Serving Christ in the Philippines

Ministry Change

2012-02-03T20:24:00.002-06:00

This week I have sent out letters and emails to both financial and prayer supporters informing them of what the Lord has been doing. I realize, however, that some of you only follow me through my blog, so I wanted to share with you as well.

Thank you so much for your prayers over these past several weeks. Your cards, emails, and words of encouragement have been such a blessing during this time.

My health has been steadily improving since my return to the U.S. on October 31st. Although I still tire a little quicker than before, I am able to maintain a normal schedule again. I miss the ministries in the Philippines, but I have, of course, enjoyed being able to spend time with family. I have also been blessed with the opportunity to stay involved in ministry -- both long distance as I work on projects for the Philippine ministry, and locally as I help out in the GFA home office.

I have been doing a lot of praying and seeking counsel during these past weeks. My lupus has flared up now on two different mission fields. When I got sick in the Philippines, I majorly cut back on my activities, staying almost totally in bed for several weeks. Yet even these radical measures did not seem to improve things. However, when I returned to the U.S., I began to improve almost immediately. Because of these factors, I believe the Lord is leading me to remain here in the States. This is not an easy decision, as it means giving up the one thing I have wanted to do for as long as I can remember. But I am confident it is what the Lord would have me do.

This "setback," however, does not mean that the Lord is without a plan. He has opened the door for me to fill a support role in the home office of Gospel Fellowship Association, my mission agency. I am thrilled with the opportunity to stay involved in missions as I minister to more than 280 missionaries in over 30 countries around the world.

Please know that I appreciate so much your prayers and support over these past years. It has been a privilege to serve the Lord as a missionary, and I look forward to the ministry that He has for me in the future.

Improving

2011-12-06T15:43:00.003-06:00

Thanks so much for your prayers over the past weeks. Since arriving back in the U.S. on October 31st, I have been steadily improving, and it seems the flare up has resolved. Presently, I am able to maintain a fairly normal schedule, just requiring more rest than usual as I continue to regain strength.

With the wonders of modern technology, I have been able to work long distance on some projects for the Philippine ministry, continuing work that I had begun while I was there. I am also helping out some in the GFA home office, as I have done in the past.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of traveling to Georgia with a couple of friends to put on a short Christmas program for a church there. The church is quite small, without any musicians (even a pianist), and they seemed to thoroughly enjoy our small effort.

Please continue to pray for a return to full strength and the Lord's clear direction for the future.

Made It!

2011-11-01T15:50:00.003-05:00

After twenty hours of travel, I arrived safely in the U.S. last evening. The Lord answered prayer by giving strength for the trip and other small blessings as well. For instance, we were given bulkhead seats for the twelve hour flight. These seats have a little more leg room and made the long flight easier and less painful. All the flights were on time or early, and there were no difficulties with immigration or customs in either country. It was wonderful to arrive in Greenville, SC and be met by my dad and brother. I appreciate so much your prayers and concern. Please continue to pray in the days ahead as I work to recover and make decisions for the future.

Home Again

2011-10-25T22:50:00.002-05:00

Thank you so much for everyone that has prayed and expressed concern regarding my recent lupus flare up. After being sick for more than six weeks with no significant improvement, the decision has been made once again that I should return to the U.S. to recover. Lord willing, I will leave here on October 31st (Sunday evening U.S. time) and arrive in Greenville, SC on Monday evening. In God's providence, one of the short term missionaries here was already scheduled to leave and can serve as my travel companion.

I must admit that I am surprised by this turn of events. These circumstances were certainly not in my plan or expectations when I came to the Philippines. However, I am confident that the Lord has a perfect plan and that He will make it clear in the days ahead.

Please pray for strength for the 20+ hour trip and for wisdom for the days ahead.

Thanks!

2011-09-21T08:39:00.002-05:00

Thank you so much for your prayers over the last few days. I am definitely improving -- not as quickly as I would like but better nonetheless. I still wear out quickly but the pain has decreased and the energy is better. I have been able to decrease my medicine and am hoping to venture out of the apartment tomorrow. I so appreciate everyone's prayers, messages, texts, and posts. It means a lot!

Prayer Request

2011-09-17T04:19:00.002-05:00

As most of you know, I have a chronic disease called lupus that reveals itself in sporadic flare ups of incredible fatigue, joint pain, and generally difficulty functioning. The flare ups are rather unpredictable both in when they come and in how long they last. I have not had a major flare up since the one that forced me to leave Papua New Guinea last September, at least until now.

I have been struggling with a flare for the last few days. I have started medication and see some small improvement, but very slow. I would appreciate your prayers that this would resolve quickly and that I would get back to full strength again soon.

Thankfully, unlike in Papua New Guinea, I am in a more urban setting where I can get the rest that I need. Also, much of my work can be done from my bed, so I am still able to fulfill most of my responsibilities. Thankful to know that "His way is perfect" no matter what the circumstances!

Singles Fellowship

2011-09-11T08:34:00.002-05:00

Yet another major event is successfully concluded. Saturday was our first Interchurch Singles Fellowship (but hopefully not the last). We had a good turnout with 85 singles from ten different churches. The folks from my church (pictured here) put a lot of work into it, and it seemed to go well. The theme was Glorifying God in Whatever State You Are. We had three sessions -- the first on Contentment, the second on Living Life to the Fullest, and the third was a divided session on Preparing for a Life's Mate. It was fun and I think we all learned something. Thanks for your prayers!

Also this past week, I had the opportunity to speak to the BJMBC music students about using music in missions. I dressed in traditional Papua New Guinea dress, showed them powerpoint pictures, and shared stories about the ministry. Perhaps the Lord will call one (or more) of them to join that work. I am definitely praying to that end.

Quieter Week

2011-08-30T03:48:00.002-05:00

The last week has been a little less busy than the preceding ones -- nice for a change. I've been catching up on various projects and responsibilities that were neglected in the push to get the music completed for the concert.

I was finally able to go through the pictures from the Palawan trip and put together a short video report. I'm attaching it to this blog post. If you are unable to view it for some reason, you can also visit the following weblink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lcsf4QeJhw

Busy Week

2011-08-21T10:19:00.002-05:00

After my return from the wonderful trip to Palawan, I had a lot of work to do to get ready for the concert on Friday night. By God's grace alone, all 14 compositions were completed and edited in time for me to input them into the computer. The last pieces went to the printer on Thursday morning and were ready for sale after the concert on Friday evening. Praise the Lord for a great concert! There were around 400 people in attendance, and all the participants did a great job. Although I could not understand all the words of the songs (since they were in Tagalog and Cebuano), those who do speak those languages said that the message was clearly communicated and was a great blessing. Many folks purchased music so the impact of those compositions will continue to spread.

Since that event is over, it's time to get refocused on other projects that have been pushed aside for a time. My church is planning an interchurch singles fellowship next month, so there is much preparation to do for that. I am also working on finalizing the layout of the first book of the violin curriculum. In addition, the main secretary of BJMBC is out on maternity leave, so I have increased responsibilities there as well. Praise the Lord for the strength He has given in the busy days recently and continue to pray for wisdom in the days ahead.

Medical Mission

2011-08-15T09:47:00.003-05:00

Praise the Lord for a safe and profitable trip! I just returned from the medical mission trip to the Philippine island of Palawan, and it was an incredibly enjoyable and exciting experience. I will try to give you at least a brief survey.

We (Dr. Ina Bunyi and I) left Manila early on Friday morning. We landed in Puerta Princessa, the capital of Palawan, had lunch, then rode about 4 hours to the town of Brooke's Point. A former classmate of Dr. Ina's has a clinic so she had a cardiac patient that she wanted Dr. Ina to see (since she is a pediatric cardiologist). That entailed a trip to the provincial hospital where Dr. Ina did an echocardiogram using the ultrasound machine usually used for assessing abdomens and pregnant women.

The next morning we were up quite early and set off about 6:30 for our trip up the mountain. The church in Brooke's Point has a number of outreaches/church plants, one of which is in Tatandayan. It was about a two hour hike up to this village. Once there we had a church service and then had a medical clinic with the help of some of the believers from the church in Brooke's Point. We saw about 39 patients. After enjoying food with the believers there (including fresh coconut milk), we headed back down to the mountain. When we reached the van, we loaded up and headed to the site of another outreach. There we saw 65 patients while the gospel was preached to those assembled. After that it was time to head to the church for choir practice for Sunday. We were able to hep out both by singing in the choir and accompanying on the piano.

Sunday was the start of a week long missions conference at the church. In Sunday school, one of the men in the church gave a presentation about the unreached tribes in Palawan with many sobering statistics. I was surprised to discover how "primitive" many of these villages still are. Then the Sunday school kids came in dressed in the attire of the tribes -- quite a special sight.
Dr. Ina and I were able to share our testimonies as well. We continued to minister through music in the morning service.

The afternoon service was at 2:30pm and included the ordination of the church leaders at Tatandayan, the village we had visited the day before. It was a real blessing to see these mountain people take the first step toward having an indigenous church. After the service we saw about 50 more patients from the various outreaches that had attended the service.

Today we went to the market in Brooke's Point, then boarded the van for the trip back to Puerto Princesa. It was an incredibly fast and packed trip, but the Lord blessed with much strength and wisdom.

Now that I'm back in Manila (feeling as though I was visiting a completely different country), I will be busy this week in preparing the music for the sacred concert this Friday. Please pray that the Lord will bring all the details together to make this concert a blessing to those who attend, and that the music will be able to be used in churches throughout the Philippines.

Preparations

2011-08-07T09:25:00.003-05:00

It seems as though most of the week was spent in making preparations for one event or another. I think I have shared about the upcoming concert on August 19, which will be of all newly written and arranged music in the languages of the Philippines. Since we want the music to be a help to church throughout the Philippines, it needs to be published and available at the concert. So I have been and will be busy laying out the music in the computer and making the changes as each piece goes through the editing process.

At odd moments, my doctor friend and I have been meeting to make plans for our medical mission trip. We have made a list of medicines to purchase, found out what is available on the island where we are headed, and made plans to go out and purchase the remainder this week.

Then, at my church this weekend, I was involved in the planning meeting for an inter-church singles fellowship scheduled for early September. (I am in charge of registration for that event.)

In between, all the preparations was midterm exams for the BJMBC students. Despite a day of cancelled classes because of rain and flooding (our 5th major storm in a month when normal is usually 2), all the exams were finally administered. Now I have a huge pile of grading to do, as I help several of the teachers with their grading.

Please continue to pray for the medical mission trip to Palawan. We leave Friday morning (Thursday night in the States) and will return Monday night. Pray for safety, for wisdom in treating patients, and most of all for us to be a blessing to the church there and a tool for evangelism in their outreaches.

Mission Trip

2011-07-31T09:57:00.003-05:00

I am excited to share with you an opportunity the Lord opened up just this past week. Since I have been in the Philippines, several people have told me about the island of Palawan. It is an area to the southwest of the island on which Manila is located, and is apparently mountainous and resembles Papua New Guinea in many ways. I am told there are number of tribes living there that have not yet been reached with the gospel.

I have a Filipino doctor friend (a pediatric cardiologist) who has been burdened with the needs of this area for some time. She is friends with a national family that have a solid church ministry on that island. Last week, we were talking with a member of this family, Jethro Malacao. He is leaving for the States at the end of August to work on his doctorate at BJU, but he invited my doctor friend and I to come to Palawan early in August to do a medical mission trip.

So our plan is to leave to fly there on Friday, August 12th, do medical ministry in 1-2 locations on Saturday, participate in the church mission conference on Sunday (including assisting as needed with the medical needs of the attendees), and return to Manila on Monday. There is also some talk of assisting some national nurses in the church with the training and guidelines needed to set up a regular clinic ministry.

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be involved in medical ministry again and to see this area that I have heard so much about. One concern I had when I heard about the opportunity was where the money would come from to buy medicines (as most of my money has been going toward setting up housekeeping here). But the very night that I heard about the opportunity, I received my monthly GFA financial report and discovered that one of my supporting churches had given an additional large gift that will more than cover the cost of any medicines we will purchase. Praise the Lord for His provision!

Please pray for us now as we prepare, drawing up treatment protocols and procuring medicines. Also please pray for a number of pressing projects at New Song Ministries that I need to complete before leaving.

Church

2011-07-24T08:14:00.002-05:00

This week I just wanted to praise the Lord for the church He has led me to attend. (The picture is me with some of my church mates.) I really enjoy the people there and feel like they have welcomed me as part of the group, despite my different appearance and the language barriers.

I continue to assist in the music ministry, accompanying the congregational singing on either flute or piano, accompanying for choir and special music, and playing offertories. I also have enjoyed attending the ladies Bible study each Sunday afternoon and getting to know the ladies and their needs better.

I will be leading the Bible study next Sunday afternoon, so I would appreciate your prayers for that. Also please pray that the Lord will give direction as to other ministries in which He would have me be involved.

Since it takes about two hours to commute to this church, I do not go there on Wednesday nights. However, the Lord has given me the opportunity to work with the children in the church close to where I live. Please do pray for these children as well. Although most, if not all, of them are from Christian homes and/or attend Christian school, the majority are either unsure of their salvation or have never even made a profession. They know the truth, but have not applied it personally. Please pray that the Lord will give us wisdom as we lead the program and that the Holy Spirit will be at work to illumine their minds to the truth of the gospel.

Speaking and Music

2011-07-10T09:07:00.003-05:00

The Lord continues to open doors for ministry, often unexpected ones. On Friday, I had the opportunity to speak to about 25 BJMBC female students in Ladies Forum. They had submitted a list of topics that they wanted to cover during the year and a frequent request concerned knowing the will of God -- how do I know if God is calling me into ministry, how do I know if I'm called to be a pastor's wife, etc. I was asked to address this topic with them. I enjoyed giving them biblical principles to guide their decision making and several requested me to email them my speaking notes.

Then on Saturday, the church I attended when I was here previously hosted a ladies meeting with a health focus. They had a number of speakers on different aspects of health but asked me to give the devotional (because of my nursing background). I enjoyed sharing about "The Disease of the Soul," and pray that the Lord will continue to use the truth of His Word in the hearts of those who heard.

Today (Sunday) gave opportunities for musical ministry at church as I played my flute for congregational singing, accompanied the church choir in the morning service, and sang in a trio for the evening service.

Next week, we are looking forward to having two young ladies from the U.S. visiting with us. They are here to work with National Hoops (a basketball tournament outreach for young people), but came early to get a chance to see ministry in the Philippines. One of them will be staying in my apartment, so I have been busily trying to finish getting it furnished. I finally have a table and chairs, and got a bed for the second bedroom and hung the curtains.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers for the ministry here. May God be glorified in everything we do -- from the public ministries to the private ones.

Opportunities

2011-07-03T08:50:00.003-05:00

The Lord provided several ministry opportunities this week. First, when I was at the grocery on Monday, I had a good opportunity to talk to the young man who was helping me with my bags. He wanted to know why I was so happy and why I would leave America to come to the Philippines when so many Filipinos want to get to the U.S. His English wasn't good enough for a deep conversation, but I was able to explain briefly and give him a tract in Tagalog. Then the girl working the elevator wanted to see the tract and took it out of his hand to look at it, so I gave her one too:-) Pray for this young man. I forget his name, but the Lord will know who you mean.

Then Monday evening, we had a party for about 20 BJMBC girl students who are living near the school rather than commuting in each day. We had a good time of fun and food, but I also enjoyed getting to share the devotional -- thoughts that the Lord has taught me on Psalm 73. Please do pray for these girls. Many of them are a long way from home for the first time, and they are at varying levels of spiritual maturity. They range in age from 16 to early 30s. It is a blessing to have them and we pray that the Lord will do a real work in their lives during their time here.

Rain and Floods

2011-06-26T20:55:00.002-05:00

The streets of Manila are slowly drying out after the onslaughts of Tropical Storm Falcon over the past week. We had several days of torrential rains, 6 inches of rain in less than 24 hours! There was much flooding causing school to be cancelled all over the city. It may seem unusual to Americans to cancel school for rain, but its not the rain so much as the accumulation of rain and the resulting flooding. (Just as we cancel school not so much because of falling snow, but because of the accumulation of snow that impedes travel.) Many areas of Manila were underwater and without power and folks were stranded at their schools and workplaces all over they city.

Because of the flooding, I did not attempt to commute to my church on Saturday. However, I was still able to go on Sunday by riding with another family from my area that goes each week. I continue to enjoy the church and helping with the ministries there. The people are incredibly appreciative for the small things that I can do.

This evening we are having a get together for the 20+ BJMBC girls that live in 2 apartments near the school. I have been asked to share the devotional and would appreciate your prayers for that ministry.

Commuting

2011-06-19T09:00:00.002-05:00

I am safely home again after commuting to my new church for the first time. I drafted a Filipino student from BJMBC to accompany me this first time, so that she could speak Tagalog and ask directions if we got lost (which we did once:-) In addition, another BJMBC student will be accompanying me each week, but she is from Vietnam and doesn't speak any more Tagalog than I do.

Anyway, it took about 2.5 hours to get there yesterday. First we walked a few blocks and caught a jeepney (sort of a short, squatty bus with the two long bench seats facing the middle of the vehicle), then we got on the MRT (like an elevated train), then a bus. We apparently missed our stop on the bus, so we had to walk a little ways to get to where we should have been. Then we got on another jeepney, then got a tricycle (a motorcycle with a covered sidecar) to the church.

