Heading Home

This has been a mildly exciting week. On Tuesday, we decided to go to
Kundiawa. The road was reported to be open, so we decided to attempt the
trip. We left a little before 3am. About a half hour into the trip, we
arrived at the village of Dirma. We spent 3 hours there trying to make it up
a very muddy hill. When I say muddy, I mean mud so deep that you sink in
past your ankles when you walk in it. We had mud chains on the truck, but it
eventually took about 30 guys pulling on a rope attached to the front of the
truck to get us up the hill. (Men just come out of the village to help and
have a great time doing it. We gave the leader of the group 20 Kina [about
$7] to divide among those who helped. He gave us back 10 Kina, saying that
was too much!) In the process, of getting up the hill, one of our CV joints
broke. We continued on our way for another hour or so, then another CV joint
broke on the truck. I'm not a mechanic, but apparently the CV joint has
something to do with providing power to the front wheels when they are being
turned. With both of these broken, there was no way we would make it to
town, so we turned around and limped home. After getting pulled up a few
other steep and muddy places, we arrived home around noon. So much for our
trip to Kundiawa:-)

Lord willing, I will be heading back to Kiari on Tuesday. Erick and Kara
Duprey, the short termers who opened the clinic for me, are coming here to
Aibai for a week. They are praying for the Lord's direction for their future
ministry and want to see the ministry here. They left Kiari this morning
(Monday) with a couple of our church guys for carriers. They will sleep
tonight at a national pastor's home, then come the rest of the way on
Tuesday. I will meet them Tuesday at a river about 2 hours walk from Aibai.
I will then go with the carriers back to the national pastor's home for the
night, while one of the missionaries here drives Erick and Kara up to Aibai.
Wednesday morning I and the carriers will walk the rest of the way back to
Kiari.That's the plan at least:-)

I have enjoyed my time here and learned lots, but I'm looking forward to
getting back to Kiari. Thanks so much for your prayers.