Travel Photos

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

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


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


My view:



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



snap crackle pop by any other name sounds as sweet:


raisins in Aus are called 'sultanas'


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


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



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

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

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

Travel Begins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

They're back!

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

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

Thanks be to God for answering prayers!!!!

Father's day

-Chad

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

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

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

done with Saul

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


thank you again for your prayers!

R

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

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

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

Support, Partners n Pillars

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

I wanted to communicate a few things with this image.


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

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

Here are a few quotes:

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

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

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

Now see the pillars?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Serving our King together,

John

Dear Chad,

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

Dr. Helen

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

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

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

Sandra - translator and director

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

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

Gratefully,
Danny and Becca - translators

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

More of the Journey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

was someone out there praying for us?

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

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

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

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

Writing Rollercoaster

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

HA!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But that's not all.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Forbidden Diaper

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

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

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

on a serious note:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you.

Emergency Firewood

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

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

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

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

A well known leader and friend came and thanked us.

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

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

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

This is how Christ loves His people.

Berries

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"A transfer would be nice."

So.... begins the paperwork.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Geocaching Funny

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'No, not really, can I help?'

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

'I have no idea.'

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

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

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

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

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

What I've Done

yesterday was a landmark day for me. Why? Because I finally was able to get a border router installed on our network.

At first I wanted to include fancy diagrams and picture of our network, but I can't in good conscience publicly post the structure of our network. But I am taking a moment to reflect.

3 years ago when I arrived here, there was a single firewall, and several network switches. The firewall was also the default router for the entire network. It was almost an entirely flat network, and we served out business machines as well as internet connection at home.

That meant, 1 mail server, 1 web proxy, one, one, one. It meant viruses spread faster, it meant a network problem affected EVERYONE.

After yesterday's installation of the first non-firewall router this place has seen, the network is MUCH more reliable, organized, secure, and stable.

We now have 4 separate major networks.
Business, Home, DMZ, and GUEST.
And the firewalls no longer handle all of the routing for the network, there are multiple firewalls and a router that handles internal traffic and a router that handles external traffic.

Also 3 years ago there was almost zero documentation on our network and nearly ZERO monitoring of our network.

If people couldn't connect they'd call, we'd run down and fix it.

NOW, after 3 years. We have TOTAL visibility on the network. We show up and repair network problems before people know they happened. I have implemented several pieces of software for monitoring and have built a Network Operations Center.

Also the network is documented VERY thoroughly using a combination of Visio documents and a Confluence wiki that we document things in.

What we have seen in 3 years, and I do not say this to either discredit my predecessors or to toot my own horn... but to let you, our partners know what your contribution has done...

We have seen in 3 years is a migration from a network that was pieced together and loosely understood and documented ... to...
a stronger, separated, secure, documented, observed, professionally designed and well maintained network.

ALL of that with minimal investment a I (and some others) were able to get equipment and software donated.

As we prepare for furlough, I look back on the past 3+ years and my baby.... (the network) and breath a huge breath of satisfaction knowing.... that there is something that will support the work here for quite a long time now. Something that other people can come in and look at, and read on and understand.


Praise be to God who took a guy like me, who didn't know anything about networking 6 years ago... taught him networking... then coupled him with people who sent him to a third world country to help them..... and then accomplished that work!

Thanks God, and thanks partners!

I'm really excited because I didn't think I could get this done before furlough.
I have some definite plans and ideas for when I return, regarding what I'd like to see.

I've gotten several comments, maybe I'll share them here.

Srainin

lots and lots of rain lately.
houses are flooding
rivers are taking out gardens
roads are caving in

it's wet!

But you know, I like it...., I like the tropical rain... hard, hurts your head when it hits rain. Turns everything into a slippery messy thing.

Rugby in the mud!! WOOHOOO!!!

Something I learned today that I did not know.
While the U.S. saw El Nino as being very WET.

the pacific islands saw it as being a drought. So HERE 'EL Nino' means... 'the big drought.' 7-9 months of NO RAIN....

Cush Gig

This pic is of my son and his friend Blake. Blake is the son of a family friend. You're also seeing a VERY rare thing in this picture. A couch with soft cushions. The typical couch here is all solid wood, with thin foam pads as the cushion. They are made in country by our own joinery, and designed to not be very comfortable so you don't spend much time sitting down (-;

This particular couch happens to be from friends who bought it from a thrift store in the U.S. used it for over 5 years and then we took ownership of it.


TODAY... we had to update our Curriculum Vitae (resume) for our work permits. This year the government has implemented a new portion of the CV in which they specifically want us to list out what we've done to help PNG citizens. They want proof that we've done more than simply helped our own organization.

So I attempted to come up with everything I've done in the past quarter to help PNG citizens (why a quarter? Well I couldn't think back a whole 2 years..(-; ).

Here is what I came up with, (knowing there is a LOT more).

