At the Cross

4/20/2014 06:54:54

 
Our favorite Ukarumpa tradition is the Easter Sunrise Service.  It starts outdoors in the dark, under the tall pine trees, with a wooden cross on the crest of a hill, facing where the sun will rise.  As the service progresses and we sing and worship and pray, the sun rises and the light overcomes the dark.  Then near the end, we bring flowers we picked from our garden and decorate the cross, thus transforming it from a reminder of pain, to a think of beauty.  Much as Christ did.

Then each year we snap a photo, and each year I am wearing that same jacket and that same hat. (yes I plan that). 

(also apparently each year I misplace the photo but here are a few more).

2012 (oh look, no jacket! Calvin makes up for it in wearing the same sweatshirt)

2012

on making mistakes

I am going to make myself a little vulnerable here. I make mistakes.
Ecc 7:20 says "...for there is not truly one righteous person on the
earth who continually does good and never sins."

I'm not talking about sin in this entry, I'm talking about human error.
This week has been full of days where I'm confronted with some recent
errors.

I put 4 saber players out the door with errors in 3 of the files, such
that all of Acts chapter 13 was skipped. WOOPS. How did that happen?
Well, I keep backups of backups of files, and I caught the error, fixed
it, and then proceeded to put the OLD file onto the player.

I skipped all of Luke and Acts for another language on the Audibibles.

I have spent weeks trying to get a video to render properly and finally
got it all edited and rendered and it's too long to fit on 1 dvd. WOOPS!

Thankfully, I'm aware that I make mistakes and I ask others to double
check my work before calling the project 'complete' and giving it to
PNGians. And, those other people (my safety net) caught the mistakes
and sent them back to me.

When you make mistakes, you have to redo the work. Which is ironic
because mistakes often happen because you're overworked in the first place.

When I was younger, starting out in the professional market, I wasn't
aware of the mistakes I might make. I proceeded to learn from any
mistakes I made and I rarely ever made the same mistake twice. My mind
was sharper and faster then, so I could keep track of multiple projects
at once.

Now I'm older, and my mind is not as able to track the details of many
simultaneous projects, but I'm also more experienced and know how to
manage my time better, and avoid time draining obstacles that I
otherwise could not foresee.

Knowing that my mind can get cluttered with a lot of simultaneous
projects going on, I have created a system for myself. I have several
'reminder lists' as well as backup systems that tell me where I left
things with each project. I WRITE thing down.

Digital friends of the Silicon Valley, don't mock me, I use pencil and
paper to track my lists most times. It's quick, it's portable, it's not
affected by dropping it. It's resilient, to most thing but water and fire.

When I was young I saw a movie "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure".
Silly movie. At the end of it, the two are trying to break into a
police station and they said 'Ted, let's use the time machine, go back
in time, grab the keys, and hide them so we can get them now!" "Okay
Bill, where should we hide them?" "Right behind this plant!" then they
reach behind the plant, find the keys and cheer together.

That scene forever stuck in my head as an illustration of setting up
practices and systems to protect yourself.

For example, I ALWAYS put my keys in the same place every day when I
come home from work. I don't plop them down any random place.

There have been times when I've wandered the house saying 'where are my
keys?' and then my inner Ted tells my inner Bill 'the past you, should
have put them in the key basket' and I go to the key basket and there
they are. When I was younger I could remember what I did the previous
day with the keys, but not now. Now that I'm older, I just know that
they would be in that basket.

The difference is subtle, but its all about acknowledging that you make
mistakes, and setting up systems to avoid other people having to suffer
from those mistakes. Safety-nets.

This week, my safety nets have been in full swing, as they've caught a
few mistakes.

Sure it's humbling to be reminded that you're not perfect. It's tiring
to have to re-do work. But my commitment to excellence is high because
I want the people of PNG to be hearing the Scripture as clearly as I can
get it to them.

Even if it means re-doing the job several times (which I have done),
until it's right. Not perfect, but right.

As I think about this professional sense of safety nets, I also think
about a spiritual safety net. My two chief parts of that would be
accountability and prayer.

Thankfully I have a good accountability team here. I lose that team
when I am in the U.S. or rather, that team becomes a remote team.
On the prayer side, we have all of you. Praying for us. When we go to
the U.S. I get a chance to update those people who are praying, spend
time with them, and be around them and hopefully re-excite them to
remember to pray for us again for the next term.

I would highly recommend to anyone in the field to have these two
things. Accountability doesn't have to be only 'I messed up, help me
not to.' it can be 'I need someone to talk to, I'm stressed, lend me an
ear.' as well as lending an ear.

And prayer doesn't always have to be an hour of knee bending, deep
laments. It can be a quick 'God, please protect Chad and his family
today, right now.. thanks, Amen.'

But both of these things will enable you to be more successful in your
mission.

Geocaching Dog Tag

 years ago before we left the U.S. we placed three Geocaching dog tags with a kina coin around them, in various caches across the U.S.  One in California, One in Northern Carolina, and one in Oregon.

If you don't know what geocaching is, check out geocaching.com

When people found the dog tag, they looked up the serial number, saw our story, and then moved the dog tag along to another cache.

Our story was that of why we decided to move to PNG.  Our challenge was to pray for us (if you're a praying type or person), and to further the dog tag towards Papua New Guinea.  We hope that one day, someone will come to us and say 'I have your PNG dog tag here in my hand!' while we're in PNG, and we'd invite them in for dinner.

Along the way the finders of the dog tag, write notes on our website wall and tell us something about themselves. 
(I got this idea by having found a journal with entries written in it, in which a couple on their wedding day, told their story, then dropped the journal off in the hopes that at their ten year anniversary it would find them again).

About 3 years into the experiment the Dog Tags disappeared.  I should never have attached unique coins to them.    But then suddenly one surfaced in Germany.  (we know several Germans here, and so, it could very easily job the pond to get here). 

The funny thing is, all the status update posts have been in German since it re-surfaced after a 4 year hiatus.  And we don't know German.  I have been meaning to have someone interpret for us.... but haven't gotten around to it.

For fun today, I had Google attempt to translate and this is what today's has said:

"who has been his goal but misses neat. participating with you after. then is true times the direction"


This is just one of the many 'unique' ways we're trying to share our story of how God has moved in our lives.  Geocaching is a family fun hobby that we enjoy when we can, and we happened to be able to find a way to tell people about our ministry through it.

Was it Worth It?

I feel I need to expand a bit on my answer from my previous blog post regarding the question:

"Was it worth it?"

I'm getting some private comments from folks that make me think I wasn't very clear.

I'm a somewhat literal person, and when people ask me 'was it worth it?' I have a hard time answering what I perceive as a vague question.

Are you saying:
"Was the sacrifice worth the reward?"
If so the answer is:  I'm not seeking a reward, so I can't really say that the sacrifice is worth something I'm not trying to get.

or "Was the sacrifice worth knowing people are coming to know Christ?"
A: God highly values finding lost sheep. Following God I condition myself to ignore what I want and learn to want what He wants.  So from that perspective yes, it is worth it. 

But with my shocking 'yes and no' answer from before,  what I probably should have said was:
A. I can't really answer that because the question is irrelevant.

