Baptism

This Wednesday, we had our first baptism since I arrived in Kiari.
There were eight folks baptized -- 1) Bandi, a teen boy who is also a
2nd grader in our school; 2) Lynn, a teen girl who is a 4th grader in
our school, in my Sunday School class, and in my discipleship class;
3) Ellie, another teen girl who is also in my Sunday school and
discipleship classes; 4) Aira, a young man who is married with a
couple children; 5) Eileen, Aira's wife; 6) Tu, a young man who is
married with one child; and 7) Winu, who is the second wife of an
unsaved man. For the actual baptism, we hiked about 30 minutes away to
a fairly large, fast-flowing river. The men had gone down earlier and
dammed it up to form a baptismal pool, then the children had thrown
flower petals into the water, so it was very pretty. Each baptismal
candidate gave their testimony of salvation, then they were each
baptized. As each went into the water, a choir of national Christians
sang a verse of a hymn. It was a real blessing. Please pray for the
spiritual growth of these believers and for the testimony of the
service to the unsaved that witnessed it.

In other news, Paul, the man from America who has been helping with
the airstrip work will be leaving at the end of this week. Immediately
after his departure, two guys from a supporting church in Greenville,
South Carolina will be coming to continue the work. The airstrip is
getting closer to completion, but there's still a lot to be done. It
needs to be 400 meters long, so they are now in the process of carving
away the mountain at the end of the strip to get the last 16 meters
that they need. Please pray for strength for the workers and for the
bulldozer to operate without further breakdowns.

Excitement

Hi! I had a little excitement Sunday night after I talked to you that
morning. Immediately after church, someone came to and said that a
couple had been fighting and had seriously injured each other. They
had brought them as far as the church on "stretchers" (basically a
frame made from tree limbs with fabric for the person to lay on). I
assessed them and really didn't think that either was all that
seriously injured, but told them to take them on up to the clinic and
I'd have a look. The wife had a probably broken collar bone and a cut
lip, neither of which I could do much for other than some pain
medicine and a splint.

But the husband was a different story. When I started checking him
over, they told me that he had been hit in the left side with a large
stone and also cut on his head with a stick. He apparently had been
fine for a couple hours after, then started passing out and throwing
up. I first thought that he might have a concussion from the knock on
his head, but his pupils looked fine and most of the time he seemed
with it. Also the cut was pretty minor. I sewed up the cut on his
head, but still wasn't sure what else was going on. Then he threw up
and passed out there in the clinic. Of course, the 50+ people
assembled went nuts, but he did come back around eventually. I checked
a blood pressure and it was rather low. Then I noticed that he was
tender throughout his abdomen, even though he had only been struck on
the left side. He was also cold and clammy as if he might be going
into shock. I then started worrying about a possible internal injury
and bleeding. I started an IV (by the grace of God, since I hadn't
done that for several years) and started replacing the likely blood
loss. That brought his blood pressure back up to an acceptable level.

The next decision was what to do with him. Obviously, he needed to be
assessed at a facility with much better capabilities than my little
clinic. But how to get him there was the issue. It was nearly dark and
it wouldn't be possible to fly him out of anywhere until morning. So,
the family decided to keep him at the clinic (actually in my waiting
house where they could build a fire and stay with him) so that I could
monitor him throughout the night and keep IV fluids going. Then in the
morning, Brother Randy would drive him to the 2.5 hours to Nomane
where he could get a plane flight to Goroka where there is at least a
halfway decent government hospital. Thankfully, he did well throughout
the night and made the trip safely.

This man is from the Kensa line, which as you may remember from
earlier posts, has been traditionally quite resistant to the gospel,
the missionaries, and our church. This is the third medivac from their
neighborhood within the past year. We believe that the Lord is trying
to get their attention. Please join with us in praying for a
breakthrough in this community.

