Friday, October 26, 2012

Island Paradise off Biak shores north of New Guinea

I’ve been working on several major writing projects for the past month. . . thus the serious tardiness on keeping up my blog.    About a month ago I was preaching evangelism meetings in Biak an Island off the neck of the Birds Head Peninsula on the north of New Guinea.    The district Pastor arranged for me to go with he and some church members to the Beautiful Island Paradise of Musinda.   Musinda is an small island with 196 residents located 50 miles across the Pacific ocean south of Biak. 

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We rode for more than 1 hour on this 30 foot long boat.   It had two 40 hp engines.   The guy in orange at the front was a local guy who knew where the underwater reefs were and where the logs and trash that floats on these parts of the ocean.   Notice he’s indicating with his left hand that we most avoid something on that side of the boat.

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Pastor James Hadjo’s oldest daughter was lulled to sleep by the constant bobbing up and down of our “speed boat.”

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About 15 miles out I was able to zoom into Musinda Island and get this photo.

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As we drew within 2 miles I was able to zoom in and see this beach.

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The reef extends for 1 plus mile beyond the shore of this island.   This would be a fabulous divers heaven if the locals would stop dynamite fishing.

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We navigate our way through the passage in the reef.

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The engines are cut and we coat into shore.    The coral and fish can be seen just below us.   Fabulous!!!!!!!

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The local Adventist church is made up of 33 members.   Here they stand with a my poster for my big meetings in the city of Biak.   I’m here to baptize 3 of their youth on this day.

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On this location the church has dreamed of building a church.    But they’ve been hoping to build here since the early 1970’s.     This would be a perfect candidate for a One Day Church from maranatha.org.     But how do we get it here and help them raise the money to get one all the way from America to here?

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Pastor Zul.   posses with the local members with their catches of the day.

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The young boy in the last picture allowed me to paddle his boat around the other side of the island where the village is.

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Shells were absolutely everywhere.   I’ve got one in my hand which has now become decoration in our boys bathroom.   This stump was pretty amazing.

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This bird has a white cap.   Not suppose to be there.   If you zoom in a bit you notice some violet reflection around that white cap.   This was suppose to be a normally occurring bird but the white cap and violet reflection make it a mystery bird from the Monarch family of birds.    I have several Ornithologist friends who are trying to positively ID.   The latest is that it might become a newly discovered species named Boyd’s Monarch.    Now isn’t that cool?

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