Our Pacific Orientation Course is finally over!!  Our family not only survived, but thrived here in Madang. 

The first week in the village, Amelie loved chasing the chickens around the village.  There was one hen family in particular she “adopted” as her own and followed them everywhere… until mama hen had had enough.  She suddenly turned on Ami and chased HER all over the village.  Amelie let out a piercing scream that was probably heard in Madang 30 km away.  Everyone in the village came running to see what had happened to her, then laughed when they saw her running from a mother hen.  Elisa adopted a kitten from the village which was starving for affection (and food).  It came to our hut several times daily and always seemed to arrive at meal time.  The morning we left, “Bengel” showed up and laid down on Eli’s bilum bag and never moved until we left.  We had to check to make sure we didn’t have a stow-away..

 

To collect drinking water, we had to hike through the village, down a hill and into the river, wade across, then down the bank and back into the river... you get the picture.  After 15 minutes, we'd come to a small mountain stream fed from a spring.  The stream funnels into a metal tube where we'd collect about 4-5 gallons at a time.  We made this trek almost daily.

 

We taught the kids in our village and surrounding villages how to play games like Red light Green light, kick-the-can, and capture-the-flag.  Whenever our village had a meeting and the kids all showed up it was game-on!!

 

Elisa wanted to make a "broom" from coconut leaves and several people from the village came out to help us strip the leaves and trim the spines to make a broom.

 

Our was-papa (the man in charge of us) made a living by collecting cocoa beans.  He would dry them over a huge fire-fed drier.  Both Amelie and Elisa would climb up to help him bag the dried beans to ship to a company.

 

The hut we stayed in had two rooms, one for Jenny and I and the other for the girls.  After a couple weeks, we just combined all the mosquito nets into one giant "fort" which the girls swooned over making bedtime the funnest time of the day.  We rolled up the inside edges to make it one almost bug-proof room. 

 

Somehow, the cockroaches still managed to find a way in.  On occasion I would awake to something crawling over me and turn on a lamp to discover a 1-2" cockroach crawling over me.  Even when I chopped them in half with a bush knife, the head-side would still try to crawl away... that is until the ants got them.  The ants would swarm over injured or crushed cockroaches in an attempt to haul them away which then attracted the chickens.  They would then start devouring the ants.  If allowed, I would have killed the chickens, putting me at the top of the local food chain!  We did find a way to kill the cockroaches.  If enough oil was left in our frying pan overnight, the roaches would drown in the oil.  Die roaches... die!!

 

 

Church was a 1 hour hike away, uphill on the way there, and downhill coming "home".  We couldn't go the third Sunday in the village because the rains were just too heavy, and we missed the fourth week because I sprained my achilles tendon the day before playing volleyball at a nearby village.  I wouldn't let Jenny and the girls hike the hour without me... too much love to justify such a risk!

 

 

My little pyromaniac (Amelie) loved starting the fire for meals, but if it didn't start quickly, it was Elisa who wouldn't give up until the fire was roaring.  She's so much like her dad...  Amelie was taught how to prepare local vegetables from our was-mama and she did this exceedingly well!   Good food Ami!!

 

For Jenny's 42nd birthday, we hiked the 1 hour out to a village called Amron where we caught a PMV (taxi) to a beach resort called Jais Aben.  We had good relationships with the families in our village at that time, and they let us take a couple boys with us.  Those kids were fearless and scared me to death!  There's good swimming there with a giant tree and a couple ropes to swing over the ocean for a good splash.  Ami swung off the ropes, but the boys would climb to the top of the tree and jump.  No thank you... 

But most importantly, there was ICE CREAM at Jais Aben!!!  After over three weeks with nothing cold to eat or drink, I'm tempted to say that ice cream just may have saved my life!!

 

We found another blue starfish and Amelie and I balanced it on our heads together.  Not wanting to be out done by a girl, one of the boys just had to show that he could do it too, which he did!  His name.. Sweden the brave.  I've come a long way from not letting people get too close to me, huh?!

 

I'm sure it's alright with all you supporters, we bought those boys some ice cream too.  That went over about as well as taking a little girl to the American Girl store in Atlanta and letting her choose whatever she wanted.  That means they loved it!!

 

Was the ice cream good??  I'll say this much, and I've never seen this before, nor can I explain it.  If you spilled any on the ground (a jailable offense here), the ants would avoid it like poison.  What does that say about the ice cream?!  None-the-less, when you've gone almost 4 weeks without anything cold, you don't waste a drop.

