BUDDY BIG THINGS... PNG OUTREACH #4 // KAKODA TRAIL // CYCLONE YASI
BOLDLY GOING TO WHERE WE HAVEN’T BEEN BEFORE Well I was so excited to make it to PNG this year in Jan for my 4th time. Little did I expect the kind of 5 weeks it would be. "You know your a YWAMer when you watch the discovery channel and see people you have meet on an outreach" and this outreach was no different
as my team ventured into the Western Province for what we think is the first YWAM team to that area. Going to PNG is already a giant encounter with everything different and yet I found stepping off the plane into the Western Province to a whole new experience all together!! Because of an outbreak of Cholera that had killed over 350 people, it really was like arriving into a disaster zone. Schools, public gatherings, most sea foods, and all cooked food was banned. We traveled by boat along the fly river which took 6 hours to simply cross its face, to provide discipleship programs, ‘village needs’ assessments, and primary health care (thanks to the Primary Health Care team that was also traveling with us). What we encountered in those remote villages was a people who seem to have been disconnected from the last 50 to 100 years of history!! Combined with the Primary Healthcare team we were able to travel very extensively through some of PNG’s most remote villages, most times being the first team of foreigners that have ever visited. The impact that we were able to have even in just a few hours could be significant for years to come unless more focused attention is able to be given to these communities. It is our hope to make the Western Province a target location for this years medical ship tour, possibly even as much as 3 months of the tour that will begin in March.
KAKODA TRAIL. After 4 1/2 weeks being separated in our different outreach teams we joined up again for a special couple days of celebration in Port Moresby. The main highlight for me was the chance to go to the starting point for the Kokoda Trail. As a vital part of our message in calling Aussies to missions in PNG this last year, it was a privilege to witness it for myself.
WESTERN PROVINCE, PNG: In 1 week alone we traveled to 17 villages, with discipleship programs, basic healthcare services as well as healthcare education, which is a big need in these areas.
MUD MUD AND MORE MUD: The Mighty Fly River was an incredible experience in itself. It took us 6 hours to cross the mouth of the river, which is impossible to see across.
OCTOBER DTS 2010: 43 people from 10 different nations made up the 4 teams that traveled to PNG for 5 weeks of discipleship and youth programs.
CALL TO ARMS
AS TOWNSVILLE REBUILDS AFTER YASI!
Outreach Schedule
PNG Outreach 28/12/10
1.
Port Moresby
2. Daru, Western Province 3.
Fly River
4.
Fly River Villages
5.
Kakoda Trail
Aussie Outreach 28/01/11
1
Cyclone Yasi Clean Up
2
Emerald Flood relief
3 Longreach youth programs DTS Debrief 28/02/11 BUNKERED DOWN FOR A CYCLONE.
Well arriving back from PNG I don’t think any of us were quite ready for the week we would have ahead of us. With nearly 200 staff and students that would all share this experience together it was quite an overwhelming time, as we planned for all the possibilities of a cyclone growing daily in strength and size. Due to some of our houses not being so strong about 60 of us brought mattress and torch for a night sleeping in our main training centre. As the storm hit we bunkered down and listened to
updates over the radio combined with sounds of howling wind and flapping noise as random objects outside the base began to give under the winds strength. I fell asleep in the foyer where I was keeping a close eye on all that was going on. But by morning we rose to find that we had all faired the storm well and would be able to quickly turn our attention to help our surrounding community recover. CALL TO ARMS IN TOWNSVILLE Just a day later we were out in full force with the whole DTS systematically covering our neighborhood helping 36 houses in just 2 days. We began calling the City council offering to be involved in a larger community wide clean up and changed our outreach phases to stay in townsville for the next week. Initially the council was swamped with the magnitude of cyclone Yasi’s clean up, and so where unable to use our teams.
However after hearing of what we were able to accomplish in just two days and after helping one of the city council member's own homes. A recommendation was made to the council for YWAM to partner with the council to coordinate a city wide volunteer network to meet basic cyclone needs. So our DTS students manned a specially arranged call centre for people who needed help following the cyclone, and the rest of our teams hit the streets covering houses in townsville and surrounding suburbs, culminating in a city wide call to arms on Saturday and Sunday to meet the now 700 houses who have registered the need of assistance. It’s hoped that this will create a new standard in disaster relief and a model that could be used right across australia. We are thrilled to say the least for this opportunity to serve the the Lord in our city!
PICTURES FROM CYCLONE YASI.