9/25/2011
9/19/2011
The bill is in
Total cost out of pocket for our son's medical evacuation - $8000
These are the times that try men's faith.
Often people ask me 'is it cheaper to live in PNG?' The answer simply is 'yes'. It is not however cheaper to fly to or leave PNG. The pricetag for that is $10,000 for my family. It isn't cheaper to get gravely ill in PNG either.
But God transcends money. Money is a man made contrivance that doesn't really seem to phase God at all and yet puts man in definitely difficult situations.
This month has been a difficult month for some of our friends. As support staff we work to support the work of Bible Translation. To get that done you need Bible Translators. This young couple, friends of ours, my wife and I spend a lot of time praying for.
They've had a rough go of it for a long time now. They are newly assigned translators and so we have been supporting them and praying for them to make progress in their language group.
It seems like they've seen nothing but hardship since coming here and we pray desperately that they don't give up. But for years now, they've had major trouble after major trouble.
-Getting land-locked and separated by a huge mudslide
-Illness, fleas, inability to sleep
that was last month
this month it is the birth of their son, but then having visa problems so they couldn't get back to PNG, then their daughter got very sick and had to have a spinal tap....
and then all of this, the flights and the medical bills, they have no money to pay for all of it.
It all seems so desperate doesn't it?
Living this lifestyle means you have very few constants. Life is always in transition. That bugs a lot of Type A personalities who need to have a plan. Well you can make a plan but expect that plan to be dashed to pieces. It's hard on you to be always unsure of one day after the next.
But we do have one constant. One we know. GOD IS FAITHFUL.
Bad stuff happens, but GOD IS FAITHFUL.
Does that mean we always get the answer we want? No. BUT GOD IS FAITHFUL. GOD IS GOOD. GOD IS JUST. GOD IS LOVING.
Money and health (psychological and physical) are two things in constant flux around us. Sometimes we have more of it than at other times.
We live on the edge of faith. We depend on God to show up, otherwise we don't make it.
God shows up. He always has.
Living like this, I can see the Israelites and their behavior. How many times did they hear from God Himself, and yet continued to mess up?
And yet, we often have worry and doubt when it comes to financial and health issues. How many times has God provided for us? For our friends? For others around us?
Why do we worry then?
A problem presents itself, and our instinct is to find the solution. When we arrive at the fact that the only solution to be found lies outside of our control, then we doubt. We doubt if the solution will come. We doubt if it'll come the way we want it to.
Parents with kids who have driver's licenses understand this sense of loss-of-control.
It is out of your hands now.
But each time they return home unscathed, your confidence grows a little in their ability.
God has been so faithful to us that our confidence in the likelihood that He will not let us fall, is immense.
And yet, silly us, we tend to worry.
Today when I got this bill for the medivac my jaw dropped. I thought we had already seen the last of the bills. And I admit, I did think 'how are we going to pay this?' For a moment.
But a voice inside of me said loudly, 'He's never let you down.'
And He hasn't.
God is faithful.
This month I've heard of some friends who are gravely ill. Yet they glorify God and say 'He is good.' If you've ever asked yourself 'how can this person who is dying say that God is good?' Then I want for you to know how they could say that. It comes from a profound relationship with Christ. The kind of friendship where you know that friend has your back. Where that friend loves you despite all your failures. That friend knows you within and without, and constantly upholds you. You may be at your darkest and deepest and worst moments of your life, and they are there holding your hand. Should we hate this friend because they have the supernatural ability to remove the bad stuff from us? Or should we love this friend because even though the bad stuff comes, the really good stuff lies just around the corner, and there would be no good stuff, without Christ.
These are the times that try men's faith.
Often people ask me 'is it cheaper to live in PNG?' The answer simply is 'yes'. It is not however cheaper to fly to or leave PNG. The pricetag for that is $10,000 for my family. It isn't cheaper to get gravely ill in PNG either.
But God transcends money. Money is a man made contrivance that doesn't really seem to phase God at all and yet puts man in definitely difficult situations.
This month has been a difficult month for some of our friends. As support staff we work to support the work of Bible Translation. To get that done you need Bible Translators. This young couple, friends of ours, my wife and I spend a lot of time praying for.
They've had a rough go of it for a long time now. They are newly assigned translators and so we have been supporting them and praying for them to make progress in their language group.
It seems like they've seen nothing but hardship since coming here and we pray desperately that they don't give up. But for years now, they've had major trouble after major trouble.
-Getting land-locked and separated by a huge mudslide
-Illness, fleas, inability to sleep
that was last month
this month it is the birth of their son, but then having visa problems so they couldn't get back to PNG, then their daughter got very sick and had to have a spinal tap....
and then all of this, the flights and the medical bills, they have no money to pay for all of it.
It all seems so desperate doesn't it?
Living this lifestyle means you have very few constants. Life is always in transition. That bugs a lot of Type A personalities who need to have a plan. Well you can make a plan but expect that plan to be dashed to pieces. It's hard on you to be always unsure of one day after the next.
But we do have one constant. One we know. GOD IS FAITHFUL.
Bad stuff happens, but GOD IS FAITHFUL.
Does that mean we always get the answer we want? No. BUT GOD IS FAITHFUL. GOD IS GOOD. GOD IS JUST. GOD IS LOVING.
Money and health (psychological and physical) are two things in constant flux around us. Sometimes we have more of it than at other times.
We live on the edge of faith. We depend on God to show up, otherwise we don't make it.
God shows up. He always has.
Living like this, I can see the Israelites and their behavior. How many times did they hear from God Himself, and yet continued to mess up?
And yet, we often have worry and doubt when it comes to financial and health issues. How many times has God provided for us? For our friends? For others around us?
Why do we worry then?
A problem presents itself, and our instinct is to find the solution. When we arrive at the fact that the only solution to be found lies outside of our control, then we doubt. We doubt if the solution will come. We doubt if it'll come the way we want it to.
Parents with kids who have driver's licenses understand this sense of loss-of-control.
It is out of your hands now.
But each time they return home unscathed, your confidence grows a little in their ability.
God has been so faithful to us that our confidence in the likelihood that He will not let us fall, is immense.
And yet, silly us, we tend to worry.
Today when I got this bill for the medivac my jaw dropped. I thought we had already seen the last of the bills. And I admit, I did think 'how are we going to pay this?' For a moment.
But a voice inside of me said loudly, 'He's never let you down.'
And He hasn't.
God is faithful.
