Things We Saw 1

This week we did a few things as a family.
First we had a funeral for my grandmother and it went well, it was a good time of remembering a great lady.

Then as a school trip/family trip we went to the Santa Cruz County fair, where among seeing livestock and other items, we saw a display of collections. The most interesting was the collection of 'scat'. Sounds gross but knowing what different animals' scat looks like can be VERY helpful in a survival situation.

Another thing we did was go to Gizdich Ranch and picked apples so we could learn to make pies, and apple sauce when we got back home. $1.29 per lb. If you want cheap apples, this is a good way to get them.

Missionary Tip:
For an inexpensive day outing, you can go to the Santa Cruz wharf. We did today and visited one of my old childhood favorite memories, Marini's candy shop.

I was surprised when I saw Dark chocolate covered bacon. I had heard rumors of this delicacy when we were in PNG but I wouldn't believe it. Then months ago when we arrived I challenged a friend of mine to produce such a thing and he did not.

Now at last, I found it. At Marini's.

And finally we saw the seals at the wharf and some gas powered ( single stroke engine?) bicycles.

Things We Saw 2

Things We Saw 3

Things We Saw 4

a Bit of a rant.. on my mind

I haven't ranted in a while.. this one is a bit of a long winded thought.

I’ve been reading the Bible since I’ve been able to read. One of the things that fascinates me the most about it, is that I seem to always be able to come up with something I didn’t see before, or that didn’t give me pause in an earlier reading. Yesterday we buried my grandmother. Today I opened the book of Exodus to continue with chapter 4. I got to verses 24-26 and my ‘just-woke-up’ brain had a hundred questions about this passage. It is a very confusing passage and my take on it is that Moses had acquiesced to his wife's desire to avoid circumcising their son which God did not like and rectified. God was not going to let Moses have sin in his family before he went to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Men in ministry have responsibility and I've been thinking about the true sadness of seeing people finish their lives poorly.

During our preparation to move to Papua New Guinea, my wife and I underwent a lot of prayer and soul searching and begging God to bring any sin between us to the open so we could confess it, repent, heal, and avoid the situation where a sin is exaggerated in the field. Too many missionaries have imploded on the field from not dealing with God honestly. It is our utmost concern that we not fail. Truly what's the point of uprooting yourselves, leaving your life and family behind in an honest endeavor to serve God and obey His calling... If you're going to get there and be ineffective... or worse, totally and utterly fail in a public way?

I'm aware that people in authority have an extra portion of spiritual responsibility. Because of that I've never endeavored to take on authority.

As a man, a husband, a father, and now a missionary (gulp) I feel the burden and weight of this on my shoulders and I desire to continue being a pure man of integrity, and have put up disciplines and practices to help me maintain that lifestyle. Not the least of which is a true friend who holds me accountable.

Over the past three years I've seen men (and women) fail. I suppose fail is a strong word, possibly I should use the phrase, 'become overwhelmed to the point where they have to pause their ministry'. It makes me sad. In my youth I think I was judgmental of men who succumbed to one weakness or another, but as an adult I recognize how easy it would be. And I'm not just talking about the biggies, but about the small ones too. Things as simple as not spending enough attention on family. Being unkind. The little things that add up over the years. There are a myriad of issues that could cause a ministry to stop in it's tracks and the enemy will find that weakness and exploit it. He will attempt to do so HARDER the more fruitful your ministry is. Often times we see a long strain of bad occurences as an indicator that your ministry has potential and has gotten on the enemy's radar.

I'm constantly vigilant for these types of things, because truly, I want to end my life well, and I want to glorify God and bear good fruit... This is the reason for our sacrifice and our obedience, but in order to give that value we have to maintain a life of integrity which is harder and harder to do in a world where the enemy grows stronger.

So I suppose these verses in Exodus moved me, even if they were a tad confusing at first. I am very thankful that I have a wife who is a help mate and not a stone around my neck. She is very much a teammate in our endeavor in PNG and anywhere we go. Yesterday as we buried my grandmother and people praised her godly character, I looked over at my wife and I truly and deeply appreciated her for her help in this time and how I can always rely on her to be a help to all around her. I looked at my children and saw two well adjusted kids who enjoyed talking to people and sharing their hearts about Papua New Guinea. And I looked up and said a silent prayer to God.

'Thank you for them God, and please don't let me muck it up.'

Questions

Frequently asked questions:
-While you’re home on furlough do you still need our financial support?
- YES we most definitely do.

-What have you been doing so far to raise financial partnership (support?)
- We have spoken to 2 churches, with a third in a few weeks planned. A retirement home, a few Sunday schools. We have more speaking engagements planned and we have begun a letter writing campaign as well. We have had meals in houses and lunches, and will be speaking at a few Bible study groups soon.

-Are you going back to PNG? - Yes we are, God willing.

-When are you going back to PNG? - January 12, 2011. Our goal is to have all of our support pledged by Jan 1, 2011.

-What happens if you don’t raise the support by then? - Our lives will be turned upside down as we seek what God wants next and work out the logistics of what that means.

-If I changed my commitment to you financially, do you need to know? - YES please, if you increased, decreased or stopped your financial support of us, we definitely need to know as soon as possible.

-How can we pray? - Pray that God brings in our support before Jan 1, 2011.

-How can we give? - you can email us at chad_owens@sil.org for more details

Encouragement

Life throws us mountains.
At the bottom of the climb we look up and are tempted to think 'this is impossible'. The temptation to become overwhelmed at the task is very strong.
At the crest of the climb we look back and say 'the hard part is over!' and look down and say 'it's all downhill from here'.
At the bottom we say 'I'm glad I did that, I'm proud of that accomplishment'.

Today life threw a few mountains at us. A few obstacles that would easily overwhelm us.

It was once said 'it ain't furlough unless you're exhausted.'

My prayer has been and continues to be, 'God please send us a tiny bit of encouragement during those exhausted times.... so that we can be a blessing to others around us. We desire SOO much to glorify God but we need to be filled with peace, help us during those times'.

God is so faithful to us. I just plopped down today and said to my wife 'I'm tired to my bones.'

And then the phone rang.

Today we have for the first time in our furlough begun to make financial progress toward our goal!

Thanks God for new partners and new pledged support... timed in such a way that it would encourage us when we needed it!

Moving On

Yesterday my grandmother Jonnie whom I was rather close to, passed away. Or as my daughter put it, 'moved to heaven'.

You can read the obituary here.

I was holding off on mentioning it until family and friends had been notified. If this comes as a shock to you, I do apologize that you were unable to hear personally.

During this time, we could use prayer for the family. Everyone is grieving and prayers to the effect that we can all remain healthy (physically and emotionally) during this time would be appreciated.

Thank you.

excitement

each morning we wake up, we don't know what will happen.
It's the same for everyone.

For us, we wake up and we know each day will be different, instead of the same.
This sounds exciting for many folks, but the lack of routine does tend to make you more tired after a while. We have become well versed in the nomadic lifestyle.

Yesterday was a quiet day. I went outside and heard a BOOM!
some college kids were fanning their burning car engine, and it exploded... no flames jsut a hood flying open and a big BOOM!.. no one was hurt.

It seems even on days when we're having a quiet day there is some adventure to be had.

I'm thankful to God that life never gets boring, and also thankful for the periods of routine and the periods of excitement, and the periods of rest.

I have lived routine.
I have lived constant excitement.
I have lived danger.
I have lived in safety.

It is my opinion that life is not boring.... when we feel bored we seek excitement and we're over excited we seek quiet. It seems that part of our nature is to always seek some state that we aren't currently in or tired of.

The discipline therefore seems to be in developing a sense of happiness, of contentment in whatever your circumstances are. I realize there is drama all around everyone.

This furlough has taught me a very important lesson.

Everyone has drama.

Whenever I get to thinking how life is difficult for us in PNG, I will remind myself that it isn't exactly a bowl of cherries for everyone here back in the U.S. either. After meeting with you and spending time with you, I have found no single person whose life is completely going exactly how they want it to be going.

