Wednesday, April 30, 2014 - posted by Steph Flewelling

Yesterday Linda & Steph went to Mt Hagen with Cathy for some groceries.  As we bounced over the treacherous road swerving back and forth against traffic to avoid massive potholes, we prayed in our hearts for our husbands on their four hour drive to Goroka to survey the Goroka Baptist Bible College.  Our trip to three different “grocery stores” and the Hagen market was tiring but “fruitful”.  With the goods unloaded and put away, many of the veggies soaked, rinsed and ready for use, we waited in the twilight for the men, praying them safely back to us before dark. 



Beautiful PNG Highlands

They stumbled out of the truck at dusk, weary and aching from eight hours on roads that most of the time felt like heavy cobblestone.  Thanks be to Jeffrey for taking the day to drive them! 




Tom and Bill

Tom, Gene, and Craig met with Bill Smith, the ABWE PNG field coordinator and two of his team.  They went over the vision and plans for a major expansion of the college to a university level.  Buildings will be replaced and added.   

Survey of Goroka Baptist Bible College

They discussed where the power lines should be located as the campus develops.  I-TEC will propose a containerized electrical room with a new generator and underground distribution for the campus.  Anticipated time frame for this project is June or July of 2015 with linemen, electricians, and groundsmen needed.

Wednesday as we walked to the Barnabas House for breakfast, this side of the campus was eerily quiet.  The roads were decorated with banana stalks, 4-5’ cut flower stalks, bamboo tubes driven into the side of the road with balloons attached.  

Celebration in the Tent

In the distance we could hear voices drifting toward us from the big blue & white tent where the people had gathered in great numbers to hear the speeches of government, church, and hospital dignitaries.



Welcoming Processional

Our team walked down to the power house then up to the dam along a side road where the local people had gathered in earnest waiting for the procession from the tent to the dam. Lined up along the road in their best PNG dress including paint, feathered headdress’, cymbals, drums and a worship team, in synchronized order, they sang and beat the drums and cymbals.  Several guitars and an electric piano that two men held up on each side led the songs. 

Worship Leaders

Loud and festive it was as we walked between the two lines to go up to the dam where the ribbon cutting ceremony would take place.

Young Man Celebrating

What a sight as we crested the hill to the dam.  Thousands of people were gathered there.  Vendors were sitting on the ground in the shade selling oranges, cucumbers covered with red Cool Aid, nuts, and many other fine snacks.  Children were swimming at the crest of the dam.  Some were at the bottom of the spillway swimming, running up the spillway in a bid for the top of the dam, most sliding back down to the bottom,

Celebration Day at the Dam

only a few making it to the top.  The sun was hot as Gene commented that we were looking at the new Kudjip recreational water park.  No doubt!  Families were gathered along the sides of the canal and up across the entrance to the dam.

Although the ribbon was cut and a symbolic flow of water was allowed into the penstock, the actual start-up of the power plant will be in a week or two.  Nonetheless, we were all hopeful that soon, there will be a reliable source of power for the Kudjip Nazarene Hospital campus.  Last week during one of the many power outages and surges, the surge protector on the Barnabas House wash machine took a direct hit as well as the one shared between the two refrigerators there.  The large autoclave at the hospital was also damaged beyond repair forcing an end to all surgeries until other arrangements can be made.  This is the issue the hospital has lived with for so many years, hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment burned up over and over by the power surges.  These events drove home once again, the reason we’re here.