This month I've heard of some friends who are gravely ill. Yet they glorify God and say 'He is good.' If you've ever asked yourself 'how can this person who is dying say that God is good?' Then I want for you to know how they could say that. It comes from a profound relationship with Christ. The kind of friendship where you know that friend has your back. Where that friend loves you despite all your failures. That friend knows you within and without, and constantly upholds you. You may be at your darkest and deepest and worst moments of your life, and they are there holding your hand. Should we hate this friend because they have the supernatural ability to remove the bad stuff from us? Or should we love this friend because even though the bad stuff comes, the really good stuff lies just around the corner, and there would be no good stuff, without Christ.
1 Cor 1:
4 I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— 6 because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
9/09/2011
Managers and Donuts
1 week ago yesterday I officially became the manager of a portion of my department. Management in a multi-cultural, volunteer based ministry is an interesting twist to the challenge of managing.
It's something I've been trying to avoid for a long time. There is no benefit to one's self to becoming a manager when you are supported by people rather than by your job. So then why would I want to become a manager? I really for many years, have wanted to be a worker bee. I am happiest when knee deep in technical issues that need resolving, or when thinking about how I can use some technology to further the attempts of man to serve God's purpose.
It's not the first time I've been asked to assume a leadership position here. Each time I have prayed and considered it and each time I felt more called to be a worker bee. Although managers are worker bees, often they handle the things that we worker-bees don't like to do so that we can keep working.
So now I'm a manager, but also a worker-bee. See we don't have enough people so I wear two hats.
"Chad, I think we should install wireless across the entire Aviation department, do you approve?"
-switch hats-
"Yes I approve, can I handle the paper work for you?"
-switch hats-
"That would be wonderful, thanks."
Lest you think my hair turn too pointy. I found out most people already thought I was a manager, no I've only been ACTING manager before (-;
My new challenges include all the administrative tasks, plus the well being and successful operation of telephones, helpdesk, networking and software development. I have several ex-pat direct reports as well as papua new guinea nationals.
So... why would I say yes? Would I say yes simply because no one else would?
Nope. I say let God raise up someone to do the job. I refuse to take a job I will fail at. I have a responsibility to you who sent me here, to spend my talents as best I can and to do what you sent me here to do.
The reason, is because as I age/mature I look around and I see more of the decisions being made, and more of the process. In my youth I was happy to let someone else handle the burden of leadership. But I have come to the realization that God has given me skills and talents and that I was not submitting a large part of those skills to Him because I didn't want the extra stress and burden.
I'm hopeful that part of me can be used to serve God in a new (and additional) way, that will encourage others to do their best for Him too. I hope to bring to the table, passion and encouragement.
It's time I start being part of the solution, and pitching in to do a job few really want to do.
So that will consume some portion of my time now, but I am still a network engineer and will remain so, until I find that my hair has become so pointy as to become a burden rather than a help to the network team. I hope that time will be a great many decades away.
Please join me in prayer as I need God's help to be a good servant leader.... this role can affect the longevity of so many other people. AT the worst I could be a bad manager and discourage people wanting to serve God. At best I could be an inspiring leader who pulls the best out of people!
God will be the only way the best is possible in me.
ON DONUTS:
The other day I saw a line for donuts at a store. Nationals love them. A friend of mine sells them at market every friday and makes a killing. I stood outside a store entrance the other day and saw PNG'ians coming through with sweet kai (sweet-food =donuts).
And my first instinctive reaction was "why are they spending what little money they have on junk food?" then "oh, maybe they already had something with protein in it." and it hit me... much like my kids before kindergarten, it is possible a percentage of Papua New Guineans have very little education in the area of nutrition. If you don't have that understanding, then you would naturally eat what tastes good and is available.
I'm not saying ALL PNG'ians, I'm definitely some, and maybe most. HEALTH and NUTRITION training is a constant challenge in countries like these.
And I began to compare it to spiritual matters. It seems instinctively like they are making unwise decisions that are affecting them physically.... they need to be told about nutrition.
How much more are they making decisions that affect them spiritually.... they need to be told about Christ.
That donut has a hole in the middle of it for a reason.
Comparitively, so does their 1 kina coin. A hole right through the center of it.
The kids when they play soccer, and the ball goes through the opposing players legs, shout '1 kina!' Perhaps it's because of the hole in the coin.
PNG has a hole in it's soul, and if you have eyes to see it, it's everywhere.
And it pains me to see, it hurts my heart to see. It hurts to the point where you almost need to protect your heart a little. So many missionaries can easily get jaded over the years because your soul can't take seeing a people hurt themselves for decades on end. If you ever hear one of them make a joke about the culture they serve, perhaps don't see it as an insensitivity but a self defense measure.
I can tell you there is such a geniune desire to see PNG come to Christ, to embrace Him, to change their behavior as a result of that love, that they stop tearing each other and themselves down... and start building up.
There is a hole.
There is a gap.
And with your help, we stand in the gap together, ushering them to find Christ.
9/03/2011
Minute 2 Winit
So I may have mentioned that 1 saturday a month or so, we volunteer to do something fun with the 7th and 8th graders.
IT's been hard to get them to mesh as a team, because there is a grade division.
But tonight I think we succeeded.
I downloaded 6 minute to winit videos, and my wife and I planned the events and had others help
with running the booths, and we had a marathon TEAM based minute to win it.
The folks gelled and there were a lot of good team building things happening.
If you want my formula, here is how to host a successful youth minute to win it night.
goals:
-separate the 'cliques'.
-award sportsmanship
-have fun
-award team and individual achievement.
1. Pick your six (or however many) events from the minute 2 winit website (we chose events that were titled tastefully and didn't waste food or consumables like Toilet Paper because of our limitations here.
2. Download and watch the videos, make a list of the equipment you need
3. Ahead of time, gather your equipment for each event.
4. Label your events with numbers (1 - 6)
5. Place all needed items for event in a bag marked for the number of the event (separate out your game pieces by event (1-6)
6. Recruit 1 person to run each booth (1-6)
7. The day of the event, setup is easy, drop the numbered bag off at the station it's for, explain to each leader the rules, and the setup, have them do the setup. Give them total control over the rules, let them be the booth boss.
8. Play the instructional videos for the kids.
9. Divide into teams (this method works well)
- as the kids come in have them write their first and last name on a slip of paper
- choose 6 kids to pull out an even amount of names (thus the teams are randomly assigned)
other methods are easy for the kids to cheat with... if they each pull out a number they can swap.
10. Team 1 starts as booth 1, and 2 and 2, and so on
11. Timing: EACH booth boss has a watch with a second hand.. to time 1 minute.
If you have 5 kids per team, and 6 booths, a good amount of time is 7 minutes. We budgetted too much time, we did 15 minutes because we assume 8 kids and 1 minute setup, but what ends up happening is the kids help with the setup as the play happens... so you spend almost ZERO time on setup
ROTATE teams to the next booth after 7 minutes.
