“Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

After settling into my seat on a domestic flight in PNG recently, I looked up and saw a familiar face.

I first met Tokengo back in 2015 during our first visit to the Ama Project. He was the head nurse at the government clinic on the May River. He told me then how touched he was by the sacrifice John and Pam Lello and their daughters made to come to PNG as missionaries. He seemed to marvel at the thought of someone leaving the comforts of North America to live in a remote village and share Jesus. His eyes welled with tears as he remembered John’s tragic death in a tree-felling accident.

I have seen Tokengo a couple times since then. Once I met his fiancée, and then I saw him before they left to work at another hospital near Wewak. I was wondering if he would remember me. “Tokengo!” I called to him as our eyes met. He beamed back at me.

Once we were free to move about the cabin, I went back to greet Tokengo, his wife and two daughters. Tokengo overflowed with pride as he introduced his children to me. The youngest one was “Lil Pam.” Now my eyes filled with tears. This is how he had chosen to commemorate the Lello family’s sacrifice.

I took pictures of the family at the airport, and we hugged goodbye after praying together. It was a sweet moment for me to see how the lives of the Lello family touched others during their time in PNG. I’m sure that when Jesus returns, John will get to meet Lil Pam along with the many souls she and her family bring to Jesus.

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