Blessings

I have a number of blessings to report from the past week. First, Jeff
Owens, another missionary here, made a trip to the coastal city of Lae
to get a bulldozer part repaired. That trip went quite well and he was
able to get the part fixed so that the bulldozer could resume work.
While in town, he picked up a man from America who is visiting for a
couple of weeks to help with the airstrip work. They flew into Nomane,
our nearest airstrip, where Brother Randy met them with the truck for
the normally 2.5-3 hour trip home. They hadn't been on the road long
when the ball joint on the steering arm broke, rendering the steering
completely unusable. Thankfully, a lady nearby had a short length of
chain link fence that she was willing to part with for a little less
than 3 U.S. dollars. They used the wire from the fence to "repair" the
broken ball joint. Of course, our roads aren't exactly smooth, so the
wire kept breaking and having to be redone. They had to stop five more
times to rewire the joint. But by the grace of God, the last repair
held for quite some distance so that they didn't have to rewire it
after dark had fallen and made it home safely. So we were quite
thankful for the watch care of the Lord through all of the difficulty.

Also, by grace of the God, the mission team finally went out this
week. Four men and three women went a day's walk away and ministered
in seven different villages doing preaching services and Bible clubs
for the children. I haven't heard all of the report yet as our
afternoon service today will be dedicated to a report from the team
leader and testimonies from other team members, but the team came back
fired up and eager to go out again on another mission trip.

We will be having a baptismal service this Wednesday. It will be an
all day affair with preparing the food for the mumu (cooking food in
the ground), going down to the nearest water for the baptism, then
coming back to the church to eat the food that should be ready and
have a brief service. We have eight people being baptized -- two men,
three women, and three teens. Please pray for the testimony of that
service to the unsaved community and a genuine understanding in the
hearts of those being baptized.

Airstrip Work

The plan is still for a group from our church to leave on Tuesday for
a 3 day mission trip. Please continue to pray for the Lord to work
through the team.

Also on Tuesday, we will be getting a visitor from America. A man from
Ohio is coming out to help with the airstrip work. The work there
continues to progress slowly but surely. The majority of the bulldozer
work is done, but they are presently carving away at the mountain at
the end of the strip to extend it another 16 meters. Unfortunately,
the bulldozer has been developing mechanical difficulties, so the work
has been delayed for repairs (and trips to get the parts to make the
repairs). After the bulldozer work is completed, they will sow grass
seed, then the airstrip will have to be approved before it can be put
into use. Men from our church, community, and neighboring villages
have been working to fence in the airstrip. They have to cut down
trees to make the fence posts, then stretch and nail the pig wire into
place. We are still hoping that the strip will be in operation within
the next few months, but there are no certainties here. Once we are
finished with the bulldozer though, we will send it on to Aibai where
our GFA coworkers there will start work on their own airstrip. Please
continue to be in prayer for these projects.

Changes

In my last blog entry, I asked you to pray for an upcoming mission
trip that our church was planning. Due to a number of reasons, the
group was once again unable to go. The trip is now rescheduled for
next week, July 20-23. Please continue to pray for the Gono area where
the team will be ministering. A number of us have been praying for
this area for some time, and it seems that their is an unusual amount
of opposition to our ministering there. Due to my school and church
responsibilities, I do not plan to be a part of this trip, but I do
covet your prayers for those who will be going.

In other news, Tiffany and I were able to spend about a week in our
nearest town of Goroka, taking care of several items of business and
getting some shopping done. It was nice to have internet access and
get to do our own shopping for a change, but I was ready to get back
to the bush long before we could arrange transportation to take us.
(The helicopter we normally use was down with engine trouble and it
took some real finagling to find another way to get home.)

This past Monday, we started the 4th quarter of school. Elizabeth, the
new short term teacher, is phasing in gradually but seems to have a
real knack for teaching and relates well to the students. It looks
like I should be completely free of teaching responsibilities by mid-
August.

Well, thank you once again for your prayers for us. Please continue to
intercede both for the missionary team here in Kiari, the national
believers, and those who have not heard or responded to the gospel
message.