March 6 - In Vanimo, PNG Vanimo updates - God is working!!!!!
We are certainly well rewarded for our persistence in coming. It was not an easy road. Starting with the canceled flight in Kansas City, I knew full well that the enemy was doing what he could to prevent our travels and the accomplishment of the presentation of the simple gospel through the model of the sanctuary. My sister, Dr. Rose, thought she had succeeded in checking her bags all the way through to Port Moresby but I wasn't so sure as each time I tried, they told me it was impossible to get past Sydney without claiming our bags and re-checking them after going through customs. In Australia, the International terminals are usually quite a distance from the domestic terminals and they have no way to stay on the secure side in the transit. I had claimed my bag and we were about to head over to the domestic terminal when we both felt impressed to go check and see if her bags were stashed in some room because we had not claimed them. Sure enough, there they were and the challenges began. We had 7 bags to transport, each weighing the full 70 lbs. They required us to take them to the transit bus and then after arriving at the terminal, we had to get them in to the check-in desk. Problem number 2 came up when they hear our flight was not leaving till 7am the next morning. We were politely told in no uncertain terms that we could not check them in till morning and we could not stay in the terminal. So we had to find a hotel and a taxi big enough for all our luggage. It required a minivan or station wagon. Well, we were still hoping that since Rose had checked the bags all the way to Port Moresby that all funds for the excess baggage that she paid in Spokane would cover us all the way to Port Moresby. At 4am the next morning, the taxi picked us up and off we went for the next step in our adventure. Sure enough, they told us that we had to pay another $800 to get the luggage from Sydney to Port Moresby. I tried to go get money changed but they were closed that early in the morning. Thankfully, I had noticed that two donations had come in that would cover this expense but I had to get them into an account that I had a card for. With a quick call to my daughter Corrie, we were able to spread the charges over two cards and off we went.
Our stopover in Brisbane was where we made the transition back to the International terminal. Unfortunately one of the security guards was having a bad day and decided to make an example of Dr. Rose. He weighed her carryon bag and got all excited about how heavy it was. With his insistence the counter clerks charged her the maximum and when she tried to ask for lenience, they just laughed and told her to throw the bag away. It was quite the satan party and it was a real challenge for Dr. Rose's sensitive nature. Several standing around joined in and it was a scene that has not often been seen among those who serve in the travel industry. We began to realize that someone was trembling when he found that this program was going to be presented in Papua New Guinea and he was pulling out all the stops to keep it from happening. The cost to get that one bag just from Brisbane to Port Moresby was over $250.00 bringing the total expense for excess to well over $1750 from Spokane to Port Moresby. I hated to think what I would face when checking in from Vanimo to Port Moresby. I had thought that the money I was carrying would be there to provide for our trip from Vanimo to Madang and back to Port Moresby but I was beginning to see that my faith was going to be severely tested. My temptation was to hang on to the money I had planned for the return but I felt impressed that God wanted me to experience the level of faith that required that I spend all to get there and let him handle the return.
At last we boarded the plane for Port Moresby. I tried to comfort Rose by telling here that the welcome we would receive in PNG was well worth all the troubles so far. Thankfully, we had at least one thing to be very thankful for. The customs officials in Sydney allowed us to keep the food we had in our carry-on bags! When we arrived in Port Moresby, we were again fortunate in that they let us keep our food and when I told them why we were there, they quickly ushered us through. As soon as I stepped through the door into the main room and looked outside, there was my good friend Bob Wagi and I knew our troubles were over the the tie being. I was not disappointed in the warm welcome of one of the closest friends of our family.
During our stay with Bob at his home on the campus of Mount Diamond Adventist High School we had many good experiences. Rose spoke twice and many came forward to dedicate their lives to Jesus. I went to town to exchange my US dollars to Kina and found out that they would not take any bills older than 2003 or so. So now I had to face the fact that the money I still did have was only half as useful as I thought it would be. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to what was in my pocket but I knew it was in the neighborhood of K1200.00 and I was concerned that it would take more than that to get the bags the rest of the way.
