We made it!

We landed in Sydney at 10 pm after a fourteen and a half hour flight, and then had a ten hour layover. We decided to tour the town because none of us had ever been there before. We saw the world famous Opera House, several flying foxes (worlds largest bat), and then had pancakes at 2 am. At 8 am we were on a plane for Brisbane and then on to Port Moresby, PNG. The 17th was Mark's birthday so we celebrated it in two countries and three different cities.

It got crazy when we landed in Moresby because we only had two and a half hours to clear customs and catch our next flight. On top of that I (Gary) was waiting for an email or voice message on the sat phone from the ambassador to find out if I should go on to the next town or stay in Moresby to meet with the Secretary of Lands. We couldn't get through on the Sat phone so there was a mad dash to find Internet access. Fortunately, our friend, Robert, has a hangar close by with an executive lounge so we were able to get the message.

After all the madness we found out that the flight to our next town...Madang...had been canceled so Air Niugini put all of us up at the Airways Hotel. (http://www.airways.com.pg/)

Mark and Steve left for Madang at five this morning where they will be meeting up with Markus, our Swiss missionary, and also be meeting with Dr. Illomo at the Madang Hospital to assess their needs.

I have a meeting tomorrow (Monday) with the Secretary of Lands and then will be flying on to Wewak to meet up with the rest of the team. Please pray for me and that this meeting will go well. We have been working on this land issue for three years.

Steve is enjoying his visit so far and has been enjoyable to have on the trip. He said PNG is beautiful and the people are very nice. He has been transporting meds for us and has been very helpful.

I have included a map of PNG so you can see where we are. I am in Port Moresby...the other guys are in Madang, and by tomorrow evening we will all be in Wewak where Samaritan is based in PNG.

Thanks for reading...Tuesday we are headed deep into the Sepik River area. It will be a flight on a small mission plane and then a trek to the mission station where we will be delivering a Cure Kit.