If the question were relevant, I would have to spend a lot of time figuring out the value of things that I can't comprehend.  I can not comprehend the value of an eternity spent in heaven.  I don't know how to put a pricetag on a few precious moments with a loved one.   I don't know how you would answer the 'worth it' question because we're dealing with variables that have a worth beyond measure.

My point from yesterday was that the question was irrelevant because God has put this desire on our hearts and obedience is the only way we know how to live.

At certain points in your life you look back and assess.  From that assessment you think 'that worked out well" or "I should have done something different at that point" possibly you have some regrets, possibly you get some smiles.

But we're not done.  It really isn't time to assess the entire act.  Our lives are continuing on, we plan to return to PNG.  The only assessment I can make at this point is that it was the best decision of our lives thus far, to come to PNG.

I think, I'm going to stop asking people 'was it worth it?' and start asking them 'was it a good decision?'.  Yes it was a good decision.  It was a hard one, but a good one.

When I was in college my friend told me a story, which I later found out is called the "Story of the Taoist Farmer" or "The Horse that Ran Away".  Digging a little there apparently are many versions of the story from multiple cultures. 

Here is one version:
----
This farmer had only one horse, and one day the horse ran away. The neighbors came to console over his terrible loss. The farmer said, "What makes you think it is so terrible?"

A month later, the horse came home--this time bringing with her two beautiful wild horses. The neighbors became excited at the farmer's good fortune. Such lovely strong horses! The farmer said, "What makes you think this is good fortune?"

The farmer's son was thrown from one of the wild horses and broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. Such bad luck! The farmer said, "What makes you think it is bad?"

A war came, and every able-bodied man was conscripted and sent into battle. Only the farmer's son, because he had a broken leg, remained. The neighbors congratulated the farmer. "What makes you think this is good?" said the farmer.
----

My point in sharing this story is this:
We look at our lives through a very small window of time.  Our life spans are short compared to the history of man.  We also look at our lives through a very selfish lens.  'This is happening to me', 'how is this affecting me?'  I'm not judging, I'm just stating how we see the world.

When we expand that view, past our lives on earth and think with eternity it mind, and with God's kingdom in mind, then our perspective changes on a lot of things.

So with that 'was it worth it question?' we get asked, I think I would ultimately answer:

-I can't see what's going on in heaven, nor what my time on earth has produced.  I am unclear if I will ever get to see if my life displayed and how it bore fruit in heaven. ('Thank You' by Ray Boltz comes to mind).  I have faith that we've spent our time and effort doing things that will expand God's kingdom, and glorify Him.  I'm aware that we're not needed, instead we're privileged to be asked to help.  God could use anyone, we're not necessary, we're expendable and replaceable, and yet He loves us enough to ask us to serve Him.  From an earthly selfish perspective, since I can't see what God sees, there are days when the sacrifices seem overwhelming.  Those are my selfish days.  But God has taught me through this life to have Faith that our struggles and our toils have meaningful and lasting results.  With that faith I can firmly say that anything would be worth it.  Any level of sacrifice would be worth it.  Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for us, and so even without this faith that I have, I still have a debt that I'll never be able to repay.  Regardless of worth, there is debt.  But even if there were no debt, and our actions produced folly and had no worth whatsoever (which I do not believe they do) I would still have absolutely no choice but to follow and obey because a life lived outside of obedience would be a miserable one.  God loves us and wants to bless us abundantly, and He does when you act in faith and obedience.  God has blessed us in so many deep and meaningful ways since choosing this lifestyle.  Ways I can't fully comprehend sometimes.  There is a depth of understanding of His love for us that I just didn't grasp before coming to PNG.  Just that closeness to God alone was worth it all.  I'd do it again in a heart beat.


That's what I should have said in my blog yesterday.  I was having a hard time coming up with the words.  I hope this helps.


Q.People have asked me "Chad, what if one of your gets gets sick or injured or worse? Would you feel your decision was foolish?"
A. In preparing to come to PNG we asked ourselves, 'where is the line we draw that says 'Okay God, I'm not willing to cross THIS line'?'  Honestly, before He asked us to move to PNG the answer was 'I'll follow you but please don't ask me to move to a foreign country'.  Then He did.  So I wasn't about to draw another line.  Definitely not "Okay we'll follow you to a foreign country but please don't let my kids get hurt."   That seems like a bad idea to me.  No, instead we had to resign ourselves to the fact that our kids may suffer.  THAT is a very hard process to do for parents.  To knowingly say to God, "I will obey you, even if it means I lose everything I love and care about."

Why do you think we ask for so much prayer?    I'm addressing these questions because people have asked them before.  I would not feel the decision was foolish.  It wasn't foolish.  We spent years considering it, praying, training, investigating.  We didn't go off half-cocked.  We were as cautious as could be and ultimately obeyed.

Q. How mad will you be if something very bad happens to your family because of your choice?
A. Mad at who myself or God?  The answer is neither.  I've never subscribed to the 'its okay to be mad at God' theory of therapy.  Part of relinquishing control to God is the understanding that bad things might happen.  I read a book 'why bad things happen to good people" and the author was a former rabbi who lost his son.  In the end, he lost his faith too.  There are reasons for that.  One reason is, asking the question 'Why?'  'Why God? Why did this happen?"  My entire life I've found that question to be a really dangerous one.  Who are we that we get to demand answers of God?  How entirely selfish is that question... why?   When I tell my children 'go to bed' and they say 'Why?'  I say 'Because I told you to!'  We don't often get to know why before something happens, and rarely after it happens.  In Acts ch8 Philip was told to get into the Eunich's chariot, so he did.  No idea why.  Turns out, it was for a really good reason, as that Eunich came to know about Jesus.  But Philip didn't ask 'why' he just started running. 

Asking Why assumes God owes you an answer, and He doesn't.  He is sovereign.  Just ask Job.
So knowing He is sovereign I often don't bother with 'why' questions, but begin working on reminding myself that all things work together for God's good.  And then further reminding myself that the Bible doesn't say 'that all things work together for Chad's good'.

It could very well be, that bad things happen to me and mine.  But when they do, I do not question that God is supreme, God is in command, God is good, and I am His servant.  That won't make me mad at myself, nor at God, nor at the decision.  I may experience anger, but it would be focused elsewhere until I can get rid of it.




I think that's enough of my personal philosophy on life for now.  This blog is supposed to be about what life is like over here.  I guess I was sharing some of the mental process.  I rarely get into 'preachy' mode because I figure most people have this stuff figured out WAY more than I do.

7 years

We've lived in Papua New Guinea for 7 years now. We arrived in March
2007. It is time for some reflection.

Q.What have we given up?:
-the birth of a nephew
-multiple funerals: three uncles, two grandfathers, two grandmothers, an
aunt, friends and more
-the birth of twins
-the birth of a friend's only son
-visiting sick loved ones in the hospital
-a good friend's wedding
-church Sundays and community events
-countless hours with loved ones, time with grandparents, moments that
we can not regain, celebrations with friends and family that we did not
attend.

and today, a very close friend of mine experienced the birth of his
first child, a boy, and I was not in attendance.

You'll notice I didn't list foods, amusement parks, clothing that fits
and other modern conveniences. It's true we've given much of that up,
but it doesn't cut to the heart like missing life changing moments with
loved ones.