Friday morning we got to the airport early enough to be first in line with our mountain of luggage. You can imagine the looks we got as we pushed our carts piled high with bags up to the counter. The girl checking us in was not a happy person that morning and I knew we wouldn't get much mercy from her. The man helping her was trying to convince her to find a way to cut the costs but finally she gave us a piece of paper to take to the excess baggage counter to pay for it. I stepped up to the counter and hander the paper over to her and waited to see what the Lord would do. She played with her calculator for a while, each time wincing when she saw the total. Finally she told me, "That will be one thousand five hundred fifty five Kina." God gave me a peaceful calm as I replied, "I don't think I have that much but lets see..." as I pulled the wad of money out of my pocket. I started counting it out and, much to my surprise, I had exactly K1552.00. I said, "Praise the Lord! I still have 2 Kina for him to multiply!" I had taken some time to talk this over with the Lord and had come to the conclusion that I needed to be willing to spend all that I had to get us there and watch to see what God would do. I have never done this before and have often had some interesting thoughts when watching my sister do this repeatedly when she travels.
So, with all the mountain of luggage on board we boarded the plane for our final destination. I wondered what kind of welcome we would receive. My brother Silas had told me he wouldn't be able to be there because he still needed to work on the preparations in Madang. Believe me, I was not in the least disappointed! Many of my friends from the Vanimo Town church were there to greet me and they took us to a beautiful guest house on the hill overlooking the sea. They planned to clean up the pastors house and have us stay by the church but had not been able to get it done in time so they had paid for two nights in this guest house.
Work went into full swing for setting up the sanctuary and we got it partially assembled for the Sabbath. Our first meeting was Friday night and I hadn't even had a chance to get a shower. They had a welcome planned for us during the first part of the program. They had Rose and I come up and they sang a song of welcome that one of the church members had written the words for. The words repeatedly talked about Jack and Dr. Rose and the words from God we were bringing and how they hoped to get a spiritual feast from them. It was really touching and both of us were crying. Neither of us have ever experienced anything like it and we hope to get them to do it again so we can record it for any time in the future when we might get discouraged.
Yesterday on Sabbath we had the opportunity to do 4 meetings and today we started at 5:30 am with the first one for today. They everybody sprung into action with finishing the sanctuary set-up and fixing up the house for us. I am writing this as they are all doing this work. We are eating very well and apparently they are not expecting us to pay for the guest house they got for our first two days. We feel like royalty. Better yet, we feel like family. There is such a genuine love given freely to us. There have been nine so far that have come up to express interest in baptism. The meetings are very powerful in their simplicity and I am getting many comments from my friends that they have never heard anything like this even though they have studied the Sanctuary many times. They are thrilled.
I also got to speak with a lady that was actually on the trip that Silas took to Green River that I often talk about. I found that the actual journey they took was different than I imagined. Instead of going by ship to Wewak and then to the Sepik and up to Green, they actually went by road into the bush until they got to the head waters of one of the tributaries of the Sepik. They went down this river until they got to the Sepik at a village that I have visited several times when I lived in Tipas. There are more stories surrounding this trip that will be fun to share in the future. The story I told about the branch of a tree that broke against Silas' back is even more interesting than I had heard. The 6 inch limb actually shattered into several pieces when it hit him and it was indeed a fresh living branch. He had no bruises and seem quite unconcerned according to those traveling with him. It reminds me of Paul when the snake bit him and he just shook it off. I will take great pains to get the full details of all of this trip when I am with Silas later. He has not come to Vanimo because he has to get everything set up for our meetings in Madang.
I think I will be going down to the town tomorrow to see what kind of costs we might be facing to go from here to Madang for our next series. We believe God will provide but we must be truthful. We do not have enough money or even access to enough money to pay for the next leg of our journey. I personally believe God has probably already provided for this but I have not had a chance to check any email or accounts since last Wednesday while we were still in Australia. I am hoping to go to one of the elder's houses here to get on and send this email. Hopefully at that time I will also place a phone call or two to family to see if there are funds to move on.