Coming home, we followed a slightly different route that included tricycle, jeepney, bus, and jeepney. That only took about 1.5 hours. We stayed with Gary and Edie Jones, the missionaries that lead the church. They have been in the Philippines 30+ years.

I was able to help out with the choir and piano and am excited to see what ministry opportunities the Lord will open there. It is a smaller church than the one I attended when I was here before. They have a Tagalog service of about 30 people, then Sunday School, then an English service of around 60.

I am also safely moved into my apartment. I moved early (about 6:30am) on Wednesday morning, before it got too hot. It's rather bare at the moment -- just a refrigerator, a stove, and a bed.:-) Little by little!

Thanks so much for your continued prayers. It's exciting to be right in the place where God wants you to be and know it!

Provision

2011-06-12T19:22:00.002-05:00

The Lord's provision has been so evident this week, that I want to share it with you. First off, I have an apartment! I met with the apartment manager on Friday, and after looking at two different apartments, I signed a contract on one. That's exciting because I had no guarantee there would one be open so quickly after I returned. It is in the same building that I have been staying in and is only a few doors down from the building where New Song and BJMBC are.

Yesterday (Sunday), I had the opportunity to visit a church on the other side of Manila. I had been praying about finding a church where I could be involved in the ministry, and it seems that the Lord has answered. It is a smaller church, pastored by another GFA missionary, and they have many areas where I can be of help.

I'm pretty much over jet lag -- actually slept from 10:30 to 6:30 last night, instead of waking up at 5am:-) It's been good to be back and reconnect with friends.

I'd appreciate your prayers as I furnish my apartment and figure out how to negotiate the public transportation to make the trip to my new church. Pray also for opportunities to build spiritually edifying relationships with girls at BJMBC and at church.

Arrival

2011-06-08T20:14:00.002-05:00

After 24+ hours of travel, I am safely back in the Philippines. All the flights were without incident, and my luggage arrived when I did. Thanks so much for your prayers!

I am eager to jump back into the ministry here. Now if I could only figure out what time zone I'm in:-)

Leaving

2011-06-06T10:10:00.003-05:00

The nearly two months of stateside ministry as come to a close and I am busily preparing to leave once again for the Philippines. I have enjoyed the time to connect with some of you, see family, and fellowship with other missionaries. On the other hand, I am excited to be returning to the field and the ministry the Lord has given me there.

I fly out of Greenville, SC Tuesday morning (June 7th) for a trip lasting just over 24 hours. If all goes as scheduled, I will arrive in Manila at 11am EST on Wednesday, June 8th. I would appreciate your prayers for a safe and uneventful trip, for my luggage to arrive without incident, and for a quick transition into the Philippines ministry.

What a blessing to know that the Lord is not confined by geographical boundaries and, as He promised, He will be with us wherever we go. And yet another blessing is knowing that neither are your prayers limited by distance but through them, you can impact a ministry that you may never see. Thanks so much for your partnership in this endeavor.

Events and Projects

2011-05-16T21:33:00.003-05:00

It's always a little harder to find things to write about when I'm home in the States, since I'm not busy in a foreign country with things that will sound different and unusual when I share them with you. That's not to say that I've not been busy though. I've had several projects going on that have kept me out of trouble.:-)

First, a week after I arrived I travelled to another state to help a friend prepare for her wedding. That was a fun time of reconnecting as well as a little hectic in dealing with all the last minute details. At the last minute, she didn't have a videographer, so I ended up doing my amateur best (thanks to the experience gained in the Philippines videoing events at BJMBC). Then, since I had all the footage from two cameras, I spent a good bit of time editing and splicing to create a complete wedding video as well as a combination video/picture slideshow to be shown at a later reception. A lot of work, but a lot of fun as well.

I also have been working at the local office of Gospel Fellowship Association, my mission agency. They recently had a major computer software change that left behind a lot of hiccups to be worked out, so I have been helping to resolve a few of those.

In addition, the wonders of modern technology means that I have been able to continue doing some work for the Philippines ministry from across the globe. I am continuing to lay out music for an upcoming concert, send electronic newsletters, and other projects for New Song Ministries.

In the meantime, my nephew graduated from high school May 5th. (Can't believe he's eighteen already! Where does the time go?)

With those things behind me, I am concentrating on preparing to return to the Philippines in a couple of weeks. On May 25, I am speaking at a church here in Greenville, SC. Then the next week is GFA's annual conference. The following Tuesday, June 7, I fly out.

I'm excited to see the time approaching. There is still much to be done before I leave, for which I would appreciate your prayers, but I'm ready to be back.

Changes

2011-04-13T10:08:00.002-05:00

I am now back in the United States after spending three very enjoyable months ministering in the Philippines. I know that I have not been very faithful in posting reports of my activities, and for that I apologize. The Lord has been work changing my plans once again, and I was not free to share all the details along the way. If you receive my prayer letter, then you may already have heard all this, but for those of you who only follow me electronically, I wanted to keep you informed as well. Therefore, I am pasting below the text of my most recent prayer letter. Praise the Lord for His perfect plan!

On April 1st, I attended the commencement exercises for Bob Jones Memorial Bible College in the Philippines. As I listened to the testimonies of the graduates, I was struck by the privilege of being involved in this ministry. These students represent an incredible potential to impact the Philippines and other countries in Southeast Asia. Ministries that require a missionary to spend years learning the culture and language can be quickly begun and continued under the leadership of well-trained nationals such as these. I listened to their testimonies of how they had grown in their spiritual walk and biblical knowledge, and was amazed that I was even there at all.

As you know, I spent the last two years in Papua New Guinea. Last fall, health problems forced me to leave the country, and visa problems closed the door for a speedy return. Thus, in January of this year, I went to the Philippines intending to stay for three months while I waited for my PNG visa. I have greatly enjoyed being a part of the ministries in the Philippines, as I worked both in New Song Ministries (seeking to make available affordable, God-honoring sacred music) and Bob Jones Memorial Bible College (training nationals for ministry).

My health problems seemed to stay under better control in the new setting, and I found myself able to use my abilities in computers and technology – abilities that had been of little help in the primitive culture of Papua New Guinea. Due to these factors, I was asked to pray about the possibility of remaining in the Philippines, at least for a couple of years. After talking with my father and pastor, we all recognized the Lord’s leading in the change of direction. Both I and Gospel Fellowship Association, my mission agency, sent out letters informing my financial supporters of the change, and I now want to share with you, my praying friends, as well.

I am excited about the opportunities for service in the Philippines. I will be spending most of my time in New Song and the rest working at BJMBC. There are also plans to use my medical skills in mission trips to the rural areas outside Manila. It is a little scary to start all over learning a new culture and language, but I am confident of the Lord’s direction and leading in this decision.

Since I had planned only to stay in the Philippines for three months, I had purchased a round-trip plane ticket and was not prepared to stay for the long term. Thus, by the time you read this, I will be back in the States for a brief stay. I plan to return to the Philippines on June 7th.

Thanks so much for your prayers during this time of transition.

Concerts

2011-03-08T01:21:00.004-06:00

This past week has been busy with various concerts as we near the end of the school year. Thursday was the faculty recital where each of the eight music faculty members performed a number of classical and sacred pieces. Friday was the BJMBC final orchestra and choir concert. It was especially exciting as a number of the pieces were written or arranged by BJMBC students. One of the main goals of the music ministry here is to encourage Filipino musicians to write and arrange their own sacred music so that they are not depend on "imported" music, so it was neat to see progress toward that end.

Then Sunday was the annual BJMBC choir tour. We packed up the entire choir along with a 5 instruments and music stands into a total of 4 vehicles. They gave a sacred concert at two different churches -- one in an another area of Manila and one outside Manila in the province. A BJMBC grad student came along to preach following each concert. The churches used the concerts as a tool to invite visitors to those church services.

Before you ask, no, I wasn't participating in all of these concerts (although I did play a flute obligato with one of the choir numbers). My musical knowledge is nowhere near the caliber of the faculty here. I did however get to video record all of these events, which is much more up my alley:-)

I would appreciate your prayers as I make a short trip to Papua New Guinea this week. I have some business that needs to be dealt with there. I will be leaving the Philippines March 8th and returning to the Philippines March 15th. Please pray for a smooth and profitable trip, especially with the travel connections and visa details.

Please also continue to pray for my computer. It will be a fairly pricey repair, but the part has to come for Singapore. I was told last week that it would take 2 weeks to get the part and make the repair. But then today I found out that their supplier fell through, so it will be another 7 days before they even get the part. Not having my computer really handicaps my usefulness here, so please pray that it will be fixed soon, ideally by when I get back to the Philippines next week.

Blessed Week

2011-02-27T04:05:00.002-06:00

This last week has been incredibly busy, but also a real blessing. All the services of the conference were well attended, probably around 400 people each evening. The preaching was excellent and many public decisions were made. I was able to help with the kids' ministry on the first night of the conference and then joined in the music ministry the other evenings through flute and choir.

Today (Feb 27) is the 31st anniversary of the church here. The church was planted by a GFA missionary, Dennis Potts, and is now under the leadership of a national pastor. We had a great morning service, a time of fellowship and food afterwards, and then the actual annIversary service at 2pm. At least 5-6 other churches attended, many contributing special music. It was neat to see how the training at Bob Jones Memorial Bible College is bearing fruit through the work of its graduates as pastors and music leaders in churches throughout the area.

Thank you so much for your prayers for these special services. I know they were a blessing to my own heart, and I'm sure they will continue to bear fruit in the lives of those who attended.

On a different note, I have a rather unusual request. Please pray for my computer. It completely quit working early this week. Since most of my work here is computer-based, it is a rather urgent need. It is presently in the repair shop. Please pray that it can be fixed, or at the least, that the data can be recovered from it. (I backed it up before coming to the Philippines, but have not backed up the work I've done while I've been here.) What a blessing to know that the Lord is in control, even of technology:-)

Special Conference

2011-02-21T04:44:00.002-06:00

Things continue to move along on a fairly normal cycle here. Work is progressing well on the various projects in which I am involved. The first three books of the violin curriculum are entered into Finale (the music writing program) and the data from nearly 700 survey respondents has been entered into the database that I created. I have shooting a good bit of video of footage and taking a lot of pictures of the ministries here. I just completed an updated DVD presentation for Jolea Jensen, a missionary here who will be returning to the States in April to hopefully quickly complete her deputation. This week, I plan to start working on another DVD for a missionary family that will be returning to the States soon for furlough. It has been neat to see the Lord put my computer skills to good use.

This week promises to be a busy one at church. Wednesday through Friday, my church here is hosting a special conference on holiness. Churches from a wide area have been invited. There will be two services each night with a lot of special music. Dr. Bob Jones III is the keynote speaker and so will be preaching each evening. Then Sunday is our church anniversary, so there will be special services that day as well. Please pray for much spiritual fruit to be produced in the hearts of all those that attend, as well as strength and wisdom for all those involved, especially Dr. Bob.

Thanks so much for your continued prayers and interest in the ministry here.

Getaway

2011-02-04T19:56:00.003-06:00

I must apologize for my sporadic blog posting. I have the best of intentions, but they don't always translate into reality:-)

So at any rate, to bring you up to date with recent events. I am still in the Philippines (in case you were wondering), and enjoying very much the variety of ministries here. I spend most of my days working on my computer, which I really enjoy. We are in the process of developing a curriculum for teaching a number of musical instruments. The curriculum is in a form at present that is usable for the faculty at BJMBC (the Bible college here), but it needs to be laid out professionally in such a way that teachers throughout the Philippines can use it to train their students for musical ministry in their teachers. I am tasked with laying out the musical pieces in a computer program called Finale. So far I have completed the first three books of the Violin curriculum. I am working on the 4th book, then will move on to the Viola curriculum, and perhaps even the Piano curriculum if time allows.

Last weekend, I had the privilege of joining the other single girls on a weekend getaway. They had been planning for some time to visit another island south of us and enjoy a couple days of relaxation. And I got to tag along:-) The U.S. dollar is very strong here, so the cost of the weekend was incredibly reasonable. I had the experience of snorkeling for the first time and absolutely loved it. I had no idea what an amazing world exists right under those waves. The trip seemed to me to be a special gift from the Lord, as I had originally planned to make a similar trip in Papua New Guinea but lost the opportunity when I had to leave in September. Isn't God good to give us things that we never even thought of asking for???

The most recent word from Papua New Guinea is that my work permit has been approved, and my visa application has been submitted. So that's one hurdle down and several to go. Please continue to pray for the granting of my paperwork in the Lord's timing and also for His direction for the future. It seems that I will likely not be headed back to Kiari (the village where I had been ministering), but it is not entirely clear what new ministry the Lord has in store. But isn't it great to know that "His way is perfect," and He never makes mistakes. I recently saw a post from a friend where she quoted the Bible verse "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord", and said "Notice that it says his steps not just his ways." What an encouragement!

Contrasts

2011-01-16T18:02:00.009-06:00

This week has been a study in contrasts. I spent most of the time working on my assigned projects -- inputting the violin curriculum into Finale, organizing the data from a survey on cross-cultural evaluations of various kinds of music, and assisting in the college office. That has been mostly a 9-5 kind of job. I've also had fun getting to know some of the Filipino girls and learning a bit of their language.

The church here is fairly large -- about 300 on a Sunday morning -- and is under the leadership of a national pastor. The Filipinos themselves are filling most ministry roles, but I've been able to help with the children's class on Wednesday nights and join the choir and orchestra.

This weekend, some of us missionaries along with about 22 music students from BJMBC attended a concert by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. The traffic on the way there was distinctly Filipino. The congestion on the streets here can only be described as organized chaos. A mixture of cars, motorcycles, tricycles (a motorcycle or large bicycle with a side car for carrying passengers), jeepneys (short in height buses for carrying passengers), and even semis fight their way down the streets, changing lanes with only inches of clearance and basically each a law unto himself. But, after our arrival, we entered a very nice auditorium and had a very classical experience (for the reasonable price of ~$2.50 for second balcony seats). After negotiating the traffic to return home, three of us single girls took a tricycle to McDonald's for a late dinner. As I said, a study in contrasts.

Ruth Potter, one of the short termers, has her parents visiting for the next couple of weeks. They are Baptist World missionaries to Hungary, and her dad is teaching an extension class for national pastors while they are here. We took advantage of their presence for a sightseeing trip on Saturday. We went first to the American cemetery here in Manila. It is the burial site of many American and Filipino military who were killed during World War II. It is quite beautiful, similar to Arlington in the U.S. After that, we went to one of the many malls here and got lunch, did some window shopping, and got doughnuts at Krispy Kreme. Yet another study in contrasts.

I am definitely enjoying my time here and glad that I can be a help to the ministry for a short period. Please pray for our national pastor, Gilbert Castillo (pronounced Castilio). His father passed away last Wednesday and will be buried on Tuesday in the village where he lived. Pray for the strengthening of the family, safety in traveling, and an effective Gospel witness in the funeral.

In the Philippines

2011-01-07T18:55:00.002-06:00

I have now officially arrived in the Philippines. I touched down in the Manila airport just before midnight on Sunday, January 2nd, after a 25 hour trip. I have spent the week getting settled in and discovering the similarities and differences between the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

I am staying with another single girl in a 4th floor apartment in Metro Manila -- quite a change from the rural mountainscape of PNG. Just down the street is the building that houses Gospel Light Baptist Church, Bob Jones Memorial Bible College, Gospel Light Christian Academy, and New Song Ministries. So that is where I spend most of my time during the day.

I am working on a variety of projects for both New Song Ministries (a ministry that publishes and distributes sacred music throughout the Philippines) and BJMBC (a Bible college for Bible and music students to prepare them for ministry throughout Southeast Asia).

The Filipino people have been friendly and welcoming. Most speak English, although they generally prefer to speak their own language of Tagalog. Classes at BJMBC are mostly in English with a smattering of Tagalog, but the Wednesday church service at Gospel Light was more Tagalog than English. I studied Tagalog some before I arrived and am continuing to study since I have arrived. It is more difficult than Pidgin was in PNG, so I am making some progress but doubt I'll be fluent before I leave:-)

Due to the size and number of the ministries, there is a rather large missionary team here. It includes four career missionary families -- the Kamibiyashiyamas, the Bachoriks, and the Berreys teach at BJMBC; and the Potts led Gospel Light Baptist Church (although it is now under the leadership of a Filipino pastor). Then there is one career single girl, Jolea Jensen, who is my apartment mate. And last, but definitely not least, are the short term girls who teach at BJMBC -- Rachel Dahlhausen, Ruth Potter, and Bethany and Rachel Uhler. It's a fun group and they've all been very kind and welcoming.

Please pray that I would be a significant help to the ministry here, despite the short length of my stay (until April 10). I'll try to get regular about posting again and keep you up to date on the ministry here and the fun things I discover about living in the Philippines.

News

2010-12-01T12:51:00.002-06:00

I finally have some news to report for a change. As you know, I am unable to return to Papua New Guinea at present due to paperwork issues. I have submitted my application for a work permit renewal. When that is granted, I can then apply for a new visa but the whole process will probably take several months. Although I have enjoyed being home and catching up with family and friends, I did not really want to spend those months of waiting sitting in U.S., so I approached GFA (my mission agency) about the possibility of helping out short term on another field.

