Our Visitor
In early July we had our first pastoral visitor, Claude Bailey, who came to see us and minister the Word of God. He visited both in Kavieng, the main town in New Ireland Province and in Lossu, our village among the Notsi. He is the director of missions at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship (OCBF) of Dallas, TX.
Claude was part a team that came to Papua New Guinea (PNG) for eight days and we were so blessed that he took time from his team to join us for a few days in New Ireland. He arrived Saturday, July 7. In spite of jet lag and a nagging cold, he preached at the United Church of Kavieng from 1 Corinthians 3.
On Monday morning, we drove down to Lossu and introduced him to our friends in the village. They were amazed at how tall he is. He is quite literally head and shoulders above everyone else in the village. That evening he preached on Psalm 1. Since the Notsi grow vegetable and fruit gardens, they were able to appreciate the points he made about tree bearing fruit in Psalm 1:3. Wesley, one of the translators commented; “I never thought of how the fruit on the tree is not for the tree but for others to enjoy. It reminds me that when the Lord blesses me, it is so that I am able to bless others.”
On Wednesday morning, Claude was up before 4:00 AM to catch his 5:40 AM flight. He was scheduled to preach a ladies’ conference in Lae where the rest of his team was ministering.
We all agreed that his visit was just too brief. The pastor here in Lossu said, “He needs to come back to do a whole week of meetings.”
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