MISSIONARIES IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
The missionaries are Don and Cheri Floyd. They are in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The following tells a little bit about them. "In 1985, Don Floyd visited Papua New Guinea with a work team. The following year he returned for 11 months and began to understand how God could use a lay person in missions. Don took a 3rd trip to PNG in 1989, where he met Cheri who was a mission volunteer from Tennessee, USA. In 1991 they married and began missionary service in PNG.
Don has served as the PNG field maintenance officer-building schools, clinics, churches, and pastors' houses and maintaining equipment ranging from generators to computers. Whenever possible he trains PNG men and women in these practical skills. The Floyds also worked as the campus managers of the PNG Wesleyan Bible College from 1999-2003. This change in roles gave them experience in teaching, leadership and administration. No matter what their assignment in PNG, the Floyds' passion remains unchanged: to model Christian living while loving and being loved by their PNG friends." If you would like further information on the Floyd's or would like to help financially, please just contact the church and we will send you more info.
8/28/10
The sawmill at Waposali isn’t only 18 horsepower, it’s also 2-canoe-power.
When Don visited Waposali (WOS) last month, this is how they transported the sawmill up river to him for needed maintenance and repairs. Don visited WOS again on Friday and was told that on Monday morning the sawmill will make another 2-canoe-trip downstream to cut more timber. Who knew that dugout canoes would play such a vital role in ultimately building a staff house for health workers in the WOS district?
7/21/2010
Hi everyone, Did you know our mission agency in North America is called Global Partners? And did you know “Global Partners is looking for people passionate about leadership development who are willing to serve longer than two years in theological education assignments.”? “People are urgently needed to continue the education and training of pastors and church leaders in…Papua New Guinea”. If you think God is giving you a nudge just now, please read the official message below. Thanks, Don, Cheri, Stephen, William and Jono Floyd
FROM GLOBAL PARTNERS: I have had the honor in the last few months to observe firsthand the work of the Master in Panama, Australia, New Zealand, Ghana, Korea and elsewhere in Asia. What a joy to share ministry with our national leaders and missionaries around the world. There is much for which to offer praise! There is also a need I want to bring to you. Global Partners is looking for people passionate about leadership development who are willing to serve longer than two years in theological education assignments. People are urgently needed to continue the education and training of pastors and church leaders in Cambodia, Guyana, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, and Suriname.
If you are interested in learning more about equipping the next generation of spiritual leaders for tomorrow’s church in these countries, contact the Mobilization Office at Global Partners. (800.707.7715 or mobilization@wesleyan.org)
H.C. Wilson
General Director - Global Partners
3/4/10
If Jesus had walked by the shore in Bougainville, I wonder if these boys would have shared their fish with him. The boys did quickly decide to give one fish each to Don. Have a look at the size of the fish and imagine what a meal that would have made for Don! From Feb. 18 – 24, Don accompanied John Connor (Pacific Area director for our mission) to visit Bougainville, the eastern-most region of Papua New Guinea. Don enjoyed catching up with friends from our visits to Bougainville in 2006 & 2007. The main purpose of this trip was to meet with church leaders as they discussed the current state of the churches and what the future may hold. We are praying that it will be a future that helps these boys increase “in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”
2/17/10
Over 15 years ago, a young innovative sawmiller named John Kekono sold us much of the timber for building three new teacher’s houses. Today he is John Kekono, MP (member of Parliament). And this week he came to our house to hand Don K200,000 of government funds to be deposited into the Mission Maintenance Account, earmarked for a new classroom building for the Fugwa Primary School. In Papua New Guinea the government depends on churches and missions to help them run many schools. Fugwa Primary School is what is called a church agency school. It is a school started by missionaries, now considered a government school, with the local churches having control of the school board. MP Kekono and the school board agreed that Don no longer needs to be on the tools every day, because local men now have carpentry skills. However, they insisted that Don look after the funds and keep an eye on quality control because Don has the reputation for being a good steward. We look forward to working with the Fugwa school board and local carpenters this year to make the most of these funds, ultimately helping more young people receive the education needed to realise their God-given potential
2/17/10
Cheri Bridges Floyd: What a hospital visit! Missionaries to Papua new Guinea
Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 7:20am
What a hospital visit! I saw 4 kids with burns, as expected. Sheri cried for me to be with her while her wounds were dressed. When I couldn't take away her pain, she told me to go home and said she'd report me to her daddy - all in the midst of screaming her head off. Her mother, Rebeka, was about to lose it. Rebeka is my closest friend besides Don and I think seeing Rebeka at her wits end made me just as sad as seeing Sheri in pain.
