Dad and Me in PNG: My Life-Changing Adventure in Papua New Guinea

By Lizzy Gardner Ainsworth

Fourteen-year-old Lizzy Gardner was shocked when her father announced he would be going on a mission trip to Papua New Guinea--and taking her with him! Little did she know, her life would never be the same. During the six-and-a-half-week trip, Lizzy not only made great friendships and experienced another culture, but also discovered a new dimension of worship and the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit. She may have stepped onto the plane a typical teenager, but she returned a bold, fearless witness for God.



Join Lizzy as she reflects on her adventures in foreign missions, and the love and freedom in Christ she found along the way. Dad and Me in PNG will inspire you to step out of your comfort zone, pursue your destiny, and do something big for God!

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Creation House
• Release date: Oct 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781621360728

Book preview

It is a great pleasure to write this endorsement for Lizzy’s book. Having been with her during her experiences in PNG, I have seen at first hand, how God led, moulded and matured this lovely young woman. Her book reflects her experiences of the beautiful people of Papua New Guinea, their culture, the love she received from them and the freedom she gained through God’s Spirit moving upon her. The changes seen in Lizzy are in line with the teaching of Victorious Ministry through Christ, which she heard for the first time at the age of fourteen during her first visit to PNG with her Dad. This biblical teaching has been instrumental in bringing healing and wholeness not only to Lizzy’s life, but to many, many others in PNG, Australia and indeed worldwide, resulting in changed attitudes and life values and indeed people’s understanding of a loving, personal God. Lizzy’s writing style and humour will captivate readers both young and old.

A special thank you to Lizzy for sharing this part of her life’s journey with us.

Tenkyu tru Lizzy. Mi beten Papa God i blesim yu tumas.

I pray that God will bless you as you read Dad and Me in PNG.

—GEOFF WEINGARTH

VICE PRESIDENT, VMTC AUSTRALIA

I have really enjoyed Lizzy’s book, Dad and Me in PNG. The enthusiasm and passion from her heart as she relives this experience is quite contagious. After being there myself and directing some of the VMTC training schools, Lizzy’s book whets the appetite to want to go again. I also enjoyed her simple childlike way of communicating the everyday events from the VMTC teaching seminars to the simple way of life in PNG. Enjoy!

—RICHARD HOLLOWAY

VMTC AUSTRALIAN PRESIDENT

VMTC INTERNATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT

LIZZY GARDNER AINSWORTH

DAD AND ME IN PNG by Lizzy Gardner Ainsworth

Published by Creation House

A Charisma Media Company

600 Rinehart Road

Lake Mary, Florida 32746

www.charismamedia.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

All Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version of the Bible. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NAS are from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

(www.Lockman.org)

Design Director: Bill Johnson

Cover design by Terry Clifton

Copyright © 2012 by Lizzy Gardner Ainsworth

All rights reserved

Visit the author’s Web site: http://lizzyainsworthbooks.blogspot.com.au/

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: 2012940597

International Standard Book Number: 978-1-62136-071-1

E-book International Standard Book Number: 978-1-62136-072-8

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

DEDICATION

To my family here in Australia: Dad, Mum,

Anna, and Maria.

To the team: Tem Tem, Hannington,

Greyson, Harnet, Michael, Josephine, Geoff,

Poss, Max, Annette, and Dad. However

could we have managed without each

other?

To our many hosts in PNG who so willingly

gave up rooms and bedding so that we

might stay.

To those blessed intercessors, who kept us

covered in prayer while we were away.

To the late Margaret Watts, the author who

mentored me from the tender age of twelve.

And last and certainly not least, To God,

who created all and without whom none of

us and none of these words would ever have

been written.

CONTENTS

Prologue

1 Taking Off

2 Ouch! That Hurts, God!

3 And the Boat Sank

4 A Love That Never Fails

5 Spiritual Dynamite

6 The Rain Came Tumbling Down

7 Let the Little Children Come

8 I’m Dropping Five Tears

Epilogue

Glossary of Characters

Glossary of Terms

About the Author

Contact the Author

PROLOGUE

LIVES ARE AS threads in God’s almighty hand, and He has a way of weaving together people for His plans and purposes in the most interesting and unexpected ways. Sometimes He weaves people together for a brief, changing moment. Other times a deep friendship is formed, and though the threads may weave away and along other roads, they will meet again in the future to create new patterns and stories. Such is the story of Dave and Kath Gardner and Geoff and Poss Weingarth.

