The Western Province of Papau New Guinea is vast and the weather can vary from region to region. The Coast and the Highlands remain mostly cool and the southern boarder of Papau New Guinea can average near 80, but often reaches 90 degrees.  Those kinds of temperature with the humidity around 70% results in sweltering heat and people dripping with sweat.

We will be in a small town called Wipim which is slated to become the new Providential Capital in the Western Province. Currently the capital is the island of Daru.  When everything is eventually moved to the mainland we will be right in the middle of the State Capital.

Things in Papua New Guinea tend to happen very slowly, so we’re not sure when the actual transition of the new capital site will occur.  We have a saying in New Guinea, “Hurry up and wait”. When Amy and I took our first trip to PNG, we were in Brisbane, Australia, waiting for our plane to arrive. Oddly enough, we were the only ones at the terminal for the 10:30am flight to Port Moresby. I thought it strange that there was no plane at the terminal either, especially since the arrival board and it said it was on time. Three hours later at 1:30pm a whole group of people started showing up at the terminal and amazingly enough, the plane showed up too! It was as if everyone, but us, knew it would be late and the Aussies in the terminal must have been having fun knowing that the plane always runs late.

It’s exciting that the capital is coming to Wipim, because it will bring with it a large group of people that need to hear the Gospel. With a church already established (and a National man soon taking over as Pastor), it has been our heart to build a Bible School with Wipim as a base for our families. This will allow us to take trained men throughout the Western Province to plant other works in the Bush Villages.

Not only will we be building a Bible School, but we will be working with Missionary Brad Wells to bring “Bible FM” a 24/7  Christian radio station in the Highlands to the Western Province through satellite broadband converted back to a RF signal. This will enable us to send that signal throughout the Western Province. We will build our own radio station in Wipim which will allow our National men to send messages from God’s Word over the airwaves in Wipim and beyond to their own people.

The radio station will be a great help to the ministry in Wipim as it will allow us to get out to more remote villages with the Gospel. In the Bush Villages we can’t just go in and start a church, we must be invited in. We are praying that as men and women hear the message of God’s salvation through the radio, they will invite us in. With trained men from the Bible School, we will be ready to take National men and put them into those Villages to start a new work.

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