Brisbane to Port Moresby

Something really unfortunate that happened was during the flight from Brisbane to Port Moresby, Ruth's neck ache got really bad. We were in a smaller plane and you could definitely tell that the cabin wasn't pressurized as well as the bigger planes. Somehow, this caused Ruth's neck pain to elevate, and it felt as though she was having pinched nerves that were causing involuntary twitches in her legs. It was a pretty miserable flight, especially for her, but I continue to be inspired by her strength and ability to endure incredible hardships. And throughout all of these challenges she remains an authentic daughter of God, expressing her emotional highs and lows. I am so thankful that God established the institution of marriage so that together we can represent more of God's character from both the male and female perspective than we can alone.

We arrived late in the evening in Port Moresby around 9pm and had the daunting task of going through immigrations and customs in our already exhausted and miserable state. Before we got off the plane we just prayed together that God would give us the energy and strength to get through this because at that point, we were close to collapsing on the floor (literally). We managed to get off the plane with all our carry-ons and march across the tarmac to the lines forming for immigrations.

Amazingly, the guy at the desk hardly looked at us and just proceeded to stamp our passports and send us through. We moved to baggage claim and I was actually shocked that all 11 of our bags were there and undamaged after flying to the other side of the world! A worker had already lined up all our bags for us and had brought over a couple of carts! That was great because all we had to do was stack it on the carts and wheel them over to customs. I approached the guard at the entrance to customs, and handed her all our paperwork. She asked what we were going to be doing in PNG and I said we were with SIL/Wycliffe, and she handed my paperwork back and said, "Move on through."!

Our driver was there waiting outside the airport with an SIL sign, we loaded up the van and he took us to Mapang house for our overnight stay. We all slept great on real beds for the first time in about 40 hours of travel (even though it was so hot and sticky from the heat).  Meliah made the comment that we have arrived in a third world country as the reality of it all started to sink in for each one of us.  J

Even though we were all at our limits by the time our heads hit the pillows that night, we see how God was at work at every step of our journey. God is good, AMEN!