So we pray for you guys, and hope that you remember as well to pray for us. In this way, it seems to me to be even more of a partnership, because we are heavily invested in your families as well.

We have really enjoyed re-contacting folks we haven't seen in years... and we haven't reached everyone yet... we hope to!

Missionary's New Friend

In an effort to find a good deal on a trumpet for my daughter, I visited 3 pawn shops today. I have never set foot in a pawnshop, and the Oregon ones are rather clean and nice.

I didn't buy a thing, but they have used power tools, dvd's, electronics, musical instruments.

My wife and I have become enthralled with all the 'bargains' that are to be had out there. Thrift stores, pawn shops, these are wonderful things to people on a budget.

I suppose this isn't news to families with 6 kids, but to a Silicon Valley computer geek, become missionary in PNG... it's a whole new world full of promise and previously owned merchandise.

Once your levels of expectation and definition of what is 'nice' have been changed by living in a third world country... America's hand-me-downs are actually a really nice step UP for us!

Craigslist/ebay - for getting in touch with how much used stuff should cost.
Thrift stores - for kids clothing when they change sizes so quickly
Pawn shops - for trinkets that you may need.. you never know what you're going to find.

it's like treasure hunting, and as many of you know, I HATE to shop but I love to geocache. So long as I can see these places as searching for treasure and not shopping, I can find a way to enjoy it!

Miramont pointe

Today we spent time with our friends and partners a place in Oregon.
It was a real blessing to get to share about what God is doing in PNG
with them. We thank you again for praying for opportunities to speak!!

-Chad

Geocaching

Another adventure

Friends we met

Today we were invited to brunch at the home of a family that has been praying and supporting us over the years even though they had never met us. I'll keep their names private.

The wife used to pray for my father in law when he was a boy and his neighbor. Now she's added his daughter to her prayer list. Knowing a woman like this is praying for us encourages us immensely.

Her husband served in WWII in the First Calvary division. He had been to Papua New Guinea on his way to the Phillipines. He told me a few war stories which I'll treasure because you don't often get a change like that. For me, learning about WWII and frankly any history is exciting.

So here, nestled in a pocket of the world called Beaverton, Oregon is a family praying for us and supporting us... and after 3.5 years I finally got a chance to meet them, and we were so blessed by the meeting.

What an incredible family.... what a great testimony.

For all those folks out there praying for us that we don't even know about.

thank you... there are truly definite times when we can feel the prayer.

Times when we say 'wow that could have been a LOT worse... someone must be praying for us!"

thank you.

Progress

We're at 70% of our support raising goal! If you're interested in joining us, please contact us.

Prayer needs:
-Family Health - there are members of our extended family who need prayer regarding their health. For more personal data, you can contact us via email.

-Support Opportunities - we are looking for opportunities to speak/share/talk about missions.

-Travel safety - we're going to Oregon, pray for our safety

Tired yet?

Someone said to us 'it wouldn't be furlough if you weren't exhausted'.
Funny thing about exhaustion... you don't often recognize it until you receive rest.

We're very thankful for the house we're living in because it offers us some rest from running around.

This post however is for parents of young children.

We have been warned and have in fact gone through training and counciling for our kids and how to watch for signs of .... travel stress.

In the past 24 hours both of our children have had uncharacteristic 'melt downs'. Anger, tears, shouting, bargaining, extreme selfishness.... and then they fall asleep.

I'm not proud of their behavior, and my response in discipline and punishment doesn't alter if they break the rules...

but we are definitely aware that with each transition there comes some level of emotional adjustment on the kids.

So today I sat down with my son and asked him 'how does it feel when...' type of questions.

-He enjoys going from place to place. He feels sad if he stays alone in one place for too long.

-He likes the house we're in but he likes our house in PNG too, because it has his own room and it feels... RIGHT... this place is very nice according to him, but doesn't feel like 'home'.

-He doesn't get sad when we have to go someplace, but he gets sad when he realizes he won't see someone for a while.

This is the trigger point for his meltdowns I realized today. When he's faced with saying 'goodbye' for a prolongued period of time to his close friends or close cousins, and knowing he won't see them for a few weeks.... THAT is the trigger.

I'm currently trying to figure out ways to help alleviate this stress on them.

Today my 11 yr old daughter said 'I can't handle all this moving around, it's too much for me.' Well, admittedly, she's a bit of a drama queen and probably heard that on a t.v. show somewhere, but we're still digging into it.

There is FAR more transition during furlough than there is in moving to PNG. Furlough we are finding is more energy consuming.

Coolest bathroom ever

Brunos is definitely my new favorite place. Now that I found this buck
in the bathroom

Cool BBQ joint

Encouragement

Yesterday my wife and I were feeling a little overwhelmed. We have about 4.5 months left of furlough in which time we need to raise 30% of our support, visit doctors, dentists, eye doctors, etc. Fix all the things we have that are outdated (email lists, mailing lists) communicate to all of our existing supporters as to what God's been doing through them.... and the list goes on.

Time is flying by, and we're accomplishing not near enough to meet our schedule.
So we have felt a bit overwhelmed.

So I stopped and we prayed and I said 'God please today, soon send us some encouragement. We're trying to do what you want and we know we need to trust in You." During that prayer I heard the familiar tones of my laptop receiving two emails... and I said 'God thank you, I know one of those is an encouragement'

And you know what... it was.
I got an email setting up an engagement to speak to a missions committee.

I also later in the day received a check to help cover the expense of our brake job.

GOD IS GREAT. I wanted to share this to show you the immediate answer to prayer God has bestowed on us.

Schedule for august

The second half of August we will be in Portland, Oregon. If you are nearby and would like us to visit, please send us an email.

We are currently in the process of trying to meet new groups and tell new people about what we do in Papua New Guinea. Our desire is first to glorify God and tell people about the exciting things He is doing.

We also will need to see a 30% rise in support before returning to PNG. Our plane tickets are booked for January.

What this means is reaching new groups with our message. We have found in the past that personal relationships seems to be the most effective form of partnership and so we strive to meet new people and make new friends.

If you know of a group that might be missions minded and want to hear about some exciting things God is doing in PNG, please let us know! We'd love to come and share.

Resisting the Urge or.. HEY LADY!!!!

Not everyone owns a vehicle in PNG, and often folks are walking up the hills. Many times these people are women, single or otherwise, and so it is our habit to stop when driving around and offer our friends rides up the hill.

We find a nice stop and a 'hi would you like a ride', is much better than driving past and kicking up dust in their faces.

We're in the U.S. now and we don't know everyone like we do in Ukarumpa, PNG.
We live at the top of a hill still, although the road is paved.

So, when you see a female, or two females walking up the hill my instinct is to pull over, and roll down my window and offer them a ride up the hill.

This urge MUST be resisted!

Why?
1 - I don't know these people, and so it looks very creepy for me to be offering complete strangers a 'RIDE' in my 'VAN'.

and

2 - they most likely each own multiple vehicles and are out walking for exercise sake and not out of necessity. They probably also have cell phones and would likely report me to the police.


Thankfully I haven't pulled over yet, but somehow, in my mind, the small community mentality is still there and I think 'oh I probably know them, I should give them a ride'.

I am finding that if I act on these small community impulses here, that it doesn't appear gentlemanly and kind, it appears creepy. People aren't used to strangers helping them for pure reasons. I have found as I walk around though, that some things are still appreciated..

like holding open a door, or picking up trash that isn't yours. Or simply, and this is the biggest one... a friendly smile and a hello.

Furlough adjustment 63: - Isolation - surrounded by people but knowing none of them. Unable to say 'how are you doing today?'. This has caused me to appreciate church more, there I'm in a crowd of people I know and who I can say 'howdy' to.

What's that Smell?

This week my wife has been out of town and so I've been doing things around the house.

