Tree Hunting

Last year we started a tradition, we hid our little 4 foot christmas tree in the yard, and drove around sipping cocoa listening to christmas music in 70 degree weather.
This year we carried on the tradition. Only I hid the tree and sign in a different yard.

I really get into this, the more you make believe the more fun it is for the kids, and your wife!

"Let's go hunting kids, but I always get lost driving up in this hill roads, so you'll have to look for the tree farm, maybe even shout directions."

Bing Crosby croons in the background thanks to an mp3 player, and we're eating candy canes, it was too hot for cocoa.

Finally after about 20 minutes of driving, the kids see a "tree farm" sign, we pull in, they hunt the tree down, and we put it in the car. (next year I'm considering strapping it to the roof... but I might get odd looks"

They enjoyed the make believe. I keep telling them "remember to water the tree" or "turn out the lights we don't want it to dry up." It's a cute little tree, and a fun new family tradition.

No more Santa

Last year we mentioned thinking it would be the last Christmas with the kids believing in Santa. This year we had an interesting conversation as my son lost his tooth in the hotel room on the way back from the States to PNG.

son - "well i guess tonight we find out if the tooth fairy comes to hotel rooms"
me - "do you honestly believe in the tooth fairy?"
son - "no, I haven't for a while but I kept pretending so I could get some money."
daughter - "but we believe in Santa"
son - "well I don't."
daughter - "well I don't think Santa comes to Americans but Raquel (finnish friend) saw Santa, and saw an elf coming into our house last christmas.
me - "you tell Raquel, the next time she sees an elf coming into our house, to call security. (jokingly)
daughter - "well, I'm confused because I know Santa isn't real but Raquel has seen him, so I think he's really real for Finland..... or it could be someone dressing up I guess like they do for Americans."

So we put it out on the line there, and the kids were fine with it. They understood, and weren't scarred or damaged about any lies. It seems they had taken Raquel's word over mine for quite some time now. (-;

Our explanation "Santa is a myth that children tell their kids to make things more magical, like the tooth fairy. If you didn't have any reason to look forward to loosing a tooth, then it wouldn't be very fun to lose one would it? And since it is part of the magic, we don't want to ruin the magic for other people by telling them about Santa and ruining it for them.... although apparently that wasn't a concern of Raquel's."

Good Stuff at Return

Wow, God is good.
My #1 concern this last month was how I was going to handle doing sound ministry (on the side) by myself without letting it take over everything I was doing.

I returned to:
-news of more people joining the team, aka less work for me
-news of a returnee taking over the leadership while the old leader goes on furlough
-news that the workload for sound technicians is reducing by 1 sunday service a month
-3 packages of donated sound equipment!
-a check to cover the cost of the new amplifier we needed in order to have the people in the back with small children hear (we were losing their attendance)

God is awesome!

Also today I went into work, and things have progressed well with my projects, but I was grabbed and asked "can you do a presentation in 30 minutes to the new recruits for orientation?"

Sure, why not, I'm still jet lagged and unsure if I can remember names and passwords, but sure.

And it went well. We informed them for an hour and I was able to answer all the questions, so.. really I hit the ground running today.

Kendal woke up at 4am, and headed for school, she's needed because the helper teacher got very sick.

Now months ago, I told my wife trying to hussle and change plans to be here on a Monday instead of a Tuesday seemed silly to me.

But she was resolved to be here for Monday.
Turns out, it's a God thing we were here because the teacher got very sick over the weekend.

So not even 24 hours off the plane and we're once again confirmed that we're meant to be here, and we are used, were missed, and we're needed!

Thanks God for the encouragement, and to all of you for making it happen!

Triumphant return

We are now safe and sound with luggage in tact, back in our house in Papua New Guinea.

It was a relatively problem-less trip, that took us weds, thurs, friday, and Saturday.

Several things went well for us during travel so your prayers were answered and appreciated.

We received some good news upon returning... one of our friends is pregnant!

Also, some sound equipment donated has arrived, AND the best bit, is that the old sound manager returns next month so I won't have to do sound for conference, this is a large load off our backs as in March both Kendal and I have multiple roles of responsibility and I simply didn't know how I was going to be both the sound manager and the technical project coordinator for this massive once-every-two-years conference that we hold.

