Chad’s Awesome Day

Everybody now and then needs a break. The lives of missionaries are no exception. Chad has been escaping Sunday afternoons to ride bicycle on trails throughout the countryside. This country is amazingly beautiful. The rides have all been great. Even though sometimes we follow a road that eventually gets swallowed by the jungle (as you can see in some of the pictures), it all makes for great stories we can tell later on.

This Saturday, we started off the day at the horse paddocks taking the 6^th of 8 horse management courses. Anyone who wants to become a member of the pony club must complete the entire course. Then you can have access to the paddocks and are allowed to “care” for someone’s horse when they are away on furlough or in the village.

After riding and horse care lessons, the girls all came back to the house to relax and play with friends. Chad decided to go on a bike ride and had a great ride up to what’s called the west ridge.

 He ended up meeting the paragliders up there and caught a ride down the mountain on a tandem ride.

They had thrown Chad's bike in the vehicle that picks up the paragliders at the LZ (landing zone), so Chad took off from there to try and find his way back to Ukarumpa. He ended up riding through several small villages and having to tell people he was lost and ask for directions. He eventually made it back in time for his  4:00pm appointment with the guys at the sauna.

It was a Finland sauna, one where 4 guys get in their birthday suits, sit for 15 minutes in a room over 80 degrees C (176 Fahrenheit) with heat blasts every couple minutes when they throw water on the furnace stones.  Then they run outside and freeze themselves in the river water. They do this in three times and the last dose of water on the stones is about a liter of water, the heat blast that results practically melts your skin! Chad loved it!

[Sorry, in the interest of keeping this blog kid friendly, no pictures of this adventure]

When he finally got home, we got in our dress up clothes and went to a 11^th grade fundraiser which was an Italian dinner at the Teen Centre (notice the common wealth spelling).

The food was great and the conversation was even better. Everyone had a wonderful time. The teens had made it feel so much like an italian restaraunt, I almost forgot I was in PNG!

Over-all Chad had an AWESOME day! And the rest of us enjoyed the rest J.