If God should impress on you to assist, there is a way to send us money that will be immediately available and spendable here. You can send a moneygram from http://MoneyGram.com or at one of the many places such as Walmart where a moneygram can be sent from. Just tell them it is to go to Vanimo, Papua New Guinea to be picked up by Steven Jack Sample. Secret question is "Father's Middle Name" Answer: "Russell" Please send email to me, Elana (elanamay1981@yahoo.com) and to Corrie (cosample@gmail.com) if you send money as there is no other way I will know to go and check. The moneygram is very fast and will be available to us both here in Vanimo and in Madang at a WesPac bank office.
At this time I do not know what it will cost. We need to pay for excess baggage to Madang plus get our own travel tickets. Then after the meetings there, we will need to get transport to Port Moresby where we have our return tickets in hand. There will still be excess on the way home but not as much. We have discussed the option of going by ship but I would hate to put Dr. Rose through that. I have personally spent a couple of nights on one of these coastal ships and it is the most difficult travel in PNG if you want to stay healthy. There is smoking on board and the smell of the diesel exhaust mixed with smoking as well as the movement of the ship will take out all but the strongest traveler. We can't afford for Dr. Rose to have to travel this way. It may be that I can go with the luggage on the ship and she can go by airplane. It all depends on how God provides. The ship is a monthly schedule and it just so happens that it is scheduled for the trip from Vanimo to Madang on the exact days we have planned to travel and the same dates we could go by airplane.
Just a quick update on Monday, March 7 before heading for town. We have had a total of 9 meetings so far and God's Spirit is working. There is a solid core group who come. Prayers are needed for the various churches in the area who may have some jealousy as to which church should have hosted the meetings. The District Director finally came to a meeting last night and I got a good picture of what has been going on. It was great to find that the new District Director is the little brother of another of my best friends in PNG, David Kumbere. David has also claimed me as a brother so the District Director is a brother of mine as well. Also prayers are needed for the required approvals for the series in Madang. So far the enemy has blocked every attempt to fax the required papers to Madang. I will be going to try again this morning and am probably doing this work as this message lands in your email box if all goes as planned.
Also Rose is feeling a bit of fever this morning. Her eating schedule is very difficult for the people here and they are still learning. They are so loving and so willing but it has taken time to get the understanding across. They now I am just one of them and there is no worries that I will get plenty to eat but Dr. Rose has specific requirements for the time she needs to eat and it can sometimes be very difficult to meet and still get to attend the meetings. They do not want to miss the meetings. Their love is overwhelming and we are so blessed. We are now in the home by the church that is normally for the pastor. They don't have a pastor right now so the house was empty. It is very handy to be only 75 feet from the church. I am hearing the ladies outside talking about the meetings and how to take care of dr. Rose. They are so wonderful. It is like I am home. I can't wait till I can share this family with my wife and eventually my daughter as we begin our work here. The need is so great. I am praying God will provide for the airplanes and pilots very quickly and we can make our offensive for the Lord to reach all of the people in the bush area of this district. The District Director is really excited about what we hope to do for them.
PRAY! PRAY! PRAY! I am at the office of the District Administrator, one of the elders of the Vanimo Church. He has helped us greatly by transporting us wherever we need to go. He is allowing me to use his Internet this morning. He just told me that he is very deeply impressed by the meetings. He was weeping this morning when listening to the stories Rose was telling about the times she has seen God's evidence of being close through the pillars of fire and cloud. He just told me that the men here don't usually cry but he could not help himself this morning during the service. It is easy to see by several indications that the enemy really wants to stop these meetings. He tried to keep us from getting here and he is trying his best to interfere now. Dr. Rose is feeling sick this morning and is currently sleeping as I do the work of finding a place to send our messaged and see what we can arrange for travel to Madang. Thanks for your prayers!
In His Service,
Jack Sample
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