Q.What have we gained?:
-moments like this video describe (start at 6:10 for the quick version)


-or testimonies like this one: (start at 00:24 for quicker version),
the story of how 1 man reading his Bible, changed a community.



Q.Was it worth it?:
Yes and No. Maybe I could wax poetic here about the worth of a single
soul entering into heavenly gates. But that's God's economy, not mine.
My selfish economy says to me that no, it in fact wasn't worth missing
out on the most wonderful moments of life with those I hold dear. I
battle with my more spiritual nature and say 'but surely your reward
will be in heaven', but to be honest I'm not seeking a heavenly reward.
I don't deserve one, I'm still a selfish human being with sins that get
forgiven. No I really really want to be alongside those I love for
these events. I really really want to be an uncle, a brother, a son,
and my wife and children want to be in their relational roles as well.
We want to be able to go and be with those we care about. To hug, to
cry, to comfort, to cheer, to celebrate to LIVE together.

But we aren't and we don't. God has seized our hearts and put a vision
and burden on them so that we can not be happy unless we are pursuing
that vision.

The act of taking the things we've missed out on, and making our
attitudes that of a generous giver, and then giving them, as a sweet
smelling sacrifice to God is how I worship Him.

On the days when I would rather be in a hospital room in California than
standing on a muddy road in the rain in PNG, I am worshipping. Because I
can honestly say I don't begrudge God that I am called to PNG to do this
work. I am sad to have missed something special back home, but I am not
sad that I get to participate in this wonderful ministry God is doing.

I won't put a candy coating on it, missing out on things hurts. It cuts
deeply to know you are missing out on lives that matter most to you, and
trading it for souls that matter most to God. I can not love a perfect
stranger as I love my sisters, but God can instill that in me.

I am rather certain God would tell you it's no contest. He seeks after
the lost sheep. He tells us to depart from family.
I on the other hand, would tell you it's a daily contest. One that
requires daily sacrificing my will to God's to continue doing this work
with a cheerful heart. And I can honestly say we have accomplished
that. We don't live in constant homesickness or regret. Instead we
live cheerfully.

Some days are harder than others. But we don't view our time on earth
as ours any longer. Our time belongs to God, He's asked it of us, and
we've given it freely and obediently. When our attitudes stink, we pray
and work on correcting them.

And then, from time to time, we get to return home, and be with those we
love. For a short while. There is much work to be done here, and we
feel the urge to return before long.

We are a people caught between two places. Where we call home - our
heart is with our family, and where we live home, our mind is with our
work. And what better analogy for a people who are not to see this
world as their home.

a song we sang as children goes:

"Oh Lord, you know, I'm just passing through, my treasures are laid up,
somewhere beyond the blue.....I can't live at home in this world anymore."

Don't we all feel a constant tug in two directions. It seems to be the
way with life.
Heaven and hell
Selfish will and God's will
Temporary home and permanent home
Men Mars, Women Venus

Tugging, tugging always pulling. When we make a choice, to do that
which honors God, it is worship. When you choose to depart with some
money to support us, to depart with what you're doing at the moment to
pray for us, to depart with valuable free-time and email us, you are
making a choice and acting and that is worship, because you choose to do
it to glorify God.

Read Ecc. ch 2 some time. This way of living is the only way that makes
sense to us. This constant battle of wills and choosing to please God.
And make no mistake, we aren't the only ones doing it. Everyone who
knows us is doing it, in one form or another. Whether they like it or
not... they're making a sacrifice.

To everyone who has ever said 'I wish Chad and Kendal were here right
now to see this...' your sacrifice has not gone unnoticed.

We miss you, we're excited to see you soon!
It's been a crazy 7 years, and I wouldn't trade a moment of it.

Why do I say all of these terribly honest things? Because I know that
there is someone out there like I was 7 years ago thinking 'God has
burdened me with becoming a missionary, and yet, I am finding it very
hard to leave my family. Aren't I supposed to get some supernatural
power that allows me not to miss my loved ones, now that I've committed
to going where God is sending me?'

You can ask for that. The Lord knows I tried to at first. But it
didn't come. It tore my heart out at first, it was painful. When
return on furlough I'll be reminded of that pain when I try to catch up
on lives I've missed out on, and when I have to say goodbye again. But
then I realized, the act of giving this cheerfully in worship to God
shapes you and benefits you and I believe God takes it as a sweet
smelling offering and is pleased with it. At least I hope He does. For
those in that position I was in 7 years ago, I have this to say.

Your life will never be as fulfilling as when you are doing what God has
burdened you to do. You have a choice. You can seek your own comfort
and pleasure as Solomon did and find that it brings only temporary
happiness. Or you can give it up to God and find that your life is
permanently fulfilling. Missing family is a small blot of sadness on an
otherwise fulfilling life. If God has truly impressed a burden on your heart, then choosing to ignore God's calling would mean
your family/friends becomes the center of your happiness, and would be a large
portion of happiness on an otherwise lackluster life. It's your choice to
make. We made it 7 years ago.  Not everyone gets the opportunity to make that hard choice. Consider yourself fortunate that you have such a cross to bear.

To all of our friends and family whom we miss and who have missed us....
we thank you for your sacrifice as well, and we look very forward to
seeing you soon for 1 year in the U.S. come June 2014.

At this time we're praying for a house to stay in for that year, please
join us in prayer.

Kaboom

Lunch time, power is out because the guys are working on the power lines.  Sun is out, sky is clear.  KABOOM! CRACK!! .. the house shakes with thunder.  We all jump half out of our skins.  Turns out lightning struck near a neighbors house.

Lightning damage is very real here at 5000 feet.  Seeing lightning strike is not a rare occurrence but often it's pretty off-in-the-distance.

Today it was local.  People reported modems dying, surge protectors melting, etc.  Outside of the normal electrical damage, there is EMP damage... it can make electronics behave oddly.

Because of this part of life here, we have surge protectors, power guards, UPS battery backups, generators, all kinds of things.

I have always found it fascinating how man adapts to his environment to live, and what once seemed exotic and new, becomes a daily behavior.  For example, if you live in a very snowy area, putting on snow coats and boots wouldn't be a hassle after a while as you adapt and develop habits.

Such is life here, we adapt to the idea that there are earthquakes and lightning storms, and land slides and that sort of thing.  Once you remove yourself from worrying about danger, you start to appreciate the beauty.

We often sit outside and watch the lightning storms, it's really a wonderful thing to see.

Roads

This video doesn't quite cover the experience of being there, but it
gets you close. The other day I was out driving and a man, unused to
the road didn't know that the Kunai grass had overgrown a drop off,
wanting to give oncoming traffic more room, he accidentally dropped his
vehicle half into the drop off that the grass was disguising.

the Ride from....

If you'll allow me to walk you through our afternoon drive home. Rather
typical for PNG. We were heading along a 2 hour drive in 2 vehicles.
One was four wheel drive, the other a 2 wheel van.

We checked all the fluids to make sure all was good. As I went to start
up my car, it wouldn't start. The battery was dead. That's fine, I
parked on a hill in case that happened, roll start, and away we go.

