Currently Papua New Guinea is in drought conditions. This water shortage is affecting the food supply of some areas in Papua New Guinea. We are concerned for the many who need water for their gardens and also need clean drinking water.
Currently the community at our PNG headquarters is practicing wise water conservation and our water supply is still sufficient. The bigger concern is the communities we are here to serve. We would ask that you join us in praying for rain.
While I don’t understand all that El Nino means or does, I do know it’s affecting our community and country. Gardens are the main source of food in PNG. Papua New Guineans are a self sustaining people who, mostly, live off their gardens. In some areas of the country, and where we are living, these gardens are drying up, leaving many without their natural food source.
We continue to have cool nights and the equatorial sun blazes during the day with few clouds in sight. Streams are dry. River levels are lowering. Dust and dirt are everywhere and collect on everything.
We have a large tank that collects rain water for our house. Thankfully, we have about 2/3 of a tank left that we use only for brushing teeth and cooking. Not every house where we live is set up this way. Many of our friends have no tank water. Currently, our community continues to have a river water source that is piped into our houses. Our family uses that water source for everything else we need to live: toilets, showering and washing clothes and dishes. I’ve never been so contentious of our water use in my life.
The other side affect of the dry weather is garden burning. People burn their land for a myriad of reasons. Some burn to kill off the old gardens to prepare for a new season of planting. Some burn thinking that the smoke will go up to the “gods” and they will send rain. We’ve had days where the smoke is so thick you can’t see across the street and ash falls from the sky like snow.
A reminder from His word that the situation we’re in is nothing new....
“Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crops fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord...” Habakkuk 3:17-18
Will you pray with us that in the midst of this situation that we continue to rejoice in what we do have and not grumble about the discomfort we are all facing? Pray that in the Lord's perfect timing rain will saturate the earth and fill our water sources once again.
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