12 Scoring: EACH team has a score card. The booth boss gives 1 point for each person on the team who successfully passes the test. If they have succeeded once, they don't get another stamp. This encourages EVERYONE to play and also awards individual achievement without causing one to shine more than any other. (otherwise the kids will elect the BEST to keep doing it for unlimited points). IF they run out of time they can redo for fun only.
SPORTSMANSHIP: - the timekeeper who is roving from booth to booth will put an S on the card if they get a sportsmanship point.
13 AWARDS: - we had a silly trophy and some candy to give out, because we hope to do it again. The trophy was little too 'girly' so the boys didn't care, but the girls sure did. Since when did GIRLS care more about trophies? Since the trophy was a plush toy FISH.
So that's how we did it. It was a HUGE success. The kids had a lot of fun, really went outside their social boundaries... which was our goal. WE saw some incredibly good sportsmanship, and it was the first time we didn't have some odd conflict happening in a corner somewhere.
But now, it's rest time, we're tired, it took a lot of creativity and work to pull it off, but we do it because we love our kids and this is part of living here. They don't have malls to go to, they don't have movie theatres, or whatever else kids do. But they do have these special saturdays where they never know what is going to happen... but they know it's always fun.
IT's been hard to get them to mesh as a team, because there is a grade division.
But tonight I think we succeeded.
I downloaded 6 minute to winit videos, and my wife and I planned the events and had others help
with running the booths, and we had a marathon TEAM based minute to win it.
The folks gelled and there were a lot of good team building things happening.
If you want my formula, here is how to host a successful youth minute to win it night.
goals:
-separate the 'cliques'.
-award sportsmanship
-have fun
-award team and individual achievement.
1. Pick your six (or however many) events from the minute 2 winit website (we chose events that were titled tastefully and didn't waste food or consumables like Toilet Paper because of our limitations here.
2. Download and watch the videos, make a list of the equipment you need
3. Ahead of time, gather your equipment for each event.
4. Label your events with numbers (1 - 6)
5. Place all needed items for event in a bag marked for the number of the event (separate out your game pieces by event (1-6)
6. Recruit 1 person to run each booth (1-6)
7. The day of the event, setup is easy, drop the numbered bag off at the station it's for, explain to each leader the rules, and the setup, have them do the setup. Give them total control over the rules, let them be the booth boss.
8. Play the instructional videos for the kids.
9. Divide into teams (this method works well)
- as the kids come in have them write their first and last name on a slip of paper
- choose 6 kids to pull out an even amount of names (thus the teams are randomly assigned)
other methods are easy for the kids to cheat with... if they each pull out a number they can swap.
10. Team 1 starts as booth 1, and 2 and 2, and so on
11. Timing: EACH booth boss has a watch with a second hand.. to time 1 minute.
If you have 5 kids per team, and 6 booths, a good amount of time is 7 minutes. We budgetted too much time, we did 15 minutes because we assume 8 kids and 1 minute setup, but what ends up happening is the kids help with the setup as the play happens... so you spend almost ZERO time on setup
ROTATE teams to the next booth after 7 minutes.
12 Scoring: EACH team has a score card. The booth boss gives 1 point for each person on the team who successfully passes the test. If they have succeeded once, they don't get another stamp. This encourages EVERYONE to play and also awards individual achievement without causing one to shine more than any other. (otherwise the kids will elect the BEST to keep doing it for unlimited points). IF they run out of time they can redo for fun only.
SPORTSMANSHIP: - the timekeeper who is roving from booth to booth will put an S on the card if they get a sportsmanship point.
13 AWARDS: - we had a silly trophy and some candy to give out, because we hope to do it again. The trophy was little too 'girly' so the boys didn't care, but the girls sure did. Since when did GIRLS care more about trophies? Since the trophy was a plush toy FISH.
So that's how we did it. It was a HUGE success. The kids had a lot of fun, really went outside their social boundaries... which was our goal. WE saw some incredibly good sportsmanship, and it was the first time we didn't have some odd conflict happening in a corner somewhere.
But now, it's rest time, we're tired, it took a lot of creativity and work to pull it off, but we do it because we love our kids and this is part of living here. They don't have malls to go to, they don't have movie theatres, or whatever else kids do. But they do have these special saturdays where they never know what is going to happen... but they know it's always fun.
8/29/2011
God wants us to know what is on His network
When I first arrived in PNG there was no way to monitor the devices on our network. We knew they went down when people called to complain. One of my first tasks was to build a NOC (network operations center), so I would know, get emailed, paged whenever anything went down.
I had done this at previous jobs several times, only now, I had to do it with zero budget.
There are opensource tools out there that are nice, but they have huge drawbacks in that the guy who sets up the NOC is the only guy who understands it. I needed something intuitive that anyone on the team or following me could learn quickly.
That rules out a LOT of solutions.
One solution that I knew and liked was Solarwinds 7. I wrote a friend years ago and they donated a license. Suddenly we could see all our devices and do monitoring. We fell in love with it and it was easy to manage. Now it's several revisions old, but still very useful.
Not long after that I wrote a letter to a company producing PRTG because I needed to bandwidth monitor my firewall via SNMP. They wrote me back with a 100 node license, gratis!!! FREE donated because we are a non-profit organization.
I saved that letter as 'this is my template for a successful donation request.'
Recently though we've needed to monitor services (linux and windows). So I began playing with Zenoss. But found that while it was the best opensource monitoring, it wasn't a simple and good compliment to Solarwinds. More like a replacement. It was hard to configure but not as hard as others.
Which brings me to IPsentry and WhatsupGold. IPsentry is an unassuming little tool, it looks a bit aged, but it's very powerful and easy to configure and does EXACTLY what I want to do. Total price $695.
I took out my request template, customized it, and sent it to IPsentry. Within 24 hours they donated a full package license to us!!!!!
I'm so elated right now I can't explain it to you.
THEN, I did the same for WhatsUpGold, which is around $4000 product now. (I remember when it was free). They wrote me back and said 'how many nodes do you need?'
WHAT!??? WOW!!!
Okay so that you are following:
-Solarwinds - $3000 - donated
-PRTG - $800 - donated
-IPsentry - $700 - donated
-WhatsUpGold - $4000 - donation possibly in progress
With those 4 products, there is no way anything happens on my network I don't know about.
