Heart Medicine

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!

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

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

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

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.

Moving!

The past week has once again been a busy one. With the departure of Erick & Kara Duprey (the short termers who set up the clinic), my side of the duplex became vacant and ready for me to move in. So I spent the last week moving my stuff and getting settled in. I haven't started cooking yet because my refrigerator is broken. Both the stove and the refrigerator run off of the same propane tank, so I can't use the stove until the refrigerator is fixed. Mr. Smith was able to find the part to fix it on his town trip though, so it should be up and running soon. It was of the Lord's grace that he was able to get the part as they had been delivered to the store only an hour before he went to inquire about them.

 

Speaking of the town trip, Mr. Smith was delayed a bit later than he planned. First, when he arrived in town on Monday, he discovered that his truck was broken. He immediately took it to the repair shop, but didn't get it back until late Wednesday afternoon. He had intended to fly home on Thursday, but had to go to another city (about a 2 hour drive away) to pick up the motorbike. He made that trip on Thursday, then flew out on Friday. He attempted to ride the motorbike back to Kiari, but discovered that it wasn't really capable of making it up our steep grades. He ended up spending the night about halfway home and arrived late Saturday morning. Quite the trip! He hopefully won't have to go out again for another couple of months.

 

Clinic has stayed interesting as well. My latest excitement was last evening (Sunday). Two women had gotten into a vicious fight (rather common around here). One women picked up a stick and stabbed the other woman in the neck. When I examined her, she had a significant puncture wound in her neck, nicely situated between her carotid artery and her trachea. A few centimeters in either direction, and she would have been in serious trouble, if not dead. I was able to speak to her briefly about her mortality and God's protection. Please keep praying for the light of the gospel to shine into the darkness of this culture.

Back in Kiari

Sorry for the delayed posting, but did want to let you all know that I am safely back in Kiari. I was able to leave Aibai about 9am on Tuesday morning, so we (me and 3 national guys) walked for about 10 hours and slept in a national home. We had hopes of making it all the way to Kiari, but my knee started giving me some trouble about halfway home, so we decided to stop. That only left about a 90 minute hike for Wednesday morning, so I was home by 8:30 -- a definite blessing!

 

The time in Aibai was definitely a profitable one. Thanks for your prayers in that regard. Since I've gotten back and started doing clinic again, I have really been able to tell how much I learned while I was there. Friday (my first clinic day after I returned), I did my first stitches since I arrived in PNG. A lady had cut the bottom of her big toe with a bush knife. I put six stitches in, but it was a bit challenging due to the toughness of her skin. Most people here don't wear shoes, so the bottom of their feet is as hard as shoe leather.

 

Randy Smith, the senior missionary, is in town for a few days on a supply run. As you may recall, the helicopter pilot we usually use is on furlough, so we are having to use a more expensive helicopter. Thus, to save on expenses, Brother Randy hiked to our nearest airstrip (about 7 hours) and flew into town on a small airplane. The helicopter will be coming twice Wednesday with our supplies, Lord willing. Then Brother Randy will fly back to the same airstrip along with a motorbike that he has purchased. Then he and his national companion will ride (we hope) the motorbike back to Kiari. He should hopefully be home sometime Thursday.

 

We have heard some really great news though. Our mission agency was able to purchase 2 earth moving machines and will be sending them to us in a container hopefully within the next couple of months. These machines will enable both us and the missionaries in Aibai to complete our own air strips, greatly simplifying our supply trips. This is an answer to many prayers of many months from many people. A definite blessing from the Lord!