But... God knew of the issue and is providing relief... so I'm very thankful for that.

We left, needing a rest, needing good news of more resources and we returned to that, yes some sadder news, friends with health issues and such, but mostly good stuff.

very happy to be done traveling for a while too.


For the record, in a 2 hour period we were:
on a plane
on a bus
in a car
on a train
on a boat
under water.

We had a few hours to visit in Sydney (pics later) and we hopped off the plane, didn't even check into a hotel, got on a bus shuttle, to a taxi shuttle, to a train to a ferry, then we visited the Sydney Aquarium, which took us under water to a shark tank.

That's an amazing boast by anyone's standards.

Praise God we're safe, all our worries are relieved, and now we are excited about starting up our work again this week!
Jet lag? only a tiny bit.

Goodbyes

Leaving home, is like punching family right square in the gut, and then punching ourselves in the gut. Emotionally, it's painful to tear away and say goodbye. My mind goes to things like.... I won't be around to protect, to see kids grow, to hug. I'm so glad for my family and how my sisters have kept their kids in touch with us so they didn't forget who we were, which is what we were expecting.

It doesn't seem right to punch the folks in the gut, like that. It seems like a wrong thing to do. It feels, wrong.

But doing what we're doing feels right, it is right.
So there are two things I do when I have to say goodbye.
First: - I recognize that it stinks, and I say to God "God this hurts and it stinks, but I am offering it up to you as an offering, it is a sacrifice, and I am thankful that I have something to precious as a close knit family to offer to you in praise."

Second: I remember what God said to me about it:

Mark 10:
27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

28Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!"

29"I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last first."

Today my 7 year old son said something I thought was wise:

"Dad, leaving is like when you first wake up in the morning, you're grumpy and you don't want to wake up, but you have to because it's good for you and you have to eat breakfast and do your work."

It's not a part we enjoy, saying goodbye, in fact, it is the absolute hardest part of this journey. It is something that every fibre in my body tells me is wrong. I feel as if I am abandoning family and friends, I have always wanted to be the rock to be there for them, when things go bad. We feel as if we're missing out on the most important part of family life. But now we have been uprooted, and are not as available for them, and so, for me I have to depend on God that He will provide for them, for you, and we pray for you because doing so reminds us that all that hurt we feel in leaving, is something we have to give over to God... and He lets us feel that, and we adjust our attitude to make it a praise to Him. Sometimes when it's harder it means even more.

The Questions

We are preparing to return to PNG, we're getting pretty good at saying goodbye. But before we go I thought I might take the chance to answer a lot of the questions people have been asking us. Before I do that, I would like to preface this blog entry with a thought. We love America. Yes there are things that upset any citizen, but as a whole we love this country, and our answers are not condemnations of American culture at all. It would be hard to condemn a lifestyle we lived, we live on breaks, we enjoy and one which houses all of you who support and partner with us. In our hearts, missionaries who move away and return hating their home country is very similar to folks dogs who like to bite the hand that feeds them. If it weren't for the freedoms enjoyed here, we wouldn't have people who have the ability to support us as you do, and we are thankful for that. (also, we really miss this place when we're gone).

Without further ado:

-What food did you miss the most / enjoy the most during your visit?
Kendal - Cheesecake factory
Chad - steak

-What did you think you'd miss but didn't?
Kendal - Starbucks
Chad - Frys Electronics

-What did you miss the most?
Kendal - People (family/friends)
Chad - People (family/friends)

-What has surprised you about returning?
Kendal - not a whole lot, was easy to pick up where we left off with relationships.
Chad - Large flatscreen tv's in HD, tons of info during football games.

-What was it like to go shopping?
Kendal - fun but overwhelming
Chad - I found it difficult to be confident that I was finding the best price.

-What has changed the most?
Kendal - kids growing up
Chad - nieces and nephews and young children of friends.

-Have you stayed in tune with the election coverage?
Kendal - no
Chad - yes, and was able to vote in the presidential, but was not as worked up about it as most folks seem to be due to lack of news coverage/immersion.