Oh yeah,
Bomgar - appliance costs $61,000 - donated at cost $1400
Packeteer - new $10000 - purchased at bankrupcy sale $1300
I know I groused a bit about Microsoft changing their licensing on us and costing us thousands, so consider this post equal time and a thank you.
There have been some great donations to my department in the last several years.
Whenever I run into a problem I run through this mental flow chart:
And I get to that part about a creative solution, and I sent out emails and letters, and wouldn't you know it, God responds through people.
I have had failures, I've asked for donations and been told no. But it strikes me today, that in this one thing, I've had a tremendous amount of encouragement and success. God must REALLY want us to be able to monitor what is on our network. Look at that list of products? We would NEVER be able to have brought this NOC up to this professional level without those donations.
I am so encouraged by the fact that God seems to be blessing our efforts to supply professional support to the effort of Bible Translation. It's like a huge stamp of approval on my efforts here.
I would have never thought about writing for donations, years ago. I never had to, I always worked for corporations that had financial resources.
Here, we have to be a tad more creative and I thank God and give Him the glory for every creative effort and thought I've had in this area!!
So this is a thank you to the people who have contributed, to the companies and their donations, to the work of accomplishing changed lives through Bible translation!
8/23/2011
Lots going on
This is a nice lunch snack in some villages. I have volunteered to eat one, but have been warned some people are really allergic to them, and so I have passed.
There is a LOT going on right now, so much I haven't had time to blog.
-there was a bible camp for local kids
-a 2 week training course to teach Papua New Guineans why we are here, to help us become 'wanbel' (of a like mind - but literally means 'one stomach'.. here the stomach is used how we would use 'heart' in the U.S. so.. we have the same heart for seeing people changed by God's Word....we are wanbel (juan - bell)
-bible dedications revisited - we looked over all the dedications done in the first 6 months of 2011!
-work has been busy, we're on the verge of connecting to the internet 3 new regions in the next month alone!!! using VSAT technology.
Today was a very good day at work, as I was able to help a translation consultant before he left for the village tomorrow, I was able to help solve a problem that could have put a major project off by a month, and I was able to assist a teacher to conduct some English learning training.
Every now and then, God gives you a glimpse, a reminder of how we are honored to serve Him, and how our contributions help. Today was one of those days!
Thanks God... keep up the good work in this country! I'm very pleased to see all the training and the changing of hearts and minds as people start to see the importance of growing closer to Christ and training others to follow.
8/10/2011
anwered prayer
I wanted to tell you all this story... I'm still sort of shaking from how amazing it is.
Today at 10:30 we had 4 network guys sitting in a room taking training. When the phones began to ring. Something was seriously wrong on the network. Typically we can find the issue within moments with our operations software, but we couldn't.
It took a while but we finally found out a server was down,
then another server
then another
as we tried to find the common denominator, each time we tried to fix things, it got worse.
Then a knock on the door, my wife said 'pray for (our friends) their 5yr old daughter is getting medivac'd for an appendicitis'.
Email stopped working. EMAIL is critical during a medivac because they need to get email approval before getting a plane into the air.
So now the pressure was on. Aviation couldn't fly, the clinic couldn't get approval, and servers were going down.
We worked through lunch, and into the afternoon when we found also that in the middle of this, all of our DNS records were gone.
Our ISP had a routing issue that caused the dns servers to go offline... so now, mail and internet weren't working.
DURING a medivac.
The network room was complete chaos. I took a few minutes once we realized calls needed to be made, left a co-worker to make the calls and headed home. I talked to my wife who mentioned that their Bible study was cancelled.
And then it hit me... this is NOT a coincidence.
I headed back to the office, buried my face in my hands. I prayed, 'God I don't think this is a coincidence, I think the enemy is stirring up confusion right now and I don't know why, please thwart him. God bring us victory over this!!'
While I was praying, the phone rang, my co-worker answered it, I ignored it and kept praying.
I lifted my head from my hands the call was over, my coworker said,
'it's all working again'!! PRAISE GOD!!!
and then I turned to tell him how I was just praying and we heard the medivac plane take off.
PRAISE GOD.. HE is powerful, HE is victorious.
In the end, a routing problem in Singapore was the cause of the computer issues.... and I'm glad those are over, but there had to be a reason all this strife was stirred up, so we're continuing to pray against that.
But I wanted to take a moment and praise God, for immediate answered prayer, and how awesome is that!
Today at 10:30 we had 4 network guys sitting in a room taking training. When the phones began to ring. Something was seriously wrong on the network. Typically we can find the issue within moments with our operations software, but we couldn't.
It took a while but we finally found out a server was down,
then another server
then another
as we tried to find the common denominator, each time we tried to fix things, it got worse.
Then a knock on the door, my wife said 'pray for (our friends) their 5yr old daughter is getting medivac'd for an appendicitis'.
Email stopped working. EMAIL is critical during a medivac because they need to get email approval before getting a plane into the air.
So now the pressure was on. Aviation couldn't fly, the clinic couldn't get approval, and servers were going down.
We worked through lunch, and into the afternoon when we found also that in the middle of this, all of our DNS records were gone.
Our ISP had a routing issue that caused the dns servers to go offline... so now, mail and internet weren't working.
DURING a medivac.
The network room was complete chaos. I took a few minutes once we realized calls needed to be made, left a co-worker to make the calls and headed home. I talked to my wife who mentioned that their Bible study was cancelled.
And then it hit me... this is NOT a coincidence.
I headed back to the office, buried my face in my hands. I prayed, 'God I don't think this is a coincidence, I think the enemy is stirring up confusion right now and I don't know why, please thwart him. God bring us victory over this!!'
While I was praying, the phone rang, my co-worker answered it, I ignored it and kept praying.
I lifted my head from my hands the call was over, my coworker said,
'it's all working again'!! PRAISE GOD!!!
and then I turned to tell him how I was just praying and we heard the medivac plane take off.
PRAISE GOD.. HE is powerful, HE is victorious.
In the end, a routing problem in Singapore was the cause of the computer issues.... and I'm glad those are over, but there had to be a reason all this strife was stirred up, so we're continuing to pray against that.
But I wanted to take a moment and praise God, for immediate answered prayer, and how awesome is that!
8/08/2011
Krahij
The tok ples name of this is krahij, and we get the word for two minute
noodles (like top ramen) from this - krahij taphmnei - rope of krahij. When you eat these,
the insides come out as a piece of thread. They are pretty tasteless - a
good thing when you need to be polite and eat what is given. The only thing
to handle is to get the thing into your mouth and then just swallow and
smile.
No, I have not had the privilege of eating one yet, but I'm sure if I visit my finish friend who lives in this village, I may be offered a few... and yes, I would in fact eat it if offered.