We drove through beautiful country, but the driver rarely gets to see it
because there are too many obstacles on the road. School had just let
out so the road was flooded with red-shirted children who holler and
wave as you pass. We wave in return, and if you're me, you holler back
in fun. They're genuinely excited to see you, but don't get distracted
if you wave back and aren't looking you'll hit a pothole.

We follow each other hoping that if we hit a bad pothole in 3rd gear,
and bust an oil plug, the car behind us will notice we're leaking oil.
Thankfully that didn't happen.

We counted about 18 goats, 13 dogs and 6 pigs on the road, none of which
we hit.

We passed by grass huts, people selling anything from coffins to chewing
gum along side the road, people sitting or laying on the pavement to
warm up, kids not aware there was a car coming on their 'walkway' etc.

We had a pit stop along the way to look at some baskets and such, at
which time I checked the fluid levels in my battery and realized why it
wasn't charging. Bone dry. I emptied my drinking water into it in the
hopes that it would charge on the remainder of the ride home.

I felt foolish for not having checked it before. I had checked my
spare, that I had a jack, a tow rope, spare oil, water, my fluids were
good, belts were tight, etc.

The car started right up, but I had stopped on a hill in case. The rest
of the drive went remarkably well. We stopped for the wives to get
something quickly at a store. I stayed in the car for security, watched
a crazy man bother people and beg for money. Another man came up to us
and spun a very long lie about something while men behind him gave us
the hand signal that 'this man is a liar don't give him money.' We
weren't new to the country, nor were we naive, but 'traim tasol' as they
say, which means 'give it a try, what could it hurt?'

Finally only a few turns from home and we notice a landcruiser half
rolled over in a huge ditch. We pulled over to see if anyone was inside
and if we could help. Inside was an ex-pat gentleman whom we didn't
know. He had somehow gotten this borrowed vehicle stuck in a very deep
and muddy concrete drainage ditch.

My son and I remained behind and sent the other car in our caravan on
hope with the women and children, while we stayed to help.

We gave him a few tugs before our tow rope broke. He was very stuck.

Then along came a large 'hino' truck. Since the landcruiser was
borrowed, and the driver didn't know how to work the wench, I offered to
work it for him. We hooked the wench up to the front, and to the large
hino truck and with a little bit of heaving and elbow grease, we got him
out.

He was very thankful.

I looked around and we were surrounded by Papua New Guineans. Some of
which were looking, others were helping. To show our gratitude I
offered several small bills to the men who helped, which is customary.
(and often times why people HURRY to help when you don't always need
that many 'helpers'.)

The driver was thankful to have gotten out. He could have been stranded
there. He thanked me for being a good 'Samaritan' to which I replied
"that's what we do here!" we smiled and he was about to go on his way
when the police showed up, made a big show shouted 'what is going on
here, how did this happen.' Didn't lend a helping hand, but was sure to
issue the drive a ticket for nothing in particular.

He accused the man of speeding, but the man was never out of second
gear. After staying to help him because I didn't hear him speaking
tok-pisin, we went on our way, sure that all was good.

And then we arrived home not much longer after that.

It sounds like an adventure, but really, it's very typical for a 'ride
into town' here. And if you were paying attention you noticed that at
least two times, Papua New Guineans were very helpful. One helped us
avoid being conned, and the other helped a stranger get unstuck.

It's a hospitable place, full of adventure in daily life, and beauty, it
was a beautiful drive.

All in all, I enjoyed it.

Grocery fun 2

Grocery fun

Arop Lokep

I've blogged about the recording I've been doing with the Arop Lokep language.  Weeks of recording staggered over several months.  This week we finished the post-production of the NT recording, and have begun compiling it into Audio Bible players.  We are on schedule for a June dedication that will have both the finished print version AND the audio version.  This is a huge deal.  Not only is there a printed version, but right along side of it will be the audio version.

I am excited about that.  If all goes to plan I'll be able to be there at the unveiling.

But maybe it'd be better to hear from the words of the man and wife team who have been laboring over this project for decades:

"I wasn't expecting such a powerful reaction when I handed Sakaria a copy of the newly printed Arop-Lokep New Testaments.  It wsa the first time for him to see the finished product.  He held it up like an offering to God and with tears brimming in his eyes said, "Thank you Christ."  Then he turned to me and overcome with emotion, simply shook my hand.  Only then did he unzip the cover and begin to read God's Word in his own language. 
That's powerful!  I can hardly wait to show others around Long Island a copy of the New Testament and a sample of the now completed New Testament audio recording on an Audi Bible player."

Staying Cool

This is my homemade cooling unit at work.

It is a high speed electric motor, with a fan, put into a home-made sheet metal casing.  Originally created to simulate fire for some activity, where an orange cloth would be attached to it and set upright to make it 'flicker'.

I inherited it when a friend went home finish.  I inherited a lot of odds n ends to be made into something else.

Yesterday I returned to my office after a 7 week absence.  I had been in recording sessions for 5 and board meetings for 2.

I discovered that:
-the server was down
-the AC unit was broken
-the UPS unit was dead

Years ago the windows in my office were replaces with pane glass, because we are at or under ground level with a popular road.  Which means we were getting dust into our equipment all the time through the louvres.

So currently I sit at the end of a tunnel like office structure, with only my AC unit to give me an environment in which I can work.

Yesterday I was sweating buckets trying to get my work done in my work office.  (recall the computer setup I have? most of it puts off a lot of heat)
I have too much work to accomplish to miss being in the office any longer.  (2 NT to post produce to Audibible and a video to edit).

So, I traded my work pants for shorts, my work shirt for a t-shirt, my shoes for 'crocs' and brought my makeshift fan into work, propped it up with 2 cd bundles and went back to work.

It's still warm, but I can at least get a little work done.  Even if my forearms are sticking to the desk.

Choir girl

EC Finished

I just finished my last sitting day in session as EC Secretary. I still
have responsibilities that will take the next few weeks.
13 weeks until we get on a plane to return to the U.S.

It was a good experience, a challenge, but a rewarding one. Now that my
stint is over I am not jumping up and down in celebration but instead
thankful that I have a deeper understanding of the process, and along
the way discovered a few skills I didn't know I had.

Leaving a team you work well with, always has a tinge of sadness that
accompanies it. Thankfully the team hasn't disbanded, it is still going
strong, only my time on that team has come to an end.

God sometimes challenges us to say 'yes' to things that frighten us.
I've come to realize that the reward from rising to that challenge often
is directly related to how much fear you felt before accepting it.

Showing Jesus

Over the past year I've been working with a lady named Beth to compile media for showing and listening to in her language area (16 different languages).
For those who don't know what the Jesus Film is (and I didn't either before coming here), it's a movie based on the book of Luke about Christ and his ministry, death and resurrection.  We take that film and dub it into local languages so they aren't hearing it in English (or Hebrew).  It is very powerful as people see Christ speaking in THEIR language for the first time, and often the showing of this film changes lives and opens eyes and hearts.

Please pray for Beth and seven YWAM team members as they finish showing the tokples Jesus Picture Story DVD almost every other night in 16 villages of the Aitape West Translation Project for the last 6 weeks. They are focusing this time on the two largest language groups in the project. They visited 10 communities in the Malol language area and 6 communities in the Sissano language area.

They finish their program tomorrow evening and will travel to Wewak on Monday. Please pray for safe travels by boat along the coast early in the morning before wind and waves pick up, and for them to be able to meet the plane.

