The wonderful women of the Madang Church and a tea under the Mango tree
Tuesday afternoon on my last week in PNG one of the Women’s leaders showed up at the apartment and asked if I could have lunch with the ladies from the Church on Wednesday. We had made plans to go somewhere for the morning so we agreed that I could meet with them at two for something light at the Church.
At two o’clock Pastor Mavis came to get me and she lead me very graciously to a hidden grove in the field next to the church. It was surrounded by bush and then there was a wonderful clearing under a large Mango tree. The ladies had set up a table with lots of food they had prepared and a woman sat at a fire in the corner cooking hot dogs. They had done all of this preparation to honor me and to thank me for all the teaching. They wanted to ask me questions and get to know me more.
We sat in a big circle around the Mango tree and they asked me to serve myself first after we prayed while they sat waiting for me to take my food. This is the way you treat an honored guest, to allow them to eat first.
We sat and talked asking questions and telling me about what they are doing in the nation as Foursquare Women. Pastor Mavis said, “I tell women here all the time that we have a rich heritage from our sisters in America, who started united foursquare Women and if they can do it so can we!” She wanted to know everything that women in our Foursquare Churches are doing. Then she told me that the women of PNG are so committed to reaching out to other women that at a recent Leaders Conference the Foursquare Women in PNG committed to raising 25,000 kina to help put the first Foursquare Church in the Solomon Islands. This is astounding when you realize that most women working would get a hundred kina a month.
I felt insignificant next to the great vision these ladies had to reach their nation and to send out missionaries from PNG and they kept saying how the Foursquare women in America had done so much so we sat there mutually honoring one another.
When out time was almost over a few women stood to give testimonies of what God had done in their lives from two times I had taught the Bible Studies. One women’s testimony I have included in another blog, but one woman stood and said how she didn’t want to come to Bible Studies or church she just wanted to stay at home and she came to the first Bible Study I taught and realized that she had been robbed of wonderful fellowship and friendship by staying away. Another woman stood and talked about how God had impacted her throughout time together and that her life had been changed.
After we concluded in prayer, woman after woman came to me and brought me more gifts, belums, blouses, jewelry, all from women who have nothing by our standards but were honored to give something because I had given to them. I had been told that it would be rude not to graciously accept these gifts although in your heart it is very difficult to take, so I accepted each gift with joy. We took lots of pictures and cried and hugged one another for a long time. I will truly miss these ladies! I asked Jesus to do a miracle and bring us together again, and they all prayed with me.
Bugs of the Day….Lots of them, I got chewed up under the Mango tree, it was the one time I decided not to put the bug spray on. I was told not to make a scene about bugs because it is a way of life here and it would be hurtful to my hosts if they felt I was uncomfortable. So I learned to handle it and to treat them like dust as someone very wisely said to do and it worked, I wouldn’t have missed this time for anything and no bugs were going to ruin it for me.