-What do you want to take back with you?
Kendal - how many people can I fit in my suitcase?
Chad - continued confidence that we're meant to be in PNG, and we are.

-What things do you have a hard time getting in PNG?
Kendal - craft supplies
Chad - hobby stuffs (rockets, cars, stuff that dads like to do with sons)

A summary of our 1 month here:
It started off with a wedding. We were able to come without using financial partner funds. It will end with the funeral of my great uncle. My daughter has fallen in love with High School Musical, my son has gained 8 lbs in pizza. The kids still all get together great, and seeing friends and family was fabulous. We've compressed a year's worth of living into a month and it's been very very busy. We're excited and rejuvinated to return to PNG and are sad to leave at the same time. Culturally not too much of a shock, although it does seem that we've been missing that overall pressure to be good consumers. The pressure to "buy now... save $$$" has been absent in our lives even though it seems an integral part of us, and we do occassionally feel like "consumer Americans" where we live because those around us know how to do without much better and put us to shame. It is all part of adapting to this new lifestyle. Stopping that voice in your head that says "I NEEED this." Still we're going home with a few things that should make Christmas special, and we've let the uncles and aunts and grandmas and grandpas spoil the kids because they don't get the chance to spoil their grandchildren very often. As a result, our kids have ocassionally forgotten their manners but not overly so, and I'm sure they'll re-integrate in PNG perfectly well. They seem to be pro's at that.

It's been a heavenly month. We're excited to return and hopefully use some of our new energy exciting our friends around us and sharing some of the enthusiasm we've received in being here.

Thanksgiving

Today we will be eating foods we haven't had in a long time. My brother's smoked turkey, my dad's ham, my sister's home made rolls, my mom's pumpkin pie, my grandma's dressing.

As I drove down the street and saw the fall colors and the leaves on the ground, and smelled familiar smells, I suddenly realized what we had left.

This last month has been a whirlwind. It began with a wedding. That took a lot of energy and was a lot of fun. Then we began a series of visitations and dinners, seeing friends and family. We threw in some shopping for items we need restocking on, or have missed, some christmas presents to take back.

Today seems to be the first day I've taken a moment to reflect on the month.
Our time here will end with a funeral as my great uncle passed away this week.

Thinking about what I'm thankful for has a much deeper meaning for me this year than it has in past years. Because this year was the first complete calendar year of my life when I lived completely dependent on God to provide everything.

My eyes water a bit when I think about leaving family and friends again. I may miss some of the food, but I won't miss much else other than the people.

We expected to miss a lot of things. Ice-cream, steak, malls... but in truth, the only thing that we truly miss was people. It was very nice to be here and see folks.

We are deeply honored the God would enable us through you to be a part of His plan to bring His name to Papua New Guinea.

We are deeply thankful for you who support us to be here, in prayer and in finance, knowing the difficulty this country has seen in recent times.

We are overwhelmingly aware that God doesn't need us to accomplish His work, but He chooses to let us be a part of it, so we get to see Him glorified through our actions.

What a good year this has been. It hasn't been an easy year, but it has been a good year, glory to God.

Have a good holiday season.

Eye Believe

about 1 month after arriving in PNG I scratched my new eyeglasses rather badly. Today I had an eye appointment with my regular eye doctor since we're home for a short break.

We do not have vision coverage because it didn't make sense for us to enroll yet, we will enroll before our furlough.

So I sit in the chair, the Doctor comes in, friendly guy, I've always liked him. He says to me, "What do you do?"

At this point I always have pause. Do I say, "missionary" "computers" "volunteer" ? What would best communicate to this man the way he is expecting. The missionary thing usually throws folks off and they aren't intending a 20 minute conversation, but at other times it creates opportunities to speak to people.

So I say "Well, I'm a missionary"
he brightens up "well God bless! I believe! Yes sir, this world needs spiritual healing. I admire anyone who puts other people before themselves. What can I do for you today. I have missionary friends."

He asks what I'm there for.

"Well I don't have vision insurance, I need to repair this scratch as affordable as possible, I'd rather have you do it and cost a tad more because I know you'll do it right."

well he examines me, then calls in his assistant
"Give Chad the missionary discount. I jsut made it up. the exam is normally $100.00 charge him $45. The lenses normally another $150, charge him $75.... and get them to him by Friday."

