Papua New Guinea Arrival

The big event for the end of August and early September is a trip to Papua New Guinea (PNG). A legendary locale of Lutheran mission work going back 80 years, it’s also one of the most challenging places to get to, get about in, and get out of. It’s also a personal frontier of sorts. Gena’s family served here in thee 70’s. She was born here. I’ve been hearing stories about this place for nearly 40 years now. And to finally get to step foot here, is both overwhelming in many ways as well as terrifying.

But now Gena and I are here. Together. An initial visit to meet key people in the two Lutheran church bodies in PNG. To visit long-term PNG mission workers Rev. Dr. Ron & Mary Anne Rall. To see where they’ve been working off and on for over 50 years. It’s the first visit from LCMS Office of International Mission since 2017 and 2019. The first visit of OIM personnel (other than the Ralls) to some of the outstations located in the mountainous Highlands region of PNG.

It’s not easy.

To get here, we traveled for 24-hours. Medan to Kuala Lumpur to Manila and finally to Port Moresby. It sounds like a simple collection of flights. But it was merely the first hurdle placed in our way, which by the grace of God we were able to clear!

The first hurdle came in terms of a visa. PNG requires foreign visitors to obtain a visa to visit the country. Fifty dollars per person. With a turnaround time of 5-10 business days. Unfortunately due to shortsightedness on my part, I didn’t apply for the visas until a week before our departure, just 6 working days ahead. Usually this isn”t a major concern as stated turnaround times on visas are often much longer than what is actually needed. I hoped this would be the case with PNG. I received confirmation of the payment and submission for the visas, but no official visa.

Then, reports started reaching me about violence in PNG. The country is not safe by many standards. But now in the Highlands, violence had broken out once again between warring tribes. Houses burned to the ground. Trees destroyed. People killed. These things were going on 50 years ago when Gena’s family was living there, but back then they were still using bows and arrows. Now, they have high-powered assault rifles and other modern weapons that push death counts much higher.

Should we go or cancel? The uncertainties were numerous. The Ralls know PNG and the Highlands better than any other LCMS workers – and are known and revered in turn by the people of the Highlands. But accidents happen. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time can be fatal. Finally, after prayer and discussion, we decided we were going. The Ralls concurred with that decision while acknowledging they would understand if we opted to cancel.

Still no visas.

Our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Manila was two hours late. The separate tickets on a different airline I had booked to get us to Port Moresby were for a scant 3 hours after the scheduled arrival time of our flight from Kuala Lumpur. Now we had less than an hour between landing and departure. What terminal was the next airline in? One source said one terminal, another claimed a different terminal. If it was in the same terminal we landed at, we had a slim chance of being able to collect our luggage and make our flight. But if it was in one of the other terminals, after getting baggage and riding 10-20 minutes between terminals, we almost certainly wouldn’t make it. New flights would need to be scheduled and that would be problematic as flights to PNG are not necessarily a daily thing.

Still, we had hope. Because we were doing a marathon 24-hours of travel, we were scheduled to arrive early and would have a day of rest before really getting into the scheduled activities. If we had to book new flights – and were able to – for the next day, we’d still arriving on time for our scheduled meetings.

We landed in one terminal and low and behold, our departing flight was leaving from the same terminal! Amazing! Our luggage came out rather slowly, and we watched minutes tick away. Finally we raced to the elevator down to the departure area and ran to the next airline’s counters. They were shocked to see us. The plan was leaving in less than 40 minutes, and it was too late to check our luggage. We’d have to carry it on board. Which meant we’d have to have it screened by security – something we hadn’t planned for and didn’t intend to do. But we had no choice.

Security flagged my bag for the beard scissors and Swiss army knife I always take in my toiletries bag. More minutes ticking by. We were blessed by an airline rep who walked us through security and communicated to them that the flight was minutes away from leaving. They finally waved us on, minus my sharp items. We ran to the gate, where the last of the passengers were boarding. At the end of the line, they asked us for our PNG visas.

Panic. I didn’t have them. They’d not been sent to me yet. But I had the e-mails acknowledging receipt of our applications and payment. There were reference numbers there and the gate agents made phone calls on those numbers. I was sure we were going to be turned away. But miraculously, they hurriedly waved us on board. We were going to PNG!

The flight departed just after midnight and we landed in Port Moresby, the capital of PNG, about 6:30am local time. Now another hurdle. Would immigration allow us in? I was cautiously optimistic. After all, the airline had made phone calls that resulted in them letting us board despite not having paperwork in hand. Surely that was a good sign?

When we approached the immigration officer she immediately requested our visas. I explained that I did not have them, and provided her with the application confirmations and tracking numbers. She began typing away. She informed us that we were cleared in their computer systems, but that we should still have copies of the visas. I told her I didn’t. They were supposed to be e-mailed to me but were never received. Not in my inbox, spam folder, or junk mail folder. She wasn’t very happy, but she stamped our passports and let us in.

It was an incredible relief. Having faced so many obstacles and hurdles it truly felt like Satan was working actively to stop us from reaching this country. But the Holy Spirit provided amply, and none of those hurdles were sufficient. We boarded the shuttle van to our hotel. Exhausted and elated.

We had some breakfast quickly before heading up to our room. The phone rang – there was a group of people in the lobby to see us! I went downstairs and was greeted by a delegation of church members and officers of the Gutnius Lutheran Church, our church partner in PNG. This delegation included the current Bishop along with local pastors and lay leaders. They had attempted to meet us at the airport but we had already left on the airport shuttle. So they came to the hotel to shake hands, extend their formal welcome and greeting, and to make arrangements to collect us the next day (Saturday) to show us around some of the churches in Port Moresby. Our schedule was going to start much earlier than we anticipated, but I thanked them for their kindness and assured them we’d be ready.