Then I chatted with another mother in the burns ward. She's got two kids in the same bed. One is her burned infant, who has been there for weeks. The other was her daughter who was just admitted with a broken arm yesterday. The mother (whose name I don't yet know) matter of factly showed me scratches on her face and said she was sorry to have missed my visit yesterday, but she had to take a bus home to fight with another woman - the women who was supposed to be looking after her daughter when the girl broke her arm!!! (I guess it must have made mother feel better, because she was in a good mood.)
Last night we had heard a massive "booom" and knew it was something different than gunfire. We found out it was a hand grenade that a criminal used to kill himself and a policewoman and injure three other policemen. Sheri's mum, Rebeka, needed to go outside to get some fresh air and fresh perspective and I went along. So with Rebeka, I watched the family of the policewoman arriving at the hospital morgue, wailing in PNG style. Then along come two of the injured policemen, being wheeled into the ward, with wounds sort-of dressed. Plus there were army and police guards with high powered guns wandering around the place. A criminal with a hand grenade is a totally new thing for us in Mt Hagen. So the place was buzzing.
I guess because I was the one foreign face in the place, some person in authority (I never figured out if he was police or hospital) stopped and told me the whole gruesome story of last night's grenade incident. I wasn't frightened, just sad - taking in all the smells, sights, stories and sounds of the morning and thinking that this is NOT how life was meant to be. I ended up going to stand in a corner of the hallway trying to swallow tears. Finally I gave up and went back outside with the people crying for the policewoman, where I could just let my tears roll for a little while. Lucky a few tears will release the valve for me, otherwise I might have to take a bus somewhere for a quick fight!! :-)
For those of your friends who support missions or pray for missionaries - can I just say that in moments like this I really value your friendship, regular prayers and financial gifts to our mission? I didn't have time to tell you about the hand grenade incident in advance, so that you could pray just for that. And I certainly didn't know Sheri was going to introduce me to the world of the burns unit. So I didn't have time to write up a project proposal for taking toys and food to those kids, as well as advocating for better treatment for them. Planning is good, but... Thanks for keeping us here to do the planned stuff, but thanks too for keeping us here to walk through doors as they open.
1/25/10
Whilst Papua New Guinean time management might be different than in your country, PNG Highlanders are generally hard workers. We took an Australian work team to Fugwa on December 31 and stayed for 2 weeks. While there, we joined in a community work day to cut the grass on the 0.62 mile airstrip – no lawnmowers at all, just lots of willing workers with sharp grass knives and machetes. I made an attempt to cut grass. Pepe, who sat in my class as an 8th grade student 15 years ago, said, “Well, thank you for trying.” That was his gracious way of letting me know I wasn’t very good at this sort of work and there would be no disgrace in quitting.I’m glad that we’re all different and that each person and each ethnic group brings different gifts to share. I’m thankful for the Fugwa community who know the value of working as a group and they make sure the airstrip grass is cut. The Fugwa community is thankful for Don’s skills in carpentry and project management. And I had the training to teach science to Pepe all those years ago. But I just can’t cut grass. PNG teaches me that I am NOT good at everything and that my PNG friends bring as much (or more) to the table than I do. Since returning to PNG on Dec 20, we have had little e-mail access. We are sending this message thanks to the kindness of some local businessmen who are sympathetic to the work of missions. They allow us to use their internet connection on occasion. We would appreciate your patience as we try to find a cost-viable internet connection for ourselves. The set-up we had previously is no longer available. The photo shows the hand of a PNG Highlands woman who DOES know how to cut grass!!