That's cheaper and less hassle than had I gotten it done in PNG.

Man, I tell you, it may seem silly, but that pause for me after "what do you do?" is still part of me adjusting to this lifestyle. I hesitate to startle people like that, but it seems to me that when I do, God steps in and says "see, that wasn't so hard, now I'll bless you."

The Bridge Is Fixed

no more crossing the river, or not crossing it if the water is too high.

Praise God, we can cross now!

Touching the Community

A lady we know walked up to my wife in the store yesterday and said,

"thank you so much for doing what you do here, I want you and your husband to know, I hold in my hands what I hope is the final edition of our language project's Mark. You had a hand in this, you helped put this together. Thank you."

and thank you.

the door

the Door

a man named Oompiwi approached me the other day asking if I happen to have a spare door from my preschool project. This is the project where I'm supervising the remodel of an old preschool into a new programmers building.

I in fact had 2 doors. His house had recently been damaged by a tree and his front door was smashed in. Since I had doors and since he has worked loyally for us for years, my instinct was to "give" him the door.

But, that would cause several problems (aka 'hevis'). First would be that several people may come to me asking for free scrap, or even feel free to take. Second would be a gift to him would create "dinau" or a debt for him.

So, I said that the door would cost him 5 Kina. That is about two hours of work for him. He agreed. I felt odd about it.

A friend said "I'd like to buy the door for him" and paid me the 5 kina which I never truly wanted.

Now, I have no idea what culturally this means. So I tell this man an anonymous donor has purchased the door for him as a gift.

The response I got was not gratitude, it was confusion. What I was telling the man was "a man, I don't know what man, has paid for this door, you can have it now." He seemed confused, but glad to have the door.

In the back of mind I'm wondering... if this man is going to come back to me with a lot of questions, or bananas or something in the near future.

This is jsut another example of how living here is like a puzzle. If it were you or me, I'd say "sure take the door, don't tell anyone where you got it, I don't wany any problems".

Here I had to put a whole lot more thought into my actions, so that I didn't turn a gift into a burden for this man in his culture.

Economy

The economic crisis is worldwide now. The Australian dollar has declined, and while that is good news for any U.S. residents visiting Australia, it's difficult for some of our friends here.

We've heard some reports of friends in the states who seem to be faring okay. Our prayers are with you during this time.
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Over here, the cost of living has been slowly going up. Each different department has had to increase their charge for things, primarily because of the increase in fuel cost, and the bridge being out.

Recently one of our water tanks has become rusty and begun leaking water. To replace with another tank will be at least $1000.00

We have a few prayer requests:
-Praise God because people answered our request for donated sound equipment!
-Praise God that we are healthy and safe
-Pray for protection, emotional stability, and energy as the enemy is trying to wear folks down around here. Goes to show God is moving!
-Pray for our income that it will be able to keep up with the cost of living, we have been cutting back on things as much as we can, but we have found that we are still a few hundred a month below what it is costing us to live here. At this rate our personal savings will deplete quickly. We are trusting in God as always, to provide through you all, but are hesitant to ask for an increase since we feel that if you are affected financially at home, we should also share that burden with you. If God wants us here, He'll find a way to supply. We could pray creatively for a drop in fuel prices, a repaired bridge, a drop in the cost of living.

We are so thankful for all of you, and our prayers for you are for security during this time of economic turmoil.

Thank you very much for being a part of this ministry! Without you, there would be young children not receiving education, people stressing about broken computers and network issues, zero communication between families, Bible translation slowage, and many other things that God is doing here that we can't even count.

Bird

This lady from Hagen, was at the culture festival some of my friends went to.

Notice all the different feathers from different species of birds, and also notice that even the whilte paint on her face is made to look like a gull diving for it's catch.

The ornate work these folks do is always astounding to me. What's even more interesting is that you can always tell when a festival is on, if you're near one because the guy who the day before was walking down the road in jeans and a t-shirt is fully made up and walking to the festival carrying a drum or something, in the same manner as he was walking before.