Often people ask me what the oddest thing I've eaten here is. I may say 'grasshopper' I've avoided eating rat, but I did eat a small river eel. I have also not eaten the popular sago grubs, which I hear are as fun to eat as popcorn.
No matter how disgusting a food sounds, when you're offered it as a form of hospitality, in a culture where food is so central to relationship building, you eat. And you smile!
like a friend once taught me 'take small bites, and think CHICKEN!' (-;
Sorcery
today I thought I might borrow from someone else's blog, because the 'teen mission trip' mentioned had some of the youth from our center here and the author/translation team actually live on our center here that I help support.
from
http://www.pbtpng.org/forgiving-amongst-sorcery
Forgiving amongst sorcery
By Rhonda Hayward
“Before she became a Christian, Martha killed some of my children through sorcery. But now we are sisters in Christ and I don’t have any bad feelings toward her. Christ has forgiven me and I have forgiven Martha.” These amazing words were spoken by our good friend Druk. She is the wife of Gabriel, the Tay preacher who helped establish the first church amongst the Tay people. During the teen mission trip in April, Druk, in the presence of Martha, gave the above testimony to Carissa and a few of her friends as they were sitting talking together one afternoon.
Martha, now an exuberant Christian, was indeed an ex-sorceress. She readily testifies that she used sorcery to kill many Tay babies and children. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Paul enumerates various past sinful lifestyles held by the Corinthians. Then he says, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God”. Paul’s words are true for Martha, as well as for each one of us.
Though we knew Martha’s past, when Carissa and friends returned to the house and shared with us what Druk had said, we were amazed. We had not realized the depth of forgiveness, healing and reconciliation the Lord had done in the lives of these women. These words are a powerful testimony of God’s supernatural grace at work in the lives of the Tay recently to bring about the fruit of forgiveness and reconciliation.
In March, we held a scripture use course, requested by the Tay, on unity. It was a delight to realize that many of the scriptures on unity in the Bible are from the recently translated books of Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians into Tay. How even more delightful to see the truth of those verses “translated” into the very lives of the Tay and see the fruit of unity evidenced, as in the lives of Martha and Druk.
Druk’s testimony was a great encouragement to me, but also a great challenge. May God’s forgiveness and reconciliation be richly displayed in how I love and forgive others.
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:12-14
Rhonda is the wife of Steve Hayward. Steve is a Bible translator serving among the Tay people group. They are nearing the completion of the Tay New Testament.
8/07/2011
zuchinni
this morning I stayed home to watch my sick son while my wife taught. Upon leaving the house she had a hard time opening the door. Then she said 'uh babe, what is the date today?'
and I instantly knew....
I said 'oh no... they didn't?' but they did.
Someone snuck a zucchini on our front porch.
But that wasn't all.
When I got into work after lunch, there was on on my desk.
Whoever you are, well played.
and I instantly knew....
I said 'oh no... they didn't?' but they did.
Someone snuck a zucchini on our front porch.
But that wasn't all.
When I got into work after lunch, there was on on my desk.
Whoever you are, well played.
8/02/2011
Tween
Tweens.
Our daughter turns 12 in a few days. Here the transition to 'upper grader' happens at 7th grade. It is much like becoming a freshman in high school because of the way the campuses are integrated.
As a result of this new 'upper grader' status and all the many changes that come with it, my daughter fancies herself a teenager.
All you folks out there who have gone through the transition, will laugh and know what I'm going through.
All those who have yet to face it, consider this your warning.
Currently my home is no longer my castle, it is in fact, my daughter's castle. And we, her humble servants.
At least I am tempted to say that is what goes on in her mind.
As a result my wife and I are making attempts to get to know her friends more and become involved in youth ministry.
For those of you in youth ministry, I applaud you. How you can look at a kid and say 'they have a good heart' and desire to foster that, is a gift beyond my comprehension.
I instead look at the kids and say 'these boys are going to want to date my daughter FAR too soon.' It has to be a hard thing to look at a kid and recognize that they have growing up to do. I look at a kid and forget that and somehow think 'they're going to be like this their whole lives.'
Patience in the growing process.
My house has been turned upside down a bit. Dad is suddenly requested to do a lot of projects without warning, that MUST be completed immediately. I don't understand this, but other fathers tell me ..'yes, it's true, something happens to their brains and they can't think ahead.'
'Dad, I have to leave for school in 2 minutes and I need you to build me an invention for school, can it be done in 30 seconds?'
'Dad, I need you to construct a replica of the Eiffel tower with toothpicks in the next three moments, please hurry.'
Is it any wonder that this is also the time that teenagers begin to realize their parents are not in fact, super heroes?
I'm unable to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but given enough time, I could probably climb tall ladders in a short time, and then spend the next few days icing my knees.
I am learning however, that when confronted with an unreasonable expectation, and an emotional young girl wondering why I can not conjur school supplies from thin air, the BEST way to react is a loving and patient, 'I love you and want to help, but I am unable to do it immediately.'
And then for fun I throw in 'because you see, I spent all morning using my super powers at work this morning and I'm tired out.'
The point of this blog, is about life here. My wife and I are involved in youth ministry now, but only just. We are planning activity days, every 3 weeks. It seems there is no MALL here to hang out at, no movies to go see, no mini-golf to go do. So 4 adults band together for a group of kids (we have 40 7th and 8th graders), and we plan a night. We become the MALL, the theatre, the ... hang out place.
Last week we made up a life size version of battleship that involved dodge balls. Soon we'll be doing something else... but I can't say what it is in case any kids read the blog.
That's part of life here. The kids go to church and bible study, but we also know they need times to simply have FUN together. My wife and I (and another couple) are in charge of manufacturing that FUN.
As someone once said, 'sure there is LESS to do, but that hasn't really turned out to be a problem.'
Our daughter turns 12 in a few days. Here the transition to 'upper grader' happens at 7th grade. It is much like becoming a freshman in high school because of the way the campuses are integrated.
As a result of this new 'upper grader' status and all the many changes that come with it, my daughter fancies herself a teenager.
All you folks out there who have gone through the transition, will laugh and know what I'm going through.
All those who have yet to face it, consider this your warning.
Currently my home is no longer my castle, it is in fact, my daughter's castle. And we, her humble servants.
At least I am tempted to say that is what goes on in her mind.
As a result my wife and I are making attempts to get to know her friends more and become involved in youth ministry.
For those of you in youth ministry, I applaud you. How you can look at a kid and say 'they have a good heart' and desire to foster that, is a gift beyond my comprehension.
