a play - a month ago I was asked to handle "tickets" for the high school play here. Yes, I was surprised, this high school has a drama dept. My COLLEGE didn't have a drama dept. but it is a great thing for the youth to experience and a great thing for the community to see. So, a month ago, having few other committments, I said "sure". But then life got rather busy with other things. Still, there is work and ministry, and when your work is your ministry, then the line blurs, but this was one way I could minister to several people at once, if I did my job well, and it was outside of my normal daily job of server and network maintenance.
Work, has been very busy, but that isn't part of this week's blog (-; Needless to say, this week our dept. offered the community a lot of features they'd been hoping for online for a long time.
a birthday - I turned 34 on nov 22. What a great birthday, the kids with homemade presents, my family really made the day special simply by making my special foods and being thoughtful. I really enjoyed my birthday.
a holiday - thanksgiving? don't celebrate it here. But, we do have a turkey... the store manager here ordered them special for us Americans. We will celebrate on Sunday since we didn't get a thursday off. Enjoy your 4 day weekend. I on the other hand had a moment of pure joy today when I saw the sunset over the hills... wow.. that moment made me so glad I was here. Even trade I'd say. Still we're having 10 folks over for turkey n stuffin'.. PNG style. It'll be fun as we try to bond and make a holiday special.
a holiday tradition - tomorrow is the "saturday after thanksgiving" and we traditionally get our tree then. so I've planned a little "surprise" for the family. We're going "tree hunting". Basically we'll load into the car, drive around listening to christmas mp3's and sipping cocoa... then we'll stop back at home, with a saw.. .come first to our artificial 5'pedastal costco $45 special.... and then say things like "nah, it's got a big hole in the back".. and then walk around looking for other trees, only to come back to our original tree an hour later. Then we'll put it in the livingroom and hang approximately 10 decorations on it (that's all that'll fit I think (-; )
a quake - there was a 6.7 quake here last night. Well it hit us at more lik 5.6. It shook us but didn't damage us, and I far rather experience a 6.7 here than in California. They roll different here, less damaging. Still we got under a table and the kids were a tad frightened. Then, we called all the single ladies who are new to PNG from our POC group who were alone to comfort them. It was for many of them, the biggest quake of their lives, if not the first. It was the biggest one ever here in PNG that folks can recall anyway.
a paperwork problem - the government has recently informed the director's office here of major issues with everyone's visas and work permits. Basically, unless they work around the clock (which they are) many people will incurr $150.00 fines p/passport. One lady, a friend, is leading the campaign to organize everyone and get them all to sign out their applications. It's quite the stressful time for many folks, however we aren't too stressed as we don't intend to do any travelling for a while. Still, I went to the lady in charge and offered my help computer-wise, day or night, since most of what they are doing is computer oriented and it'd be a shame to lose any of their work.
So.. you ask me "what do you do there?"
the official answer is , I work in computers, and my wife teaches English.
But the unofficial answer is, "whatever it takes"
Sometimes you have a week where you take ticket orders, cheer a friend, invite people over for faux thanksgiving, fake a tree hunt, duck under a table, turn a year older, and offer support to an overworked friend.
To borrow from another friends newsletter:
Exodus 17:11
As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.
Exodus 17:12
When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
In some ways, we are here holding up our hands to support the translators getting the work of Bible Translation done. We're holding up the people of PNG to God. And sometimes we're holding the hands of the people holding up their hands.
But always, you, our partners, prayer warriors, financial supporters, friends and family, (who by the way I prefer to jsut call 'family' which you are), are our Aaron and Hur. Holding us up.
Thank you so very much for allowing us to be here.
We do so much enjoy this work.
