House Building

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.