The opportunity that has arisen is in the Philippines. There are a group of GFA missionaries there who have an exciting ministry underway. One part of that ministry is Bob Jones Memorial Bible College which trains national men and women to serve in churches in the Philippines and throughout Southeast Asia. Another part is New Song Ministry which is working to provide biblical music to churches throughout the Philippines. It looks as if I will have the privilege of assisting in both of these ministries.

As things stand now, I will be leaving after Christmas and ministering in the Philippines until the end of their school year in early April. I am excited about this new opportunity and ask for your prayers as I prepare to go.

Waiting

2010-10-25T20:42:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I've sent out a post, mainly because I really don't have much to report. My health is almost totally back to normal. I only notice that I seem to tire a little more quickly than before, but I expect that to improve as time goes on.

So, as I mentioned before, the main obstacle to my return to PNG is now my paperwork. Michael Berbin, one of the missionaries in PNG, is continuing to work with the PNG immigration department but has been unsuccessful so far. My work permit, along with those of most of the GFA missionaries in PNG, will expire at the end of this calendar year. If I am not back in PNG by then, I will have to wait until our work permit renewals are approved, which could be several months. But, regardless of inefficient third world governments, it is a blessing to know that the Lord is ultimately in control. He allowed the issue to arise and He will clear it up in His own perfect timing.

In the meantime, I am finding various things to stay busy. I had the opportunity to speak to the Bob Jones University chapter of the University Nurses Assocation, a student led organization for nursing students. I shared with them about the ministry in PNG and about the opportunities available in medical missions. Last week was Missions Emphasis week at Bob Jones, so I was able to assist at the GFA table, sharing with students about long and short term opportunities with GFA on mission fields around the world. In a few weeks, I will be speaking at the ladies group of one of my supporting churches here in Greenville, SC. I have also enjoyed opportunities to see and visit with my family, even attending my 10 year old nephew's chapel program at his elementary school.

Please continue to pray for the Lord to open the door for me to return to PNG in His timing. Also please pray for wisdom for some decisions that need to be made in the meantime.

Paperwork

2010-09-28T08:07:00.002-05:00

Healthwise, I continue to improve daily. I feel almost completely back to normal and have been able to gradually decrease the dose of the medication that I have been taking. I return to the doctor on Thursday and we will discuss the lab work that she did last week as well as any changes I need to make for the future. There is a possibility that she may be able to put me on a new medication that has been shown to decrease the incidence and severity of flareups, so that would be a real help. Thank you so much for your prayers through all this.

But now I have a new request for you. When I went through Immigration to leave Papua New Guinea, a problem arose with my entry permit. The permit in my passport states that it is for multiple entries, but when they scanned my passport they said that it was only for single entry. That means that at present I do not have a permit to reenter Papua New Guinea. As you know, PNG bureaucracy is rather slow and inefficient so this is a real problem. Michael Berbin, the senior GFA missionary in PNG, has been communicating with the Immigration folks since I left, but we're still working to find a resolution. The last thing he was told is that they can't even find a record that I have any sort of entry permit. I am faxing some things to them today and would appreciate your prayers for a speedy solution.

As far as things back in Kiari, they are in desperate need of rain. We generally have about a 3 month dry season, but this one has stretched into 4. The missionaries there are down to about 2 inches of rain in their water tanks and the nationals (not having rain tanks and dependent on the streams) are in even greater straits. Food was getting short when I left a few weeks ago, so I'm sure things are even tighter now.

On the other hand, it appears that the ambulance situation is resolving itself. Apparently my absence (and thus our clinic being closed) put pressure on the culprits to return the ambulance so that the Kiari folks could make use of the medical facilities in Nomane (where the ambulance was from). The last I heard was that some men from Kiari had left to drive the ambulance back to where it belongs. There will likely be repercussions for some time yet, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

Thank you once again for your prayers and support during this time.

Doctor's Appointment

2010-09-23T18:43:00.002-05:00

This morning, I was able to see a rheumatologist (a specialist that deals with lupus and similar diseases). I had been working for over a week just to get a referral, fully expecting that it would be a few more weeks before I would be able to get an appointment. But, in the Lord's providence, a new rheumatologist has recently moved to Greenville and had an immediate opening.

She did a bunch of lab work and other tests and wants to see me back in a week. She is not a believer but had a lot of interest in what I am doing in Papua New Guinea and why I am doing it. Please continue to pray not only for wisdom for this doctor but also for further opportunities to witness to her.

Hanging in There

2010-09-18T04:53:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to post a quick update and let everyone know how things are going. I am feeling some better -- getting lots of rest and spending most of the time just laying around the house. It's kind of odd being back in the U.S. with all the amenities available but not really having the energy to go out and make use of them:-) I have had a lot of difficulty getting onto a normal sleep schedule again (probably courtesy of both jet lag and the medication I am taking), but I actually slept until 5:30am this morning -- the best yet!

I have not yet been able to see a rheumatologist (the specialist that deals with lupus). In fact, the doctor's office has not even called me back with a referral yet. (And I got impatient with inefficiency in PNG:-) Seriously though, I will be continuing to pursue that next week.

Thank you so much for your prayers and outpouring of support. I will continue to keep you posted as things develop.

Made It

2010-09-14T12:23:00.002-05:00

I am happy to announce that I am officially back in the U.S. Thanks so much for your prayers for the trip. The Lord's care was so evident all along the way. I'll try to enumerate a few things, but He did so much that I'm sure I'll leave out something.

First, we were scheduled to leave on our first flight on Saturday afternoon, then spend the night in the capital city of PNG before flying on to Australia on Sunday. Well, the flight was cancelled (due to mechanical issues, I think). But that seeming setback saved us the cost of a hotel in the capital. Also, by the time the flight was cancelled, all the stores were closed, but we had just enough food left in the guest house to cover our supper and breakfast needs.

Then the next morning, the airline scheduled an additional later flight to take care of the passengers on the cancelled flight. That flight would have been too late for us to make our Australia connection though, but our incredibly diligent PNG travel agent made sure that we were booked on the first flight of the day, even coming to the airport to see us off. Then when we arrived in the capital, we got held up going through immigration, but again because of our travel agent's work, they held the plane until we got on, closing the door only after we arrived.

When we landed in Australia, I had a lot of energy and was able to deal with customs and immigration there without any problems. The Lord provided a hotel and a good night's sleep. I was pretty exhausted in the airport the next morning, but we had plenty of time so we were able to sit down and rest as I needed. Again, a very helpful airline representative made sure we were seated together and even straightened out an issue with Jennifer's return ticket.

We landed in LA with less than two hours to collect our baggage, clear customs, get rechecked, and get boarding passes for the next flight. Thankfully, my earlier exhaustion was gone and I was able to practically run through the airport and again we were some of the last few people on the plane.

What a blessing to land in Atlanta and find my dad and brother waiting for me. I am pretty exhausted today and still way behind on sleep, but the hard part is over. I went to an Urgent Care center today to get a referral to a rheumatologist (the kind of doctor that treats lupus). I was told that there are only 2 in Greenville and that it will likely be a few weeks before I can get an appointment. But the Lord is in control of that too!

Thanks once again for all your prayers and support. They mean so much!

Home

2010-09-10T05:58:00.001-05:00

The decision has been made. I'm headed home. I'm not critically ill
and it's not an emergency or anything like that, but I'm just not
getting better. I can't stay on the high doses of medication that I'm
presently taking for an extended period of time, and the medicine has
already pretty much put my immune system out of commission, so a third
world country with all its diseases is not the safest place right now.

If all goes as planned, I will be leaving on my first flight Saturday
afternoon my time, spend two nights in hotels along the way and arrive
in Atlanta on Monday evening U.S. time. Then, I'll try to get in to
see a doctor and see where things are at. Please pray for strength for
the trip, wisdom for Jennifer Pearson (a nurse practitioner with GFA
her in PNG who is escorting me), and smooth travel.

Thanks so much for the many who have prayed and expressed their
support. It means a lot!

Health Update

2010-09-08T04:47:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to keep you up to date as to what is going on with my
health. I really have not had any significant improvement. On Tuesday
morning, I thought I was doing better, but went for a short walk
outside the guest house where we are staying and soon after was quite
exhausted and in a good amount of pain. The doctor is saying that
there is not really anything more that they can do for me here. If
things don't start to improve by Friday, it looks like I may be headed
back to the U.S. for a time to allow things to stabilize. I would
appreciate your prayers for wisdom and direction for the doctors and
other involved in the decision making process.

Interesting Developments

2010-09-06T16:50:00.001-05:00

As usual, life is never boring in PNG. As some of you know, I have a
chronic disease called lupus. It is an autoimmune disease where I can
have difficulties with fatigue, joint pain, and such things. Normally,
it is managed well with medication, but I occasionally have flare-ups
where I have to add some Prednisone for a short time. Well, I started
having a flare-up at the end of last week, and the Prednisone wasn't
really helping, despite taking higher doses than I have ever taken
before. Since some of the Kiari missionaries were already headed to
town to take Tiffany Parks to the airport, I made the decision to go
as well and try to see a doctor. I was able to get into a mission
clinic yesterday (Monday), and they ran lab work and added some pain
medication. I am doing a bit better today but still not back to
normal. I am supposed to email the doctor a status update tomorrow and
let him know how I'm doing and then we'll make the decision about when
I will return to the bush.

To top things off, we had a break-in during the night at the guest
house where we are staying in town. Tiffany and I were sleeping
upstairs and thought the noise was the Smiths in the downstairs. They
also heard some noise but thought it was us. The Smith's computer was
stolen, some meat from the refrigerator and a CD/radio belonging to
the guest house. Pretty crazy, but we are all fine.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. What a blessing to
know that the Lord is always in control.

Departures and Arrivals

2010-09-04T23:46:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow (Monday), Tiffany Parks will be leaving Kiari. She has been
here for a little over two years as a short term teacher. She
initially came to assist another short term teacher, but when that
teacher had to leave unexpectedly, she took over the primary
responsibility for the school. This year, with my part-time
assistance, she taught 13 students in three grades. She has been a
real help and blessing to the ministry here and will be missed. Prior
to coming to PNG, she had spent two-and-a-half years in the
Philippines and she hopes to return there on a more permanent basis.
So she will be returning to America and beginning the application
process and deputation.

To continue the saga of the hijacked ambulance, the folks in Nomane
(where the ambulance belongs) gave a lot of trouble to the Smiths when
they came back to the bush last week (after a two week vacation). They
said that no cars, including ours, will be allowed to leave Kiari
until the ambulance is returned. So we are back to using helicopter
transportation only -- a more expensive method but at least a viable
option.

When the helicopter comes to pick up Tiffany, it will bring in a very
short term visitor, Tim Owens, the brother of one of the other
missionaries here. Jeff has been here for about a year but has been
focusing on working on the airstrip and has not been able to start
building his own house yet. His brother is coming for a few weeks to
help him with that project.

Please pray for all the comings and goings and for a speedy resolution
to the ambulance situation.

The Saga Continues

2010-08-28T23:02:00.000-05:00

Well, the ambulance is still being held captive in Kiari. We already
had an outreach fellowship for that area scheduled for Tuesday
evening, so we ended up holding it right next to the ambulance. That
meant that all the men "guarding" the ambulance were a captive
audience. Not quite what they were anticipating but a good way to get
the gospel out! Do continue to pray for that situation though. One of
our preacher boys is in town as his wife just had a baby and another
preacher boy wants to take his wife to town for the same reason. But
this unrest means that it is very unsafe for them to go through Nomane
to get to the airstrip and neither of their wives is up to walking
that distance.

I forgot to mention in last week's blog that the school year is
officially over. If you get my prayer letter, you already know that I
will not be teaching next year. I enjoyed the experience but am glad
to have the time free to spend on other ministries. I am again hoping
to focus on learning the local village language as well as do some
translation into the national trade language. Please pray that I would
have the Lord's mind on how to best spend my time.

Unrest

2010-08-21T23:12:00.000-05:00

We have had a few slightly tense situations around that I wanted to
share with you. The first happened a couple of weeks ago. A local
village hosted a rugby game and invited the team from our village of
Kiari to participate. Men from another village (Nomane) were
refereeing the game. Apparently some of the Kiari guys were upset at
one of the umpiring decisions and chased the referee off the field
with bush knives (like machetes) and bows and arrows. The Nomane guys
were understandably angry and demanded a compensation payment of a pig
and 1500 kina (about 700 US dollars). When we went through Nomane on
the way to the ladies meeting, some of these guys surrounded the truck
and did not want to let us past since we were from Kiari. They
threatened the ladies that were with us and waved their bush knives
around, but the Lord was good and they finally let us through. Well,
that situation was finally resolved with payment of appropriate
compensation so all was good again for a while.

Then last week, the ambulance from the small hospital in Nomane came
to Kiari bringing immunization shots for the school children. They ran
short of immunizations before they finished, so they intended to leave
and get more and then return to finish. Well, some guys from Kiari
blocked the road and refused to allow the ambulance to leave. Early in
2009, the government had asked villagers along the road to pitch in to
do the work to reopen the road and promised to pay them. Well, that
payment has never come. Since it was the government that never paid,
and the ambulance is a government vehicle, the guys apparently decided
that holding the ambulance hostage was the best way to get their pay.
So the government ambulance has been sitting in Kiari for the last
week or so. The word is that the folks in Nomane have paid the police
to come and get it, but they haven't arrived yet.

As I write this, I realized that all of this incidents sound
incredibly foreign to our American mindset. The thinking that
underscores them (besides man's inherent sinfulness, of course) is
that if one person does something, his entire group or village is
responsible. Hence Nomane trying to stop our truck full of women even
though none of them, or even their husbands, were even at the rugby
game. We as foreigners are not in any real danger besides getting
yelled at, but often our national Christians can find themselves in
very difficult situations. Thank you so much for your prayers for our
and their safety. Please pray for the Lord to be glorified, even in
these kinds of situations.

Ladies Fellowship

2010-08-14T22:57:00.001-05:00

This past week we had the opportunity to go to the village of Kilau
for a ladies meeting hosted by the national church there. There were
about 80 ladies there from about 9 churches in the area. We took six
ladies from our church, plus three of us missionaries and the Smith's
oldest teen daughter. Each day had three sessions taught by
missionaries from that church -- two each morning and one in the late
afternoon. The sessions covered a variety of topics from child rearing
and marriage to fearing the Lord to true saving faith and security of
salvation. The time between the sessions was left free for fellowship,
eating and volleyball. The men from the church there prepared meals
for the ladies for both the noon and evening meals each day. It was an
enjoyable time of fellowship with both the nationals from the
surrounding churches and with missionary friends from that area.
Please pray that the lessons learned from the week will continue to
bear fruit in the days to come.

Ladies Meeting

2010-08-07T23:02:00.000-05:00

This has been a fairly quiet week, if any week around here can be
termed quiet:-) School is winding down. I finished my last official
day of teaching on Thursday. The first grade also finished school this
week. We have another week with 2nd and 4th grade and they will be
done as well. I've enjoyed the teaching experience, but am glad to be
done as well. I am looking forward to being able to expand or start
some other ministries with the time I will now have available.

This week, some of us missionaries and six ladies from our church are
heading to a ladies meeting in the village of Kilau. The church there
is under the leadership of another set of GFA missionaries, so not
only we will have the benefit of the sessions of the ladies meeting,
but also fellowship with other missionaries. Please pray for the
spiritual growth of our ladies and the other ladies in attendance.

Baptism

2010-07-31T23:22:00.001-05:00

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

2010-07-27T01:54:00.000-05:00

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

2010-07-24T22:36:00.000-05:00

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

2010-07-17T22:46:00.000-05:00

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

2010-07-13T23:07:00.000-05:00

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.

Mission Trip at Last

2010-06-25T02:44:00.000-05:00

Several weeks ago I told you of a mission trip that our church was planning to an area about a day's walk away from our village. After several delays for various reasons, it appears that this trip will finally take place this coming week (June 29th to July 2nd). There is also a good chance that I will be able to be a part of this trip. At present, there is only one national lady going who is qualified to lead the children's Bible clubs, so it looks like I will be going to assist in that responsibility. We are currently on school break (between 3rd and 4th quarters) so I do not have that work at present. Also, I was already planning to take a short town trip starting July 2nd, so the clinic was scheduled to be closed.

At any rate, whoever is going will leave from our village on Tuesday, June 29th, and walk down our mountains, cross the river, and walk back up the other side. In the late afternoon, they will have a preaching service and Bible club in the first village and spend the night there. In the morning, they will leapfrog down the road, preaching at every other village until they reach the home village of one of our national preacher's wives. They will sleep there on Wednesday night, then return by the same road, preaching in the villages that were skipped on the inbound trip. The last service will be held Thursday evening and they will sleep in that village. On Friday, most of the team will hike back to our village of Kiari. I, along with one of the national preachers and his family, will hike to the nearest "bus stop" and catch a ride into town.

Please pray for the Lord's abundant blessing on this trip and for Him to be at work even now in the hearts of those that will hear the Word preached. Pray especially for freedom from the bondage of Satan's deception, as this area is very entrenched in works-based religions.

Teachers

2010-06-10T02:32:00.000-05:00

The good news for the week is that Elizabeth (the new short term teacher) not only has her passport in hand but has also purchased her plane tickets. She and Tara (another teacher headed to another village) plan to arrive in Papua New Guinea on June 20th. Needless to say, we are very excited. She will spend a few days in Goroka to do shopping, set up a bank account, etc. and then, Lord willing, will fly to a grass airstrip about a 2-3 hour drive from our village. That airstrip has been closed for repairs for several weeks, so please pray that it will reopen in time for her arrival.