Since arriving in the U.S. I have felt like the entire place is more... aromatic. Perfumey if you will allow.

My nose is sensitive to fragrances, and often I will sneeze.
All week long I've been thinking 'wow something around me smells like perfume....' my nose has been stuffed up, I've sneezed a lot. No matter what I can't escape this smell.

I figure it must be the carpet, and the cleaners used, because we don't have carpet back in PNG.

Then today, it dawned on me while I was doing my own laundry.

Dryer Sheets.

We don't have a dryer in PNG, we use the sun and clothes lines.

That foreign smell that so many folks here have probably learned to ignore... the overpowering smell of 'clean fragrance' that has been invading my nostrils since we arrived....

is the smell of dryer sheets from clothes dried in drier. It's all over me! I can't outrun it!

I never noticed this smell before moving to PNG.

And to completely candid, it's such a strong smell that I believe the other day no one noticed that I forgot to put on deodorant! Hahhahahaha.. not even me!

Keeps gettin' better

Wow, it's sunday 2:35pm and this weekend is getting much much better already.

Chad's internet tip #42 - how to get free prayer cards

One of the things we needed to do was print out some prayer cards. We snapped a photo in PNG, used our mac to turn it into a prayer card, then came here, signed up for walgreens photo... no idea they offered free 25 prints.... and the photos were available the same day for pick up.

WOW..


Still it will get better as I get to see my grandmother tonight, which I'm excited about.

Best weekend yet

Friday, friends drop in... been years since I've seen his kids.

Saturday, we go geocaching and hiking with friends, at one point I was half way down a water fall hanging on to roots!!! Then we ordered pizza, and had ice cream for dessert! Their youngest daughter held my hand for some reason which was sweet.

Sunday I sat in church next to my cousin. A wonderful, awesome, first for me. Then we introduced ourselves to a new neighbor and got invited to come speak at one of her gatherings.


What a GREAT weekend this has been... a little of everything! We got outside an hiked, spent time with old friends and family, ate good food, experienced worship with family together, praised God for that, and also were given the chance to talk about our ministry!

WOW... God is good... thanks to those who have prayed for our rejuvination. I feel better in spirit today than we have in a while. It was a big surprise how good for the soul these things are.

Terminology

We new coming back there would be things we said or that our kids said that may sound awkward or bad. We tried to train the kids not to say those things but also decided to give them one less thing to worry about in transition, to not hound them about it.

We had some friends over the other day and they very politely told us,

"your children said a word that I don't think would go over very well here... I thought you should know."

there are several words in their vocabulary that are not Politically Correct for one reason or another. We live and work in a country with multiple cultures, and American culture is one of the most politically correct countries in the mix.

One of the acceptable terms for a Papua New Guinean is 'blackskin'. They call us whiteskins and themselves blackskins. It sounds racist and rubs an American the wrong way as it did us for a while... until our kids got used to it in hearing the other kids talk.

Here of course that would really rub someone the wrong way.

One term we no longer use is 'native'. In training we were taught 'national' was more appropriate.

In talking with people about PNG often folks will ask about the 'natives'. We don't bother to restate or correct folks, but it strikes me that ....

language works both ways now. We'll say things that will offend here, and hear things that would offend there.

The key is... to try and avoid taking offense, assume the best, and put on a learning spirit... ask questions... and that is how we avoid conflict.

So please, if we say or do anything you find offensive let us know, it'll be a learning experience for both of us... we definitely don't mean to offend.

I think as adults we have the ability to consider what might be offensive and not say it, but the kids don't have that filter quite yet. (-;

Relaxed

In top news:
We've planned to go to Portland, Oregon in August starting on the 19th. Pray for two things:
-Speaking engagements
-safety

In other news.. thoughts.

I realized rather surprisingly the other day how relaxed we are now. I don't really think in terms of relaxed or tense... because either I'm clueless or I'm used to working under pressure. But it dawned on me last night after a few weeks of being here...

'hey, I feel really relaxed!'

And so I thought about why.

First we are living in a very relaxing, quiet, and isolated place for this home assignment. That may be everything right there.

But one of the kids mentioned that we weren't being watched 24x7 as well as is what happens when you're a ex-patriot with white skin living in PNG.

I've been told that PNG is a pressure cooker, that the pressure slowly builds and builds until you get used to it all around you and that you don't realize it until a furlough.

I hadn't noticed feeling any pressure. It hasn't been a super easy 3 years but I never felt over stressed.

Here, I think it took 3 weeks but I've let my guard down a little bit... I'm not always looking over my shoulder, I can let my wife go somewhere alone.

I feel relaxed... and I really am enjoying this rest.

Paying Off

Years ago, 1997 I am a system admin at Sun Micro. I have to move from building to building working on issues, and never really 'customized' my desktop because of this. I once sat down and during a server emergency, saw another admin spend 20 minutes customizing his desktop so that 'he could work'.

Before that time I had always been the kind of guy who didn't customized his computer in anyway. No stickers, no ergonomic keyboard, no backgrounds, no special sounds, no keyboard remapping, nothing.

After that day I was stalwart in my beliefs.

Now, being a missionary I'm more nomadic and it's paying off.

I can work as quickly on any keyboard, any laptop, with or without a mouse, with or without a trackpad or trackpoint or whatever.

I have no customized sounds or space that I require.

And I find, that because of this, I'm quite content working from this little laptop without any kind of external devices.

All that said.
I'm nearly 37.
And I've found in the last week that looking down at my laptop screen is in fact putting a crick in my neck.

I've never been very caring about ergonomics for myself. I can see how it helps others quite a bit, and it's important to be comfortable in your workplace.

I suppose my comfort comes in knowing that I can jump around and be as productive one place as I am another... well relatively speaking.

Still, I might put this laptop on a few books or something (-;


The only reason I bring it up, is it seems that this penchant for non-customizing and it's payoff to my nomadic lifestyle... seems to be another example of God working in my life years ago to prepare me to be what I am today.

He reminds me of these little things from time to time... these 'oddnessess' that are parts of my personality that eventually come to bear to have some actual functional use in my life as a missionary.

It blows my mind how perfectly God suited me to do what I'm doing right now.

Amanda Garcia is in debt

who isn't, this day and age?
We got a prepaid telephone from t-mobile.... to keep our telephone bill down. I'm guessing they recycle their phone numbers, as most places would.

This phone is free to have and costs $1.00 per day it's used.

So we try not to answer it if we don't know who is calling.

We've been getting wrong calls for Amanda Garcia.
Some from men who speak... seductively.... to which I'm always tempted to say 'hey meet me in that place we were once at midnight'. But I haven't yet.

Once it was someone trying to buy something and I was tempted to get their credit card information. If for no other reason than to cover my phone bill.

AT first we thought it was some single gal giving out fake numbers to guys in bars.

But today a debt collector called.

I resisted the urge to say 'try and find me! Freeze all my assets, I don't care... Johny LAW!!!!"

But we haven't..... not yet.
So far, the toll is $6.00 we've had to paid simply because of these wrong numbers.

I would have t-mobile change our phone number, but then family wouldn't know how to reach us again.... so.... please Amanda... tell folks your new number! (-;

Nice little gadget

4 years ago I bought a gadget. For work, I spent $99 and bought the Airport Express for the sole purpose of having wifi wherever I went. I think in the end, work reimbursed me for the purchase as well.

The unit was small and it worked well, so I took it to PNG with me.
There I didn't need wifi, but I found that if I made it a wifi client I could plug a stereo into it and share my itunes out. So I did.

Then I came back to America and took it with me.
Again I had no need for wifi, but also no need for itunes to a stereo, but I did have a need to make a printer networkable... or storage central.

So I plugged a usb printer into it, and with almost zero configuration, it was working again.

WOW.
this little device I bought 4 years ago, has now graduation to being something I take alongside my laptop if I'm to be anywhere for longer than a month.

It's very handy, and I had no idea what I was buying when I bought it, I simply wanted a cheap and highly portable wifi spot.

