Today we were blessed to worship at Concordia Lutheran Church in Port Moresby. They were celebrating a grant of several musical instruments by the government to their ministry in addition to curiosity and excitement about our presence.
The above is an example of Pidgin, a trade language that is maddeningly close to English at times, and at other times extremely different!
Once again Gena was really the hit of our time there, as a native daughter of PNG. But the congregation was warm and welcoming – I don’t think they get many visitors from outside PNG!
We were scheduled to go to a wildlife preserve with Pastor Minato, but the death of a beloved and revered local pastor necessitated that Pastor Minato and his congregation go together to the home of the deceased for a house cry. This is a way the community demonstrates grief and solidarity with the surviving family members and honor to the deceased.
Instead, Bella and Gibson took us to the park. We were able to see the national bird of PNG – the bird of paradise – as well as a variety of other critters ranging from crocodiles to snakes and many, many, many bats roosting in the trees. The bats aren’t part of the park, they’ve just decided it’s a nice, safe place to hang out during the day!
The Nelson Family Indonesia 