Training entry level helpdesk personnel in maintenance and elementary networking skills.
Have hosted training week long training classes regarding email and trouble ticket implementation for PNG employees.
Have held one on one training sessions with PNG citizens to assist in teaching troubleshooting.
Have had frequent telephone training sessions for PNG citizens in other businesses regarding DHCP and DNS and other networking protocols.
Have assisted in configuring network for STEP and TTC courses that train PNG citizens in areas of linguistics and leadership.
Have assisted BTA with wireless networking and data backup.
Have assisted with installation of VSAT in remote areas to provide internet connectivity to PNG citizens.
Have assisted Guard Dog Security Services with email configuration and dsl installation.
Have installed DSL in private homes of PNG citizens and given them basic training on wireless networking.

Have installed, configured and trained PNG citizens on how to use HFradio and HFemail in their village homes.
Have supported an educational camp for PNG children.

The thing I think I'm most proud of for helping PNG citizens, that I've done on the side, isn't the village email, it's the training.

I have put together a couple of week long training sessions with curriculum to teach basic tcp/ip and email administration skills.

As a result, even though one PNG citizen friend of mine has moved on to a public sector job, he did so because of the skills he learned here. And every now and then he runs into problems and gives me a call. Typically it's something small like how DHCP works or how to restart a DNS server... but it is interesting to me that I still get calls although he's been gone nearly a year now.

Side Purpose

My core job here is supporting the network and servers to enable Bible translation. But I have several 'side jobs'. As someone who knows technical type things, often people come to me for advice on personal issues as well.

Since we also live here.

Everyone has this. You have your core job, side things you do, and ways you help the community. Sometimes you don't even know the ways... but all of it together makes up why God put specifically the people here... here.

One such side purpose was a friend of mine who was trying to get his PhD. He contacted me a month ago and said 'I will have this interview and I want to know if it'll work over Skype?'

Knowing that anything can happen I was wary about anything that might go wrong. So we planned it for 11pm and we set up his home network so that things would work, and we had a plan B and plan C.

Last night, his interview went successfully and he will soon be known as Dr. Phil (not the famous one of course, but still a funny coincidence.)

It is these little personal successes that I enjoy doing on the side. Using technology to help people is just one of the bonuses I get out of living and working here.

Adventure

What a great weekend. Got some chores done, spent some good family time.
Saturday visited a new friend and had a bit of vehicular adventure. Check this blog to see what I mean. Wacky photo!

Then, later that evening some friends carrying 10 passengers got stranded after dark about an hour away from centre. We loaded up and mounted a rescue mission and went out and got them. Driving after dark isn't always the safest idea around here so we almost never do it. Still an interesting comment...

After we arrived and I got out of the vehicle, 6 Papua New Guinean men there to help stepped back a few steps and huddled together. Obviously surprised by my size and presence and you heard words like "bikpela" and "traipela".

Many of you have probably never experienced this before, but it happens to me a lot. When people are not expecting a man of large size, they tend to betray their surprise when they discover one.

Sometimes in a store someone will bump into me, turn, and then shudder in surprise. Flinching is often a reaction, large eyes, definitely the long upward glance. I've even found cowering... or a sort of.. putting arms up and stepping back motion sometimes occurs. Giggling, hiding, running away, crying all of these things happen to me depending on who is doing the reaction.

But Saturday 6 men backing off and huddling together and murmuring was definitely a new reaction. Definitely the type of reaction you're going for when you're playing the role of rescuer, protector. They sized me up and I sized them up and we both seemed to recognize that we were each there to help not harm. Still they didn't talk directly to me, or look at me eye to eye.

We got the whole crew back safely.

Sunday on a whim I made an outside oven to go over a makeshift fire pit. a 55 gallon drum converted into a pizza oven rather nicely with the help of some used rabbit wire and some metal roofing scraps. We cooked pizza over it... not exactly a successful first try, as I scorched most of the dough, but the oven idea has promise.

March April Photos

Quips

We attended a sunrise Easter service this Sunday. At the end of praying for the community and the world, we put flowers on the cross after the sun rises. Turning a symbol of death into a symbol of life, like Christ did.

During one of the songs we sang "Lord of heaven and earth"... and our son quipped in under his breath "and mars....."

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Today during work, a friend of ours (and partner) visiting from the U.S. needed to go off with a national co-worker to do some work.

Hisile, said to Bob "yu laik drivim ka bilong yu o bilong mi"
Bob replied "huh?"
it took me a second to realize Hisile was speaking Tok Pisin so I translated, Bob said 'let's take your car' as they headed off I said in tok pisin to Hisile

"Hisile, Bob only knows a little tok pisin, so speak to him in english"

he replied

"okay Bob, I shall talk to you in broken English...hahahahaha."

I thought that was pretty funny.... I felt bad for putting the two of them together and having them drive off without a translator, but I'm sure they'll work it out.