Paul's PNG Mission Trip - Ep 12

[pandrews]

(August 1st, 2010)

In today's world we expect instant things... Instant coffee, instant
information (Internet anyone?), instant communication. Technology is
great for these things, and when you have news that you really need to
pass on to someone, being able to pick up a phone is usually the first
thing that we reach for. Now that cell phones are here, that
communication has gotten nothing but faster.

Take Mambis for example. Here, about three-quarters of the population
has cell phones. That's right. Middle of PNG where seventy years ago
the world didn't even know people lived a stone age existence in the
Highlands, the majority of people now have the power of microchips and
high frequency radios in their pockets. There's more trouble finding
an
electrical outlet (or credit for your phone) than there is actually
finding a phone here. The other day I had to get a hold of our
church's
pianist because the keyboard that he uses developed a short during our
last Lotu (service) and right in the middle of a song the music
stopped. Easy enough to fix with a soldering iron and a little time.
So, I wanted to call him to tell him I was available for him to bring
it
over for me to work on. I had to ask someone for his phone number,
but
they didn't have it. That's ok, it's a small town and his brother was
working a short distance away. Five minutes later I'm talking to him
on
the phone.

Communication isn't so instant at Kaiam where there are no cell
phones,
or any phones at all. Communication there is only through radio.
However, some radios have a very nice feature called "cell call" which
"blows up" the other end with this really annoying sound that
resembles
dial-up modem noise. If someone is close to the radio, it's easy to
walk over, and key up to have a conversation. If they aren't within
earshot when they get "bombed", the radio will continue to beep until
they return and they can ring you back. Not exactly instant, but
pretty
effective.

However, some radios are note equipped with this covenant feature.
Mostly because it's much more expensive to buy a radio that has that
ability. In these cases you have to get on the radio and give the
call
sign for the person you would like to speak to and hope that they have
the radio "unmuted" and are close enough to hear when you speak.
Basically it's like Marco Polo without the pool. You have no idea
if/when someone will be on the radio to hear you. Thankfully there
are
scheduled times that most radio operators are close and listening.

Now for the grand finale. Right now there are some people coming down
the river from Kaiam to leave on a plane Monday morning. However,
they
can't carry a radio and antenna with them, satellite phones are too
expensive to have (and where would you charge it?) and there are very
few settlements on the two to three day voyage between Kaiam and
Munduku, the "big city", where the MAF flights "usually" pick them up
to
come back to Mt. Hagen. However, if plans change (they did) and they
have to fly out of another village (they do) I'd have to find out
before
they leave on Friday so that they knew to go to a different place (I
didn't). How do you get important news to them? You wait by the
radio
and play Marco Polo for days and hope they happen to stop by the radio
at some point. NOT very effective.

This disconnect from the information age really emphasizes how easily
we
can become lost when the information that we need to have is not at
our
fingertips. However, it also makes me think about how easily we get
lost when we aren't in touch with God's message to us. He's always
calling us on our cell phones, but we haven't charged them... He's
always calling us on the radio, but we walk away from the speaker....
He's sitting next to His radio: Jesus Christ just trying to make
contact
with us and tell us the important news that can make all the
difference... Our sins are forgiven...

Will you answer the call?

Paul
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