Wednesday:

The team had a little bit of a sleep in this morning. We are certainly enjoying ourselves here in Lae and it will be hard to leave come Friday. Today was an easy day of sorts. We headed to Cassowary United Church at 10am to perform and teach some of our dances to the children and youth ministry there. Mary Passingan is part of the leadership that oversees the children’s ministry at the church and has been a faithful disciple of Kathleen Tabor when the Tabor’s lived in PNG. She gave us a very emotional welcome before we performed for the young people in her group.
There were possibly 80 youth and children all together and after we performed we had the opportunity to split our group up and teach them some dances. One group worked with the children while the other worked with the middle school and high school aged kids. Our time there was very fruitful and of course customary to every church, we joined them for lunch afterwards. After our full tummies and good byes we set off for home, changed out of uniforms and headed to a private Christian school for some basketball. We were joined by some of Geoff’s family and enjoyed a good hour and a half of play. Geoff’s uncle Apa brought drinks and after cooling down we hopped on the bus and went back to the church for showers and dinner

Thursday:

This is our final day in Lae. You can sense a little sadness in the team as we have thoroughly enjoyed our time here. After breakfast we took off for the market place to buy gifts for our loved ones at home. After about an hour of shopping we went home unloaded our treasures and headed to the YWAM Base for lunch. After an awesome lunch, Winterford thanked us for coming and shared with us that our time here has been very instrumental in stirring young people catch a fire for God. We thanked Winterford and his YWAM team for their hard work in establishing and organizing our stay while in Lae. We have never experienced this kind of hospitality ever and for this we are truly thankful. After the team played some volleyball we went back to the CRC church to get ready for our feast at Cassowary United Church.
Our time at Cassowary United Church was awesome. They really went the extra mile to lay out a huge spread for us. There were probably around 200 people there and the feast of delicious food was there for the taking. People inundated us with personal gifts as we enjoyed the festivities. We were truly humbled at the generosity, hospitality and the warmth of love and care given us here in Lae. This will definitely be an experience the team will not soon forget. We headed home a little later than usual tired but with full tummies and full hearts. We will miss Lae!