From the Land of Coconuts and Cocoa...

And from a completely different part of the world comes this letter from Br Andrew McBeath in Papua New Guinea...

IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME since I last let you know of goings-on in this part of the world. Last month, Province leaders and Philip Pinto met in PNG and afterwards we saw a number of them here in East New Britain, including our own tireless Province Leader, Kevin.

It was good to have a chance to share a bit of time with him and I am certainly appreciative that he found time in his busy schedule to stay with us for a couple of days in Vunakanau. His visit even gave me the excuse to visit, for the first time, a couple of interesting corners of the Gazelle Peninsula.

Most notable of these was the church/shrine in honour of Blessed Peter ToRot who was killed by the Japanese during the war because of his persistence in instructing others in the faith. Our visit included going into the cave where he carried out baptisms in a natural spring of water.

Other leaders who got to ENBP included Philip, Peter Dowling (Vic.) Joe Lauren (NZ) and Laurie Needham (NSW). On the Sunday evening (June 5) a gathering for them and the three local CB communities was hosted by Br Andrew Kiaplai at the Brothers' place at Vuvu. It was a pleasant gathering, although Kevin had the misfortune to misplace his wallet. It was located in one of the community vehicles next morning while Kevin was on his way to the airport.

Life is full of excitements and anxieties! In mid June, most of the PNG Brothers and twelve candidates gathered in Goroka for retreat. Ten of us were scheduled to fly out of Tokua (New Rabaul) Airport at 1.15 pm on Saturday the 11th (which would have been my mother's 100th birthday, if she were still alive) but the plane which was due to take us was struck by lightning on the way in.

The airway's officials were not prepared to let it fly until its internal workings had been properly checked by engineers from Port Moresby. By the time they had arrived, given the plane the once over with their expert eyes and given the OK to fly, it was after six o'clock before we got away. Of course, we missed our connecting flight in Moresby as it had left at four o'clock, so we were divided into two groups - five to the Gateway Hotel and five to the Airways Hotel - and then flew on to Goroka the next morning, where we were united with the rest of the group at the Kefamo Centre.

We had missed the introductory part of the retreat but it did not take long to settle into the swing of things. It was conducted by Philip Pinto, a new and improved version of the one we had in Perth two years ago. I was happy to be able to do his retreat again because, when we did it in Perth, I was still struggling to come to grips with my return from Africa and did not really know where my life was going. Things look a little clearer now!

During the retreat, we renewed our vows - in Pidgin. You might be interested in the wording.

"God Papa, long taim bipo mipela i bin harim tok bilong yu, na yu bin kolim mipela bai mipela i kamap long lain bilong ol Kristen Bruder. Yu yet yu bin wokim Kontrak wantaim mipela. Nau mipela i hamamas long tok welkom long ol Bruder Andrew, Fidelis, Joachim, Ramond na Herman i bungim mipela, na mipela i laik tok gen ol Promis mipela i bin mekim planti Krismas i go pinis. Olsem na mipel i promis bai mipela i stap bel tru oltaim long ol Promis, ol i kolim Poverty, Chastity na Obedience, na mipela i pre bai yu stap wantaim mipela oltaim."

The five Brothers mentioned as being "welkom" in the formula are the five temporary professed Brothers who were with us for the retreat. I find I can get a pretty good idea of the meaning when I read Pidgin but actual conversations go too quickly for me to pick up a great deal of what is said.

Our return to New Britain was uneventful, thank goodness, and so we settled down for the last two weeks of the school term. It was the first time I've ever taken time off during school time to make the annual retreat! Anyway, those last two weeks have passed and the students now have two weeks of holidays. The staff, however, have a week (!) of in-service before they get their one week off!

With every best wish to everyone in HSP, may God keep on blessing you all.

Br Andrew McBeath cfc