It has served me well over the years. And I thought it worth mentioning because good products are hard to come by.

A Tall Man living in a Short Man's World

this is a bit of a rant... but not an angry rant.

I live in Papua New Guinea. Land of short men. I stand at 6'5" tall. I knew this before moving there.

What follows is not a list of complaints, I love being tall, and all its advantages. I know there are many men out there who would love to be this tall. Instead this is a list of observations... while I would not change me, I may at times wish to change the world around me.

For example.

In PNG:
-low hanging door jambs that I hit my head on
-beds that are too short so my legs hang over
-bathrooms that have the facilities too close to the floor, or the stalls too narrow for my shoulders
-constant staring from adults and children, some crying, some running away in fear
-bamboo floors that I can't walk on

That's why furlough held the appeal to me of finally blending into a world where I fit in.

But I'm noticing in the USA:
-while no one is surprised by my size, there are still a few things off.
-higher counters are nice for me.
-still people mount mirrors so I can only see from my neck down... which makes it hard to shave.
-beds fit me nicely.

but the single most interesting thing I've found is that...
in PNG I fit in about 90% of cars...
in the USA I fit in about 20% of cars.

That's right, I had to turn down 2 free car offering because I could not fit well enough to drive them.

The reason for this I think is that in PNG a majority of cars are older and are 4x4's. There are no nice street cars, or sun roofs, or electric seats (all things that take away from headroom).

Despite the low mirrors and low roofs, I like that I can walk through the doors.
After all, this is the country that hosts the NFL. Many of those guys I would nickname 'tiny'. (-;

Yesterday my son and I walked around town and I suddenly realized there was no staring.. quite the opposite. I knew nobody around me... no one was pointing, no children cowered, no clerks hid behind newspapers and stole peeks at me. No one tried to sneak up to me and touch me to see if I was real... no crowds scattered, no one make a 'tisk tisk tisk' sound as if to say 'he is a giant who will eat my children'.

No one even noticed I was there. It was a nice change. So are concrete floors marble benches.

Answer number 1 million 4 hundred thousand and twelve

We got a furlough car today!
After months of craigslist hunting on my dad's part and the generosity of others to help us afford it... we found a very good deal on a 2000 Chrysler Town and Country.
LOW mileage... in good shape.
the ad on craiglist was a mistake for a lot less than the car was valued at so we ended up buying it at far below blue book, FROM a dealer!

Which means, if it's taken care of, we can resell it when we're leaving and get a good portion of the money back, OR keep it in the family to be used on future furloughs.

PRAISE GOD.. patience and timing along with hard work and study brought us a very very good deal.

Now please be praying that we do not get into any mishaps so that the car retains it's value.

thanks to all who prayed for us.

We're completely plugged back into the Matrix now.... on a budget, but still very effective.

Today was definitely a day of loving technology and civilization!

Still have needs

Yesterday was one of those 'I sure do miss PNG' days. I didn't expect them to come so soon. I love my family and friends and am very excited to be here....

however the financial complexity of living in California hit me hard yesterday. There are so many choices and so many fees and taxes, it's hard to decide on a purchase for me. There are things we need to procure for our return, but I've no desire to go 'shopping' at all. I think it was my 'reality' check.

Fees and taxes and..... I'm missing the simplicity of PNG.

One car I borrowed had a bad shock mount... this happens a lot in PNG and I know the guys who could have fixed it (thanks autoshop).... but here, I don't know anyone who could fix it.

Please pray for our needs:
-still need a car, one was offered and I loved it, but I didn't fit in it.
-we're meeting with a missions committee tonight, please pray that it goes well, that we communicate well and clearly get across the need for Bible translation in PNG.

CA E-waste fee

today I learned that California charges you an extra fee for electronic purchases...
at first I was told it was for disposing of the box to which I said
"but I'm keeping the box to send this to PNG"

alas, it turns out that it's a fee for funding their 'electronic dumping days'... in which you can discard old electronics... personally I'd like to see all these old electronics before they got dumped.

I went looking for a super cheap phone headset to comply with California law...
I told the guy I had an iphone 2g.
he said 'wow I'm sorry, you're the last one on earth who does."

I thought I was pretty cool with it... got it for free an all from a guy who upgraded...

but alas he did not.

Still I feel okay, he didn't know what a PAL signal was or what 240volt power was.

Free slushy

Today was 7/11 and as such 7-11 stores (convenience stores) were offering free slushies.
The kids were begging for a slushy since we got here, so, as we passed by one we jumped at the chance.

But the cups were all gone at 8pm.

So, what's a dad to do? Shell out a buck per and get 4 'free' slushies. Apparently 400 customers came in asking for free slushies... thanks to yahoo.com who advertised it on their pop up page.

Above my son got a bit too zealous with the slushy lever and covered all of us in blue slushy. Funny accident.

TV technology on the cheap

Here's news to me... the current leap in television technology.
Yes you 'read' about it 2 years ago... or well I didn't but someone did... but it's happening now.

This is more of a heads up for my missionary friends who don't know like I didn't.

3d TV is all the rage right now. (Avatar the movie was 3d and I suppose it hasn't stopped).

Streaming on demand TV is here... it's now...

You can buy a box that will go over the internet and get all the free and pay (netflix) tv as you demand it. So long as you're cool with not watching currently broadcasted shows you don't have to pay for cable.

So here's a hint:
-WITH a fast internet you can get your TV/Telephone/Email all online.
-cable costs $80 p/month... don't pay it
-telephone costs $25 p/month ... don't pay it

get a fast internet connection.
use skype paid version get a telephone number
use boxee/hulu.com (free) or netflix at $8.99 p/month

suddenly you have your phone, your flicks, your internet and it's costing a fraction of what cable alone would cost!

and because it's month to month, no contracts... means you can come and go as you please!

(skype works on some smart phones as well).

So basically, you can setup a travelling everything, all you need is your laptop.

The coolest part is that you'll be all cutting edge tech and be paying less than people who have lived here their whole lives!

It's pretty easy and cheap.

Tell Us

It's our second week back now and we've had a chance to catch up with a portion of our family and friends. A recurring theme seems to be going on amongst friends and family alike.

'we didn't email you because.....'

folks apparently weren't updating us on things for many reasons

-we felt it was so insignificant compared to what you're doing there.
-it was bad news and we didn't want to discourage you
-we didn't know how to put it


So for all those out there reading... tell us. Even bad news communicated tells us that you were thinking of us and that's an encouragement.

Also please even if it's mundane things like 'what is your favorite ice-cream?' the email tells us that you took the time to write and we were on your mind.

So please... don't let anything keep you from writing, we love it.

America #3

New Terms to me that I heard yesterday during sunday church visitations.

Death Grip - refers to holding the new iphone 4g in such a way that it negates the antenna and loses all signal. Also a bug in the software makes it appear as if you have more bars than usual.

Tea Party - the grass roots political movement that now holds large meetings across the U.S. hoping to rally people to a new type of political thinking ... I think inspired by reaction to Obama and the country's desire to return to conservative thinking.

Living in America 2

we're constantly surprised by the the things that strike us having moved to the U.S. from PNG.

We have this feeling every time we go somewhere that the people around us are people we we need to say "hi" to.

The idea that we moved from a community where we knew everyone... to a place where we don't know anyone,... that feeling that someone walking into the room is still someone we should know.

Paradise Matches

one of the private jokes of living in PNG is how bad the wood matches are. we have 2 brands available... Paradise and King wooden matchsticks.

They rarely light, and quickly blow out in zero wind.... so we mock the matches.

Well, to all those reading in Ukarumpa...

I discovered I had a box in my toiletry bag. (to be honest when they asked me if I packed anything explosive I said 'no' because I forgot they were there... but wasn't lying because they were Paradise matches... pa dum ta!)