While having Elizabeth come will definitely be a huge help to the school, we still have some needs that I want to share with you. The most immediate is for an experienced teacher to come out this summer, even if just for a few weeks. Ideally, we would need someone that is experienced in using the Bob Jones University Press curriculum with the elementary grades. We mainly need someone to compare the BJU curriculum with the curriculum used in the PNG schools and develop a placement test to determine the PNG grades that are equivalent to the grades in our school. We know that our students are several grades ahead of their counterparts in the PNG schools, but it is hard for us noneducation people to evaluate this accurately.

In addtion, of course, we are still in great need of more teachers for next school year. At present, Randy Smith, the senior missionary, really doesn't have peace about me continuing to teach in the school as that is not really the ministry that I came here to do (and actually is occupying time that I would prefer to devote to other ministries). We have also recognized that it really is not wise, especially for a non-teacher, to teach more than one grade simultaneously. So, with our present personnel, it looks like we might only be able to offer one grade next year in the school. Please pray that the Lord will provide more teachers, ideally an experienced teacher to meet this need.

As I've mentioned before, if you feel the Lord directing you toward either of these opportunities that I've mentioned, please contact Gospel Fellowship Association for further information.

Visa!

2010-05-31T02:12:00.000-05:00

After over a year of waiting, we received word that Elizabeth Ellinghausen has received her visa (or at least it has reached the PNG embassy in Washington, D.C.). That is exciting as it means that we will have another teacher for Joy Christian School. We are finishing 3^{rd quarter in a couple weeks, but Lord willing, she will be here for the start of 4th quarter. Tiffany Parks, a present short termer, will be leaving at the end of this school year, so we still are in need of more teachers. Nevertheless, it is great to see the firstfruits, so to speak. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, if this a ministry you think the Lord might have you be involved in, even for a short term, please communicate your interest with GFA.}

In other news, my house continues to progress. The interior walls are all in place, most of the ceilings are completed (although not in place yet), and ladies from the church have been pulling the long grass that will be used to make the roof.

We have also begun a Read Write School for men. Our previous school was for women and children as the teacher was a woman and it would not be appropriate in this culture for a woman to teach adult men (especially since there is a devotional at the start of each day's lesson). There are two fairly new believers from our church taking the class so that they can read the Bible for themselves. Silas, one of our national preachers, is teaching the class.

Thanks so much for your prayers. Please continue to remember Elizabeth as she prepares to leave the US, as well as the other ministries here.

Progress

2010-05-17T18:26:00.000-05:00

Sorry for not posting last week. My email service shut down for a server upgrade and did not start working again until the end of the week. (Therefore if you have sent me an email and not gotten a reply, that's probably why.)

The church didn't end up going on the mission trip that was planned for last week. We got word from some folks from the planned destination asking us to delay a bit so the trip has been rescheduled for May 25^{th- 28th. Please continue to pray for the Lord's preparation of hearts in the Gono area.}

Thank you for your prayers for the children of our church. A number of made professions in the last several weeks, with three just this Sunday. Please pray for their spiritual growth and complete understanding.

My house continues to develop. Phase 1 (or Block 1 as my national "general contractors" dubbed it) was completed on Saturday. That means that the support posts are in the ground and cemented, the floor joists are in, both interior and exterior walls are framed, the woven mat outside walls are all in place, and the woven bamboo floor is also in place. I am thrilled with how fast the project is progressing and the quality of the work being done. I really feel that the house is already opening up more contact with the nationals as I usually talk to a number of folks even on my daily walk to check the house progress.

Thanks once again for your payers for us. I can never express to you what a difference that they make.

Mission Trip

2010-05-02T02:29:00.000-05:00

I started discipleship classes with some of the recently saved teens this week. I had given them the books about ten days before so that they could do the first study and then we met and discussed it. I ended up with four girls Lynn, Jaunika, Jocelyn, and Ellie. Three of them have been saved within the last couple months and Lynn has been saved about two years. She had started a discipleship class before but never finished. All the girls had done their lessons and learned the memory verse. Please pray that they will continue to be faithful and grow in their Christian walk.

The church is planning a mission trip for next week. They will be walking for a day, then spending three nights in this new area, then walking back. I am interested in going, but, as I went on the last church mission trip, I want to make sure that I don't take the place of a national who really wants to go. This area is one that we have burdened for for some time. It includes the home village of Alice (the wife of one of the national preachers and also my clinic helper). Please pray that the Lord will go before and prepare receptive hearts to the message of the gospel.

Your Prayers

2010-04-24T02:24:00.000-05:00

Thanks so much for your prayers on behalf of the school students that were planning to leave our Christian school for the government school several hours away. Brother Randy was able to meet with the two young men after church on Wednesday and discussed the problems that they would face if they choose to leave. He told the boys to come the next morning before school and tell him their decision. They each came separately and said that they had decided to stay and finish out the year. What a blessing! This a real answer to prayer and an evidence of the work of the Lord in their hearts as their decision to stay went against everything their culture and unsaved families would pressure them to do. Thanks for your intercession on their behalf.

Babies and School Kids

2010-04-19T02:42:00.000-05:00

It's been sort of an up and down week. To start things off, last Sunday one of the national preachers approached me before afternoon church and told me that his sister and her husband had walked several hours to bring their sick baby for me to look at. I immediately went to his house to see it and found a quite lethargic 11-month-old, working very hard to breathe and burning up with fever. We went straight up to the clinic and I gave him a penicillin shot, a liquid antibiotic, and a bronchodilator (to ease his breathing). The parents brought him back every morning throughout the week for another penicillin shot. By the end of the week, his breathing was much easier and he seemed much better. But this morning (Monday), I got word that he had died during the night. It's the first baby I have lost since coming here, so that's a real blow, besides the fact that he really seemed to be better the last time that I saw him. In addition, I don't think either of his parents are saved.

On Thursday morning, a young Christian couple from church brought their 6-month old baby to the clinic. She also was having a hard time breathing and had actually stopped breathing several times during the night and once right there in the clinic. I gave her an antibiotic shot as well, and then Brother Randy was able to drive them a few hours to the nearest airstrip where they were able to fly to a government hospital. (We offered to take the other baby as well, but the parents declined.) As of yesterday, that baby is still alive and improving. Please pray for the continued healing of Joanna along with her parents Tu and Wari as well as for the comfort of Gabriel's family in his loss.

The school side of things is bringing its share of heartache as well. As I may have mentioned, age does not correlate with grade here, so several of our 4^{th graders are 18 or older. Due to some conduct issues, we did not reenroll some of last year's 3rd graders and they left home to go to a government school (about 6 hours away). The government school is on break this week and some of those kids have come back with rosy tales. Because of the quality of our education, the kids that had finished 3rd grade in our school were accepted into 6th grade in the community school and are finding the work much easier. This is tempting two of the 4th grade boys to leave our school and join them. I think this is an unwise decision from an academic standpoint (as they are getting a better education here and will be farther ahead the longer they stay with us), but I am more concerned from a spiritual standpoint. As I spoke with one of the boys today, I was encouraging him to pray and seek God's will and not just follow his own desires. Every time I brought that up, he looked anywhere but at me. I really fear for their walk with the Lord if they put their own plans over God's, not to mention that they will be far away from a Bible preaching church and the accountability of pastor, parents, and godly authorities. The boys have to make their decision this week as they would need to be at the government school by Monday. Please pray that they will seek and follow God's leading.}

House Building

2010-04-17T02:22:00.000-05:00

Things are progressing slowly but steadily on my house project, and I'm learning about PNG culture in the process. I purchased the land last week from one of the men in the church. I got about 2500 square feet for $40! Don't you wish you lived here? Of course, it's kind of like buying land in the Everglades. I own a plot of land on the edge of a cliff in the middle of nowhereJ I actually offered about $50 for the land and was told that was too much and we settled on $40.

One of the challenges of the project is that just about every man in the village wants to be involved. So we made a list of all the various materials needed (from support posts to wood for the frame to woven mats for the walls) and figured that we need about 25 men for supplies. Those things we will assign to various unsaved men from the different neighborhoods or clans within the village (trying to avoid any accusations of favoritism). Then we are using Christian guys to do the actual construction work (so I don't have to worry about my nails disappearing). A group of guys came Saturday and dug out another meter of ground to enlarge the flat area where I plan to build. Tuesday they came to dig twelve holes for the support posts. The next step is to gather all the bush materials needed to actually build the house. I am very excited about the project and anxious to see how it will progress in the days ahead.

In other news, Ellie, another teen girl, made a profession of faith on Sunday. She had made a profession some years ago but had not really been living for the Lord. She now says that she didn't really understand what she was doing previously. The Lord has recently provided a national couple to serve as the youth leaders for the church. The wife of the couple and I are dividing up these girls to start discipleship classes with them. (She is taking the girls who read poorly or not at all and I am taking those who read better.) Please pray for the growth of these girls and their protection from the pressures of a heathen culture.

Teachers?

2010-03-29T02:17:00.000-05:00

This seems to be the month for sharing things that are on my heart, so I thought I might as well continue the trend. This week I want to tell you about our need for teachers and even give you some specifics in case the Lord might lead you in our direction.

We have a small Christian school called Joy Christian School (JCS). There are several purposes for the school but the main one is to provide a place where the young people of our church can get a Christian education that will equip them to be the pastors, deacons, and Sunday school teachers of the future church of PNG. Education is not mandatory here, so many children do not have an opportunity to attend school and even those that do often get a quite poor education.

At present, JCS has 1^{st, 2nd, and 4th grades, but since students start school at any age our students range from 9 to 18 years old, with a mixture of ages in each grade. English is the national language of PNG so all education is conducted in that language. This enables us to use Bob Jones University Press materials for most of the school subjects. As you may recall, we are awaiting the arrival of Elizabeth Ellinghausen, a short term teacher for the school. She will teach during the remainder of this school year and 1-2 more years. Tiffany Parks, our present head teacher, will return to the US at the end of this school year to make plans for her future ministry in the Philippines. That will leave us once again with one full-time teacher and my part-time assistance to teach 3 grades of students. We would love to start a prep (or kindergarten) class for the many interested young people of our church, but that is impossible without another full-time teacher.}

So what exactly is the need, you may ask. We need folks who are willing to give 1-2 years to come to a rather remote location and participate in this ministry. An education degree would be nice but not essential. However, an adaptable spirit and servant's heart are absolutely necessary. Our school year attempts to follow a PNG schedule, so each new year starts sometime in January. As you may have deduced from Elizabeth's long wait, sometimes paperwork approval can take a lengthy time so that would be good to keep in mind. If you have an interest in this ministry, please feel free to communicate with us directly or with our mission agency (Gospel Fellowship Association).

More Prayer Burdens

2010-03-22T02:11:00.000-05:00

I have been struck recently with the vital importance of the prayers of God's people. As a missionary on the foreign field, I can only do so much, but through your prayers the Holy Spirit will work in the hearts of the people to whom I minister, bringing lasting fruit. It is for this reason that I often share with you the prayer burdens that are on my own heart and this blog entry is no exception.

First, thank you for your continued prayers for the teen girls in my Sunday school class. Another girl came forward at the morning service yesterday. When I asked her why she had come, she said that she wanted to repent (the Pidgin term for becoming a Christian). I asked why she needed to repent and she stated that she was a sinner and needed God to save her. What a blessing! Please pray for Mwhity along with the other 4 girls saved in recent months (Regina, Wendy, Jaunika, and Jocelyn). [Note: I sometimes hesitate to list the names of new believers as it seems to sometimes result in a special attack of the enemy, so please do not sin against them in ceasing to pray for them.]

Today at clinic I had opportunity to speak to a young couple that I am burdened for. The woman, Anita, had come to clinic a few months ago and immediately caught my attention. Her dress, manner, and speech indicated that she had had a bit broader education and experience than is common amongst the women in our village. I asked her where she was from and she stated that she had just come from Port Moresby (the capital city of PNG). It was school break time, so I figured that she had just come for a visit and thought no more about it. When she came back today though, I asked her if she was staying in our village permanently. When she answered affirmatively, I asked if she attended church anywhere. She replied that she had attended a Baptist church before but had left her church clothes behind when she had come to our village. I, of course, told her not to worry about clothes but that we would be thrilled to have her at church. I made a mental note of her name so that I would remember it if she should take me up on my invitation.

A few patients later, I saw a man from her same neighborhood that I knew well from previous contacts. His name is Mishach and he unfortunately has rather a bad reputation in the village. As I greeted him, I realized that Anita's last name had been listed as Mishach. (In PNG, a married woman takes her husband's first name as her last name.) So I asked him about her and he smilingly confirmed that she was his new wife. I told him that I had invited her to church and told him that he should come as well. He dropped his head and told me that he had been saved some years previously but had backslidden. I continued to encourage him to come. Please pray for a real working of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of this young couple.

Prayer Burden

2010-03-18T02:41:00.000-05:00

I want to share with you a burden that has been on my heart for some time for the ministry here. I am concerned for our young people. I know that have mentioned the teens from time to time, and they definitely face a number of struggles. But the particular group I am thinking of are not even teenagers yet. Most them are 8-12 years old and many of them have Christian homes where both their parents are saved and even church members. But they have not yet made a personal decision to trust Jesus Christ as their own Savior from sin.

They are a new phenomenon here second generation Christians. All of the adults in our church were saved in their 20s or even older. Most of them had never even heard the gospel as children. But now we have a crop of young people who have been in church for most of their lives, can recite numerous Bible verses and Bible stories, and can sing nearly every song in the hymn book. Yet they are as lost as those who have never set foot in the church. A few of them are even students in our Christian school.

Please pray that the Lord will do a convicting work in the hearts of these young people. Pray that they will recognize their personal need of a Savior and have the courage to make the decision necessary.

The Usual

2010-03-10T02:53:00.000-06:00

Things have actually been pretty normal around here for a change. Clinic attendance is up and averaging more than 20 patients each day. I am told that the local government health worker is out of medicine as is the nearest government clinic (about a 6 hour walk away). I am seeing patients from as far as 8 hours away. Pretty amazing!

A man passed away in the Kensa neighborhood last week. He was older and had gone to the government hospital in town. It was quite the production figuring out how to get his body back so it could be properly mourned and buried. They ended up flying the coffin into the airstrip and Brother Randy went and picked it up. He was related to several of our church families and 2 of our school students.

Another one of the teen girls went forward for salvation on Sunday. That makes 4 girls in my Sunday school class that have made professions. What a blessing to see the Lord at work!

I'll close with a humorous side note. Last night I went to a fellowship in one of the neighborhoods of our village. I was sitting there in the hut with a dirt floor, a grass roof, and a fire in the center of the hut. The children sitting next to me were barefoot as was the older couple seated on the ground. One of our national preachers was leading the singing, but he had to stop to turn off the cell phone that was ringing in his pocket. What a clash of cultures and times!

House Building

2010-03-03T23:38:00.000-06:00

Several weeks ago I asked you to pray about a decision that I was considering. The decision is now made and I am free to share it with you. For some time, I have desired to move away from the mission station proper to an area that is closer to where the people live. The mission station (which includes the Smiths' house, the clinic, the school, and the duplex where Tiffany and I live) is situated on the top of a mountain above where the airstrip is being built. The other houses in the village are scattered around in groupings called house lines (sort of like our neighborhoods). There is one house line about a 20 minute hike above us, a small house line about 10 minutes below us, and then another 15 minutes down the road leads you to the church and the first of a group of 3-4 more house lines.

The problem for me moving into one of the house lines is that I have to be close to the clinic to be available for emergencies. This dilemma had me stumped for quite a while. But, as I was praying about it, I realized that I could move into the house line just below the mission station and still be only about 10 minutes from the clinic. I'll spare you the story of the process, but suffice it to say that I am now in the beginning stages of building a house in that house line. It is just behind the home of Silas and Alice. (Silas is one of our national preachers and Alice is my clinic helper.) It will be very national in style and setup, so I will be able to have most of the work done by men in our community.

I am very excited about this move and hope to accomplish several things through it. 1) It will make me more available and approachable to the people. 2) Living close to them will increase my understanding of their culture and hopefully also aid my study of the village language. 3) It will give me more opportunities for casual contacts and just to spend time with the women of the village. Please pray for the Lord's direction in the project and that it will indeed be a help and not a hindrance to the ministry here in Kiari.

Email

2010-02-22T01:05:00.000-06:00

I must apologize for the many weeks that have passed since my last post. The first two weeks I was in town for a break time. I had internet access and fully intended to directly log into the blog and even post pictures, but I found myself even busier than I expected and never quite got to it. Since my return to the bush, I have not had email access. So, if you have emailed me and not gotten a reply, that is why. I am trying to get it fixed but haven't been successful yet.

At any rate, things here are going fairly well. As I mentioned, I, along with Tiffany, went into town for about ten days on a combination supply trip and vacation. It was nice to do our own shopping, make some internet purchases, and even skype our families. When we returned, the Smiths left for ten days for their vacation. Now we are finally all back in the bush and hard at work. Today started the 2^{nd week of the 2nd quarter of school.}

Things seem to have settled down after the break-in last month. The court case was finally settled agreeably to everyone concerned. The village magistrates wrote a preventive order stating that anyone damaging mission property in the future will have an 18 month jail sentence. People think that that will be a large deterrent to any future incidents of this nature. Both Jeremiah and Jonathan have made things right with the Lord and want to make a public apology to the church. Jeff Owens, one of the other missionaries here, is meeting with them twice a week. Thank you for your prayers for them and please continue to uphold them.