As if you and I were to put on a suit or nice dress and go out for the evening, this type of look is their cultural dress up, and while it seems so exotic to you and I, they tend to wear it comfortably, as if it was a nice day out.

How Stuff Works here

So the other day I was out driving in the dark and I realized my reverse lights were FAR too weak to see the road at night. I needed a remedy.

A friend of mine heard me say this and said "well I jsut took two lights off my truck, one is broken, but if you can figure out how to mount it, it's yours."

So I figured, no worries.

First I needed to figure out how to make a bracket giving that a) I'm not a welder b)finding the exact parts you want here is not a matter of going to the right stores, it's always about scrounging and creativity. We do have stores, not many but some, but they are distant, or they don't have what you need, or both. With stores here it is always, "I need X... but I could also get by with modifying Y and Z together." Or you could wait and have stuff shipped from overseas. The tinkerer is the person who gets things working, even if it's not always pretty. In a way I take pride in the ugliness of some of my solutions.

So in the hardware rather limited supplies I found a galvanized elbow joint, 2 hose clamps, and a bolt w/nuts.

I then proceeded down to a field of junk with a friend who had a pipe cutter, and cut a length of pipe, brought it up, viced it, and then ran a manual threader on it to thread one end into the elbow joint. My other option was a $10.00 brass threaded pipe. This new option cost me 33 cents!

THEN I proceeded to mount the entire thing through the spare tire mount I have on the back of my truck, through a lug nut hole... so it's removable.

Then I ripped some cabling out of the back room where we keep piles of old electronic equipment, and spliced it off of my reverse tail light.

So now, when I put it in reverse, I can SEE the road.

Total cost to me $3.57
but it took me 3 hours to get all the parts together to make the bracket, and install it all, and a little bit of walking around to find all the right places. Sometimes tinkering is a blast, other times it's not, but one thing is for sure, it's always necessary.

Had I known how to weld, it would have taken me about 30 minutes and cost $0.00 but it wouldn't be removable!

Accomplishing Stuff

well this week has been a very busy week from the network perspective.
What have we done?
monday we proved we could separate the home from the corporate network
Tuesday we made vpn access from the outside world work.
Weds we made email/vpn work from anywhere in the world
Thursday (today) we were asked, if we could make the primary school, link to the high school but keep it a separate network. We've been working on this project for weeks, but alas, it was all working until we found that Active Directory did not work on a Windows server that was dual homed and had it's default gateway facing the opposite side.

So.. being that we had to use Isa2000 on this older server, we had to solve this issue today.

Only catch is, school started yesterday, and we've run out of time.

All was well until we came across this odd issue. So... we were looking at a major network reconfiguration, but we had 2 periods to do it in . 8:30-9:45 and 9:45-10:30.

Could we do it?

Well, it required we get a router which we didn't have, disable the second interface on a windows server, and rewire everything.

We don't have a router, so we used a spare firewall, netscreen 10.
Can you wipe out a firewall, rebuild it, configure it, and get it all working in under 45 minutes?

Well I'm here to say, that yes we can. And we weren't even fully staffed because my co-worker has a bandaged up wrist!!! (-;

It was a fire drill for sure, but it got the juices going.

Anyway, it's all working now, albeit we're using a fw simply as a router... but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

Ipili

(from an article in the local paper)

New Testament Bible in Ipili language

THE Ipili speaking people of Porgera, Enga province, will now be able to
read and understand the New Testament Bible in their local language.
The translated Bible was produced for the Gutnius Lutheran church by a team
of dedicated scholars led by Dr Terry Borchard, who was a missionary in
Porgera for many years.

The translation took almost 30 years with an estimated cost of more than
US$6 million (K15.7 million).
The translated Bible was launched in Porgera last Wednesday in a colourful
ceremony that attracted more than 3,000 believers, who turned up in great
enthusiasm.

Head bishop of the PNG Gutnius Lutheran church Reverend David Piso said the
translated Bible was a great gift to the people of Porgera, Paiela, Hewa and
Kopiago of the Southern Highlands province.
Bishop Piso urged the Christians to profoundly use the Bible at all times to
meditate upon, share with others and apply the Word of God in their everyday
life.

