My time in PNG is drawing to an end. The last couple of nights have been in Goroka, a town of about 10,000 in the Eastern Province. Part of MAF’s work here is to fly sacks of coffee beans grown in remote villages to the processing plants in Goroka. Coffee is the only cash crop the villagers can grow. There are only two options to transport their harvest to market: walking for a number of days across rugged terrain with 50kg sacks, or MAF. I joined a flight to collect 16 sacks of coffee beans, and spoke with the people about the service. The plane (Twin Otter) had been in the week before and carried out about 2000kg, flying back and forth. In so doing, MAF supports the economy of these communities, enabling people to more easily support their families and earn money to pay for school fees.
Back in Goroka I visited Christian Radio Missionary Fellowship (CRMF), an organization that has served in PNG for about the same time as MAF (six decades), and an important partner for MAF: their radio network has been incredibly valuable for MAF. Each day the different locations report in about the weather and airstrip conditions. With advanced warning of such conditions, in a country where weather can change quickly and dramatically, such communication can save a lot of inconvenience for the pilots (as they can know in advance if conditions aren’t good enough to land in). The main focus of CRMF’s work has been installing and supporting an HF radio, but with developments in technology new opportunities have arisen and they now also provide an IT service. The team is also branching out into providing learning technologies that fit with the aural traditions of the majority of people in the remote communities. With so many expatriate missionaries having left the country, this is potentially a very effective way to support rural pastors and the national church.
Radio communication is essential between the different organizations and with remote communities. Another substantial part of MAF’s flying here are medevacs (medical evacuation flights), and the need for such a flight is usually communicated via the HF radio system. The top two categories (i.e. most numerous) for these are: complications in childbirth and snake bite victims. The impact of these flights – literally saving lives by enabling patients to get to hospital – is clearly evident. During the week there have been at least two medevacs – a lady from Ambunti in labour, and a man in heart failure returning to Telefomin.
The highlight of my visit was staying in Mogoulu with the Hoeys, who I mentioned before. A really lovely couple! What I didn’t previously mention is that the people they have lived among and worked with for over 40 years were formerly cannibals. The government worked hard to end this practice over the past decades, and where people have discovered the love of God the transformation has gone deep. I spoke with a number of the local people, including three women (many speak English), and asked what difference the missionaries had made. One example they shared, quite animated, was that one of them gave birth to twins. In the past this could have been highly dangerous for the woman, as their people weren’t familiar with twins and she would have been considered as having been unfaithful to her husband. Now it is accepted and understood, and she has two beautiful 9 year old daughters.
Afterwards, Tom Hoey explained that in the past it would have been likely that these three women would have still been alive. The people used to believe that when someone became ill it was due to sorcery practiced by women (a weaker form of sorcery compared to that practiced by men, which was associated with people’s deaths). So in the event of sickness a ‘perpetrator’ would be hunted out, killed and eaten. Not surprisingly their lives were full of fear, and they were feared by other tribes (as enemies were treated in a similar way). As I spoke with the people and listened to their stories I was conscious of the emotional challenge of handling what the tradition of these people formerly involved (and I do emphasize formerly) – such an extreme form of violence – with the fact that none of us can fall beyond the reach of God’s love and grace. How easy it is to judge people, particularly when there are vast cultural differences. But of course we are not meant to judge others, and through it condemn them. The individuals I met were gentle and shy, and belong to the same family that I do: we have been given the right to be called children of God.