Well here's the news....

they work GREAT!
they light well.. they burn well... they simply work wonderfully. The first time I struck one I thought 'wow, that was easy... WOW it's burning bright!... it will burn itself out before it reaches my fingers though.... WOW they didn't!!!!'

I'm guessing folks, it has to do with the altitude, since I'm down here nearly at sea level.

Livin in America 1

Today we realized we never need to take the kids to Disneyland again, because the wonder they expressed at visiting SafeWay tonight, was more than they ever did at Disneyland!

Pickles, you need pickles, come visit our WALL of pickles... bread n butter, dill, kosher, spicy, sweet, sliced whole, lots or little!

SELECTION!
wow.

I've had many a missionary tell me that visiting the American supermarket was the single largest culture shock for them.. some overwhelmingly so.

We fared all right... except the kids running around going 'WOW LOOK THEY HAVE TOASTER WAFFLES!!!!!!'

But then, I saw the mountain of soda.
Where we live, soda costs about $1.25 per can. So it's a rare treat, and you almost never drink more than one a day... if that.

So when we saw....
buy two 12 packs..... and get four 12 packs free... and then the words DR. Pepper and Diet Coke were on the list... I said 'kids, pick your favorite flavor soda'.

Calvin did the math...
'dad, that's 6x12 cans of soda... 72 cans of soda dad!'
'yes ANd they aren't the 330ml of soda they're 12 oz cans.. thats a few sips more than we're used to!'
'wow.. dad that's like 12x12x6 ounces of soda dad....' he then went off counting the many ounces of soda.

that's 72 cans of soda for - $12.00 = $.16 cents per can of soda... compared to our PNG cost of $1.25 per can.

Now we don't let our kids drink soda often... not only because of the sugar and caffeine but because of the cost.... so today they each picked their favorite non-caffeinated flavor....

and boy oh boy the selection! there were tons of different types of flavors. Someone in the past 3 years went nuts with cherry flavoring... there is cherry flavored EVERYTHING now.

anyway... we have some soda, AND we survived the supermarket with aplomb.

Safe and sound

the flights went well we arrive today around 12:30 safe and sound.
we are fighting off the jet lag and going to bed at our normal times.

For those who wanted to see us, we will have a busy schedule until July 13th... but if you're here only for this week email us at

chad at gimpel dot tv

thanks for praying us home safe.

Nice plane #1

We're on a brand new a320 air new Zealand. It's a very nice plane. Each seat has a tv screen large nearly double the size of the ones we've seen before. It's a touch screen!  It also comes equipped with a USB slot to charge your equipment or to view your media on the screen.  Anyway very nice plane with very nice amenities. I especially like the heartier seats that don't bump around much.

Oh and thanks to Sydney somehow causing hers to reboot I've learned they all run on Linux. 

-Chad

Laptop Prayer

Three weeks ago something occurred that pained my heart. 3 laptops were stolen from national translators who work with an organization close to us. In PNG, not a half mile from where we sleep, at night some thieves came in and stole the laptops from the national men and women here to do translation work.

As a result they lost a year's worth of translation data. That's more than 4 books they were working on revising. This pained me greatly given that I've done a lot of work in this country to avoid data loss. Sadly they are not a part of our organization and did not have the resources or the training to get backups, even though at times we've consulted with them... this particular group hadn't been trained. Again, not our organization a different one, but that only slightly lessens the blow.

So we began praying... that somehow the data would be recovered and the work they had done over the past year would not be lost.

Today about 2 hours before I get on a plane to the U.S. I got an email.

> God has heard your prayers and has answered in AMAZING ways for our
> colleagues. [Translators] comments: "The Monday we lost our
> computers was a very sad day, and their was a darkness we felt like never
> before. But people started praying all around the world, and three days
> later, the Lord turned our mourning into rejoicing! There have been many
> miracles since that day, and we want to thank you for your prayers,
support
> and encouragement through this time. Through some friends and colleagues,

> the Lord has provided new computers for our translation needs."
>
> And the BIGGEST praise of all.......the translation data they thought was
> ALL lost, has been miraculously preserved and recovered. All of it!
THERE
> IS NO ONE LIKE JEHOVAH!
>
> They said, "Our hearts are filled with praise to our God...he has
encouraged
> us greatly in the work he's given to us. We can't stop praising our
> Lord...we just can't!
>
> Thanks so much for praying!!!!
>
> (If you want the longer version, please ask)
>

Praise GOD for that.

In related theft, a course called VITAL which teaches translation to nationals lost over 12 laptops in a theft last week. No one was threatened as the theft took place over night... but their work was gone. Thankfully a device CTS was instrumental in putting in place was available for backups and no data was lost!

a laptop and projector was stolen from the AIDS education team as well in the last month.

If you have a heart to, please pray against laptop theft. Laptops are being stolen frequently.

Treetops

This is where we are spending our 1.5 day layover in Cairns, Australia.

I am flabbergasted.


http://treetopslodgecairns.maf.org.au/

I'm a relative baby in the world of missions. Everything is so new to me, the thought so often foreign. Yes after being immersed in it for nearly 4.5 years now (including training) the thinking is less foreign then it once was, but I'm still constantly surprised by 'firsts'.

For example this is our first furlough.

But I am flabbergasted, and I don't get that way often. Treetops is a joint mission effort to create a place to stay for traveling missionaries, or missionaries who need a place to stay near the hospital for having babies, medical processes. etc.

For example some friends of ours last year wound up needing months of rehabilitation after an accident, where could they stay affordably? Treetops.

Okay... so maybe for you it's not hard to imagine people raising their own support to go to work at a 'hotel' for missionaries.

Maybe then you'd imagine a dilapidated facility. Not at all, this place is a haven. It's gorgeous and well kept. The paint is fresh, the road is covered in gorgeous brick pavers... to get an equivalent room like this in the non-missions world you'd be paying about $200 p/night easily. and that's U.S. rates not AUD which would be higher.

But what are we paying? More like $30.00 p/night!

How? Why? Because people recognized a need and God put it on their hearts to fulfill that need.

But even all of THAT isn't why I'm flabbergasted.

The difference between a place out to make a buck, and
a place out to make a difference is tangible.

They have all sorts of conveniences and creative ways to save money... from the 'left over basket' for people to leave their leftover groceries in so others can get them without having to buy...

or the lobby of books and dvd's....

the rental cars for $2 p/ day

or the requirement that if you stay here more than a week you need to contribute to the work (well the dad's do while the mom's watch the kids.. or vice versa)... to keep expenses down.

the nice reminders to not waste electricity....

Still.. not why I'm flabbergasted.

This is what astounds me most of all. We've been in horrid places, we've been in nice-for-a-3rd-world-country places.

This place is plain nice even if you've never stayed in a 3rd world country.

Being a support worker, our vision and aim is to support the work of Bible translation through the talents we have.... and often we don't feel necessarily on the front front lines.

Yes were in the field, but we support translators who are in the village in the field.
So often you can think 'wow I'm not daily in the trenches like THEY are... I'm up here in the CENTER... safer... I have groceries and refrigeration'

Now take that and imagine you're still in your home country but doing support.
This is what flabbergasts me.

That people can serve such a great function and still be in their home country and still raise support and still have the resolve to not get discouraged and do not only their work, but to do it with such excellent quality that it becomes a wonderful ministry to everyone around them!

I LOVE this world of missions.. I love the mentality that things aren't cold and impersonal but that it's one large world-wide country, each serving each other... man this is got to be a small glimpse of what heaven is like... such humility of service.

To explain a tad further... it is very hard to raise support and NOT go overseas. Yet hundreds of people do this yearly. It's harder for them because missions means to many people 'go over seas and build stuff'.

Missions is very simply by my definition, the faith commitment to serve God with the talents you have, wherever He asks you to go. It could be staying in your house.

It's hard to communicate that... especially if you're trying to raise funding.
I imagine for these people they must struggle with 'well I could go get a job at a public motel, and do the same work and get paid for it and not have to raise support'.