Please pray for Beth.  There have been some rumours preceding them regarding her skin color and the spiritual context of white-skin.  I prefer not to get into specifics on a blog, but the rumors need to be squelched for her ministry to reach people and be clearly understood.

Media is powerful, let's make it about something meaningful!

God in the Numbers

Money talk time. It's an ever present reality for most everyone. Today
I decided to crunch the numbers and look for patterns, update
spreadsheets, and figure out how much financial support we have to raise
during furlough. Knowing this number will determine exactly how much of
our furlough is spent recovering from a very difficult term in the
field, visiting existing partners and friends, and how much is spent
visiting new places and churches and people.

Kendal's biggest prayer has been that we won't have to spend a lot of
time doing fund raising, because we want to spend time with family.

Today we had the money talk.

See if you see God's hand like I see God's hand.

Over the past 3 years, we've lost some financial support. We've also,
miraculously gained some (almost never happens while in the field). If
you calculate the losses, we dropped from 98.1% of our goal, to 95.8% of
our goal.

But, then if you calculate the additions, we jump right back up to 98.1%
of our goal again!

This means that our decrease was exactly matched, dollar for dollar by
our increase. As God saw people stop giving, He moved in the hearts of
other people to increase giving or to start giving!

That is remarkable to me, it's not even 1 dollar off, it's an identical
match. Amazing.

But that's not all.
Many of you know my affinity for the number 3. "333" is the perfect
number to me. Long story short, I love 3's.

In looking at our new goal, (assessed annually to incorporate the cost
of living increases here).... and you divide that into what we need to
raise monthly, and it's $333 p/month.

Hello!! 333 p/month more has to be raised on furlough. But the coolest
thing is God knows that number is a message to me personally that
everything is going to be alright!!!!

(right now that's a working number, and after a few official meetings
with finance it may go up....) But still, God continues to tell me 'Yes
you're meant to be in PNG, you're doing what I want you to be doing' and
He often does it through the numbers. He speaks to me of His provision
through you, by confirming to me through our numbers the most miraculous
things!


If you know of people we should meet on furlough, churches looking to
take on a new Wycliffe volunteer, etc, please contact us. We're ready
to tell people about the good work going on here in PNG!

The View

This is the view from my back yard, at sunset.
There are some  perks to this job.

Taunting

My daughter snapped this pic of my son and I goofing around on the tree. 
The green-ness of PNG, the beauty of this country, never gets lost on me.  I step outside every day, take a big breath and say 'this is a beautiful place to live.'

What cracks me up about this pic is that apparently I'm sticking my tongue out and it looks like I'm taunting my son (which I wasn't)... but my daughter snapped the pic without our knowing.

Louder and Louder

I was recording a pastor today. His people group has over 2,000 people
in it. I was having a difficult time getting him to read the Scripture
in his normal voice.

He started and I set my gain so that he was at the perfect level, but
then as we progressed, his preaching voice would take hold and he would
get louder and louder and louder and louder.

The longer the chapter, the louder he'd get.

At first I thought maybe his earphones weren't turned up. They were.

No matter how low I dropped the gain, he would always increase his
volume to exactly -12db.

We began the chapter at a high gain, and I lowered it as we went, every
few seconds, and no matter what I did, he responded and his voice stayed
at -12db.

I only mention it because I figured it was such an oddity (normally
people stay the same volume or fluctuate slightly, but never increasing
at a steady rate).... I figure he was going to lose his voice yelling
like that.

It was his first time in front of microphone and I tried to teach him
how to use it, but no matter what, he would get louder and louder... and
near the end of the day nearly lost his voice. I kept him drinking
water all day.

So I was thinking about it.
The audio bible we were making, would reach 2,000 people. Maybe he was
shouting to reach all 2,000 ?
Maybe he was shouting because he was passionate about the Word?

I found it ironic that I had to turn the mic 'gain' down... and yet the
GAIN to be had by this project was that a couple of thousand people
would be hearing the Word of God through this man's voice.

God uses us like tools. This man's voice, my recording skills, the
translators linguistic skills, your supportive skills.

His will be done, His kingdom come!

no boat

With this current recording the typical pace is 4 chapters a day.  Today however, I set the ambitious goal of 8 chapters so that I could finish at the end of 2 books before the weekend.  However in Chapter 27 of Acts my good and fast reader started stumbling and stuttering, and it took us an unprecedented 1.5 hours to complete the chapter.  I thought maybe he was too tired, maybe I was pushing too hard.

But then in Chapter 28 he sped up again.  So I asked the ex-pat translator why.

He said "that chapter was a lot about boats, and shipwrecks and such.  They're from the highlands, they don't have boats, no canoes, nothing.  So the wording is acurately 'water vehicle'  or 'water airplane'.  The words exist but they are so foreign that he was having a hard time getting through it.

We made our 8 chapter goal, and we go into the weekend with Acts, 1,2Thess, and 1Timothy all done!

That's 2500 people in the highlands region who'll soon be hearing God's Word!

Because....AWESOME

Category: Life in PNG:

A few weeks ago my neighbor expressed to me his concern that one of our pine trees in our yard was threatening to fall on his house.  So we decided to cut it down.  When it finally fell, it seemed a shame to cut up this nice 30' straight segment of it.

So my mind got to thinking:

-this could be useful timber when it dries
-if I leave it on the ground it'll rot
-we have two tree stumps in the yard that the neighborhood kids like to climb on
-this long tree could be turned into almost anything given enough time.
-what if... I....

What I decided to do was to notch the tree trunk, and set it across two stumps in our front yard.







My wife asked 'why?'   I didn't have a great answer.  

The answer ended up becoming 'because... it's AWESOME!'

Yesterday I put the tree across the stumps.  Before ten minutes went by one of the neighborhood dads saw it and said 'Awesome!'.  An hour later, three neighborhood kids came by, eyed it and I said 'yes you may'.... the question was in their eyes... and they said 'Awesome!!!'

I don't have to explain the 'why did you do this?' to the men or the kids.  The wives however, can get together with my wife and commiserate about crazy things that their husbands have done.

So it's a win win.

-My wife gets a conversation piece
-my kids get a new balance beam toy, something that brings them outside
-it's got a hundred and one uses (I can make it into a huge table, a picture spot, a bench, a balance beam, future firewood, etc).
-it fosters community, people come and play on it
-it is a landmark now... 'turn right at the big tree laying across two stumps... you'll see it.'

it's just awesome.

But then, it got even more Awesome!

I was rooting around in my spare parts shed, when I saw an old foam mattress, and two lengths of pipe.  And now.... we have

PUGIL STICK WARS !!!!  (ala American Gladiators)

The AWESOME just got kicked up a notch.






So when my wife turns to me, with that look that says 'okay it was weird and crazy but somehow it works.' I reply 'our kids will never forget this.  AND it was cheaper and easier than building a fort!

Amazed

Some of the national guys watching me edit were amazed and made little
mouth-clucking sounds of amazement.

they were looking at the waveform that materializes on screen as people
speak.