Excitement

2010-01-19T18:24:00.000-06:00

Today (Monday) has been yet another saga in a rather interesting week. It all started last Wednesday afternoon. When Tiffany and I got home from church around 6pm, we discovered that our house had been broken into. We were missing a good number of high price electronic items including Tiffany's computer, MP3 player, and camera, a generator that I had purchased for the clinic, a full-size keyboard that I was babysitting for a missionary on furlough, my cell phone, and a large backpack. One of the national preachers was notified that evening and he gathered the men of the church and some other men with tracking know-how. They spent the night blocking the paths out of the village and searching the neighborhoods for evidence. By morning, they had discovered the culprits and some of the stolen items.

Now for some background information. There are two clans in our village of Kiari. One is KVK and is where the church and mission station are located. The other is Kensa. There is almost constant tension between the two clans. The majority of our church is from KVK, although we have a few families from Kensa. The Kensa group are quick to notice any perceived slights and feel strongly that we favor KVK. KVK feels that we are their missionaries and resent Kensa benefiting from our presence at all.

The thieves were all from Kensa. One of the thieves, probably the ringleader, was a former student at our Christian school. He was angry with us because he was expelled earlier this year. Another thief was a present student. This meant that they were familiar with our house and with our dog. Unfortunately, the whole incident just added fuel to the fire of the KVK versus Kensa battle. Even though all the stolen items were recovered, the village council (like a mayor) wanted to bring police from our province capital to thoroughly deal with the situation. Sounds good, but the council is from KVK and was hoping to get back at Kensa in this way. Confused yet? It's a bit mind-boggling.

Today, a girl came to the clinic with a broken arm. She is from Kensa and was accompanied by a number of her friends and relatives. When KVK realized what was going on, a number of them also showed up at the clinic shouting at the Kensa group and waving their bush knives. They basically thought it was pretty bald-faced of them to break into our home and then expect to get medical care from us. A fight probably would have erupted right in our yard, but Randy Smith, the senior missionary here, sent them all away while I splinted the girl's arm. There was some more shouting and such down in the village, but nothing too serious developed.

At any rate, we are completely safe. We ourselves were never in danger. There is always some danger to our possessions, but no one wishes to hurt us. The big prayer request in all of this is that the Lord will use it for His glory. We have no desire to see the KVK-Kensa dispute further strengthened because of this incident. We keep stressing that we are missionaries to all of Kiari, not one particular clan, but the clan mindset of the people makes it hard for them to understand that. Please also pray for the two teen boys who were involved in the robbery Jeremiah and Jonathan. They have both made professions of faith in the past, but their present actions are certainly calling that into question. Please pray that the Lord will use this to draw them back to Himself.

Work Permit

2010-01-14T03:34:00.000-06:00

After many months of waiting, we received word on Monday that Elizabeth Ellinghausen's work permit has finally been approved. This should enable her to get her visa in a few weeks and perhaps reach PNG in time to start the 2^{nd quarter of school on February 8th.}

We changed the school schedule a bit after Christmas break and now have 4th grade coming 5 days a week and the 1st and 2nd coming 4 days a week. This enables us to move a little faster through the school year (more of a normal speed), and also makes it a little easier on the students as we are not doubling up as much. It does mean that I am teaching more classes each day, but somehow we are getting done even earlier.

Please pray for some major decisions that we are considering right now. I don't feel free to share everything at this time but hope to be more explicit in the days ahead!

A New Year

2010-01-07T00:48:00.000-06:00

It is officially 2010, as you well know. Due to time zone differences, the new year arrived here in PNG 15 hours before it got to the East Coast of the US. We didn't have any noisy celebrations or balls dropping though:-)

Seriously though, it was a fun-filled week with two different church Christmas parties. The first, on Tuesday, was just for church members and their families. There were around 50 people there (including children). We had a mumu where a pit is dug in the ground and filled with large stones. A fire is lit on top to heat the stones. When the stones are ready, the fire is removed, the stones are lined with banana leaves and the food is piled on top. Then the food is covered with more leaves, then dirt is shoveled over the top. Basically the food is steam cooked as in a very large pressure cooker. A couple hours later (longer if there is meat in the mumu), the dirt and leaves are carefully removed and the food taken out and distributed. While the mumu was cooking, there was informal volleyball games and a lot of visiting. After the mumu, Elena Smith, Tiffany, and I distributed Christmas cookies. Then, for the second (or third) course, we had a soup made of maggi (like ramen noodles), tuna, cabbage, and beans, served over rice. In the evening, the adults went into the Smiths' house and watched a Christian video while Tiffany and I took the kids to our house and let them see Winnie the Pooh. They don't understand most of the English but they laughed a lot at the pictures.

On Thursday was the part for the entire church and their families. We again had a mumu, bigger this time, and the volleyball games while it was cooking were organized with formal teams. In the evening we had a Bible quiz time, always a favorite. Then they made scones (like biscuits) and coffee. All in all, both parties were enjoyable times of fellowship.

The big praise for the week regards Megan, the teen girl who had gotten away from the Lord. She was in my Sunday school class on Sunday morning, but didn't seem to really want to chat when I approached her afterwards. She didn't stay for the morning service, but I saw her around after the afternoon service. Another girl came to me and told me that she wanted to see me. When I went to her, she said that she knew she had done wrong and that she was under a lot of conviction. She knows that she made a lot of public sin and wants to make a public confession to the church. She asked to meet with me and Brother Randy and Elena sometime this week. What a blessing to see the Lord working in her heart! We have seen several of the new, promising believers wander away, but she is the first to come back with a desire to make things right. I firmly believe that the Lord's conviction in her heart is a direct result of your prayers. Please continue to pray that she will have the courage to follow through on her decision.

A Merry Christmas!

2009-12-27T23:32:00.000-06:00

Last week brought a very merry Christmas to us here in Kiari as I hope it did to you in your homes as well. We had a surprisingly traditional Christmas, thanks to some recent good finds on town supply trips. Tiffany and I opened our presents (together with our cats) on Christmas morning and fixed a gourmet breakfast of eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, and apple juice. Then we fixed our part of the Christmas dinner and went up to the Smiths for a dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, green salad, waldorf salad, ambrosia, rolls, and pineapple bake. Dinner over, we opened presents with the Smiths, played some games, and worked on a jigsaw puzzle. In late afternoon, we had dessert of cherry pie and nut pie. All in all, a very enjoyable day!

On Saturday afternoon, I invited my Sunday school class to my house to make Christmas cookies. I had made the dough ahead of time and cut out and baked most of the cookies, but I left one portion of dough for them to try their hand at cutting out. Then we frosted all the already baked ones and ate a few. The experience was a first for most of them as none of them have ovens and cookies are not a traditional part of their culinary skills:-) I was pleased that ten of the sixteen girls in my class came. We played pin the star on the Christmas tree, sang some Christmas songs, and I shared some insights from the Christmas story.

Yesterday (Sunday), I was a little ill (probably too many Christmas sweets) and unable to make the hike down to church. I was told though that there was a good attendance, as, just like America, people come out of the woodwork to come to church on Christmas Sunday. Megan, one of my teen girls who has wandered from the Lord, was there for all the services. Please continue to pray for her and for the rest of the teens that they will stand strong and continue to follow the Lord.

Christmas Program

2009-12-22T00:49:00.000-06:00

Thanks so much for all your prayers for the Christmas program. It went remarkably well, considering everything. There was a good turnout of Sunday school children for their part in the program and also a good number of visitors invited by our church folks.

Most people remembered their lines -- pretty impressive considering it was the first time any of them had had to memorize a part in a play. I only did a little minor prompting. Also, it did not rain, which was a definite blessing as the rain falling on our tin roof would have made our soft spoken actors impossible to hear.

The biggest blessing of the service though was that one of the teenage girls from my Sunday school class came forward at the invitation and said that she wanted to be saved. She had tears in her eyes and seemed quite struck by the fact that Jesus had shed His blood and died that her sins might be forgiven. Her decision made all the work worthwhile.

Once again, thanks for your prayers. You had just as much a part behind the scenes as the actors on stage had in the foreground.

Paperwork

2009-12-15T15:35:00.000-06:00

As you may recall, I have asked prayer for the approval of a work permit for Elizabeth Ellinghausen, a short term teacher for our Christian school. Recently we learned that the company who deals with the paperwork for us did notactually submit it to the government agency for approval until a few weeks ago! This not only affects Elizabeth, but also two short termers who are hoping to come to another village in PNG to do medical work and Christian school teaching. Please pray that the Lord will allow this paperwork to be granted in His timing and give wisdom and clear direction to all involved.

You're probably tired of hearing about the Christmas program by now, but it is a major part of my thoughts and prayers at this time. It will be held in the afternoon service on December 20th. That will be 3:15pm here, which would be 12:15am Eastern Time in the US. So if you think to pray for us before you go to bed on Saturday night, it would be much appreciated. We had our first full-scale rehearsal on Sunday and it went surprisingly well. Pleae pray especially for unsaved visitors and a clear understanding of the gospel message.

O Christmas Tree

2009-12-07T00:11:00.000-06:00

As I'm sure you've noticed, the Christmas holidays are creeping up on us. On Saturday, Tiffany and I went out to chop down our Christmas trees. We don't really have pine trees, but we have a kind of tree that has needles that sort of resembles them. It looks a bit like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree though. I have been crocheting snowflakes to use as ornaments and also have some round glass flasks that make great balls when stuffed with colored tissue paper. Now if I can only keep the cats from climbing the tree or using the dirt base as a litter box:-)

Brother Randy had a profitable trip to town last week. Thanks so much for your prayers. He was able to get grass seed ordered and paid for and even found the type that he was hoping for.

We have 2 more weeks of school before we will break for the Christmas holidays. Practice continues for the church Christmas program. Until now, the actors and each Sunday school class has been practicing separately, but I plan to gather them all together for a complete dry run next Sunday. We'll see how that goes:-) It is planned for December 20th, so please continue to pray for that outreach.

Holidays

2009-11-29T22:35:00.000-06:00

We had a very pleasant Thanksgiving this past week. Of course, the holiday is not celebrated here in New Guinea, so we had a missionary gathering and a good dinner. We had all been saving hard to get items in order to make as traditional a meal as possible.

The Christmas program has been taking a lot of time in recent days. It is the first time for a church Christmas program, so that adds to the challenge a bit. Most of the actors have never been involved in a drama before, or even seen one. That combined with their general shyness makes it difficult for them to be expressive and vocal in their acting. We are making progress though, and praying earnestly that the Lord will use it in the hearts of those who attend. Please join with us in prayer for this project.

Despite all the good progress on the airstrip, we recently learned that there is a lot more work to be done. There is a curve on the airstrip that is causing some problems. It is within the government guidelines but its location just over the top of a rise puts it in a blind spot for the landing pilots. As a result, the airstrip will have to be widened at that spot to straighten it out. Jeff Owens has been spending a number of hours each day working on the project. Brother Randy plans to go into town this week to buy more diesel to keep the bulldozer operating. He is also still trying to find grass seed, a definite need and prayer request.

Youth

2009-11-23T16:05:00.000-06:00

Brother Randy and Jeff are safely back in Kiari, at least for a time. They returned via helicopter last Wednesday, but scheduled 2 airplane shuttles to Nomane (our closest airstrip) for Thursday to bring in the rest of the supplies and some of the fencing for the airstrip. Unfortunately, the trip to Nomane (usually about 4-5 hours round trip) ended up taking about 27 hours. Late plane flights and a bad rainstorm that turned the road into a mudpit made coming back on Thursday impossible, so they had to spend the night in Nomane and returned Friday afternoon. They were very happy to get home again!

Please continue to intercede for our youth. Nika, a young man who is attending school in town, has made some poor choices and needs to decide if he is going to follow the Lord or follow the things of this world. Megan, a recently saved teen girl, had an altercation with her mother where her mother was struck on the head (whether deliberately or not is still in question). Unfortunately, she has not made wise choices in dealing with the situation. On a positive note, I was able to have a small party this past week for my teen girls Sunday school class. We ate, played Pictionary (in Pidgin of course), sang some songs, and had a brief devotional. Eight girls came for the party and there were 13 girls in Sunday school this week. Thank you so much for your prayers for these young people.

Progress

2009-11-16T15:26:00.000-06:00

Significant progress was made on the airstrip during the time that Dale Crawford was here. There is some finishing work that the smaller machine will need to do, but the basic clearing and grading is done. Dale Crawford left Kiari on Thursday amid much fanfare. We had a special service for him on Wednesday where the church folks gave testimonies and presented him with various gifts including a bow and several spears. Then again on Thursday morning, some of the people from the community presented him with some gifts to show their appreciation for his work.

Brother Randy and Jeff went into town with him when he left. They are trying very hard to find a place to purchase grass seed inside PNG. Apparently it is not an item that is much in demand:-) Failing that, they will have to purchase it in Australia and get it transported to PNG. They are also planning to purchase fencing to enclose the airstrip and for that will have to make a trip to Lae, a coastal city a few hours from the town we usually go to for supplies. Lord willing, they will return to Kiari on Wednesday.

Please pray for Megan, a teenage girl in our church and Christian school. She is struggling right now and facing some important decisions. Please pray that she will make the right choices.

Nothing Much

2009-11-08T20:37:00.000-06:00

For a change, nothing very exciting happened this week, but we still stayed plenty busy. Work continues to go forward on the air strip. Dale Crawford will be leaving us on Thursday, but we have really enjoyed his fellowship and appreciated his hard work.

Enrollment increased a bit in the read write school. I had to cap it at 23 as I ran out of books. We will hopefully be able to buy some more on the next town trip and get a class going for men. This class is teaching the people to read and write in Pidgin. This enables them to read the Bible for themselves -- such a blessing. The ages in the class range from upper middle-aged to young children. They all seem to be very excited about learning. Please pray for the national teacher, also named Katrin.

Another project that is keeping me busy is the church Christmas program. I wrote a short drama in Pidgin, describing Jesus as the perfect lamb. There are a number of teens and adults with various speaking roles. In addition, each Sunday school class will sing a song and the older ones will recite a verse. We are really praying that the Lord will bring a number of unsaved folks to the program, tentatively scheduled for December 20th.

Thank you so much for your prayers for the ministry here. You definitely have just as essential a role as any of us actually here on the field.

Teenage Girls

2009-11-03T22:21:00.000-06:00

In all the excitement about the airstrip, I realized that I forgot to mention anything about the new teen Sunday school classes. I had 3 girls the first Sunday, 8 the next, and 11 last Sunday. The number increased both as older girls decided to leave the younger Sunday school class and join my class, and as other girls that attend sporadically started to come. We are studying through the book of Colossians. On Sunday we were talking about true Christian love that only the Holy Spirit can give to us. We, of course, discussed that the Holy Spirit is not given to us until after we are saved, so we talked about the need to make that decision. One of the girls came forward in the church service that followed and prayed to be saved. What a blessing! Please pray for Regina's continued growth.

Read-Write school also started this week. I am overseeing this ministry but a national lady is doing the actual teaching. She had 19 ladies and children for the first class. Some of these are people from church and some are unsaved folks from the community.

The work on the airstrip continues as Dale Crawford works from around 6:30am to 6:30pm each day. It is amazing the changes visible in such a short time. He hopes to finish the bulk of the work this week. Once the building part is finished, grass seed will need to be planted and the area fenced in. Please continue to pray for this project.

Praise to the Lord!

2009-10-26T16:23:00.000-05:00

We now have even more things to praise the Lord about. First, on Sunday morning, a husband and wife both made professions of faith. Their names are Tu (the man) and Wari (the lady). Wari is pregnant and has been coming regularly to the prenatal clinic and listening intently to the devotional at that time. They have also been coming to church for several weeks. It was a real blessing to see them come forward at the invitation. Please pray for their growth and discipleship.

Also on Sunday, Ben Ritschards, the 17 year-old son of GFA missionaries in Goroka, developed appendicitis. They initially hoped to fly him to Australia for surgery but ran into a lot of red tape. With his urgent need for surgery, they instead flew him to a hospital here in country that has a number of foreign doctors. He had surgery on Sunday evening and was up walking a bit Monday morning. Please pray for a complication free recovery for him.

Yesterday, Monday, Dale Crawford arrived in Kiari via helicopter. He is one of the directors of GFA and has come for a couple of weeks to operate the bulldozer on the airstrip. His willingness to come and safe arrival are a real blessing. Please pray for him as the work on the airstrip starts today (Tuesday).

Last evening, we had a special time of praise and fellowship for the many things that the Lord has done. The church people wanted to do this just to rejoice over the goodness of the Lord. The people cooked a meal in the ground that we all shared, then we had a testimony service. One man read a prayer request list from 1998. It was really neat to see the requests that the Lord has answered -- a bulldozer, a Christian school, a clinic, and even an airstrip (soon to become a reality). At the bottom of the list was names of people that they were praying would be saved. Some of those very people were present in the service and are now faithful Christians, raising their families for the Lord. What a blessing!

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. (Psalm 103:1).