But they don't... and people like us, benefit from it.

Missions takes many types.... and this is why I am flabbergasted.
God pulls together those who have money and the heart to give it
those who can pray and protect in prayer
those who can go
those who can send the goers
those who can serve all the above....

and He accomplishes His work, ALL the while creating this huge fabric of relationships based on love, service and humility.

Being a part of that fabric is you and I, and that... astounds me. Almost daily it astounds me, but today seeing the fruition of one such mission.. this place they call treetops which has so often been a boon... a safe haven for missionaries in dire straights, I am amazed by God's complexity and provision.

Travel Photos

We're in Cairns, Aus.
WOW internet is FREE here and SOO FAST! I can upload these blog photos super quickly. I forgot just how fast non satellite based internet could be.

As far as culture shock.... not much yet. We did go grocery shopping for some breakfast items and although we're used to Australian food perhaps you would find some of these photos interesting.


I got to sit in the co-pilot seat! I asked a lot of questions and learned a LOT about the planes and aviation in PNG... the plane may look small, but that's because it is although not the smallest in our fleet:


My view:



it took our kids almost a full 2 minutes to figure out how this water fountain across from the 'Night Markets' in Cairns worked, they had given up but mom gave them a hint:



snap crackle pop by any other name sounds as sweet:


raisins in Aus are called 'sultanas'


Almost the first thing I noticed in the grocery store was the wheels on this cart. They were slotted and I spent some time figuring out why. My only guess was that they were slotted to fit smoothly on the following photo:


My wife wouldn't let me experiment, but I'm pretty sure the slots on the wheels of the cart match the slots on this people mover... the grocery store was on the second story of a mall... we parked in a huge parking garage.



this kids went nuts over this kia caravan car we rented (for $2.00 p/hour!!!!!) and also we noticed how more affordable groceries were. People have often talked about how all the huge amount of choices have stymied them with culture shock, but we didn't notice it. I did however notice it took a lot longer to make a decision as to which cereal to get for the kids... since we eat Aussie food mostly in PNG, it wasn't because they didn't know the brands, it was because there were so many choices.

Final thought:
-when you raise your kids they start to learn not to ask for... rides on the quarter carousel or money for a silly vending machine game or the gumball machine (or whatever today's equivalent of a gumball machine is)... as they age they realize mom and dad aren't shelling out for these small attractive to kids things and they stop asking...

but when you go away and come back, it's all new again and so the asking starts over again. All the conditioning is gone. They were dazzled by things they would have overlooked before, and we often had to call them away from the kid-trap machines.

Travel Begins

We're rather relaxed at this point, confident that everything is done, and well done and double checked.

there are two popular ways to do the 'pack and go' thing for home assignment.
1 - life is very busy, cram in all the packing the last few nights.
or
2 - do a little bit each day so that you aren't stressed and then spend your final day relaxing waiting for the plane.

We did 2, some do 1, to each his own.
So here we sit in this nice little guest house, our own house all packed up and locked up.

Our luggage is 4 German Army duffle bags. These bags were the cheapest luggage we could find that would handle the trip well and still meet all the size requirements. Also they are REALLY secure with 3 hefty straps and 2 cover flaps. One day if we can afford the more pricey action packers... we will.

So our plane leaves tomorrow at 10:30. We head to the airstrip at 8:30am.

We will fly 4 -5 hours to Cairns, Australia
We will spend 2 nights in Cairns awaiting our next flight.
Then we will fly 4 hours to Auckland, New Zealand.
We will wait 1.5 hours after that.
Then we will head to San Francisco, California on a 12 hour flight. (this is actually the part I'm looking forward too the most of the journey.. I enjoy getting somewhere while you're waiting around.)

All in all we leave June 28th from our guest house, and travel for 4 days, and arrive in California on June 30th. (puzzle that one out!)


Funny quote:
while we were waiting around, Calvin and I was playing a game called 'angry birds'.

Calvin: 'Dad why is that bird frowning? birds can't frown?"
Dad: 'Son, for that matter why is the bird exploding itself? Don't search for meaning in the midst of nonsense."
Calvin: ' Okay.......(pause) whatever THAT means.'


I laughed so hard at that one... he didn't appreciate the irony, but I did.

They're back!

It’s been nearly a year, but my co-worker and friend is back!  We met them at the plane and helped them settle today into their new house!  I was very excited to see him get off the plane, now I have no guilt for leaving the centre because it’ll be in good hands, and I have no fear that my work and my servers/network will fall apart because I’ve worked with Richard and know he’s good at his job.

Ah... To be able to get on the plane and head home without the worry of leaving people unsupported is a HUGE relief off of my shoulders!

Thanks be to God for answering prayers!!!!

Father's day

-Chad

My kids woke up and covered my office in signs that mimicked movie
titles. Like "it's a dad dad dad dad world" they woke up at five am
and made around 70 signs!!! Now that's a great gift and card. It was
so huge that it startled me as I went in. I also got biscuits n gravy !!

Well here we are a week from
leaving and the house is cleaned and nearly 90% packed

Yesterday was like christmas for kendal because we all spontaneously
started scrubbing the floor together. Boy was she excited.

done with Saul

Well today is my last official day of work. PRAISE GOD that my co-worker is coming on schedule. I'll be popping in to work to keep an eye on things and make sure they run smoothly.... but I won't be holding regular office hours.

WE get 2 weeks to pack up all our earthly belongings, prepare our house for renters (pray that we get some), and get on a plane.

I'll be spending 90% of that time packing but we're so well organized it won't be stressful. The other 10% I'll be unofficially working and keeping things going until my replacement arrives. (PLEASE Lord let him arrive on time and healthy).

Kendal's last day WAS going to be Tuesday but the school lost a few teachers suddenly, so school ends today. It was a bit of a hurry up, but we got it done.

On June 30th we'll be back in the USA... we'll be going to a camping trip with family, then Kendal and Syd will go to visit friends and their church for a week, and then after that the kids attend a summer camp!! So through August we have a busy schedule... which we're hoping to fill up with reunions with you all!

One of the things we do here on the side is a weekly Bible study. I've been leading a study of I Samuel for some months now, and have only last night finished it.

I Samuel is one of my favorite books of the Bible.. it has EVERYTHING you ever wanted to get someone addicted to reading the Bible. Children's stories (David vs Goliath) difficult verses, doublets (apparent contradictions) for the scholar, the introduction of Kings to Israel... And it stays exciting the whole time.. right down to the question 'Who really killed Saul and how?'

The study is over. We're winding up a great many things now. We want to return in January for a second term.

Prayer:
-we need a car still
-safe travels
-emotional transition for the family
-pray that things go well here while I'm gone and that the equipment remains functional.


thank you again for your prayers!

R

today we got down and dirty... literally.
we had 9 subterranean cable pits to get into,
about a half mile of fibre optic cable to pull.

And it went very well.
It was well planned (by my new manager). It is nice knowing I have 3 days left and something I've wanted to accomplish for a long time has been done.

Now we can offer network to a portion of our campus that has been forever offline.

Support, Partners n Pillars

I had this image in my head, and this is my poor representation of it given that I'm not very good at photoshop.

I wanted to communicate a few things with this image.


The people at the top are all the missionaries here in PNG.
The person standing on the pillars represents my family.

As support staff we free up translators to do Bible translation while supplying for them services and help that they would otherwise have to do on their own.

Here are a few quotes:

"If we had to find or provide for ourselves the
services [support staff in PNG] has provided for us, I don't know how I'd make any
progress on translation." - John --translator

"If I had no support here, I am convinced I would need to spent hours to get those done otherwise. So firstly: a HUGE 'Thank You' to ALL our departments." - Hans - translator

If we as support staff are unable to do our job, then the translators are unable to do their job.
Notice in this picture the people up top are holding hands? If I can't fix computers and provide email, telephones, internet access, file storage... then EVERYONE ELSE is affected and can't do their jobs as well if at all. If we fall, they fall.