I instead look at the kids and say 'these boys are going to want to date my daughter FAR too soon.' It has to be a hard thing to look at a kid and recognize that they have growing up to do. I look at a kid and forget that and somehow think 'they're going to be like this their whole lives.'
Patience in the growing process.
My house has been turned upside down a bit. Dad is suddenly requested to do a lot of projects without warning, that MUST be completed immediately. I don't understand this, but other fathers tell me ..'yes, it's true, something happens to their brains and they can't think ahead.'
'Dad, I have to leave for school in 2 minutes and I need you to build me an invention for school, can it be done in 30 seconds?'
'Dad, I need you to construct a replica of the Eiffel tower with toothpicks in the next three moments, please hurry.'
Is it any wonder that this is also the time that teenagers begin to realize their parents are not in fact, super heroes?
I'm unable to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but given enough time, I could probably climb tall ladders in a short time, and then spend the next few days icing my knees.
I am learning however, that when confronted with an unreasonable expectation, and an emotional young girl wondering why I can not conjur school supplies from thin air, the BEST way to react is a loving and patient, 'I love you and want to help, but I am unable to do it immediately.'
And then for fun I throw in 'because you see, I spent all morning using my super powers at work this morning and I'm tired out.'
The point of this blog, is about life here. My wife and I are involved in youth ministry now, but only just. We are planning activity days, every 3 weeks. It seems there is no MALL here to hang out at, no movies to go see, no mini-golf to go do. So 4 adults band together for a group of kids (we have 40 7th and 8th graders), and we plan a night. We become the MALL, the theatre, the ... hang out place.
Last week we made up a life size version of battleship that involved dodge balls. Soon we'll be doing something else... but I can't say what it is in case any kids read the blog.
That's part of life here. The kids go to church and bible study, but we also know they need times to simply have FUN together. My wife and I (and another couple) are in charge of manufacturing that FUN.
As someone once said, 'sure there is LESS to do, but that hasn't really turned out to be a problem.'
7/20/2011
Bridges
here are two pictures of typical village bridges. Papua New Guineans have an incredible sense of balance, rarely wear shoes, have very wide flat and thick soled feet. I've never seen one slip or fall (I've seen a few stagger).
So why do we care about these pictures of bridges other than that they are interesting to see?
Bridges are a huge thing here. The two main types, car bridges and foot bridges are both hazardous. The car bridges often wash out. There is so much rain here, that since moving here not a year goes by where some bridge somewhere isn't washed out making it so that travel and receiving supplies is difficult.
Everyone knows to do a bridge check before commencing a trip, otherwise you could face turning around. (a bridge check is asking around, and seeing who was last stuck at a bridge and if it's okay now.. it's all word of mouth, no official organization tracks bridge status).
Imagine you're a white-skin walking across this bridge with a laptop in your sack, and possibly some other electronic equipment. You definitely do not want to slip!
Well, as an I.T. guy, we often have to use variables to decide what types of laptops to buy or other items.
Criteria we use ranges, but among the top are:
-is it ruggedized?
-how long will the battery last?
'Ruggedized' defined: 'Able to be operational after being dropped, getting wet, having geckos live inside of it, will not short out when cockroaches climb inside, and rarely loses data when the wrong adaptor is used to charge it'
We've had laptops wind up at the bottom of the ocean, take a bath in a river, become a warm cozy home to several different types of creepy crawlies, rust over from living too close to the ocean, corroded internals and externals.
I once even had a hard drive enclosure corrode itself shut, such that I had to use a prybar to get the drive out to salvage the data. Once I did, I found gecko eggs inside.
And you know you live in a 3rd world country when a server crashes and your FIRST thought is 'a rat got inside and relieved itself on the power supply'
I recall crossing one such bridge trying to keep my balance, the nationals laughing at how uncoordinated I looked, and then having my daughter say 'daddy hold my hand, I need help'. Thinking 'wow, if I fall now I damage my daughter's sense of super-dad-dome'. But we got across fine. The trick with most things is to put fear aside and just do it.
Come on... anything else is boring (-;
Anyway, enjoy the pics.
7/15/2011
Axe me about cupcakes
this image a is a bit late but I like it so I'm posting it.
In June, Kendal organized the baking of 12 dozen cupcakes (she baked several dozen and others chipped in) so that the 6th grade graduation class could have this cool display
Two week ago a tree fell in the back of my house.
A friend came over, grabbed my axe and started swinging. Canadians love chopping wood. I know this because 2 other Canadians showed up as soon as he began. Well I had this very nice fibre glass composite handled hatchet (black and yellow) that I brought from the U.S. and also had a standard wood handled axe here. I had my son take a few wacks at it with the hatchet, while we used the axe to separate the tree from the stump so I could drag it out of the yard.
That day, the hatchet handle broke.
The next day my axe handle broke... apparently the bugs got to the wood.
It's the chilliest it's been here in years at night and a fire is a very nice thing... but our fireplace is a tiny thing and needs small split logs. I had lost all splitting power. (i tried a sledge and using the axe head as a wedge but it was not working well).
So I asked around where I might be able to find a new axe handle, and they said 'in town'. Well our vehicle isn't working and I don't feel like driving 6 hours so I have to wait until someone else goes.
Meanwhile, we need an axe.
SO, I took a limb from the dead tree that fell, had my son strip the bark, and using a combination of tools, shaped it and split the top. Cut a wedge, sanded it to size, and then put the wedge with some glue in the top. Bingo.. makeshift temporary axe handle. Talk about WAY too much work for an axe handle. But the closest hardware store is 3 hours away over treacherous road, and often doesn't have what you need.
Everyone take a moment and appreciate their local hardware store for a tick. On furlough, walking into Home Depot was a wonderful moment for me. If I start a job here, an need something as simple as a nail, I have to wait until Monday and hope the local mini-store has some nails I can use. Either that or pull a rusty one out of an old board, hammer it straight and use that (I've done this....). You REALLY have to plan ahead if you want to do any work on the weekend around here. It's not so hard once you adjust to it, but it does take you a long time to adjust, especially if you don't have the personality traits required to think WAY ahead in a very detailed way.
I also welded a quick piece of rod to the hatchet, so my son and I were able to split enough wood and kindling today for a week's worth of fires.
part of our conversation
"son, part of being a good man is taking care of the ladies in your life."
'we're keeping them warm by doing this!'
'yes, that's right, a good man keeps his women warm.'
I chuckled to myself as I said it... but there you have it a real jury rig job, suitable for PNG.
