I had been to Papua New Guinea [PNG] twice before. My mother is from an island off the coast of PNG called New Ireland. It’s a tropical paradise with amazing coral reefs and beautiful rainforests. My mother grew up in a village, and met my father while he was studying malaria back in the ’80s. They travelled for his work to South Africa, and eventually settled in the UK, where I and my siblings were born. But I have uncles, aunties, and cousins in New Ireland.
Being mixed Papua New Guinean, I wanted to discover the other half of me by partaking in work that gives back to those people. I couldn’t truly experience what their life is like if I’d come as a tourist or through some other corporate organisation.
My work as corporate services manager for the Mission Aviation Fellowship [MAF] in the Goroka Eastern Highlands Province allows me to connect with the ancient PNG lifestyle. We reach out to isolated communities providing solar panels, radio communications, and with evangelism. I have a heartfelt passion for people who are cut off or marginalised, and humanitarian works is where I believe my strengths lie.
My day-to-day work consists of admin duties such as HR, managing staff, and contributing to strategic development of the organisation in the area of staffing. Previously, I was working as a compensation manager for Network Rail in the UK, which was a financial/analytical role.
My personal mission is for all human beings regardless of gender, but it’s more acceptable in PNG to connect with women as a woman myself. They’re the backbone of PNG society, and very strong. There’s an unspoken connection and sisterhood between all women here. We immediately become sisters — this is just the culture, regardless of background or race. I’ve a lot to learn from them. They’ve gone through much hardship, yet maintained their mental and emotional strength.
You could say that women in some regions here don’t have a voice, and I believe Christ’s mission is to defend the helpless. If I can do that, then I believe it’s a good work.
For now, I am still pacing myself and learning about the culture, while also taking any opportunities that come my way. MAF Technologies has a “mama waiting-hut” project, which seeks to help women who are delivering babies in the bush. They can go to these huts in the remote locations which have been fitted with solar panels and electricity, and the local doctor or midwife can assist them in giving birth. Often, women who give birth in the bush face losing blood or complications with the baby. We hope that this project will reduce the number of mother and infant deaths during childbirth.
All cultures have something to learn from each other. Friction in intercultural relations is important, and allows people to learn and to grow. Having said that, Western missionaries shouldn’t believe they’re the saviours of the culture they’re going into. White people are often viewed as saviours or held in high regard by the nationals of a country, sometimes to their detriment.
As missionaries, we want immediately to school people on what they should or shouldn’t be doing without taking the uttermost care not to destroy their history. We should operate within a set of clear boundaries and guidelines, and only where we’re wanted and accepted. We should never impose values that are not welcomed or accepted in a culture, and we should always be careful not to erode ancient culture or practice, which is what’s happened in many countries.
Misogyny, for example, presents differently in the West and in PNG. In PNG, it often presents itself in the form of violence against women, which is a real and terrible threat — but we can’t, for example, tell PNGeans to stop offering or paying a bride price. This would be detrimental to their identity, history, and culture. We can, however, try to educate men and women in biblical principles of loving your neighbour or loving your spouse as much yourself. You would never harm your own physical body; so how could you do that to your wife?
I spent two years in Lesotho, where my father was a lecturer in biology. Then we moved back to the UK, and I grew up in the beautiful countryside and beaches of North Wales. My father took us to places like Israel and Europe, and I was exposed to cross-culturalism from an early age. He instilled Western values in me, and my mother instilled the spiritual side of life that definitely comes from PNG culture. She’d tell me stories passed down from generations of giants and distant travellers who settled on their shores, of spirits and unusual creatures.
My parents divorced in the ’90s, and, at that time, North Wales was quite undeniably racist. My brother and I received a lot of racial abuse from other schoolchildren, but had I not gone through difficult times I might not have developed the resilience to be a missionary. I tend to accept and welcome challenges, and get bored if I am not being challenged or growing mentally in some capacity. I have an insatiable lust for adventure. If there’s a mountain or a river or a seaside I want to explore it as soon as possible!
My mum told me about God, but there was a particular time when she went back to PNG for six months to visit relatives when I was five or six. I remember going to bed one night, finding it difficult because I was used to sleeping in the same bed as her, and just spontaneously singing songs to God. I sang about how amazing God is. It was a made-up song, and I don’t know where the words came from, but, looking back, I see that God was looking over me in that moment.
I believe in acknowledging failure, doubt, fear, pain, sadness, anger, offence — and all the good emotions, too — and then giving those emotions to God, confessing them and being completely honest, not trying to be perfect. I allow myself to be angry, and then say: “God, I’m so angry right now: this person has done this and I just don’t want to deal with them any more.” Then I notice something changes inside. God either changes my attitude or the meditation itself gives me time to find peace. God is the constant help that never tires in every situation we face.
I love to play around on my guitar, song-writing. I love to hike and explore. I’ve recently begun to really enjoy a good book. Travelling to new countries is a big one.
I often struggle to create a realistic plan for my life, because I see so many opportunities: learning how to sail, maybe learning to fly. I want to learn at least another two or three languages. I want to visit countries that are considered dangerous but have so much history and culture: places like Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan.
I’m angry when people don’t keep their promises, or bully or harass others.
I’m happiest being out in nature with good company. Also knowing my family members and loved ones are well and have a relationship with Jesus.
I think of all the plans I’d like to make in the future. None of them will mean anything unless God is walking with me and keeping me. I trust that God will open doors and close them and will answer my prayer needs and anxieties.
I most often pray for my unsaved loved ones, particularly my dad and my younger sister.
If I was locked in a church, I’d like to be with Moses, so I could ask him about parting the Red Sea: if it was really true and what was it like, and about all the other miracles God performed. It’s not that I doubt that it happened; it’s just so unfathomable in our current days. And to ask about when he was in the mountain and God passed by on a cloud — I’d love to ask him what that was like.
Natasha Tordoff was talking to Terence Handley MacMath.
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