In tok pisin they were speaking:
one was the "expert" and showing others: "you see here, when you talk,
his computer turns the talk into a picture, then when you make a
mistake, he turns the wrong talk picture white, then he removes the
picture and makes your talk, straight."

the other: "tsk tsk tsk, he can make me say anything with that computer."

then they made a quick tok ples joke and laughed... which I didn't
understand.

needless to say, they were looking over my shoulder for days trying to
figure out how to do it. I got a kick out of that, and started playing
along.

When I started playing with speeding them up, they laughed hilariously.

Amazed

Some of the national guys watching me edit were amazed and made little
mouth-clucking sounds of amazement.

they were looking at the waveform that materializes on screen as people
speak.

In tok pisin they were speaking:
one was the "expert" and showing others: "you see here, when you talk,
his computer turns the talk into a picture, then when you make a
mistake, he turns the wrong talk picture white, then he removes the
picture and makes your talk, straight."

the other: "tsk tsk tsk, he can make me say anything with that computer."

then they made a quick tok ples joke and laughed... which I didn't
understand.

needless to say, they were looking over my shoulder for days trying to
figure out how to do it. I got a kick out of that, and started playing
along.

Payshunce

For most people patience doesn't come naturally. For the rare few who
it does, I have the utmost respect. For me, patience in large amounts
is required to do my job.

When recording someone reading the Bible in their own language, and that
reader sometimes has only recently learned to read, I have to do a lot
of re-takes, edits, adjustments and such. If I convey to the reader
that they are making mistakes, or lose my temper, it is counter
productive, and so, I always maintain a professional demeanor, I speak
reassuringly, etc.

There is that mental patience. Like teaching a child to read, and
having them make the same mistakes over and over again in the book. "The
c...cat.. jumped over... the dooog. The dog. Dog, the Cat joomped, I
mean jumped over the dog." Only because I'm constantly recording
different languages, it is like the child never matures.

But there is another type of patience.

My every moment with this person, is a testimony. How I treat them.
So, I treat them kindly and with love, get to know them, and I try to
help them do their best. Which means... not being a distraction.

Suppose while they are recording I get a nose-itch. But if I lift my
hand to itch it, they may mistake my hand motion to mean 'stop!' ... so
I don't dare move.

Suppose while I'm recording my phone shows an important message.... I
have to wait until this section of Scripture it done before I can reply.

Or the phone rings, I can't answer it (it's muted).

Or I get a crick in the back, I don't move, because the chair might squeak.

This is the type of patience you have to discipline yourself to have as
a recordist. Basically, become a statue for hours at a time.

At least that is how I go about it, because we don't have a professional
studio to do the recording in.

What's my point?
My point is, for me, my job is a daily exercise in developing a
discipline I don't naturally have in heaps. God is constantly teaching
me something.

Deleting Jesus

The thought running through my brain all day long was "The
purpose....of... editing....." Dr. Tom Nash at Biola University put all
freshman Radio/Television/Film majors through an introduction to Audio
course in which he gave us a badly recorded reel to reel tape and asked
us to edit it. This was before we were doing digital editing.

So we learned to cut and splice... old school.

But none of us ever forgot his voice "the... purpose... of... editing"
on that tape.

Doing Scripture recordings in a foreign language, often requires
editing, and this week, a LOT of editing as the reader is not the most
proficient in the world.

I've become rather fast and a quick and clean sound edit. The goal of
these sessions is to get the Scripture down into audio format with as
much efficiency (speed and quality) as possible. Doing an Entire NT can
take up to 25 weeks to do.

In 1 week, we've done ,Acts 1-10, 1Thess, and 2Thess chapter1. THAT is a
LOT of recording considering the amount of work that goes into it. My
abilities on a computer help me go quickly, and Dr. Nash's voice in my
head, helps me to edit well.

One of the things we edit out (cut/delete) is repetition and stammers.
Today the reader was repeating the name of Christ in his language "Yesu
Kilisi" but because he was repeating them, and they weren't in the text
repeatedly, I had to edit some out.

It felt sacrilegious to delete Christ's name. I mean, people used to
get stoned for saying the name of God, and yet here I am playing it over
and over and cutting it and splicing it, and .... it almost sounds like
a remix going on while I'm honing in on the right patterns to cut out.
Something feels .....wrong about that.

the purpose... of editing... is to get the audio recording to properly
reflect the Scripture.

Typical Saturday

So you might ask me "What do you do on Saturdays?" Do I rest? Do I sit around and read? 

I find it extremely rewarding to work hard on Saturdays.  I involve my son and often my daughter.  For the past several weeks we've been cleaning our yard and preparing it for furlough.

Three pines trees have been threatening our house, neighbors, and so, each weekend, we trim, cut, and haul away the rubbish.

Last week I thought I had finished up most of the work, so this morning I woke up and said 'hmmn, shouldn't be much work today'.  That was 9 hours ago.

Today we:

-hauled off a huge load of yard rubbish (weeds and cuttings)
-cut down a pine tree
-cleaned the branches, and cut the tree into 8' spans.
-hauled off the tree branches to the dump (2 loads)
-loaded up the sections of wood and brought them to a PNG friend in need of firewood.  (we have plenty).

It was a full day's work for sure, and in the process I realized, how useful having a chainsaw would be, because I had a friend come over to do the big cutting.  The tree was leaning towards our house, so he cut while I tugged using my truck and a rope.  We felled it perfectly where we wanted it to go.


I don't know why, but I never feel as happy as I do when I've exhausted myself doing hard outdoor work.  I think it is because I spend so much of my time in doors.  When you drop trees, clean brush, you feel like you've accomplished something with your hands and arms, and back.

I feel great satisfaction in knowing that the lot we occupy was once an eyesore to the neighbors, and now, people are complimenting us on how clean and good it looks.

Planting things in PNG requires very little SEED.   For Grass, you cut it out of the ground somewhere else, and transplant it.  For flowers, you take a cutting, for a tree, you take a cutting.  Things just grow here, the soil is good and the rain and sun is plentiful.

Which explains all the yard rubbish we hauled off.

YES we could hire someone to do that, but it costs money, and working chores with the kids gives us a chance to teach the kids work is good!

Finished

We just finished recording an entire NT!!! 15 weeks spanning several months work! Very excited.

Time to post produce in time for June dedication

Base 5 counting system

My friend Peter from Long Island (PNG) uses a base 5 counting system. They have six unique numbers. 1-5 and 10

So 7 is "five with two more".
So as he reads Bible Chapters to say 27 he has to say

"Two tens and a five with two more".

What is God Dgoin?

The Number 1 thing people want to know from us is 'What is God doing in PNG?'  Since our ministry is a foundational one, meaning, our goal is to get the Scripture to them in their language, often times, what I can answer much better is  'What are YOU doing?'  We are very busy as a ministry.  It is exciting when we get to hear stories of individual lives being changed for Christ.  But as with most ministries (as I understand it) that are built around making disciples.... you don't always get to tell stories of grand revivals.  The stories are often more subtle, and individual, and you don't always get to see exactly what is going on in people's hearts. 