Now see the pillars?

The pillars represent financial support and prayer support.
Underneath the pillars are shaking hands, representing partners.

YOU are are partners. We don't call you 'financial support' or 'prayer support' even though that is what you do. You are more than that, you are partners with us in this ministry.

If our financial support went away, we'd fall and thus the entire ministries here would be affected.
If our prayer support went away, we'd fall, and the same would occur.
If they went imbalanced, we'd have to do a lot of work to maintain our ministry... we'd have to adjust in unhealthy ways.
If they decreased significantly, then the others would have to hold more weight. That's assuming they would be able gain the skill sets we have. Many translators have said they would be unable to do their work without our help, and that means without YOUR help.

You uphold us, we uphold many. Our jobs are such that we support many families here. Should we go away, there would be large holes left behind. We've spend the last 3 years carving out a huge niche and filling needs.

We do not mean to say that God NEEDS us. No.... but God uses us. God uses you and us together to accomplish a great work that will glorify Him!

I like this image because it shows the delicate balance of support. How you support us, we support Bible translation. We support Bible translation because it changes lives, it changes cultures, it changes countries. The Word of God transforms.

I wanted to take a moment to show you.... what others have said about our jobs. Not as a form of bragging but as a way to share some of the encouragement we've received over the last 3 years.

Thanks Chad,
Think we might have just gotten one of these... and because I read your note I was suspicious :).
Your ministry in this way has saved us lots of time getting uncorrupted.
Appreciate your partnership.
Douglas

Dear Chad,
Thank you SOOOOOOOO much! You've saved our marching band software and made it so I can be so much more productive on Finale (sharing the computer amongst three of us gets pretty tough sometimes). To replace the marching band software with new software would cost us at least $400. I couldn't have done what you did, but I

THINK I can take it from here. Blessings on you.
For Him,
Bruce

The network support guys apparently had our DSL activated in the Lewis house before we even arrived. It worked as soon as I plugged in the router.

So today I want to say, 'well done' to CTS for helping us get our communications going immediately.

Serving our King together,

John

Dear Chad,

Thanks so much for all of your help with this. Their promise of within 15 business days was the "outside" chance - and I just received the number today, so was able to get the license renewal into the hands of someone flying to the US who can mail it this week. Would never have happened without your hard work and without your very willing friend. Please pass my extreme thanks on to them as well.
And thanks for all you do to keep us up and running - not an easy job with hours that almost rival those of the clinic docs (sometimes more), so thanks.

Dr. Helen

Dear Chad,
Well after all your patience and perseverance talking me through the procedure of getting the e-mail working it has paid off! The office and my personal computer are sending and receiving. I just haven't got around to changing the team one yet, anyway they are all connecting individually on their own computers.
Thank you very much for the time you spent on the phone with me this morning. I was much appreciated! Hope you can get out to Kavieng sometime.
In Him,
Rhona - translator

Thank you very much, you are wonderful, efficient and terrific! Really appreciated your contribution this

afternoon, I can tell that you are passionate about the subject!

Sandra - translator and director

We just want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped get it going again.

Today
(Tuesday) at noon, we were able to make a good connection again. We know that you all have many things going on. Thank you for what you do to keep this system running. It is a great blessing and help to us out here in the village! Please pass this message along to all those involved in fixing the HF e-mail.

Gratefully,
Danny and Becca - translators

Thanks for fixing that! It has been a real blessing for me to be able to get email while in the village. There are "some things going on" with our daughter that I really need to keep up with, so your work has been a life saver (for me). I hope you realize how important your work with village email is to the translation teams. I am sure each team has similar stories!
Thank you so much!
Blessings,
Debbie - translators

More of the Journey

In the name of full disclosure I thought I might share this.
I work in a room meant for 4 people, alone. My job requires I stay at my desk near the servers most of the time. Which means I get very little social interaction with people all day long. Which means I correspond mostly with people via email.

I've been doing this since July of last year. By myself, corresponding via online means.

It loses the personal touch, and as a result I find myself psychologically ready for furlough, to be among family and friends and re-establish face to face communication.

This week has been an interesting struggle for me in my faith.
Each day this week has brought with it some new financial information.

Monday - we found we need a 30% increase in support in order to return from our furlough.

Tuesday - we found that our insurance costs will go up due to our health insurance company transferring the new Obama costs to their customer

Weds - new policies on center have reorganized how departments do business so departments have had to raise their prices

Thurs - We were told we can no longer write checks here and have to do all financial transactions with the U.S. based entity (as a result there is more paperwork and fees for us to handle finances)

Friday - I sat down in prayer and said 'God, things back in the U.S. are tough. People are losing their jobs, and yet I need to go back on furlough and find new partners to join us financially. God things are changing in this country, the cost of living is going up, but the quality isn't. I'm finding it hard to trust you again financially... I know if you want us here still, you'll provide." I was upset most of the day by these news.. most of that derived from the truth that I can't affect control over the situation. But then I was calmed...

was someone out there praying for us?

Calmed because God has always proven faithful financially. He will provide. And we're so thankful for how you all have been used by Him.

It seems that for 3 years I've been able to not worry about our source of finances, while being the best steward I can be. And then today with all these procedural changes I found myself upset.

God I can't control what this world throws at me. But I can control my attitude.

Thank you for where we are and what we're doing.

Writing Rollercoaster

Here's a little story about the craziness that follows one simple 'YES'. A few years ago I changed my outlook on life and started saying 'YES' to many of the odd requests that came my way, instead of saying 'no'. As a direct result of this I went on a short term mission trip, became a Director of Awana Sparks, became a full time missionary, earned a trip to Hawaii, and now... have become an internationally sought after writer.

HA!

A few months ago I had the rare opportunity to go to a remote pacific island and attend a ceremony dedicating a New Testament in the heart language of a large people group located in the Menapi area of Papua New Guinea. The language group was called the Gapapaiwa. You may have even seen a video I did on the event.

When I returned our director of publication said 'Chad I need a few quick words on the event, can you write a story with a very short deadline?' I replied, "YES".

I wrote the story, and in my opinion it was rather dry and not my best work. BUT I wrote it quickly and was able to get it to her in under 30 minutes. I suppose professional newspaper writers would consider the actual writing portion of a story the last and shortest step. But for me 30 minutes was fast.

Since then, apparently my name has been floating around and I recently was asked to attend a series of 'nice to meet you' meetings where I was then asked to write for a new project meant to help the world become informed about the affect that Bible Translation has on people's lives.

The main idea - The Bible changes lives... let's tell people how!

Well, I agreed again to help in my spare time, write a story. So I was given an assignment. It turns out the first assignment I was given, was to write a story based on an interview from a man I met a few weeks ago. I helped him set up his village email system and while we waited for software to load, I asked him about his story.

I will begin writing the story as soon as the interview is complete. I'll keep you updated.

But that's not all.

TODAY, I got an email from someone in China who read my story online and contacted me asking permissions to translate the story into Chinese so they could post it on their website.

I of course had to refer them to our communication director.

So, saying yes the 1 time, has turned into this situation where suddenly I find myself 'hyped'. I do not consider myself a writer. I don't know why I was originally asked to write. I don't know why I said 'yes', other than I like to help people and I was one of the people who could say 'yes' because I was there.

Frankly, I'm a bit nervous now, because it seems that having only written one story, I have garnered an unintentional reputation as a writer (my apologies to all actual writers out there) and now, I have to put up or shut up, as this next story I'll be writing is going to be under scrutiny.

Anyway... I've been spending time in prayer checking to see if God really does want me to spend any portion of my time doing this.

And here is the only reason I would consider it. Having nothing to do with my abilities in this area, for it is very obvious I'm weak in the area of the written word, and grammar.

The reason is, because I feel it is very important that EVERY one of the team members involved in Bible translation hear about how their efforts are affecting changes. That means that people back home praying, giving funds, folks in a locked server room, everyone who is contributing to this huge team effort... that they get a chance to experience (if not first hand) the life change that happens when people receive God's Word in their lives.

