Apal Bible Dedication Trip: July 9 – August 15, 2023
I’m still fundraising! Your contribution will help me assist with the Bible dedication for the Apal people (a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!!) and “finish my time” in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
If you do not currently support me, or have yet to join my team, now would be a wonderful time to start! If you do support me, please consider raising your monthly donation or sending an additional one-time donation. All gifts, big and small are appreciated and tax deductible! Click here to give.
I am using an app called “Signal” to send short periodic prayer requests for this trip. Please sign up and/or “join my group” here.
One of my favorite things to do while serving in PNG (January 2014 to March 2021) was preparing for and greeting our visitors! I loved picking them up at the airport and delivering them to their flat (housing unit). That’s why I’m so excited about this current opportunity with the Apal Bible Dedication. Although there are more moving parts than I ever imagined, I’m having a blast while being stretched!
I recently sent a detailed letter to our visitors for the Apal Bible dedication – I gave them a checklist of important things to bring and asked if they had any special requests.
I’ll highlight some fun information and thoughts from that letter here:
Madang
- I will pick you up at the Madang airport and take you to your Madang flat. Later that evening I will take you all to dinner at a favorite Madang restaurant called Eden. It is yummy Asian food!
- There will be a bar of soap in your Madang flat.
The bar of soap is not something that I typically put in a flat when PBT teammates were coming to work on a project, but since these are not PBT people, it is easiest for me to provide their soap and let them know to bring it to Angguna (Martha’s village). It is possible they will need to purchase another one when they get back in town if they decide to wash in the river. Things tend to float away all too easily, ha-ha! - Each visitor is allowed 15kg (33#) on the helicopter to/from Angguna.
We will each be weighed before we leave for the airport, along with our personal bag. The price for each of us is determined by the kilo. This has sparked something in me to decrease my weight!
Angguna (Martha’s Village) - The women will stay at Martha’s house and the men will stay in the Literacy building. We need to be meticulous about not leaving any food on counters, or leaving containers open, because bugs and other things with at least 4 legs will find it and invade.
- Do not eat in your sleeping area.
There are a tad more bugs in the jungle than in most American homes… and they will find you. Fleas were my archenemy. They liked me. I.did.not.and.do.not.like.them. - We plan to sing a song in the trade language (Tok Pisin = Bird Talk) to both bless and entertain the Apal people and their community. View this video on YouTube.
We did this when I was in jungle training in 2014. It was a hoot! The song is wonderful, but hearing all of us, who barely knew Tok Pisin sing it, was something else. We are sure to entertain!
I went on to list some of the items they might want to bring from home like a portable sleeping mat that can fit in a backpack, ear plugs for nights in the village, a water purifying system, a flashlight for night trips to the outhouse that hooks on your clothes, so you don’t have to set it down anywhere.
I also sent reminders of basic things like a hat, sunblock, bandana to wipe sweaty faces, bug juice, and my favorite; snorkeling gear and swimsuit! We are hoping to all get out of the village in one day and if we do, we should have enough time to take the visitors to a nearby resort in Madang. It’s a really pretty, and a wonderful way to end their visit to Madang, and it’s quite different from being in a remote jungle village.
Thanks for taking the time to read about preparing visitors for a trip to the Apal jungle dedication!
Next week… I will show you some of the people I look forward to seeing in Madang.
I thought it would be good to share this video since we just recognized Memorial Day. I was in the Waran village the day they took the walk and filmed this.