These two stories came out this week and I would like to share them:

Story 1:

- The NUKUMANU NT was dedicated on Tuesday. This is what [a friend] reported:

In the land of the unexpected, the only thing you can plan for is change. The Nukumanu Bibles were supposed to be delivered to the Tasman atoll on a government chartered ship leaving sometime between January 29 and 31. The barge schedule was revised, making it too late for visitors to go out and be there for a dedication in the timeframe already planned for, so a banana boat was chartered instead to make the 315 mile journey each way, to deliver the Bibles to the Nukumanu people. (a total of 40 hours in an open dinghy – praise the Lord for safety and protection in high seas.)

 

With a stopover on Mort lock Island for food, fuel and rest, and two days of celebration with the Nukumanu, it was a great chance to see two Polynesian cultures here in Papua New Guinea. The Bible dedication began from the moment we stepped off the boat. The first day was spent eating fish and watching children perform traditional dances. The next morning the celebration continued with a 7am communion service and Bible dedication. Following the service, and more feasting, some short speeches were given followed by more singing and dancing. Many people commented on the historic nature of the event and how they look forward to seeing how God will work through His Word in Nukumanu.

------------------------

Story 2:

[a friend whom we support with our ministry ] and the YWAM team (7 participants), who are doing a walkabout through two language areas in Aitape West, arrived in Malol tokples late last Friday night. They were met with a very warm welcome with much singing and dancing. On Sunday night the program kicked off with testimonies from the YWAM team and the first showing of the Jesus Story Dvd in Malol Tokples. One Malol lady after seeing the Dvd commented ‘Seeing the pictures and hearing our own tokples makes everything so much clearer’. This week the team have been able to visit 3 communities. Please continue to pray for them all as they minister to the people of Malol, share testimonies and plan to show the film every other night. May God use this team for His Glory among the Malol people.

 

----------

These two stories tell you a tiny fraction of what our ministry is accomplishing, but what does it tell you about what GOD is DOING!?  That's always the tough question.  Ask a teacher 'do you feel you did any good this year in the lives of students?'.  It is hard for a teacher to see what their investment has done, and yet without knowing it, they may have had profound impact on lives. 

What we see here in these stories is that our efforts have produced a product that people have seen and heard in their language for the first time.  We trust that God is going to use that in magnificent ways.  The fact that there was singing and dancing shows excitement, people are EXCITED to get God's Word! 

In the process disciples are made, people who help make translations come to know the Lord.  The work we do, often results in a small number of people coming to know the Lord and serve Him before the printed Bible ever gets finished.  AND THEN, then depending on the language group size, it could affect hundreds or thousands.

Each time you hear of a dedication think  'An entire small town in the US just received their first Bible.'

There are hundreds of languages here, each language ranged from a few thousand speakers to tens of thousands.  There may not be a national revival, but there may be several small ones.  And it all begins with the Word of God.  and that's what we're doing, the rest, we're praying and working and helping God wherever He asks us to.

Join us in praying that His Word has deep impact on thousands of lives.
Join us in praying that our efforts in this country are like the seed landing on good soil.

thank you.

funny language moment

After a long long while of recording in a language, my brain tends to
pick up on certain sounds. I can't say words, but sounds and their
meaning. By watching 2 people converse long enough, you pick it up.

For example, if after hearing 2 people converse and I hear the phrase
"tiap, moolmool" and then the English speaker turns to me and says "can
you replay that last part?" ... my brain associates those sounds, with a
request for me to replay.

So I tend to be ready to replay as soon as the English speaker asks me
too.... and then after a while, a kind of short hand develops such that
he turns to me, lifts an eyebrow, and I know to replay.

That's how my brain works, it speeds everything up, and the funny thing
is, we all work together well even though I have no understanding of the
language.... after a while, they tend to forget I don't know the
language and speak to me in their heart language which I don't understand.

At which point I say 'uh.....what?'

Usually.

Then for weeks afterwards, I go around speaking in that language, just
sounds, they stick in your head because after recording an entire New
Testament, you hear the phrases repeatedly. Like "Verily Verily" ..
stuff like that.

Today though, something happened that tickled me so much that I broke my
normal quiet composure while recording and laughed so hard we had to do
retake.

The reader said something in his language, and then I responded 'yes' in
his language, and then did what he asked me to do.

IT didn't dawn on me for like 30 seconds that I had just conversed with
him in his own language, nor him.... but we had just had a complete
tok-ples (heart language) short conversation that amounted to:

"I made a mistake, can you go back to the part that starts 'moolmool'
and replay it and then re-record it?"
and I replied
"This part here? yes, ready go"

and we began re-recording until I realized what had just happened and
started laughing.

I still don't know the language, but somehow, my brain knew what he
wanted....

If you've ever seen the 13th Warrior with Antonia Banderas... there is
this point in which he is sitting at the campfire listening the Vikings
speak their foreign language and he suddenly picks it up.

I have wanted that gift for many many years, just to be nearly
instantaneously able to understand foreign tongues.. But it doesn't work
that way. It takes time, and effort, and I admire multi-lingual people
immensely, because it means they put time in.

It was a fluke for me, and it made us all chuckle quite a bit.

Jury Rig #819

I have no pickup truck.  I'm hoping to raise $20,000 to buy a used japanese Toyota and ship it here, but until I do, I have to borrow trucks.  My son and I have been spending Saturdays hauling yard rubbish out of our yard.  There has been about 8 loads so far, and still another 6 or so to go.  So you can imagine, all the people I know who own pickups are sick of my call on Friday night.

Well, I have this ATV, and years ago for K100 I bought a rusty old flatbed trailer.  And I got me an idea.

Make my own trailer.
I did it, 100% free of charge.
Here's how:

-in my scrap metal box I pulled out a galvanized steel pipe, and cut it into several 3" segments
-I welded those segments along the sides of the trailer after grinding away some rust to make a good weld.
-I took some old hardwood 2x4's and cut pegs into the bottom of them that fit inside the steel pipes.
-Then I took some spare boards I had (from a utility shelf I deconstructed... yes I took shelves apart, and removed all the nails... I don't waste wood, I re-use it.) and made what you see below.
-to be sure it would hold dirt, I put up the old kitchen cabinet doors I had laying around, with the handles out to make rope tie offs.
-it comes in 4 parts, all which slot into place, and then held together with brackets I made out of scrap I had salvaged from broken things.
-the tires were flat, and so on the advice of a friend I put tubes in them (they were tubeless) and let me tell you, without the proper tools, putting tubes in a tire that has the lugs rusted onto the rim.... is difficult.


(we don't throw away much here, if your blender breaks, I'll dismantle it and save all it's components to use on something else.  ALWAYS save brackets and springs and bolts and screws and switches....etc)

So, because it cost me NO money to make, and because I have NO truck, (and because I make it so quickly it has NO square corners)... I have dubbed this my:


'NOYOTA'  (my wife prefers 'freetow')




So this saturday, my son and I will be hauling yard rubbish without having to borrow.
You can see 2 of the piles just ahead there, behind that last tree, that lump of green...
and top right corner, the lump of brown/green.

THIS SATURDAY, bring your pitchforks and shovels.... this is dirty work!

I LOVE that little ATV, imagine what I could do if it were four wheel drive!

More base 5

So I asked "how do you say 62 if you have no number for 6?"

They replied
62 is " ten, five of these and one more with two extra".



-Chad
On mobile device

I be

In Arop Lukep. "I be" is pronounced e-bay. And means. "Not that".