7/12/2011
Picturesque PNG
Here are some photos of life here, they include the market, a village at night, one of the many meandering rivers, mist settling in the morning, our planes (206), Yonki reservoir
7/07/2011
Town
I'm tired today. I will be working the weekend to move 2TB of data storage for our main file server. Please pray that it goes well with ZERO data loss, and gets done in the 3 days we have planned for it. We've been working at a sprinting pace lately, trying to get all the work done we can during school break when many people are gone and the schools are not as active. (it's a good time to get work done).
I'm tired because at 3am a pack of 4 semi-wild dogs attacked our dog and I had to break it up. And you know how once you wake up and your adrenaline flows and your mind thinks and you can't get back to sleep? Well that's me. Only now I have to on half a night's sleep, work the weekend (-; So pray that my mind stays alert.
So as you know this blog is sometimes 'life in png' and sometimes 'what God is doing here'.
God is always working. We are always working. We get really excited when God chooses to encourage us with a glimpse of what He's doing.
Last week there was a large meeting of men repenting and seeking Christ. That is God's hand moving.
An old friend and neighbor is visiting us and snapped some photos on his trip back here that I thought I would share.
When we say we're going to town, this is what we mean. These photos are from the nearest town called 'Kainantu'.
and for fun, here is one of the signs around town... I'll translate
(I'll do a literal translation)
STOP CHOLERA!!
1. cook your food well, don't eat the food people sell alongside the road
2. cover up your food well, flies can't come and sit down on it.
3. use the toilet when you need to relieve yourself. Don't relieve yourself in the bushes or water.
4. Wash your hands well before you eat. Also after you use the toilet.
5. Before you drink, boil your water well.
I think we can all agree, these are words to live by if you want to avoid cholera.
At first seeing a sign like this (especially because of #4) you think 'well there's evidence I'm in a third world country)... but then you realize that education is the true battle against all kinds of disease.
We teach our kids to wash their hands, don't eat that, don't touch this... and after some time they know why, and understand the science of germs and health.
In fact it's so ingrained in us as kids we take if for granted as adults that the whole world knows this stuff.. but they don't.
We're reading through the Bible and when we came to the laws in Exodus and Leviticus the kids learned 2 things:
1 - God cares about us. He made all these laws partially for our own protection and health.
2 - God cares about the details. When the kids ask 'does God care about this?' the answer is yes...
I'm tired because at 3am a pack of 4 semi-wild dogs attacked our dog and I had to break it up. And you know how once you wake up and your adrenaline flows and your mind thinks and you can't get back to sleep? Well that's me. Only now I have to on half a night's sleep, work the weekend (-; So pray that my mind stays alert.
So as you know this blog is sometimes 'life in png' and sometimes 'what God is doing here'.
God is always working. We are always working. We get really excited when God chooses to encourage us with a glimpse of what He's doing.
Last week there was a large meeting of men repenting and seeking Christ. That is God's hand moving.
An old friend and neighbor is visiting us and snapped some photos on his trip back here that I thought I would share.
When we say we're going to town, this is what we mean. These photos are from the nearest town called 'Kainantu'.
and for fun, here is one of the signs around town... I'll translate
(I'll do a literal translation)
STOP CHOLERA!!
1. cook your food well, don't eat the food people sell alongside the road
2. cover up your food well, flies can't come and sit down on it.
3. use the toilet when you need to relieve yourself. Don't relieve yourself in the bushes or water.
4. Wash your hands well before you eat. Also after you use the toilet.
5. Before you drink, boil your water well.
I think we can all agree, these are words to live by if you want to avoid cholera.
At first seeing a sign like this (especially because of #4) you think 'well there's evidence I'm in a third world country)... but then you realize that education is the true battle against all kinds of disease.
We teach our kids to wash their hands, don't eat that, don't touch this... and after some time they know why, and understand the science of germs and health.
In fact it's so ingrained in us as kids we take if for granted as adults that the whole world knows this stuff.. but they don't.
We're reading through the Bible and when we came to the laws in Exodus and Leviticus the kids learned 2 things:
1 - God cares about us. He made all these laws partially for our own protection and health.
2 - God cares about the details. When the kids ask 'does God care about this?' the answer is yes...
7/06/2011
Lost
so the other day I told my kids that when I was a kid, living in the mountains, I would go on long hikes or bike rides and seek adventure. I would try to get lost and find my way home again.
My son asked me 'how do you get yourself lost?'
I said, 'well you could take a bottle and spin it everytime you come to a fork, and go whichever way it points, until you feel like you've gotten very lost.'
So today he borrowed a plastic soda bottle and said 'I'm heading out for a long while, I'm going to try and get lost.'
after lunch I arrived back at work and heard 'hey dad!!!' and my son was about 50 yards away, up in an odd place on top of a hill.
I was proud...
for ten seconds... when he yelled so everyone around could hear him.
'I'm doing what you said to do!!! I'm gettin' LOST!'
this happened five minutes ago.
My son asked me 'how do you get yourself lost?'
I said, 'well you could take a bottle and spin it everytime you come to a fork, and go whichever way it points, until you feel like you've gotten very lost.'
So today he borrowed a plastic soda bottle and said 'I'm heading out for a long while, I'm going to try and get lost.'
after lunch I arrived back at work and heard 'hey dad!!!' and my son was about 50 yards away, up in an odd place on top of a hill.
I was proud...
for ten seconds... when he yelled so everyone around could hear him.
'I'm doing what you said to do!!! I'm gettin' LOST!'
this happened five minutes ago.
7/05/2011
4th
(this pic is what steel wool looks like when it's on fire and you spin it... my son had a BLAST doing this... don't attempt in places lacking tropical rains.. it's not a fire hazard here there's too much water)
well it was raining all day... and we were concerned because we had plans.
Some friends of ours host the annual 4th of July party.... we were really looking forward to it. All of the Americans (and any other nationality are invited) come together to potluck and socialize and then when it gets dark, come up with any and all fireworks we can.
Calvin and I had tested out a few ideas to launch our air rockets (made out of paper).
if it rained, no one would go outside for the fireworks...
but, the party was starting over at the WA centre at 5pm and the rain stopped, and the ground was dry enough.
We grilled burgers and after a bit my son and I began launching the rockets we had made out of paper and duct tape, which went well over 100 feet up.
The kids were really excited by it, the high schoolers, even the adults... everyone was rather impressed by our rocket invention we had made out of pvc, a sprinkler valve, and an air pump.
Eventually the sun started to set.
1 rocket landed on the roof, and the other 2 eventually blew to smithereens (65psi AIR launcher can do that to paper) We only got about 6 successful launches with the rockets.
SO... then we started launching glow sticks. Those big thick ones.
