Mountain Top Experiences
Story by Angela Harding
Angela harding, MAFI’s Legal and Communications Officer recently led two prayer retreats for the women of Mt Hagen, PNG. The first was a one day retreat held on October 3rd specifically for PNG National women that are employees of MAF. The second, held from October 4th- 6th involved 37 women. Of these women, 25 were MAF spouses and the remainder were other women of mission in PNG or businesswomen of PNG. The following story is an account from Angela of her experience leading the retreats.
I hate being unprepared, disorganised or out of control, so as you can imagine leading a prayer retreat is a real challenge for me. But the truth is that if I want the retreat to be a time of listening to God, I have to be willing to hold my own plans loosely. That’s why the recent women’s prayer retreats in Papua New Guinea were so significant.
By the time guest speaker Sue-Ellen Massey and I met with MAF’s national women employees at a day’s retreat in a local church in Mt Hagen they had been praying through the night and were already on a ‘mountain top’ with God. We felt God’s presence and leading as the day went in unplanned directions. We tried on masks with much hilarity and we saw the serious truth of the impact of masks we put on in our everyday lives to protect us from being honest by covering up how we really feel. As we began identifying other lies that we live by (many were cultural ones) we realised that even white lies (or ‘good lies’ in PNG) unless exposed and dealt with, can be very damaging.
For the weekend retreat we walked to our mountain top, a wonderful lodge at the top of the Kuta Ridge on the outskirts of Mt Hagen. And nothing went as planned. I lost notes and sessions ran over time. Again I had to make a choice – to let go of control and let God take it. The result was amazing. Sue-Ellen and I (who didn’t know each other beforehand) worked as a team with lessons and examples interwoven in only a way that God could orchestrate. God’s presence and his transforming power were evident.
One of the many highlights was Sue-Ellen’s teaching session on burnout.
We learned that if we do things out of obligation the result will be a lack of enthusiasm, exhaustion and eventually burnout, whereas if we own our service, the result will be renewed energy and joy. For Christians, and particularly those in missionary service, this was very pertinent and challenging. God was showing us that only service motivated by ownership (and the joy that comes from that) is sustainable long term and bears fruit that truly pleases Him.
One woman shared that before the weekend she had said to herself “If I can just get through until our four year term runs out, then I will be free of this country forever.” However she added “Being at the weekend, meeting with and sharing with the other MAF wives, made me realise that everyone has been doing it tough, not just me… And while I still don’t know whether we will come back when our term runs out, I am in a much better state of mind and spirit to be doing battle with all the things that come up.”
We had times of hearing from God, praying for each other, worshipping together, being pampered, playing silly games, eating chocolate and an amazing local mumu (food cooked on heated rocks in a pit oven) as well as laughing together and just enjoying each others’ company.
Although our circumstances and situations didn’t change over the weekend, many of us came down off the mountain with burdens having been lifted, chains having been broken, our lives having been transformed and with a new sense of energy, hope and joy.