 

Did I mention she's so much like her daddy?!  Gosh this is beautiful country... you are awesome Jesus for such amazing creation.

 

The week before we left, our was-papa found and killed a rat in his house, then found a nest with babies.  Both girls took to the babies and had a hard time understanding that there was no hope for them without a mama rat.  Amelie (being so much older) learned the lesson faster and fed hers to Bengel!  Elisa feared the same thing would happen to her baby, so she hid it and never told me what she did with it.

 

Escaping the heat in the river kept us from losing our cool.  I know... that was a bad one.

 

Then the experience was over and it was time to go.  I lost about 20 pounds during our POC experience, Jenny lost about 1 pound.  Yes, she still looks awesome!!

 

Once we get back to Ukarumpa, I'll post another blog telling some more serious stories, but posts like that must be checked first, so those stories will have to wait a few more days.

On to one more topic that I so dislike bringing up.  Upon our return to the POC campus and back to internet access, we were saddened to see that our financial support continues to drop off.  Our supporting church (Lifeway Community Church) even withheld taking out our tithe before sending the funds on to Wycliffe.  Lifeway, please take out the funds.  We simply cannot afford not to tithe.  I fell before the Lord in prayer.  His response was that I am not here to serve the expatriates, nor even the Nationals.  I am here to serve Him.  As long as I keep my focus and service on Him, I have nothing to worry about.  He's got this.  Amelie could tell something was troubling me and asked what was wrong.  When I told her that more people had stopped sending their support, she asked the question that struck me deep in my heart.  "Are they forgetting about us?" she asked.  How am I to respond?  I told her to simply trust in God, "He sent us here, and He will keep us here as long as we serve Him.  Just trust in Him and He'll keep us here until He's ready to use us someplace else."

I do not like bring up such serious matters, but I can easily recall how upset I got at Monique and Lewis Clay when I found out they were using up their savings while serving God in Camaroon, Africa because they hadn't bothered to tell us (their support team) that they weren't getting enough money sent in for them.  So I'm not wanting to repeat their mistake.  It is not my desire that those who give, give more.  It is my desire that those who pledged and gave us their word will resume supporting us, or start giving.  These people here in PNG were made in God's image.  In many ways, they are not less important than our supporters, but more important.  Without help, they have no hope.

We're doing our best to change their future, but we cannot do that without your help!  We are not here on vacation (despite the appearance in the photos), it's very hot and we're going without the basic necessities that are taken for granted where we came from.  We are serving God as best we can.  CMTI classes taught me that the best leaders lead by serving.

Thanks to all our faithful friends and teammates.  You are changing the world, one soul at a time.  Please check back soon to here the more serious stories.

We miss you all!!!

Week 4 begins and we are thriving in Papua New Guinea!

I'll start with the best news first, Elisa has gotten better, thanks to all who prayed for her.  She has only two days of antibiotics for her pneumonia and she will be through.  Unfortunately, one of our classmates has also gotten very sick, and is down in Madang at a local doctor's office. He, too needs your prayers.  This photo was taken of Ellie in the POC clinic just before getting pricked for malaria testing.

The testing was negative...  This photo of Ellie was taken over the weekend... obviously much better!!

This past week included training how to light gas lanterns, gas stoves, and how to start fires.  During the classroom training of "How to light a gas lantern", it caught fire and had to be rushed out of the classroom.  it became a lesson what NOT to do!

Fortunately, all ended well and nobody got hurt.  Our hike last Monday was the longest and hardest to date, we left our little mountain and hiked to a different one.  This time I left my pack and hiking boots behind, opting instead for lightweight Keen sandals and only a water bottle.  This turned out to be a very good decision, less weight = less sweating!!

Last week Thursday night, we left the POC center to walk to our Was-family's house.  This is the family that is responsible for helping us adapt to the PNG culture, and give us a taste of what life is like for them.  While there, we ate dinner, played "hot potato" and taught them how to play Uno.  On the way home, we found a surprise in the middle of the road.  This is why flashlights (torch) are a good idea when traveling at night in PNG...

 

 We cooked outside over the weekend on fires that we started ourselves.  What could be done in the USA in 20 minutes using modern conveniences, takes 1-2 hours here.  We "adopted" a boy here named Galilee who we invite to our outdoor meals when he shows up.

That is a summary of week 3!  More to come...

Starting week three of POC!!