We wadded the rocket tube with styrofoam, and then dropped the glow stick down in,
By this time the crowd was cheering '3 .. 2...1...FIRE!!!' and the glow stick went flying up into the air aboud 70 feet or so, spinning as it went.
Then, they started up the fire pit for steel wool.
Kendal and I broke out the glow stick bracelets for the younger kids who didn't get to play with steel wool. It is our way of playing Aunt and Uncle when we can't be around our true nieces and nephews. It gives us that feeling of family we miss. Soon the whole place was swarming with around 50 glowing kids running around outside on the 4th of July... like it should be.
Families here for the first time, away from home, got to see how we do the 4th of July here in PNG, and they were amazed. They didn't know you could do that with steel wool, or how close a community this could be. The 4th for us is bigger than it would be back in the U.S. because it's the one chance a year we get to celebrate loudly, being from the U.S.A.
The steel wool looked SO cool.
But that wasn't all.
a friend nudged me, pulled out a few packets of pen flares... and we went over and started firing them 2 , 3 ,4 at a time.. big RED glowing flares with smoke trails launching into the air in arcs and making big BANGS! when being fired. Nothing is more exciting then the smell of black powder and a ringing in your ears!!!
We sang the national anthem, we ate red, white and blue cupcakes. And since it was an American get together we invited people from all nations.
It was a lot of fun... a LOT of fun.
God created man with the need to celebrate.... in fact early on in the Bible HE commands us to celebrate and makes laws about feasts and celebrations.
It felt really good to be able to be a part of it, and launch our rockets, and share our glow sticks... which over here you can imagine are really appreciated since they are really hard to come by.
Calvin got to fire a pen flare, and spin steel wool for the first time.
Sydney got to run around with a sparkler.
I think it was Calvin's best 4th EVER... because of that.
Our family has been reading through the Bible and recently we were in Exodus where God lines out the importance of a day of rest, and the importance of certain celebration feasts. I think from time to time, we work so hard we forget that our soul has a mandated need for celebration and rest.
Celebrating together. Looking around at all the young kids, and the young parents, here for the first time, thinking 'wow... here I am in PNG, forgetting my homesickness for a moment, appreciating a wonderful part of the culture of living here, making new friends and neighbors, feeling part of a community with one common purpose... to see the Word of God, change lives.'
That's the kind of moment that fuels people to keep on... keeping on.
Overheard Conversation
my daughter comes running into the house shouting 'CAlvin, Calvin come quick!!!'
my son is barely waking up, sitting in bed.... and if you have a boy you realize this is not a 'come quick' situation.
He lies there, 'What?'
daughter: 'come quick you gotta come catch this huge grasshopper.'
son: 'huge?'
daughter: 'big enough to eat!'
my son gets up and runs outside on the way he says, 'wait? did you make this out of beads?'
daughter: 'nope! you can really eat it!'
and then they went outside.
my son is barely waking up, sitting in bed.... and if you have a boy you realize this is not a 'come quick' situation.
He lies there, 'What?'
daughter: 'come quick you gotta come catch this huge grasshopper.'
son: 'huge?'
daughter: 'big enough to eat!'
my son gets up and runs outside on the way he says, 'wait? did you make this out of beads?'
daughter: 'nope! you can really eat it!'
and then they went outside.
6/30/2011
Seeing change
I try to keep this blog an even balance of 'life as a missionary in PNG' and 'seeing God's Word change lives.'
This post is one is both. (-;
I can't share the names or the long drawn out story, but here is my personal synopsis.
God chose and sent a policeman from the U.S. here to handle security issues. He has been developing relationships with people and one of the men he developed a relationship with recently came forward and said that his faith in God didn't allow him to ignore the crimes against the missionaries any longer.
A nearby village had for a while, been treating us like their own personal piggy bank. Stealing property whenever they had a financial need or a whim.
So this individual came forward and started secretly being an informant. VERY quickly through these relationships, crime against us came to a stop.
Soon his village found out he was a 'traitor' and excised him, beat him, cut him, kidnapped his children, and essentially ruined his life in every way.
But the man turned to God and forgave the people. He was given 2 opportunities, to demand financial compensation or to send them to jail, and he passed on both, opting to forgive, stating that God gave him the power to forgive them.
He was no longer effective as an informant, but God wanted to use him for something else.
Forgiveness.
From that reaction, a snowball began.
Easter morning, people began coming forward, confessing sins, crimes, and repenting.
We haven't had this long of a peace time here in years.
This weekend is a public 'tok sori' where the repentant men will come forward and make amends with those they stole from.
We don't talk much about security issues here. We find it worries people back home, and it is something that is part of life for us. But this is a new twist.
The longer version exposes the cultural intricacies and would make for very long reading, suffice it to say, that God took a man and used his faith and his heart to bring about change in the valley.
It is VERY rare for what happened to happen because of the cultural boundaries... but God blasted through them in a remarkable never-before-seen way.
He tends to do that.
This opportunity would have never happened if this man, this papua new guinean man, hadn't come into a relationship with Christ.
This post is one is both. (-;
I can't share the names or the long drawn out story, but here is my personal synopsis.
God chose and sent a policeman from the U.S. here to handle security issues. He has been developing relationships with people and one of the men he developed a relationship with recently came forward and said that his faith in God didn't allow him to ignore the crimes against the missionaries any longer.
A nearby village had for a while, been treating us like their own personal piggy bank. Stealing property whenever they had a financial need or a whim.
So this individual came forward and started secretly being an informant. VERY quickly through these relationships, crime against us came to a stop.
Soon his village found out he was a 'traitor' and excised him, beat him, cut him, kidnapped his children, and essentially ruined his life in every way.
But the man turned to God and forgave the people. He was given 2 opportunities, to demand financial compensation or to send them to jail, and he passed on both, opting to forgive, stating that God gave him the power to forgive them.
He was no longer effective as an informant, but God wanted to use him for something else.
Forgiveness.
From that reaction, a snowball began.
Easter morning, people began coming forward, confessing sins, crimes, and repenting.
We haven't had this long of a peace time here in years.
This weekend is a public 'tok sori' where the repentant men will come forward and make amends with those they stole from.
We don't talk much about security issues here. We find it worries people back home, and it is something that is part of life for us. But this is a new twist.
The longer version exposes the cultural intricacies and would make for very long reading, suffice it to say, that God took a man and used his faith and his heart to bring about change in the valley.
It is VERY rare for what happened to happen because of the cultural boundaries... but God blasted through them in a remarkable never-before-seen way.
He tends to do that.
This opportunity would have never happened if this man, this papua new guinean man, hadn't come into a relationship with Christ.
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