I get to see it first hand, face to face sometimes. Other times I get to hear about it.
The reason I do videos and write these little stories, and keep this blog... is so that YOU get to take part in the blessings as well.

http://www.thewordislife.net/Stories/tabid/67/Default.aspx?id=1542&continent=PAC

Here's the story I wrote... for what it's worth.

Forbidden Diaper

We have some friends in the village for the first time, starting a new translation project. They are a young married couple with a 6 month old baby. Taking care of a baby in the village is often considered the 'woman's job' by the nationals.

As supporting staff, often times we have radio schedules with folks in the village to help them get news, arrange supplies, etc. Here's a story from our neighbor who is the support family for these friends of ours:

He [the ex-pat husband] also said that yesterday [his wife] was down at the water so up at the house he washed some of [his daughter's] diapers. They know that this is really “tambu” (forbidden) for a man to do this kind of work but he really wanted to show them that this is the way a Christian man takes care of his wife and child. He was hoping to set a good example. I [the radio operator] reminded him to continue that when he gets home because you should do good things not only when the eyes of man are on you. To which I heard [his wife] yell out “Preach it Sister!!”

on a serious note:

[The Ex-pat translator] wanted me to pass along this story to you. He said that while he was meeting with the elders to decide all of these things [language learning as groundwork for launching work on a New Testament translation] a huge fight broke out in the middle of the village behind them. The leaders weren’t in this fight but had to go and break it up. I asked if there were weapons and he said some of the guys had knives so it could have gotten dangerous if it hadn’t been broken up. Once they got back to the meeting he said to the leaders that they can expect more things like this because Satan doesn’t want them to do the work that they are doing and he is going to try to make it difficult for them. They all agreed that it was a spiritual attack on the new program. He was then able to pray with the leaders.

Your support is going towards this new language project. This year we'll be dedicating around 10 New Testaments! That's the fruition of something like 200 man years of labor if you only count 1 man. If you counted all of the men and women involved in supporting the work it's thousands upon thousands of man hours.

At the same time, this young couple is embarking on a new project... and that means they are facing glorious time and dark times. Please pray for their work, as this is their very first stay together in their new home with their new baby.

Typically the work of learning the language takes at least 2 years. You move there, make friends, get accepted, make a place to stay, have someone committed to talking to you in their language each day... and this takes 2 years to learn the language and get all this done.

This family has committed during this 2 month stay, to only speaking the language. No English, no common tok pisin. As a result they feel isolated and sometimes clumsy as they need to learn how to speak again until. These radio scheds are like medicine to them.

That's just another example of how we support people.
Sometimes it means being a voice with hands, on the other side of the radio... making stuff work, fixing things, sending supplies, helping with medical or just listening.

Thank you.

Emergency Firewood

tonight after work, my wife said 'the posting just came out, anyone who can donate extra firewood is needed'.

Recently part of our centre has become a sort of refuge camp for homeless friends... and they needed firewood to cook by.

Thinking it a great chance to teach my kids a REAL application of Christ's love, I hitched up the trailer to my ATV quad, and my son and I loaded a load of firewood onto it, and drove it over.

We saw maybe two to three hundred people huddled together comforting each other. We unloaded and took a few seconds to pray over the group.

A well known leader and friend came and thanked us.

To me, it was a very little gesture of love, but one of the wonderful things about living here is that you have many very REAL physical, practical applications of love that you can involve your children in.

I hope my son can't remember today's act. The reason is I hope we do them so often and have so many of them, that this one simply melts in with all the others.

Like I said, a very small gesture... but a very practical one.

This is how Christ loves His people.

Berries

One question I'm often asked is 'what is your chief expense there?' Answer: Groceries.
Our grocery store imports from the U.S. certain goodies, for other goods we buy in country.

Occsasionally Kendal gives the kids the chance to pick a dinner. My daughter picked my wife's famous 'cranberry chicken'. But this requires cranberries.

So first you visit the store. They are out. Not surprising, it's a seasonal thing. But sometimes you're surprised by what they do have.

So then you send out an email (technically an nntp posting) on the 'wanted' board and say 'we need one 14oz can of cranberries, does anyone have one to sell or lend?'

Soon someone will call or email and say "I do."

So tonight at dinner my wife said 'I'm very busy tonight I have a lot to do.'

Well of course she does, our hausmeri was unable to help today with things around the house because of a recent catastrophe for her family. So of course being the doting husband I say 'how can I help?'

So a few minutes later I find myself at a friend's house with 10 Kina in my pocket. This was our conversation.

"Hi Chad, Did Kendal tell you how much to pay?"
"No"
"well we don't have a price."
"okay"
"She did say to name our price."
"yes."
"Okay well how does Kina 250 sound?"
we both laugh. Apparently someone recently had tried to overcharge her and we had a laugh.

"It sounds high"
"Yes, well I was thinking, I bought some peaches this week a can of them, and it cost 10Kina, so I was thinking, THESE ARE OCEAN SPRAY, so how is 12 Kina?"
"Well, my wife told me she didn't know what to expect and gave me 10Kina. will that do or shall I put in a transfer for 12 Kina"

A transfer is our way of paying for stuff here so we don't handle cash. It makes life easier for our finance people if we don't handle much cash, as transporting large amounts of cash can be unsafe and troublesome.

"A transfer would be nice."

So.... begins the paperwork.

For reference, in the U.S. a can of Ocean Spray cranberries seems to average $1.90. 12 Kina is about $5.00 (at least that was the price I found when I looked online, I have no idea what current U.S. groceries cost).

Also it left me wondering... is Ocean Spray like the Cadillac of Cranberries?

It was a humorous exchange for me......

Another such recent exchange for us was similar, three women were trying to come up with a solution for feeding 9 people and one of my wive's friends kept repeating 'well at home I have a WHOLE can of beans' until finally someone said 'a whole can won't feed many people'.

As that friend left, they left behind with us, labelled and everything... 'a whole can of beans'.

So... we now around our house say
'well, it IS Ocean Spray."
and
'wow a whole can of beans!'

Geocaching Funny

In September my wife and I were surprised to find a geocache was hidden here on center, not 50 feet from where I work. So we went and we risked the bougainvilla thorns and found it. YAY! Our first cache in years.

Well today a friend came and said 'I was online and saw you found the cache hidden here, could you tell me if it's still there or if it's been muggled?'

So when he left I walked over and poked my soon-to-be-bloodied hand into the leaves. Unable to find it, the manager was outside tending to his yard and said 'Chad can I help you?"

Well I of course couldn't break the code of telling a muggle about geocaches... but this was his property.

So I said 'just poking around here, thorns you know'
'yup, sure, we got bougainvilla here'.

He's Canadien, and was giving me a look of confusion and also slightly coy. I knew bougainvilla thorn pricks to swell up pretty bad because of some juice they have or something... so I pulled my hands out... and tried to deflect the conversation.

'so Chad, you ah.... looking for something?' again his coy smile... or was the sun in his eye?

'Yeah... do YOU know what I'm looking for?' I ask

'No, not really, can I help?'

'Well I'm not sure, are you being coy? Do you know what I'm looking for?'

'I have no idea.'

at this point I realize I'm the crazy American sticking his hands into the thorn bush for no reason. So I decide to play it mysterious.

'Well, I'd like to tell you, but I can't, I'd be breaking a code.'
'oh!' he replies...but stands there staring at me still.

'okay I'll tell you, have you ever heard of geocaching?'
'nope, can't say that I have.... is it a game?'
'more like a hobby.'
'OH!' more serious of an oh this time.

So I explained the hobby to him, and explained that I was looking for something that is probably gone. He seemed to understand, but with the same sort of understanding that makes anyone wonder what kind of hobby would involve poking around in thorn bushes.

Never did find the cache, suppose it's been muggled.