This will forever affect my thinking during ebay shopping

18 years

Putting money where mouth is

A friend just told me that the audio bibles we produced for his language group are outselling the printed scripture 2 to 1. The printed scripture is 1/2 the price as the audio player.

This is a good fiscal reminder of how important media is.

Work

After sitting in on a recording session and seeing all the retakes, edits, space removal noise removal checking of Scripture and so forth, the sitting in translator said.

"Wow i didn't think this was work but now I see it is a lot of work"

Yes, yes it is. At the end of a full recording day youre tired and want to go into sensory deprivation for a while.

Fast Food

no restaurants available around here.


but on market day, they sometimes sell homemade donuts, so you can pick up a bunch of bananas and some donuts.

That's about as FAST as breakfast can get around here.

Often people are nervous about moving here because of the requirements of cooking. They're afraid:
-I have to learn to cook everything from scratch
-with different ingredients
-lacking certain ingredients from time to time
-with no restaurants
-with milk powder

but rest easy.  You don't have to be a great chef to survive.  You can buy pre-packaged and sliced bread, chips in the bag, cereal, buy hamburgers at the store, etc.  Not everyone is an excellent cook, nor needs to be.   (it doesn't hurt, but you can survive).

It's more costly to live like that, but isn't it more costly to live like that anywhere?

Introducing

Hot off the presses

new website

I revamped our website
http://www.gimpel.tv/png

it includes videos and more explanation of what we're doing and why, and
how.
You should definitely watch the 'what we do' video as I made that one (-;

New Sounds in the Night

(courtesy PNG experience: http://thepngexperience.wordpress.com/2013/06/)

28 June, 2013 – Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea – Written by Tim Lithgow with Tim Scott

In the early 1980s, Barbara Hardin and Linda Weisenburger settled on the coast a few hours’ drive north of Madang to learn the local language and translate the scriptures.   Those first years were very discouraging as the local community showed little interest in their own language.    But when Hardin and Weisenburger were seriously considering whether or not to continue, Maia language speakers from Wagedev village asked them to come and work with them.   The following decades continued to be a struggle as, apart from a few key people, there was limited interest in the program.   Logistic challenges emerged as the road to the village deteriorated to the point where it was only passable in dry season.  The helicopter became their preferred mode of travel, and they persevered in the work.

 

Recently, a dedication was held for the scriptures that have been translated: portions of Genesis, Ruth, Matthew, Mark, Acts, and a few epistles, in printed form and on Audibibles*.  Encouragingly, the community worked together on repairing the road into Wagadev.   But one week before the celebration a torrential downpour caused a landslide that completely cut off the road.   As only God could orchestrate, a helicopter was going to be in the area the day before the dedication, so the visitors were shuttled in.

 

On the dedication day, dancers escorted visitors into the village, actors presented dramas depicting the truth of God’s Word protecting from evil, and speakers reminded the community of the importance of this event – God now can speak to them in their own mother tongue: Maia!  The local Lutheran pastor, not a Maia speaker, spoke passionately, promising the people that the scripture readings in church would now be in Maia.  True to his word, at church the next morning ALL the scripture readings were in the Maia language.

 

As the sun set over the tropical jungle, the nightly noise of the cicadas and other tropical creatures was mixed with the sound of Maia scriptures being played on the Audibibles as groups of people listened to God’s Word in their mother tongue.

* Audibibles are pre-recorded, dedicated mp3 players with portions of heart language scriptures stored on them.

By The PNG Experience

Importance of Audio

A quick video I did to teach myself a new software. It's not great, but it gets the point across.

Orphanage Mission

For Christmas, the kids at the school held a fund-raiser to get money enough to buy clothes from a thrift-store for children at an orphanage in Lae.  My kids wanted to participate. I may have said this before, but my kids far outdo me in the generosity department.

Per capita, my kids give (what little money they can earn or raise) away more money than I ever did when I was their age. 

One night at dinner my son brought this up and said "I would like to donate K20 to this" and so, to encourage him I replied, "I will match whatever you give up to K50". (I don't mind sharing the real numbers because they are nothing to boast about.)

Well, donation time came, and my son and daughter asked "Dad was that K50 each?"  I had to think about it.  And replied 'yes'.

So my children got together and plotted.  My son after having spent his money (he saved like a miser) for Christmas gifts, had slightly more than K50 to donate, and my daughter had slightly less.  So my son plotted to give his sister the difference so that they could get the full 'MATCHING' out of me.

That night at dinner I had no idea what I had committed to and before I knew it, the orphanage was getting much more money out of the Owens household than I had anticipated.

Apparently my kids didn't need encouragement, they knew it was a good thing to do. What I did was give them a way to work the system, which they did, and I have respect for that too.  (I would like to see more of this creative financing used in ministry.)

So, the team went to Lae, and bought the clothing and helped at the orphanage with repairs.  In the end it turned out they needed more money than they had asked for (originally asking for K20 per family)... as the clothing cost more than anticipated, but because donations had exceeded what they asked for, every child was able to receive multiple outfits for school and home, etc.

I have said this before.  No matter how much work my wife and I do in this country, there is a part of me that wonders, if God called us all here, so that my KIDS could minister.  Because when they act on their faith, it ministers to the world.

Village Tech

http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkVision-LT1421-Widescreen-Monitor/dp/B005L2NA54/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389070009&sr=8-1&keywords=usb+monitor+lenovo

This little USB (displaylink tech) powered monitor is awesome.  Works on mac/linux/windows.  Typically when we go into the village we have to carry a few external monitors for lip syncing the video dub we're working on.  The recordist (me) needs a monitor (usually 2, the laptop for the audio software and an external for the video window), and the reader facing the recordist needs one.

This means we often have to lug around at least 2 large monitors with us.  Thank goodness for LCD, carrying the big heavy CRT monitors is a thing of the past.

BUT still there was always this problem of power, and splitting.  We'd have to split the VGA out to 2 monitors.
But now, with these USB flatscreens we have:
-no need for wall outlets
-super portable and light
-no need to split the vga out, just attach to usb port

I'm really liking these little units!

Audibible Dedication Video

From the PNG Experience site, this video shows in their own words, what
the work we do, means to them (I work in Audio Bible production among
other things).



http://youtu.be/qB6aFslqrps

Flash n Beep

  I

It's sunny out, the kids are outside playing ball, and then suddenly, the skies open up and a flood of water begins pouring down.  This is not uncommon.

I am sitting at my desk, looking out my window and in the distance I see a bolt of lightning.  This too, is not uncommon.

The moment I see the flash of lightning, the power goes out, and the familiar beeping of the UPS begins.  Moments later the power is back on.  This also, not uncommon.

KABOOM.. the thunder makes our dog jump up, run and hide.  Not uncommon.

The internet goes down, as my DSL modem took a bit of a hit, but powering it off and on again brings it back to life.

I can't hear my wife in the next room talking because of the loudness of the rain hitting our metal roof.

All of this not uncommon.

So why write about it?

Because there is just something so awesome about a lightning storm (a weekly occurrence it seems), that knocks out the electronics, and even fries some of them.

It's a real life example of a comparison of God's power and Man's power.  No matter how cool our gadgets, they can easily be wiped out with a single lightning bolt, and when you see that bolt, you're frozen for a moment, in awe of God's might.