Bulldozer

2009-10-21T04:56:00.000-05:00

The Lord did an amazing thing for us this week, so amazing that I couldn't wait until next week to post it on my blog:-) On Monday, Brother Randy took his 15 year-old son Matt and some of our national believers and drove to Aibai where the bulldozer and smaller machine have been waiting. At 5 am, they left Aibai with Matt Crain (a missionary from Aibai) driving the bulldozer, Brother Randy driving the smaller machine, Matt Smith driving one pickup truck, and a national driving a second pickup. (One pickup held the remainder of the stuff that came on the container and the other pickup was serving as a support vehicle for the machines.) They intended to come halfway to Kiari on Tuesday and spend the night at a village called Borowal. Matt Crain had to be back in Aibai on Wednesday, so he planned to drive home Wednesday and Brother Randy was just going to come back to Kiari, leaving the machines in Borowal.

We had received word that Dale Crawford, one of the directors of GFA, would hopefully be arriving next Monday (October 26th) to drive the bulldozer and work on the airstrip. He would be flying into another rural airstrip, close to Borowal. So Brother Randy had two different thoughts. Obviously, it would be best if the machines were already in Kiari when Brother Dale arrived, so that he would not use any of his time on the road and would be able to get right to work. The only way to make that happen was for Brother Randy to go back to Borowal on Thursday and drive one machine to Kiari, then return to Borowal on Friday and drive the other machine. If that didn't work out, then Brother Dale would just help him drive them when he arrived.

But the Lord did far above our wildest expectations. At 1pm on Tuesday, both machines were already close to Borowal. They were able to come all the way to Kiari in that one day! You should have seen the rejoicing when those machines got here. The nationals had spotted them on the road and yelled the news from neighborhood to neighborhood. People were all dressed up in their traditional dress and were dancing and singing to welcome the machines. The Christians were full of thankfulness at seeing God answer a request that they have been bringing to Him for many, many years.

Thank you so much for your prayers and part in this. Please continue to pray for Brother Dale's safe arrival and speedy and safe work on the airstrip without any unexpected setbacks.

School Heavies

2009-10-16T18:51:00.000-05:00

The word heavy is a very versatile Pidgin word (although it's spelled hevi in that language). It refers to just about any difficulty you can encounter from illness to a car breakdown to a broken relationship. As such, it's a good word to describe the situation with our Christian school at the moment.

As I think I mentioned a few weeks ago, we had to expel some students for their conduct over the summer months. One of the student's parents has taken it very hard and is causing numerous difficulties. First, he is trying to say that we don't actually own the land on which the school is built. He says that when a previous missionary bought the land, he actually bought a different plot of land and paid a different individual. (Land ownership is always a challenge to figure out here.) When this man brought the problem to the missionary's attention, the missionary suggested that he and this other man work it out. The two land owners worked out a deal that when we purchased the land for the airstrip, we would pay the owner of the school land (who just happens to be the upset dad's father) for the purchase of the land owned by the man who was originally paid for the school land. (If you follow all that, you deserve a prize.) At any rate, the man who was originally paid has since died, and his son either didn't know about the deal or didn't want to mention it, so we paid him for his airstrip land, not this other family. So the first "heavy" of this student's father is that he wants to be paid for the school land.

His second "heavy" is that he wants 800 kina compensation from us for expelling his son from school. 800 kina would be around $300 and "compensation" is the PNG equivalent of suing for "pain and suffering." Of course, we cannot pay him as it would set a terrible precedent and defeat the purpose of the punishment altogether. Unfortunately, this man claims to be a believer which makes his behavior all the more difficult.

Until this situation is worked out (the timing of which is anyone's guess), we will be holding school at the duplex where Tiffany and I live. We have converted both of our living/dining room areas into school rooms. My house has 3 2-person desk and Tiffany's (as the main classroom) has 6. It gives a whole new meaning to the term "home school."

Please pray that school will go well (starting October 19th) and that the students will continue to learn well despite the new surroundings.

Broken Bones

2009-10-11T23:41:00.000-05:00

Last week must have been the week for broken bones. First, on Friday afternoon, about 40 nationals brought a man to the clinic on a stretcher. Apparently, that morning, he had been digging down near the river and a large stone had fallen on his upper leg. The people had made a stretcher and carried him back up to the village, arriving in late afternoon. I examined him and could clearly tell that he had fractured his femur. I put him in a cast to stabilize the fracture, but told them that he would need to be taken to town where they could do xrays to actually set the bone. In truth, I thought there were probably bone fragments involved and that the man would likely need surgery.

That evening, Jeff Owens, our brand new career missionary, fell in the Smiths' house landing heavily on his right side. Brother Randy sent one of his sons to get me and I arrived to find Jeff in obvious pain. After examining him, I was certain that he had fractured at least one rib, but I was concerned about the possibility of a collapsed lung or lacerated liver. We were able to reach a missionary doctor in Goroka on the satellite phone. On hearing my assessment, he agreed that Jeff should be gotten to town as soon as possible to be evaluated. It was already dark, so we had no way to get him that night, but we made arrangements for a helicopter pickup first thing in the morning.

I spent the night in the room next door to where Jeff was trying to sleep. Not being sure as to the extent of his injuries, I didn't sleep for fear that he would worsen overnight without me realizing it. Thankfully, he had a good night and was even a bit better in the morning. We were able to send word to the family of the man with the broken leg, and they decided to send him to town on the helicopter as well. The helicopter landed about 7:15 and by 7:30 Jeff, Brother Randy, the man with the broken leg, and one of his family members were safely loaded on the chopper.

It turned out that Jeff had broken 3 ribs in 5 places, but didn't have any internal injuries -- a definite praise. Lord willing, Brother Randy and Jeff will be returning to Kiari this morning (Monday) by helicopter. Unfortunately, we have had heavy cloud cover, so the helicopter has not yet been able to come. The hospital in town referred the man with the broken leg to a hospital in another town where there is a German surgeon who should be able to fix his leg properly.

Thank you so much for your prayers for our safety. Even simple accidents can be challenging to handle here, but we are very thankful for the Lord's protection and care through this whole situation.

Land Purchase

2009-10-04T20:41:00.000-05:00

Friday was a big event here in Kiari. We actually purchased the land on which to build the airstrip. This has been an ongoing project for several months. First, we had to determine exactly who owned every inch of the land. A committee of three national men worked on this for a while and drew up a map labeled with section numbers. For around a quarter mile length of land, there were 35 sections of land, owned by 25 different men! 22 of those men came on Friday and were paid for their land. The amounts varied depending on how many sections they owned and whether the sections were large, medium, or small. Each owner signed a contract with Brother Randy, then the contract was witness by the village council, a village magistrate, and the three men from the committee. We took a still picture of each man signing and a picture of him holding his contract with Brother Randy. We also shot video of each man receiving his money. That way there will no question in the future regarding this. Quite the process, but a real praise to have it successfully completed. Brother Randy is planning a supply trip for this week, but he hopes to go to Aibai the following week to drive the machines the rest of the way to Kiari. Please continue to pray for the details of this project.

Also on Friday, I was brought a patient with a fairly severe injury. The man, Stanley, was attacked by his older brother. The brother was aiming for his head and when Stanley flung up his arm to protect himself, he received a major cut to his right forearm. Men from the village put him on a a stretcher made out of flour sacks and two small trees and carried him close to the mission. Then Matt Smith (Brother Randy's son) brought him the rest of the way in the truck. It was definitely the worst cut I had ever seen here. Thankfully, right after Stanley was carried into the clinic, Benson arrived. Benson is the government health worker for the village and a strong Christian. He doesn't have a lot of book training, but he has lots of practical experience, especially with injuries. So I was quite happy to let him take the lead in dealing with this patient. After about a 3 hours cleaning, suturing, and bandaging job, the man was ready to be carried back down the mountain. He came back to clinic today for a dressing change and seems to be healing all right.

Please pray for Stanley. His wife is saved and attends church with their five children and his oldest daughter is in our Christian school. Stanley made a profession of faith at one time but has either fallen away from the Lord or was never truly saved. Please pray that this injury will turn his thoughts to the Lord.

To God's Glory!

2009-09-27T20:22:00.000-05:00

This last week has been quite the adventure as far as the container was concerned. I wasn't directly involved though, so instead of trying to tell you about it myself, I am going to post a copy of the email that Missionary Michael Berbin sent out to tell the story. It's a bit long, but I think you'll find it interesting and enlightening. Enjoy!

"O give thanks unto the Lord: for He is good: because His mercy endureth forever." How can I praise and thank the Lord enough for His goodness in ways so innumerable? Your prayers have again moved His mighty hand on our behalf--amazing.

As you know, the last phase of this incredible journey (actually you'll see later I did leave some fun for Bro. Matt Crain) was to get the equipment from Lae on the eastern coast of PNG up to the Highlands by truck and then drive the equipment back into the bush. Among many challenges to these procedures was finding a company to haul the equipment up to the Highlands at a reasonable cost. You prayed for that and the Lord answered. However, I don't believe I mentioned the way the Lord provided (if I did already tell you this, the works of the Lord bear repeating). The first company wanted K10,000 to haul the equipment to the place where we turn off the highway to enter the bush road. That is roughly $4000 USD. PHEW! Then I remembered a fellow who is originally from one of our villages who now operates a heavy equipment company. I called Jeffrey and found out that he knew of a fellow who was willing to haul the equipment for roughly $2000 USD (this was last week Thursday (Sept 16th) while I was staying at the SIL guest house in Lae). Friday of that week (please keep track of the days and the guest houses) was the day we unloaded the container at a Bible college 14 miles outside of Lae. Jeffrey told me he would talk to his contact and call me back on Monday to let me know if his trucker would be able to move the machinary on Tuesday (Sept 22) or Wed. Back at the SIL guest house I was told that I would have to leave on Friday morning as they had pre-booked all their rooms for a group over the weekend of the 18th and 19th. So, Friday before I unloaded the container, I shifted over to the New Tribes guest house. Late Sat. afternoon, the (fairly new) guest house mangers asked me up to their apartment to get aquainted as they were from Romania--homeland to my grandfather. During our conversation the talk turned (for some unkown reason) to mechanics and they told me that there was a man staying at the guest house who was a mechanic. It turned out that I had known this mechanic (Steve who's workshop is in Goroka) for about 10 years. On Sunday after church I went to have a chat with Steve and he told me he knew of a man in Lae who may be able to haul our equipment, but I replied that I already had that arranged. On Monday I shifted back to the SIL guest house to find that the group never showed up and that I could have stayed at SIL for the weekend--at that point, it was no big deal to me. (This is going somewhere--stay with me.) No call from Jeffrey. All of my calls to him resulted in Network Failure messages. Then I began really thinking hard as I had already booked my return flight for Sunday the 27th so I had basically that week to get the machines up to Aibai. Tuesday morning I decided to go talk to Steve's man (John Bangkok) who said he could haul the equipment the following day for $3000 USD--I promptly took him up on the offer. Turns out his workshop where I would need to load the equipment on the trailer was literally 300 yds from the Bible college where the machines were sitting--was able to drive one piece there, walk back and drive the other piece there in about 15 minutes. I know this is a bit scattered and tedious, but think on this answer to prayer. The Lord shifted me out of one guest house through a no-show booking in order for me to be able to talk to Steve to get the contact I needed who's truck was already parked within 300 yards of my equipment--and I still have had no contact with or from the other man (Jeffrey)! Amazing.

We are now at Wed morning (and I will try to shorten and streamline this in consideration of your already overtaxed patience--sorry) When I got to the workshop at 7:30 am (our prearranged time for departure from Lae) I knew that I was in for a long day as John Bangkok (real name Lamjuan Phoolthasee, and no I did not make this up) had told me he estimated it would take about 7 hours to get to Goroka and another 3 hours to get from Goroka to the turn off. We then had to unload the equipment and drive it to a safe?!?! overnight stopping place--I guessed three more hours. You need to understand that the place where we turn off the highway (Dumun pronounced Doomoon) is a hot-bed of criminal activity (I and my family had already been held-up, as in robbed, there once), but 10 hours would put us there at 5:30 in the afternoon--still light. At 4:00 pm we had not left Goroka!!! I tried in vain to get the driver to overnight in Goroka so we set off about 4:30 for a meeting with the criminal element of PNG. Along the way I literally began checking my watch to see when you folks would begin waking up and praying for us again. We finally arrived at Dumun at 8:30 pm (6:30 am EDT in the US when some of you were probably praying) in the dark and rain, and the criminals began crawling out of the woodwork. Later Terry Ritschard would tell me that as he sat in the pick-up truck (which we brought to carry fuel and tools) in the dark he overheard two men discussing jumping into the truck while we were moving the bulldozer--presumably to steal it. Then (please understand that there are no police patrolling the roads after dark) a Highway Patrol vehicle appeared out of the darkness and gloom. I asked the officer in charge if he could hang around for about 15 minutes and out popped a number of officers. The one holding the M-16 had a very sobering (and proably disappointing) effect on the crowd. I was astounded beyond measure and just a little bit relieved. After we unloaded, the police actually followed us until we were clear of the criminal area (or more criminal area). We arrived at our over-night stop at about 12:30 am (Thursday morning)--a long but blessed day. The Lord also prepared this stopping place in the wilderness (they actually cooked fried chicken, and chips--which I missed out on due to my being in bed in a coma), but I'll have to save that story for later. On Thursday, we left at 8:15 am for the finally little drive to Aibai--we arrived in Aibai at 5:30 pm.

Thank you for your work in this adventure. We praise the Lord for His power in answering prayer, and trust that you will remember all of His wonderful works as you face the "bulldozers" of your life. This is about much more than getting airstrips completed. This is about the glory of our great God! Just this week I was reading in Matthew about the disciples who heard "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees," but actually heard "you have brought no bread." The Lord reproached those men who had seen the marvelous provision in the feeding of the 5000 with two problems in their thinking. First the did not remember the Lord's previous display of power to provide. Second, they did not understand what that display signified about the Lord and His working. I trust that as time passes, we will all remember and understand what great things the Lord has done.

Matt and Rebekah Crain will arrive on the same flight on which I depart Goroka. After recovering from jet-lag, Matt, Randy Smith, and Jeff Owens ( a new missionary for Kiari that arrived in country yesterday) will move the equipment to Kiari (another 14 hours or so by bulldozer--see I did leave some fun for Matt). There the plan is to finish the Kiari airstrip then move back to Aibai to finish the Aibai airstrip. Continue to pray that the Lord will supply operators to do this work (we are accepting volunteers at the GFA office).

May the Lord bless you and continue to use you as He has--for His glory,

Update

2009-09-20T19:52:00.000-05:00

Well, let's see if I can bring you up to date on what's been going on since my last post. The school situation seems to have settled down, at least for the time being. Some of the involved students and parents were even at church yesterday morning, a definite praise.

On the container side of things, Brother Randy left early Tuesday morning to go to Goroka. He stayed there for a few days waiting for Michael Berbin to get things cleared in Lae. They weren't able to get the container inspected until Thursday morning, but when it was done, it was incredibly short and painless. The men unloaded all the loose items in the container into three pickups and brought them to Goroka to Terry Ritschard's house (another GFA missionary here). Michael Berbin then turned around and went back to Lae (about 4 hours away) to try to make arrangements for a large flatbed truck to take the bulldozers to the start of the bush road. At this point, we aren't sure when that will happen. In addition, Brother Randy's pickup developed some issues on the way back to Goroka for Lae, so it is at the mechanic's shop for the time being.

Please continue to pray for all the details associated with this project. Lord willing, the machines will arrive in Kiari sometime this week, but there is still much to be done for that to happen.

Container and School Trouble

2009-09-14T01:48:00.000-05:00

In my last entry, I told you about the expected arrival of the container. We were informed that it arrived in PNG on September 1st. Unfortunately, they were unable to locate it until September 11th, but it has finally been found. The next step is for the customs inspection. We are hoping that can take place tomorrow (Tuesday). Wednesday is PNG Independence Day and so all businesses will be closed. Once the customs inspection is completed, the missionaries will load the contents into pickups and drive them to Goroka (our nearest major town). The bulldozers will be brought by flatbed truck to the start of the bush road. Then Michael Berbin and Randy Smith will drive the machines back to Kiari, clearing the road as necessary as they go. They are expecting it to take at least 3 days to make the trip, so a national will drive a pickup as a support vehicle for fuel, food, bedding, etc. Once the machines are here, they will have to make more trips to town to bring in the rest of the contents of the container and get more fuel for the bulldozers.

In the meantime, we are trying to purchase all the ground for the airstrip. (Technically, the land will be owned by the government when the airstrip is open, but our ownership of it will give us control over the clearing and maintenance of the strip.) Land ownership is a bit unusual here and there are 20 different land owners for just this area of ground, each with their own section. A committee of 3 national guys from our church is busy dealing with each of these landowners to reach an appropriate settlement.

On top of all this, the list of students accepted into our Christian school for the coming year was posted after church yesterday. Unfortunately, six former students were not reaccepted due to their conduct either during last school year or over the school break. This led to a rather major reaction from the parents of some of the students. One man had a tirade in the church yard after the service yesterday and this morning cut trees and blocked the path to the school. Also this morning, two former students came to the home of one of our national preachers and threatened he and his wife, then later came to the clinic where his wife was working and tried to get me to kick her out so they could "talk" to her. Brother Randy had a long meeting (several hours) with everyone involved this morning, and things seem to have calmed down for the present.