Dave and Kath had married in the spring of 1986, and as far as they were concerned they were good little Christians who attended church on Sundays and Bible studies during the week and acted as leaders on church camps. But God moved them from their close network of friends and family in Gunnedah, in New South Wales, Australia, to the outback town of Brewarrina, where Dave had been transferred as a live linesman for Namoi Valley Electricity.

After a few years, God directed the young couple to Geoff and Poss at St. Faith’s House of Prayer in Dubbo for a Holy Spirit-led prayer ministry session. As a result of the Victorious Ministry Through Christ (VMTC) ministry session, the young couple was filled by the Holy Spirit and through the ministry became free of the garbage that had built up in their lives. Everyone saw the difference, and shortly after Dave and Kath were baptized.

A home church sprung up in Brewarrina for a few years until gradually all the charismatic Christians moved on, leaving just Dave and Kath. They were left with only God to depend on for their spiritual nourishment, and this period of growing built a foundation of faith to last a lifetime.

In 1991, the couple had their first baby: a tiny little girl, Elizabeth Sarah Gardner, and a miracle too, born at only thirty-five weeks, though she had stopped growing at twenty-six weeks. From the ultrasound the doctors were convinced she would be born without a bladder and a kidney. The team at St. Faith’s kicked into prayer mode, and the medical professionals thought that the first ultrasound machine must have been broken when the next ultrasound showed that she had grown to twenty-nine weeks within three hours, and an ultrasound two days later showed she had grown to thirty-one weeks. She was brought into the world a perfect three pounds six ounces only by the prayers of many friends, including Geoff and Poss, and Max and Annette.

Frequent visits were made from Brewarrina to Dubbo and the Gardners would stay with Geoff and Poss whilst on trips to their small hobby farm a few kilometers outside of Dubbo that Dave worked in his spare time, and on one of these trips Anna Jane was added to the little family, a noisy, chubby creature, from day one completely different to her quiet, shy elder sister.

In 1996, the Gardner Family moved from Brewarrina to the bigger town of Narrabri, where Dave was transferred, and another baby girl was added to the family, Maria Grace.

Dave and Kath decided to try an experiment with their eldest daughter for one year; they would homeschool her, a virtually unheard-of concept at this time. The experiment worked, and the family kept at it, eventually using the method for all three children.

Geoff made his first trip to Papua New Guinea (PNG) in that year and fell deeply in love with the people. Upon his return, he endeavored to put the experience from his mind, but to no avail. In 2000 he received another chance to return to the country with his wife and started spreading the ministry of VMTC.

Meanwhile the Gardners sold their farm in Dubbo and bought another forty kilometers from Narrabri. They had been guided by God to the property called Woodlands.

With the purchase of the new farm came challenges— medical, emotional, and spiritual—and it was not until 2004 that the Gardners and the Weingarths came into contact again when they were invited to the same wedding. The Gardners invited the couple to come and stay a few nights if they ever needed a bed, and a few months later the invitation was accepted for one night. The older couple could not stop speaking about PNG, where they had now been four times and were planning to return. The Gardners listened with polite interest but a seed had been planted in Dave’s heart.

Two years later, a lot of prayer and thought led Dave to ring Geoff about the possibility of coming on one of these trips and bringing fourteen-year-old Lizzy. When Dave hung up the phone Lizzy was shocked to find out that he believed God was telling him to go to Papua New Guinea and even more shocked when he informed her that God had confirmed through Geoff that she was to go too. Exciting perhaps, but where on Earth was Papua New Guinea anyway? They were studying Europe and learning German for goodness’ sake. (But even that would come in handy, as they later learned that the main language of the country, a type of Pidgin English, was a mixture of English and German.)

Arrangements were made and money miraculously flowed in for plane tickets, visas, medication, and doctors’ bills. Passports were organized with a little trouble, bags bought at sale prices, and arrangements for transport made. Dave attended a teaching prayer school to prepare him for the ministry side of the trip. They received an itinerary from Poss, which scheduled three days’ rest in the entire six-and-a-half-week trip, and Lizzy’s idea of a holiday flew out the window.

Relatives and friends were told of the decision, and some jokingly told Lizzy that she would end up in a cooking pot in some jungle village. When Lizzy heard the song Holi Spirit Kukim, literally meaning Holy Spirit cook (or refine) me in Pidgin English, she began to wonder if the jokes might not be true and decided she had better recommit her life to God just in case.

The packing was finished and loaded into the Toyota Hilux. Good-byes were said in a