New Years in Papua

Happy New Years!    We awoke at 12:00 midnight on the money to a deafening roar.    To understand my first thoughts of the new year you have to understand that on Dec 31 I had got with Bob Roberts and my boys to see an old World War 2 sight.   So in my dreamy state my first thoughts were "Oh Boy the Papuans have gone to war."   But then I remembered it was the new year.

"Crazy People," I muttered to Ruth.   "It's a tropical down pour outside and yet no body is inside."   The rain was coming down in torrents yet fireworks fell for at least 1 solid hour or at least that's when I fell back asleep.  In any direction you looked there were constant fireworks.    Though most of them didn't go quite as high into the air as they do in most city firework shows on July 4th in the USA these fireworks were far more numerous despite the rain that fell all night long.

This morning the world around us seemed quite slow at arousing.    Is it a wonder why?

For Adventists here in Papua they have the tradition of closing out the Sabbath in the nearest Adventist Church.   So the church here at Adventist Aviation asked me to share a few words and then we stood in a circle and every one said, "Selamet Akhir Tahun, Selamet Baru Tahun."   Which basically means, "Happy end of the year, Happy New Year."   Then we all added, "Happy end of the Sabbath."    And the Adventist celebrated the new year at Sundown on Sabbath evening with a firework show of their own.   Certainly, sundown is a more sane hour to celebrate a new year.   "And God said, 'The evening and the morning." (See Genesis 1).   So in the beginning days started with the evening.   So as I write this blog it's almost the end of the first day of what we humans have deemed as the New Year.