So, please pray for all the details associated with the container, the machine transport, the clearing of the airstrip. Also pray for clear heads to prevail regarding this school situation. At least it's never boring here:-)

Email

2009-09-05T02:34:00.000-05:00

I must apologize for the sparse posting over the last few weeks. We have been having a number of major email issues. First, the computer that I was using for email quit completely. So I started typing my emails on my computer, loading them on a flash drive, walking up to the Smith's house, loading them on their computer, and then sending them. That worked okay for a few weeks. Then the phone card system that we use for the satellite phone quite working. It is a company out of Indonesia, and they said it would be down for an indefinite length of time. That left us completely without email access for about a week. Then the Smiths went into town on their vacation. They took their computer with them, which enabled them to send and receive email in town, but it didn't help me here in the bush. But now they are home again, with their computer, and the phone card system seems to be up and running again, so I am finally posting on my blog. Whew!

There has been lots of other news as well. As you know, we are expecting the arrival of a container with machines for clearing the land for our airstrips (as well books for this school year, an exam table for the clinic, and other miscellaneous boxes of supplies). The container will come to Lae, the main port of the country, and the men will have to drive to Lae to clear the container through customs, unload it, and transport the contents back to the bush.

Originally the plan had been for Randy Smith to go to Lae with Michael Berbin and Matt Crain to deal with the container. Well, first the Berbins ended up heading home for furlough in August. They were due for a furlough but hadn't planned on going until next year, so it was a bit unexpected. Then, last week, Matt Crain developed some health problems and had to return to the states to see his doctors there. (He seems to be doing fine and hopes to return in the near future.) So that left Brother Randy to deal with the container -- a rather challenging proposition. Well, Michael Berbin decided to fly back to help him, so he should arrive in the country on Saturday (September 5th). The container was scheduled to arrive in Lae on September 4th, but we don't know yet if it actually arrived or if they have located it yet amongst all the other containers on the cargo ship. When we know for certain that it is there, then Brother Randy and Brother Michael will drive down and begin the process. Please pray for all the details associated with customs and transporting everything back to the bush.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Thanks so much for your prayers and support. They are a huge blessing!

Physical & Spiritual

2009-08-17T16:09:00.000-05:00

It didn't take long to get back in the routine of bush life. Clinic numbers have been a bit down over the last couple of times. One reason is that the government sent a car from the nearest medical clinic (about a 2 hour drive) with some medical personnel and medicine. They were concerned about the flu epidemic that seems to be sweeping the area. (Since we are south of the equator, our seasons are opposite those of the US, so this is the same flu season that you see during your winter months.) I was thrilled that the government took the initiative to provide the medical care, but of course, that impacted my clinic attendance. They only had one day of clinic though, so I'm sure things will pick up again soon. Today two ladies came with their newborns. Both ladies had come for prenatal clinic, so I was able to give them baby packs. It was a lot of fun for everyone to check the babies over, dress them in the new clothes from the packs, and get pictures of them. One lady had twins, so there was 1 boy and 2 girls.

On Friday, my clinic helper Alice told me of an older man that was sick down in the village. She suggested that the 2 of us go down and see him to give him medicine and also witness to him. I was thrilled to do it, but even more pleased that she came up with the idea. We went down to see the man and gave him medicine. (I think he may have congestive heart failure.) Then I was able to go through the gospel with him as Alice translated for me from Pidgin into the local village language. (Many of the older people don't speak Pidgin well and understand the local language much better.) What a blessing to minister to physical and spiritual needs simultaneously. Lord willing, this will be only the first of many such visits. Please pray for a clear understanding of the gospel, conviction of sin, and a genuine heart response.

By the way, we have been having a number of email issues and some messages may have been lost. If you have emailed me in the last week or so and have not gotten a reply, please resend your message.

Evil Spirits

2009-08-03T01:11:00.000-05:00

Evil Spirits

We have had some unusual happenings in our village over the last couple of weeks. A young man died and 3 women confessed to performing witchcraft on him, claiming to be possessed by evil spirits. The women were then killed by some other villagers. This is actually a rather new thing for our village as the people here have not typically been involved directly in witchcraft. Two of the three women were from other villages and they apparently taught the third woman. I won't go into all the details of the incident, but it has been the main topic of conversation now for several days.

On Sunday, Brother Randy preached about evil spirits, explaining that the Bible teaches that they do exist, but that the Holy Spirit is stronger than any evil spirit. He challenged the Christians to make sure that they were not quenching the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives and confronted the unsaved with the truth that without Christ they are already under the bondage of Satan. Please pray that this incident will have a positive effect in the lives of our people as opposed to the negative effect that the devil obviously intends.

We also held a church business meeting yesterday and voted to church discipline two individuals who have continued in sin despite biblical confrontation. Please pray for the restoration of Micah (a woman) and Ben.

On a lighter note, Tiffany, our short term teacher, is scheduled to arrive back in PNG on Thursday morning. Brother Randy and I (along with a truck load of nationals) are hoping to head to Goroka tomorrow (Tuesday) to both pick her up and do our bi-monthly supply run. If all goes as scheduled, Brother Randy will drive back on Friday, then Tiffany and I will spend the weekend in order to do some more shopping and then fly into the grass strip at Nomane where Brother Randy will pick us up on Monday. I am looking forward to this trip. Brother Randy does a great job of shopping off the lists we give him, but it will be nice to be able to go through the stores myself for a change. Your prayers would be appreciated for dry weather and safe driving as well as safety from thievery in Goroka.

Coffee and Rugby

2009-07-27T01:42:00.000-05:00

I suppose on first glance that the title of this entry seems a bit unusual, but these two things represent some of the biggest struggles facing our national believers.

First is coffee. This is coffee harvest time in Papua New Guinea. Nearly everyone owns a grove of coffee trees. When the coffee is ripe, they spend days picking the coffee and hauling it back to their homes in flour sacks, usually around 50lb loads at a time. Then the coffee is run through a sort of hand cranck machine that strips the shell from the coffee. The coffee is washed and spread out in tarps to dry, then repacked in the flour sacks. When a sufficient quantity is accumulated, it must be taken to town to be sold. The closer to the coffee factory it is taken, the higher the price it can be sold for. So many people take a 50 pound bag on their backs and walk 6 hours to a spot where they can get a ride to town. After all their work, they can usually sell the coffee for 5 kina a kilogram, which translates roughly to around $50 for that 50 pound bag. That may seem not like very much money to us, but it is a huge amount of money to them.

With the money, unfortunately, comes many spiritual struggles. First, many of our believers are gone from home for days or weeks at a time, picking, processing, and hauling their coffee. That means that they are away from the ministry and accountability of the church. While they are in town, they are often surrounded by the unsaved, who are very ungodly in their actions and conversations. In addition, since most people have more money at this time of year than any other, there are many pitfalls even for those still here in the village. There are noisy parties with alcohol flowing freely. The peer pressure is especially hard on the young people.

Then, on the other hand, there is rugby. Rugby, as you may know is sort of similar to football, but with a few rule changes and no pads or helmets. Each neighborhood has their own team and often receive challenges from other villages. When a game is scheduled, nearly everyone from that neighborhood will pack up their entire family and walk the several hours to play or cheer on their team. They are usually gone for several days, as it is not just a matter of the game, but also a huge feast following the game with presents for everyone attending. The most recent game was about a week and a half ago on a Friday. Probably half of our church attended and probably half of those didn't make it back in time for church on Sunday.

Some churches here have banned participation/attendance as part of their church covenants (much as we might bars or nightclubs), but our church has not yet taken that position. Yesterday morning, Brother Randy preached on cleaning out areas of sin and specifically mentioned those who may have allowed coffee season or rugby to pull them away from the Lord and into sin. The altar was crowded at the invitation with 12 men and women making things right with God. Then, in our afternoon service, Brother Randy preached on "prove all things and hold fast that which is good" from Philippians 1. He then got two pieces of paper and labeled one "Ol Samting Nogut" (Bad Things) and "Ol Gutpela Samting" (Good Things). He then asked the people to list the things pertaining to ruby that fit each of the categories. There were lots of ideas for the Bad Things paper but hardly anything at all for the Good Things paper. Brother Randy didn't draw any conclusions at the end. He just taped the two pieces of paper on the wall at the front of the church and left it at that. We are praying that the people themselves will recognize the damage that this is doing to their spiritual walk.

So, all that to say, please pray for our believers to stand strong and stay faithful. Perhaps they are not bombarded with the many evil influences present in American culture and entertainment, but they do face their own struggles, perhaps even more difficult in certain areas.

Record Day

2009-07-21T01:16:00.000-05:00

Things have been going along pretty well here lately, outside of a few minor aberrations. Jeremy Dion, the BJU student who was doing his missions internship with us, left on Friday. He actually flies out of the country this Thursday, but he wanted to spend a few days with the Ritschards, GFA missionaries near Goroka. Brother Randy drove him to Nomane and he flew in to Goroka from there. His time here was a real help to us and I hope to him as well. He preached several times, initially through an interpreter and later on his own by writing out his message ahead of time. He spent many, many hours working on various building projects around the mission. He built a number of shelves for me to store medical supplies on in the clinic a huge blessing.

I also had some more email troubles this week, so if you sent me an email and haven't gotten a reply, that's why. I was using an old Dell computer to do email because new computers just don't seem to work well with the setup out here. Unfortunately, the problem with using an old computer is that it's old:-) So, while I was typing an email last week, it suddenly died and won't start up again no matter what I do. I hope to send it in to town on the next supply trip and see if anyone can fix it, but for now I will just share the Smith's email.

I had a record day in clinic on Monday 55 patients! That is the most I have ever seen since arriving here as a career missionary. (I did see 60 patients once during my short term trip here 5 years ago.) I'm not sure exactly what brought the high numbers. For one, I had to cancel clinic last Wednesday due to my own illness, then I had a smaller group on Friday as many people were gone to a big rugby game in a neighboring village. Other than that, it just seems that a lot of people are sick right now. Most seem to have upper respiratory infections, but there are a few malaria, ameba, etc.

Other than that, I am staying busy doing language study and trying to organize the clinic. On Monday, I paid the Smith kids to come help me carry boxes of stuff over to the clinic, then today I started getting it put on the new shelves. It's a bit overwhelming at times, but it's going to be great when it's all done.

I'm also getting involved in a few new ministries. With Jeremy's departure, I am going to take over the choir for the church. That isn't as pretentious as it sounds. We only sing about every 6-8 weeks as it takes that long to learn a new song. No one reads music, so it is a matter of drilling the parts over and over until everyone gets it down. We don't do fancy arrangements, just basically the 4-part harmony that you have in your hymnbook. I'm excited about the opportunity though.

I've also started helping Elena Smith with her Sunday school class. We have two SS classes for the children and 4 teachers working on a 6 week rotation. We also have 4 helpers for the SS teachers. The girl who normally helps Elena is in town with her family for an undetermined length of time, so I am filling in for her.

Well, I'd better stop for now. I just had a lot to cover since I wasn't able to post last week. Thanks so much for your prayers.

Holiday

2009-07-06T21:16:00.000-05:00

Well, things are continuing to go along here. Clinic continues to be large,
averaging around 25 each morning. The injured patients I mentioned in my
last post all seem to be healing, a definite blessing from the Lord.

On Sunday, we had a bit of a treat for the afternoon service. One of our own
young men, Barry, preached the message. We have 3 other national preacher
"boys", all in their late 20s or early 30s. Barry, on the other hand, is
maybe only 20, if that. (Most people here don't know their birthdays and
don't really have any idea how old they are.) He was saved several years ago
under Jon Calhoun's ministry (the missionary that started this ministry).
His family is unsaved but he has continued to go on for the Lord. His family
wanted him to get more education and sent him to town to go to high school.
There he lives with an unsaved family and by his own testimony, there is a
lot of drinking and wicked behavior. At school as well, he is surrounded by
pagan influences. But, as he testified on Sunday, the Lord has been with him
and enabled him to stand strong. The church he is attending in town has also
recognized the Lord's hand on his life and they have chosen him as one of
their preacher boys to preach from time to time and help lead the church. It
is definitely a blessing to see the Lord at work, raising up workers for
Himself and His glory.

As you know, Saturday was the 4th of July. Of course, since it is a
celebration of American independence, it is not observed here in PNG. But we
whiteskins (as we are called by the nationals) got together Monday to
celebrate. We roasted hot dogs over the open fire and grilled hamburgers.
(Both of those are a bit of luxuries as we don't typically use that much
ground beef at once.) I made a cake from a cake mix that my father sent in a
package and decorated it to look like the American flag. We also made home
made ice cream. After we ate, we sat around the fire and sang patriotic and
Christian songs. Probably more low key than your celebration, but
definitely enjoyable.

Road Trip

2009-07-05T21:39:00.000-05:00

I just found out that my blog from last week never posted, so here it is. I
have not changed the time references, so they all refer to the week previous
to this.

This week, I took a brief trip out of Kiari for the first time in a little
over a month. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Ben Ritschard was visiting
us for a week, so it was time to get him back to his family. The easiest and
most economical way is to drive to Nomane, the nearest airstrip and put him
on an airplane that we booked to come get him. It had been raining quite a
bit, so we were a bit concerned about the condition of the road. In the
event of road difficulties, Brother Randy asked 6 national guys to come
along to help pull/dig us out if we got stuck anywhere. We left about 7:30am
and made it safely to Nomane with only minor incidents (got stuck twice,
truck quit once, etc.). I wish I could post video from the trip as it is
almost impossible to describe. I was standing up in the back of the pickup
truck holding onto the roll bar. Ben was standing next to me and five of the
guys were sitting either in the bed of the truck or perched on the sides.
There was breathtaking scenery as far as we could see in every direction.
The road is pretty narrow, so you could reach out and touch the side of the
mountain on one side and the other side was a steep drop into the valley.
The road is dirt, of course, or actually more better described as mud and
clay. We cross numerous stream beds and small rivers. The basic pattern
involves a steep climb to the top of a mountain where there is a village,
then a steep descent to a water of some nature, then another steep ascent,
and so on. There are 4-5 major villages between us and Nomane, all without
any Bible preaching church. Very sobering!

At any rate, we arrived safely at Nomane and waited for the plane. To make
the most economical use of the plane, Brother Randy had left some supplies
from his last town trip to come out to us on this flight. In addition, the
Ritschards (who are planning a furlough sometime late this fall) took the
opportunity to send out some of their animals for some national Christians
to care for in their absence. After a bit of a wait, the plane arrived. Of
course, this is not the paved runways and busy airports of America. It is a
long grass strip framed by large white cones to mark it from the air. The
pilot circled the strip first to check for any issues, then landed and
taxied to the side where we were all standing. The guys with us helped
unload all the cargo including the animals. Then Ben got on the plane as
well as five little kids who their aunt was sending to Goroka to their
parents.

We loaded the truck with, starting at the cab, approximately 500 lbs of
supplies wrapped in a tarp and tied to the rollbar, the spare tire (also
tied), two goats, eight people (including me), and two pigs. Needless to
say, the ride home was a bit crowded. The goats were pretty sedate. One of
them laid with his/her head on my foot for about half the trip (better than
later when it turned around and tried to sit on me). The pigs on the other
hand were not happy at all and one of them kept trying to bite one of the
guys. We got home about 3:30 that afternoon.

Well, that was most of the excitement for the week. There have been a lot of
people for clinic lately. 25 on Friday and 24 today (Monday). Even my clinic
helper was sick, so Susanna, the Smith's oldest daughter, came down and
helped me. I had a 10 year old girl come on Friday who had basically impaled
her leg on a fence. (They're constructed of sharpened posts held together by
vines.) She had large flap on her upper thigh that took about 2 hours to sew
up. She came back today for a recheck and it seems to be doing alright, but
I'm still a bit concerned. It was very dirty and rather deep, so it will be
a real blessing if it doesn't get infected. On Wednesday, one of the
national ladies from church brought her 1 year old son. His older brother
(6-7) had been cutting firewood and the smaller boy got his hand in the way
and was cut. It really needed to be sutured, but there was no way to
restrain him adequately. In a stateside ER, he would have been sedated while
the doctor sewed him up, but I just am not equipped for that. I ended up
steristripping it and wrapping it very well. He came back on Friday and it
seemed to be knitting together all right.

Well, I'd better close this epistle for now. Thanks so much for your
prayers. The Lord continues to give safety and wisdom in answer to your
petitions.

Today

2009-06-22T20:44:00.000-05:00

Well, there really hasn't been too much exciting going to tell you about.
Randy Smith returned Thursday from town with our supplies for the next two
months and mail. I received some of the baby packs that you folks have
assembled and sent, and I'm excited to start using them in the clinic. Ben
Ritschard, son of the Ritschards who are GFA missionaries based near Goroka,
came out to spend a week working with Jeremy Dion (our missions intern), so
they have been busy on various projects. Clinic has stayed fairly busy but
uneventful. I've seen lots of babies and toddlers with respiratory
infections, so something must be going around.

When I'm not busy in the clinic, my time has been filled with language study
and organizing medical supplies. There are probably 20 large crates full to
the brim of various kinds of medical supplies -- some of it very useful and
some of it not at all. (For instance, I'm not planning on doing open heart
surgery any time soon, so that open heart instrument kit probably won't be a
lot of help. And, no, I'm not joking.) This morning, I spent a couple hours
going through one of those crates (probably 4ft x 6ft x 4ft) and salvaging
what is usable. Actually, I was working on it in between doing my laundry.