"It is not just good enough to launch the translated Bible in flash colours
but to make it become part of us in our Christian journey,"

Rev Piso said.
He told the people of Porgera that they were privileged to have two
resources on hand.

The physical one was the gold their district was well kown for, and the
spiritual was the Bible they had.

Rev Piso challenged them not to concentrate on the worldly gold but to give
more focus and priority to reading and knowing what the Lord spoke to them
through his word.

Hording as a Spiritual Gift?

A funny part of living here is hearing stories of what people packed that they heard they could not get in country.

I packed mini-dv tapes and printer ink. A lot of it. I bought it in bulk before we left so that it would cost less, and I brought a lot of it here.

Good thing too, because it's hard to come by and pricey. The funny thing is, I've used maybe 5 of the 30 tapes I've brought, and 3 of the ink cartridges I brought.

Now, 1.5 years later we're sort of laughing at our surplus of ink and tapes. We could easily have gone this long without such a huge supply. But we didn't know, we were rookies of course, novice, naive. Now SOCKS, I should have packed more SOCKS, I haven't adapted to the "barefoot" culture.

Anyway.. the point is, that 1 week ago someone put up an announcement,
"I'm leaving for home and need someone to help me print 200 copies of my newsletter in color."

well we had ink, so we said "sure come on over."

Then last night a translator put up another announcement,
"we need to videotape our Bible Dedication, but we have no blank mini-dv tapes... can anyone help us, we need at least 5 tapes, today!!"

What are the odds that anyone would have such a surplus of mini-dv tapes? I called them up and said "we live to serve, come on over."

God knew.

I don't recommend hording items as a practice, but it is interesting that the things we tended to over-stock actually came to some usefulness to the community here.

Folks around here tend to pull together in this way. Yes we have to be faithful to those who support us, and how we spend our money, and not all of us can afford to be financially generous, but as a whole, the believers living and serving together, we really do rely on each other to get by here.

It is nice to live like that, in a community, a neighborhood that pulls together.

Kokee

this morning a free-flying white cockatoo (I think, here we call it a kokee, and it looks like a white parrot) landed right outside my bedroom window, at 6:40am or so.

This bird can talk.

so I jolted awake to what I thought was a screaming child's voice yelling out "daddy daddy daddy!!!!!!"

my wife and I jolt awake... confused, who is screaming???? and finally my wife says "it's the kokee."

I tell you, I love birds, but I entertained thoughts of a kokee bbq for a few seconds there.

The weekend

the kids had a "water day" where their club they have formed met. It turned out to be the day I was supposed to exercise the fire truck, so I took a low pressure hose and sprayed the kids down a bit, they loved it.

Then on Sunday we went on a "gumi" ride down the river. It was a lot of fun seeing them ride inner tubes in 3 feet of water down the river for about an hour.

We passed through the jungle-y area seeing nationals living all around, waved and shouted hellos "apinun!"

it was a very fun time.

Theology for kids

a week or so ago my daughter asked "daddy why did God create accidents?" last night she asked "daddy why did God create punishment? He created everything right?" and right after my son asked "daddy, where did the first germ come from."

His idea was that when Eve bit the 'apple' that the rest of the fruit gathered germs, and that was the very first germ.

He had it all figured out in his head, because germs can cause death and sickness and before the sin, there mustn't have been germs, so after the sin, when the 'apple' was bit, there were germs left on it.

His reasoning was impressive, and I didn't have a quick answer, so we left it there.

But then it dawns on me, that these questions have a bit of a negative tinge to them.
So I say "kids we've been talking a lot about some of the sad things we know about God, let's talk about some of the glad things."

So I read to them in Revelation about the thrones, gold crowns, sea of glass, rainbows, jasper, emeralds... to excite their imagination.

And soon they were expounding on what they think heaven is like... so I say... with all excitement...

"and the great thing about all of that is.. .what? ... who gets to see it?"

expecting them to reply in unison "we do, believers in Christ do!"
but no..
instead they paused... thinking... and then a moment later my son says.

"dead people. dead people get to see it."

I had to laugh.
am I raising pessimists???