Wantoat Church Conference

This was the meeting area for the church conference.	The Wantoat people created a beautiful and elaborate grandstand. Notice the dove (Holy Spirit) in the middle.	The people adapted their traditional singing styles and costumes to praise and worship the Lord.	I (Danny) was amazed. I had never seen these types of costumes anywhere in Papua New Guinea.	More beautiful works of art!	Imagine trying to dance and keep those headdresses in place!
	Intricate detail of the head pieces ...	... and the body coverings.	These pictures show only a sample of the many different styles of dance and dress on display.
Young girls give their praise to the Lord.	This head dress displays the name of the Conference, "Wantoat Sam Sika 2006".	The Wantoat people constructed several new houses to host their visitors.	A Papua New Guinea gathering would not be complete without plenty of pigs to share and eat!	The Wantoat hosts showed their incredible generosity with an overflow of garden vegetables.	Bart Philemon, a member of the Papua New Guinea parliament, flew in to address the conference.
Collecting an offering gave a chance for people to show their gratitude to God.	These are the children of the first Papua New Guinea missionaries who brought the Gospel to the Wantoat area.	The church ordained three new pastors at the conference.	Danny was able to build relationships with many church leaders.	The chairman of the Wantoat Scripture Use committee showed off some of the books we've recently printed.	The Wantoat Bible stories and worship songs on cassette were very popular. People especially liked the hand-crank radio.
These conferences always end with a "passing of the baton".	The "baton" was a carving, showing Jesus on the cross, an open Bible and a dove, representing the Holy Spirit.	The Wantoat people added a new twist to the ceremony, lowering the carving from the top of the grand stand.	The group who will host next year's conference allowed their children to go first and "receive the baton".