To do laundry, we use what is called a twin tub washer. Maybe you are
familiar with that, but I wasn't. It has two tubs (as its name suggests).
You fill the first tub with water and soap and put your first load of
clothes in. When they finish washing, you transfer the load to the second
tub which spins out the soapy water. Meanwhile, you wash your next load in
the first tub. When all the loads have been through the soapy water, you
change the water and put them back through to rinse, then into the second
tub to spin out the rinse water. Once they are all spun, they can be hung up
to dry. Running the washer requires the generator, of course, so it is also
a good time to charge computer batteries and other electronics.

Well, my laundry is done, but the crate isn't finished yet, so I need to get
back to it. I'm going to attempt to send email first though. That is another
bit of a project. I have a satellite phone that connects into the computer
as a modem. Ideally, the email program just dials through the satellite
phone and sends and receives email, but usually it's not that simple. First,
the sat phone has to find a connection to the satellite (indicated by a
series of beeps from the phone). Then, the computer dials the number and
waits for the phone to start the connection process (indicated by another
beep). Then, we wait and hope for what is called a carrier. I'm really not
sure what that means, but it seems to be hard to get sometimes. More times
than not, I will attempt to call and get a message saying "No Carrier." When
I see that message, I mess with adjustment of the antenna on the satellite
phone, try another number, or sometimes just give up and try another time.
Some days, I try 3-4 times before getting through, and some days I don't get
through at all. So now you understand why sometimes I'm slow in responding
to your emails:-)

Well, I'd better stop before this gets too much longer. Each second of time
that the satellite phone is connected costs money, and the longer the email,
the longer it takes to send. Thanks so much for your prayers and hope all
this detail about daily life here hasn't been too boring.

A Quiet House

2009-06-15T20:46:00.000-05:00

Well, it's just me, 3 cats, and a dog in my house now. I actually live in a
sort of duplex. One side is mine and the other side has 3 bedrooms and is
intended for the single short term girls. At the moment, Tiffany is the only
one living on that side but she left yesterday (Monday) to head back to the
U.S. for her sister's wedding. Since the road is now open, Mr. Smith,
Jeremy, Tiffany, and 13 nationals took the truck to the nearest airstrip. We
were a little concerned about the trip as we had a big rainstorm on Sunday
and the makes for slick roads if not landslides. But it was dry Sunday night
and Monday morning, so they were able to drive.

Getting to town is always a bit of a process, no matter what route we take,
as we try to make each trip as economical as possible. For this trip, Mr.
Smith let the nationals put in orders for things that they wanted from town.
(They like to purchase oil, soap, salt, etc. and resell it here in the bush
for a profit.) Then he called the store in town and had their order
delivered to the airplane hangar. That way the plane would come to the
airstrip fully loaded and the nationals' payment for transport of their
cargo would defray some of the cost of the trip. (That's why there were 13
nationals in the truck. They were going to pick up their cargo and would
walk back with it.) Tiffany flies out today (Tuesday), and Mr. Smith and
Jeremy will do our shopping for the next two months, pick up mail, and do
other business in town. They will fly back to the airstrip on Thursday.
There are two flights booked for that day as one plane load would only half
fill the truck, and it is a waste to drive the truck back only half loaded.
Once both flights come in and all the cargo is unloaded and packed in the
truck, Mr. Smith and Jeremy will head for home. When the road and weather
are good, it is about a 3 hour drive, but it often takes 4-5 hours depending
on conditions.

All that say, Tiffany left yesterday and will be gone for almost two months.
Hence the title of this blog entry. I am hoping to use this quiet time to
get a lot of language study in and get all the medical supplies organized.
Thanks once again for all your prayers for the ministry here.

Answer to Prayer

2009-06-07T21:09:00.000-05:00

About a month ago, I met a teenage girl named July. I spoke with her one
Saturday, and while freely acknowledging that she was not saved, was not
really interested in making a decision at that time. I continu,ed to pray
for her and shared that burden with you as well. Well, yesterday, the Lord
answered our prayers. She is a very shy girl, so I was surprised and
thrilled to see her march up to the front of the church during the
invitation and tell the missionary that she wanted to be saved. I and a
national lady took her to a private place to speak with her. She still had
some confusion about salvation, but after we shared some Scriptures with her
and talked with her for a while, she made a very clear prayer of repentance.

Later, I found out that she is the daughter of a man named Jack. I had met
Jack when I was in Papua New Guinea five years ago. He was attacked by a
wild pig, and had very severe injuries to his legs. I made multiple trips to
his house to change his bandages and was quite burdened for his salvation.
Perhaps the salvation of his daughter July will be a catalyst that will
bring him to repentance. What a privilege to have a part in God's plan to
bring souls to Hiimself!

Challenges

2009-06-01T18:52:00.000-05:00

I had some challenging adventures in the clinic this week. The most
remarkable was a 16 year old boy who cut the top of his hand with a bush
knife. He sliced right through the tendon that controls his 3rd finger. I
knew that if the tendon was not reattached, he would have no use of that
finger, but that procedure isn't exactly covered in nursing classes:-)
Tiffany, the short term teacher, was over helping me, so I had her
retracting skin while I hunted for the two ends of the tendon, praying
earnestly all the while. But the Lord was good and I was able to locate both
ends and sew them back together with absorbable suture, then close the cut
in the skin. He came back for a bandage change on Friday and is able to move
that finger. Praise the Lord! Now if I can just keep him convinced that he
has to keep it splinted for several weeks so he doesn't tear it apart again.
Like most teenage boys, that won't be an easy task.

In other news, Jeremy Dion, a missionary intern from Bob Jones University
arrived last week. He will be spending two months with us and will be
assisting in both the physical side of the ministry (mechanics, building,
etc.) and the preaching and music ministries. We also received word that
Elizabeth Ellinghausen has been accepted as a short term teacher for the
Christian school. We are praying that she will get her visa approved and
support gathered in time to join us for the new school year in September.
The 2008-2009 school year officially finished Friday and we are having a
party and closing program today. Then Tiffany will be going for home about
six weeks for her sister's wedding. She plans to return in early August to
prepare for the next school year.

Thank you so much for your prayers for all the various ministries here. I
know they make a tremondous difference!

Safely Home

2009-05-22T21:57:00.000-05:00

Well, I am safely home after a very challenging mission trip. It was only 72
hours (leaving 8:30 am Wednesday and returning 9pm Friday), but it was
packed full. We were able to hold 3 Bible clubs and 5 preaching services. We
weren't able to go to all the places that we had hoped, but we were able to
give the gospel to numbers of people both through preaching and tracts. 3 of
the services were outside in the center of a village and 2 were in house
mans (sort of a community center/guest house). There were anywhere from 20
to 75 people present at anyone service. The Bible clubs ranged from around
20 to around 50 kids. It took about 7 hours to get there and about 9 to hike
back. (I think I was more tired on the way back:) It is basically 3500 feet
down to the river, than another 3500-4000 feet back up the other side. All
the villages here are built on top of mountain ridges. The nationals can
make the whole trip there and back in one day. (Yet another reason to train
the nationals to reach their own people:-)

It is an interesting thing. Somehow I think that we Americans have a mental
picture of third world countries that they are all pagans and that the
gospel will be completely new to them. But I am finding that is really not
the case. In most cases, they are just like people you try to witness to in
America. They go to church and believe in God, so they think that they are
all right. A good case in point is a lady named Rose that I spoke to on
Thursday morning. It was after one of the preaching services, so I asked her
if she was familiar with what had been preached and what she thought about
what she had heard. She said something like, Oh yes, I go to church. I asked
where she went to church and she said the Seventh Day Adventist church (a
group that believes you need to keep the Old Testament law, worships on
Saturday, doesn't eat pork, etc.). Knowing all this, I asked her what she
thought a person had to do to have eternal life. She said that they needed
to believe in Jesus as their Savior. I then asked if a person did that but
didn't worship on Saturday and live a good life would they still have
eternal life. She said definitely not. I then tried to explain to her that
she wasn't really trusting in Jesus to save her. She was trusting in Jesus
plus her good works, and that wasn't really trust at all. We were
interrupted then, but I walked away thinking how typical she is of the
people here. They are very appreciative of us and of our efforts to give
them gospel, they will listen attentively to preaching, but only the
illumination of the Holy Spirit will show them their true needs. Otherwise
they will continue to complacently think that they are doing okay because
they live a pretty good life. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will continue
to use the Word given in spoken and written form to bear fruit in the hearts
of the people of Elimbari.

Mission Trip

2009-05-17T19:57:00.000-05:00

I don't have too much to report from the past week. We have been busy
preparing for the upcoming mission trip, so I thought I'd give you a few
more details about that. There are 3 men going and 3-4 ladies, including me.
Basically, it breaks down to two preachers, a song leader, two-three
children's teachers, and one children's song leader. We plan to leave
Wednesday morning and hike to Elimbari, reaching the first area around
2-3pm. The ladies will then hold a children's Bible club. That evening we
will hold a service in the haus man (sort of the neighborhood community
center). We will sing a special as a group, one of us will give a testimony,
and one of the guys will preach. We will sleep in the haus man that night,
then leave around 8am for the next area. We will hold a service there with
the children being dismissed to a Bible club midway through the song
service. Then, we will hold a service/Bible club in the market of another
area over the noon hour and another in the afternoon. That evening
(Thursday) we are hoping to hold a service at a high school. Many of the
students live at the school and so will be there in the evening. We may also
hold a simultaneous or later service at another haus man. We will sleep at
the haus man on Thursday night, then go to another area early Friday morning
and hold a service/Bible club. Then we hope head to head home and get back
sometime Friday evening. If all goes as planned, we will have six preaching
services and five Bible clubs during the trip. We are praying that the Lord
would bless with a harvest of souls for His glory. If we do see a number of
people come to the Lord, we hope to send one of our preacher boys back every
week or two to disciple them. Please pray with us that the Lord will be at
work in the hearts of the people, bringing them to the services, giving them
a clear understanding of the gospel, and bringing them to the point of
convincement of the truth.

Praise!

2009-05-11T20:37:00.000-05:00

I have a definite praise to report this week. I think I mentioned that I
have been telling a missionary story to the students at our Christian school
every Tuesday. Last Tuesday was the last week of the particular story, so I
presented the Gospel very clearly. Then I invited anyone that had not yet
made that decision to talk to me or Tiffany (the other teacher) at break or
after school. I had really been praying that the Lord would work in hearts,
so I was thrilled but not surprised when one of the school girls came to me
later that day. They are all rather shy with us, so that took a lot of
courage for her to come talk to me about it. What a joy to go through the
gospel again with her in Pidgin. (I had spoken in English earlier as that is
supposed to be the national language and therefore used for education.) She
prayed a sweet prayer, giving herself to the Lord for whatever He would have
her to do. Please pray for Sanange's continued growth in the Lord.

It looks like a group from the church here will be taking a mission trip
next week to another village in our province, called Elimbari. Lord willing,
we will leave Wednesday morning (May 20th), hike to the village (about 7-8
hours), then hold preaching services and children's Bible clubs in 6
different neighborhoods starting Wednesdsay evening and continuing through
Friday. Then we hope to return home Friday afternoon/evening. Please pray
that the Lord will be working now in the hearts of the people in that
village and also that He will be preparing the hearts of our people who will
be ministering during the trip.

Heart Medicine

2009-05-03T05:57:00.000-05:00

It's been a fairly uneventful week. Interestingly, I had a fairly large
group for clinic on Monday and Friday, but no one at all on Wednesday. We
were joking that I had cured the whole village, so there wasn't anyone to
come:-) Seriously though, some of the national believers say that everyone
is talking about the good medicine at the clinic. We are praying that when
they come for medicine for their bodies, the Lord will do a work in their
souls as well.

In recent days, we have several people acknowledge their need for salvation,
but they are unwilling to make a decision for one reason or another. Please
pray for Kelly, a middle-aged man in charge of the local government school,
and July, a teenage girl who cannot read or write. They are opposites in
many ways, but they both need to turn to the Lord in saving faith. Only the
Holy Spirit can accomplish in that their hearts. Please ask Him to do that
work which He came into the world to do (John 16:8).

Landslide!

2009-04-24T23:22:00.000-05:00

Well, we've had some minor excitement here this week. At church on Wednesday
afternoon (we meet at 4:15pm), they announced that it looked like there was
going to be a landslide and everyone living in our area should go home
quickly and not linger on the road. Apparently, a good bit of ground had
already broken loose from the mountain where our Christian school is
located, but the ground had come to a stop about halfway down the mountain.
Everyone expected it to come down the rest of the way at any time. We came
home without incident, but that night we had heavy rain that apparently
caused a landslide, or maybe mudslide would describe it better. More ground
came down both Thursday and Friday nights as the rain continued.

I first saw the results on Friday evening on the way to a church outreach
fellowship. There was a large mound of mud about 4-5 feet high, stretching
across the road for probably 20 feet. When I tried to cross it to continue
on my way, I sank in over my ankles in places. Right through the middle of
the mudslide was a small water that starts at the top of the mountain, goes
across the road and continues down the mountain. Apparently, this water has
been steadily weakening the ground, and it finally all came down. Besides
being across the road, the mudslide is also down the mountain, and the force
of it knocked over the fence of the garden of one of our church members.

I crossed it again on my way home from church prayer meeting this morning
(Saturday). There was more mud even than last night, but there were a number
of people out using shovels and their hands to attempt to dig a path through
it. Pretty crazy! Thankfully, no one has been hurt and there has been only
minor property damage (unless you count my very muddy legs and shoes:-)

The funny thing about it is that just the week in the missionary story I am
telling the school kids, there was a big landslide and a woman was killed.
Amazing how true the missionary stories can be to real life when you
actually live on the mission field:-)

Thanks so much for your continued prayers for our physical safety as we live
in this never boring land.

Siar

2009-04-20T17:14:00.000-05:00

There isn't too much news to report from this past week. The first week of
school went remarkably well. Much better than we expected, considering that
we basically have one teacher teaching 3 different grades simultaneously.
Please continue praying that the Lord will send more teachers in time for
next school year.

The missionary clan has been struggling somewhat with sickness this week.
Our short term teacher had a combination respiratory and stomach bug, and
others are struggling with respiratory infections as well. The Lord has been
abundantly faithful though, and all the ministries have continued as
scheduled.

I was able to start language lessons this past week. I can already speak
Pidgin, the trade language for Papua New Guinea, but each village has their
own language as well. The language of Kiari is called Siar. It is not
written down, so it is a bit challenging to learn. It is important though,
because many people either do not speak Pidgin or do not speak it well
enough to communicate about either medical or spiritual concepts. A good
grasp of this language would definitely increase my effectiveness in this
ministry. I am meeting weekly with Megan, a 16 year old girl in our church.
She has been through 6th grade in school, which means that she can read and
write well and has a basic understanding of English. This is helpful because
Pidgin has a small vocabulary and sometimes it is easier to translate
directly from English to Siar rather than using Pidgin at all. Please pray
that my language lessons will be profitable and that I will find the time
each week to review what I have learned and prepare for the next lesson.

Thank you once again for your part in this ministry. Your prayers make all
the difference!

School

2009-04-13T17:20:00.000-05:00

Well, the last quarter of this school year started yesterday, and it went better than any of us expected. Tiffany was able to get all the subjects in within the time allotted. I felt like I had no clue what I was doing and stumbled around a bit, but the kids didn't seem to mind, and we all got through okay. It looks like most days I will be going up to school around 11:30am, teaching spelling to 1st and 3rd grade, doing reading groups for the prep class, and then dealing with all the grading. On Tuesdays, I will go up early for Bible and teach the missionary story. (Yes, you teach missionary stories even when you're on the mission field. The idea would be to burden the kids for areas outside their own village, and of course it's a good way to present the gospel to the unsaved students as well. It's just that here the missionary story is a lot more like real life than it is in the States:-)

The Smith family made it home safely on Thursday. They were a bit weary after doing two 8 hour hikes within 4 days, but we were thrilled to have them back. The government has decided to pay people to do some road work, so people have been digging out the road to our village (now closed for 16 months). It's not completely open yet, but it is open enough that Brother Randy was able to come ahead of the rest, get the truck, then drive back and meet them, thus saving them about an hour of the walk. A definite blessing! Lord willing, the road will be completely open by the time we get a bulldozer here to build the airstrip. Then we will be able to more easily transport fuel in to keep the dozer running.

I guess that's all the breaking news for the week. Thanks so much for your continued prayers for the school. Please pray that the Lord will provide teachers for this fall if He would have us to keep the school open.

Personnel Changes

2009-04-06T17:27:00.000-05:00

The news for the week is that Karen Marvin, one of our short term teachers unexpectedly had to return to the States. She and the Smiths took the 6-7 hour hike out yesterday with plans to fly out of the bush airstrip today. We and the people were of course sorry to see her go. We are just getting ready to start our final quarter of school, so that leaves one teacher doing all three grades (kindergarten, first, and third). We are all going to be helping her as much as possible. I will be spending about every afternoon at the school doing everything from reading groups to spelling tests to grading papers. Whatever I can do without being a teacher:-)

In another news, I had set of lacerations on Saturday afternoon. One was in a big toe and the other was a rather large cut to a head. It took about ten stitches to close the head wound. That man hasn't come back to clinic for a recheck. Apparently, he has been accused of adultery and is hiding for his life.

Please pray for a smooth adjustment for Tiffany, our remaining short term teacher, and an easy transition for our school kids as well.