Speaker 1: Recently, I received an email from seventy seven year old
Speaker 1: Dennis Perry, who for over twenty years has been serving
Speaker 1: some of the most vulnerable people in Papua and New
Speaker 1: Guinea and feeding the poor who lived in appalling conditions.
Speaker 1: So I got to get him on the line. Hi Dennis,
Speaker 1: Hi robend Bill, how are you good? Thanks? Now, all
Speaker 1: this started when you're on a business trip to Papua
Speaker 1: New Guinea.
Speaker 2: What year was that, Yeah, look going back to nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety eight.
Speaker 3: In fact, it was in tom at that time, and
Speaker 3: just before I went to put.
Speaker 2: New Guinea and I found a situation where I witnessed
Speaker 2: a community physically living on a garbage clump.
Speaker 3: That inspired me.
Speaker 2: When we went on to Palm, New Guinea, we found
Speaker 2: exactly the same situation and started down minister.
Speaker 3: In Pam New Guinea.
Speaker 1: So it really shocked you.
Speaker 2: Look, being his shock was an understatement. I never expected
Speaker 2: to see poverty like my witnessed so close to Australia.
Speaker 2: I said to God, what are you doing about this?
Speaker 2: And he said to me, He said to me, Dennis,
Speaker 2: I am doing something about it.
Speaker 3: That's why you're here.
Speaker 1: And you started this ministry called Operation Life.
Speaker 2: Yes, with my colleague David Woody.
Speaker 1: And how bad is life on the ground for the
Speaker 1: poor in p.
Speaker 2: Andng it It has got worse since COVID. There's a
Speaker 2: population of some eleven million people in New Guinea. Nearly
Speaker 2: half the population.
Speaker 3: Live below the poverty line.
Speaker 2: As soon as COVID A hit, as most countries experienced,
Speaker 2: the cost of living went up and that affected put
Speaker 2: New Guinea as it did our country inso much that
Speaker 2: those people who are living on the poverty line were
Speaker 2: now living below the poverty line. It's a disaster on
Speaker 2: Australia's footsteps, with very few know about now.
Speaker 1: Over the years, you've had to rescue children from at
Speaker 1: risk situations. How bad have these been?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Look, some of the children we have rescued come from
Speaker 2: a dramatic situations. We found children on streets that have
Speaker 2: been abused, they've been raped, they have been abandoned and
Speaker 2: are left to their own means. It's been undescribable. And
Speaker 2: we've been rescuing children for nearly ten years now.
Speaker 1: And what projects have you in place to help the
Speaker 1: poor in PNG?
Speaker 2: We are now feeding the poor on the streets in
Speaker 2: pat New Guinea regularly and.
Speaker 3: That's about seven hundred people each time.
Speaker 2: We have a childress sanctuary where we take the rescued
Speaker 2: children too, and that's our own premises, and we have
Speaker 2: an average of around forty children at any given time,
Speaker 2: and every week. One of these children have their own story.
Speaker 2: Some have burn, as I said, abused, some have been raped,
Speaker 2: some have been just.
Speaker 3: Unloved and unwanted.
Speaker 2: But we transform their lives at our sanctuary to give
Speaker 2: them love, to take them to school, we bring them
Speaker 2: home from still, take them to church, bring them home
Speaker 2: from church, and all their medical bills are covered.
Speaker 1: Mate. Is the government they're doing enough?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Not?
Speaker 2: No? I would love to have the Prime Minister and
Speaker 2: his cabinet come out with us for just one day
Speaker 2: or a full day and help us plead the poor,
Speaker 2: help us serve those of his people that have got
Speaker 2: no dignity, no hope, and don't know how they're going
Speaker 2: to survive the next day.
Speaker 1: I gather, though, I gather though you've got a couple
Speaker 1: of important patrons.
Speaker 2: We're very blessed to have Philip Raddick MP as our
Speaker 2: Australian patron, and very blessed to have the Governor General
Speaker 2: of put New Guinea his name missus exercise Grand Chief,
Speaker 2: Sir Bob day Day our as our patron for Palm
Speaker 2: New Guinea.
Speaker 1: Now, mate, you're seventy seven, right, and you're still serving
Speaker 1: full time?
Speaker 3: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Yeah. What do you say to others of your age
Speaker 1: that are sitting at home listening to this?
Speaker 2: The first thing I say, Abill is I will aspire
Speaker 2: to inspire before I expire.
Speaker 3: I'm only warming up.
Speaker 2: And Bill, I just I say to people, no matter
Speaker 2: what age you are, you're never too young or you're
Speaker 2: never too old to serve. My God can use you
Speaker 2: to be a blessing to others. God's given us two hands,
Speaker 2: one to help ourselves and one to help others. You
Speaker 2: do not have a university degree in thermodomics, serve well,
Speaker 2: I've got I have got a degree as a BA.
Speaker 2: I've been born again.
Speaker 1: Now Operation Life which you run has a calling.
Speaker 3: What is it? It is.
Speaker 2: To be the hands and feet of Jesus, inspired by
Speaker 2: jesus teachings and his good Samaritan example, giving physical, spiritual,
Speaker 2: emotional and superior superior spiritual support to the poor, for gotten,
Speaker 2: the marginalized and forgotten, regardless of ethenticity. And our mandate
Speaker 2: is Matthew twenty five, thirty five, thirty six for us hungering.
Speaker 2: You fed me thirsty and gave me some to drink,
Speaker 2: naked and you clothed me. I was in prison and
Speaker 2: you came.
Speaker 3: I was hungry and you fed me. And I was
Speaker 3: a stranger and invited me in. Bill. We're doing that
Speaker 3: twenty four segment every day of the week.
Speaker 1: Now that you've just filmed an inspiring nine minute documentary
Speaker 1: on your work. So if anyone wants to watch it,
Speaker 1: or anyone wants to help, what do they do?
Speaker 3: Look dot a documentary. It's easy to do.
Speaker 2: Just type into your serve, your server, our story Operation
Speaker 2: Life on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Our story Operation Life on YouTube.
Speaker 1: And what about someone who wants to help?
Speaker 3: Please go to our website.
Speaker 2: It is called It's all in one word, Operation Food
Speaker 2: for Operationlife dot org dot are you? Operationlife dot org
Speaker 2: dot are you? And with your health and generosity conditions,
Speaker 2: there's so much more Bill to food and educate the poor,
Speaker 2: the disadvantage and breath the hands of food of Jesus.
Speaker 1: I can understand why Rotary, you have given you the
Speaker 1: Paul Harris Award. God bless you, mate, and thanks so
Speaker 1: much for talking to us. Tonight.
Speaker 3: Thank you Bill, thank you God bless thank you, Bye.