Sharon Kozar

July Update

Things seem to be “winding down” a bit, but it is to a different beat … literally … to a different drum; now it is a garamut! I heard this drum beat (pictured with me and Maman) every morning in Mawan. It called the kids to school. On Sunday it drew them to Sunday school… and then we would follow later. Now that I am in town, I hear it every morning calling these kids to go to school. I heard it once when I was in POC. That time it was because someone had died. Now it has only been to let the kids know it’s time to go get an education at one place or another. I like it. I realized something today. I’ve not heard one siren since I’ve been here, pretty strange huh? Something else is that there are no stop lights here. There are barely any stop signs. There is no road rage. There are no speed limit signs. But I can explain that one pretty easy. If I could show you a picture I would, but they just don’t do the holes in the road justice. There is no need for speed limit signs because nobody can go very fast. Joni termed it correctly. She said that it’s like “playing a game of chicken” every time we are on the streets. We drive on the left hand side of the road for the most part. But a large portion of the time we just look for the best way to get where we are going through the least possible amount of potholes. I’m sure glad that I drive a truck and not a low riding car! That would be impossible on some of these roads.

Thank you for your prayers and your wonderful comments of encouragement… keep em coming! It makes my heart happy when I hear from you!!

Easter and other church services in PNG

Bats!

I had to wait to write about this because we weren’t done with POC and village living updates. So here is how my Easter began; I woke up and felt sad… no Easter service at Vista or with Jennie, Robert and the boys… I was bummed. I asked the Lord to meet me in a significant way. I haven’t found my church home/family yet… please pray that I know where He wants me to be. When the service began I was so blessed. Their youth had been practicing skits and basically took over the whole service. They did one of the Triumphant Entry, of Peter’s Denial, of course His Resurrection and many more. It was really amazing. I was in tears the whole time. I was still missing my family terribly, but it was a really good Easter service. I’m grateful! Sometimes I sit in church and I don’t feel like I am so far from home; and then a dog walks up the aisle, or a rooster crows or the bats fly above our heads in the trees and then I realize that I really am along ways from home, and I smile at the irony of it all.

 
A couple of weeks ago I went to another church service at Madang United. They did baby dedications and baptisms of about a dozen teen and 20-somethings. It was amazing! We walked one block over to the South Pacific. Here is what it looked like. A dog decided that he wanted to be in on the festivities, so he crept in as far as his legs would keep him above water.

Yesterday I missed a photo opportunity. It would have given you a visual of the sorts of things that we see here in church that you wouldn’t necessarily see where you are. There was a beautiful little girl (2?) with large brown eyes watching my every move from 2 pews in front of me. She didn’t miss a thing from her mama hip. When she got tired, mama sat down to hold her differently. After worship was done I sat down too. I noticed that this little one had indeed fallen sleep and mama had put her on the white tile floor. There she was, out to the world with her little face against the cool tile… in between her mama and another lady’s muddy bare feet. Yep, life is different here.