 

 

We are starting week three of our Pacific Orientation Course training.  I wish I could say all is well, but the last 8 days have shown some new challenges.  Elisa continued to spike fevers to 103.7 for about a week.  She now has only a wet-sounding cough, but is still being kept out of school until this improves.  Three days ago she spread it to Amelie who was playing outside one minute, and 30 minutes later she was lying on a mat on the ground complaining of a headache and a mild cough.  Her temperature revealed a fever of 101.7.  Miraculously within 24 hours she improved and was back in school this morning.  You go girl!!!

Because of Elisa’s absence from school, either Jenny or myself would have to miss lessons which has affected my learning of Tok Pisin to some degree.  Fortunately (or unfortunately) we found someone to watch Eli this afternoon so we both can enjoy the vigorous hike they have planned for us.  Luckily I'll have my phone to shoot photos since the other camera is getting "freeze-dried".

Last week Friday and Saturday, we were tasked with building a shelter and a table/bench to use for cooking our weekend meals starting next weekend.  This is to further prepare us for our village living.

 

 

Yesterday both girls felt good enough to take the weekly trip off-center to go snorkeling at the Madang coast.  I took our Nikon water camera (which is rated to 33ft max depth) to below 50 feet.  It didn’t like that very much and now sits in a bag of rice trying to dry it out… bad daddy.  It was awesome snorkeling down that far!  It’s hard clearing my ears descending rapidly, but coming back up is a blast.  Next weekend I may rig up a device to see exactly how far down I can go.

Amelie climbed a tree and needed a little coaxing to jump out to the water below, but too many eyes were on her to chicken out, so she finally took the plunge.  Then it was right back into the tree again…

 

Please pray for the health of our family.  When Ami started spiking a fever, it hit Jenny pretty hard.  We've lost a lot of sleep at night interceding for hours over the girls.  Thanks for your continued support and prayers... 

Welcome to our lives, yet another day in wonderful PNG!  I regret to report that one of us fell ill over the last 24 hours, running temps to 101.9 and a mild cough.  She's doing fine, a real trooper.  Jenny stayed back from today's hike to care for Ellie and put her outside to nap because it was too hot in the dorm.

Today's hike was anticipated to be an easy one because it was cool and raining all morning, but praise God the sun came out along with a spike in the humidity just before we left for our hike.  Here's a couple photos we took while passing a small village, remember, this is the reason why we are here...

Most things here grow pretty large, especially the bugs.  Amelie found this out when this crawled onto her.  She was pretty tolerant, showing off bravely until it started climbing toward her face, that's when she'd had about enough.  Man that girl can scream!!

Oh yea, there was a snail wedding too, but after an hour of watching their mating ritual, I got bored...  These snails were at least 4" long (apiece).

Today's lessons included security, first aid for the village living, and a bunch more Tok Pisin.  I'm still not speaking too much of it, but it's getting easier to understand when spoken to me if it is done slowly..

And yes, Jenny is just as beautiful as ever.  I swear the tropics make her look more beautiful each day!

Stay tuned for more posts!!  And for Pete's sake, somebody post a comment!!!!!

Madang and a 3-hour hike. All in a day's work...

Today's adventures consisted of a shopping trip to Madang where Jenny bought the girls some second-hand clothes, and I bought the girls ice cream cones.  POC appears to be all about the girls?!  Fitting 36 people into this vehicle was really pushing it, the staff said they'll never do that again.

Anyone want a genuine Ellie-head balloon?

We saw giant fruit bats flying around overhead while near town, someone said they were spooked by a hawk...

At the market we found a guy selling beetle nuts (they're the green seed-looking things on the table).  During a hike later in the day we discovered the trees that they come from.  They are very tall and very slender trees that wound not support the weight of an adult.  Our POC staff member said they send the little kids up the trees to get the nuts so they can sell them in the market.

That was our morning.  This afternoon the class was separated into groups for a hike.  Our group had several very young children so the pace was a relaxed one, but 1/2 way through the hike, the littlest kids were taken back to the center and the rest of us completed a 3-hour hike.  It happened to be a hot and humid day today.  To prepare myself for the more spirited hikes yet to come, I took along a fully-loaded back pack.  Here's some photos from the day's hike starting with this one which shows what we were hiking through.

This shot was taken as we approached a village..

Here's Elli crossing a small log bridge..

Here's a mug of me.

This last shot was of Jenny posing in front of a building in the village..

Please continue to pray for us!!