At the radio station with Pastor Rick Ragle

We have had a few precious hours with Amy and Sam, and with other family.  This morning we spoke in chapel at Northwest Nazarene University.  Tomorrow we will speak to a class (if I can finish this, and organize what we are going to do).  Then Friday we leave for Spanaway, Washington to spend a few hours with Drew and Andrea (our son and daughter-in-law) and then on Saturday we will head to British Columbia for a 2-week district tour.

My assumption is that we will have some free hours while we are in BC, and I can blog in more detail about some of our adventures along the way.

Here's our schedule for BC:
April 3 - Surrey (Guildford) - am,  Abbotsford - pm
April 4 - OFF
April 5 - Langley (Living Hope)
April 6 - Betel/Primera (Spanish Congregations together - location to be determined)
April 7 - Vancouver
April 8 - Burnaby (Como Lake)
April 9 - OFF
April 10 - Kelowna - am, Penticton - pm
April 11 - OFF
April 12 - OFF
April 13 - Nanaimo
April 14 - Port Alberni (Southside Community)
April 15 - Duncan (Cowichan Valley)
April 16 - Esquimalt (9:30 am breakfast meeting)
April 17 - Victoria - am

AB

Letter to a Medical Student

Photo explanation below!

Just this evening  I answered an email from a medical student who wants to come to Kudjip for an elective rotation.  He also asked me for what advice I might have for a Christian medical student in his first year of study.  He said that any advice would be appreciated!  By now, he may be regretting saying that.

Well, at first I didn't think I had any advice, but I thought it was important enough that I should try.  So I started typing.  As I went along, I found that I was sharing some of my strongest beliefs about missions.  When it was all done I was a bit surprised at it. I thought maybe I should share it with a wider group of friends.  I'll edit it a bit for you folks, but other than that, here's what I told him:


Dear _____ :

Thanks so much for your interest in our ministry here in Kudjip.

We need to start planning for you to come here... in your fourth year (or possibly late 3rd)....  We should get you on our schedule as soon as possible, as some students plan 2 or more years in advance.

My main advice for you is to put your spiritual life first all the time.  A medical missionary who is not in the center of God's will is useless, however well-meaning he might be.  God's will first--if that is to be a missionary, don't even think about being anything else.  If not, then don't even think about becoming a missionary.  If God is calling you to be a missionary, then make up your mind now that that will be your life's work until such time as God clearly directs differently.  Don't approach it as "I'll try this out, and if it doesn't work, I'll try something else."  If God calls you to something else, don't feel like that is second-best.  His will is always first-best!

I notice that you said "I am interested in going to the mission feild full-time at some point in my life time."  Interest is a great thing!  But I also noticed you said, "I can [here he listed a couple of other options] or go into missions."  That make me think that at this time you don't have a clear call to missions.  That's OK for now, but if that call does not come, scratch the "go into missions" off your list.  Pray earnestly that God will make it clear.  A rotation at a mission hospital can be a valuable thing.  It can help you understand more about missions.  Sometimes God uses an experience like that to make his will clear.  But by itself it shouldn't be the determining factor in the decision--God's call should be!

I'll boldly barge on into one of the biggest implications of a divine call--romance and marriage.  I don't know how many missionary careers have been scuttled by unwise choices in this area.  If God is calling you to be a missionary, and calling you to be married, you don't have to be the one to work it out--God will lead you to the right woman.  His will in one area of your life will never conflict with his will in any other part of your life.  So if God is calling you to be a missionary, don't even consider going out with a girl who is not called to be a missionary.  Sometimes you hear a story of a spouse who does not feel called to be a missionary, but is willing to be married to one, and says "where you go, I will go".  Maybe that's OK in some cases, but I believe that it is not enough.  When times get hard, if your wife is not convinced to the bottom of her heard that she is under divine mandate to be a missionary, things could fall apart.  It happens all the time.  The wife of our mentor couple told us, "there will be times that your call is all you have."*  (This was a plural "your", as she was speaking to me and my wife.)  If you and your wife don't share that conviction, either your missionary careers or your marriage or both could be in danger.

Well, I didn't realize that I had so much advice to share, and I rambled on longer than I intended to!  Oh, well.  I trust that it will help you on your journey.

If you are interested in some of the day-to-day events or our life, you might be interested in our blog at http://day-in-paradise.blogspot.com/.  In the side-bar there is a blog roll of the blogs of several of the other missionaries here, including some of the docs.

Yours and His,
Andy

About the picture:  All advice given to missionaries about their blog says to include lots of colorful photos, and if I don't put in a picture this will the the third pictureless post in a row, and that would be a bad thing, so here is a cute young mom and her cute little baby with a quizzical expression in it's cute little face.

*  That statement was from Mima Hughes.  She and her husband Ted were missionaries in several Latin American countries, as well as among Cuban refugees in Miami.

Hospital Open

Friends:

I wanted you all to know that the hospital opened this morning at about 11:00.  Things are pretty slow until word gets around that we are open.

The situation is not ideal yet, but enough has been resolved that the staff feels safe going to and from work.  Sister Josina, the nurse who was attacked is doing as well as can be expected.  We expect her to regain full use of her hand.

Thank you all for your prayers.

AB

Pray for Nazarene Hospital

At the moment, the hospital is temporarily closed.  The following is from our security committee:

"Please pray for the Nazarene Hospital as  our  administrative team and the village leaders liaison group are meeting daily to work on issues resulting from one of our national nursing staff being assaulted on our mission station. The nurse is in good condition and is being treated as an outpatient now. The hospital is closed to new admissions and to outpatients until some resolution is reached."

I really want to emphasize to everyone that no missionary is in, nor has been in danger.  We are just doing what we need to do to insure that the hospital is safe for ALL of our staff.

Thanks for your prayers.

AB