Lets Catch Up

Since there is not enough hours in the day (even here in PNG) for us to keep up the blog with all the happenings in our family, we are going to give a summary of highlights from the last few months. We are about to go unplugged for 6 weeks at POC (Pacific Orientation Course) until March 7th, so we thought we should get this out there before that.

Babysitting

Meliah was asked in November to help put together a “nursery” type thing for the video service that happens each Sunday before the main church service (like a Sunday school). So she has been recruiting other teenagers to help her each week and made a schedule.  The ages of kids has been 1 ½ to 3yrs.  She has done a great job! And the best part is that mom hasn’t had to be a part of it!  As of the last week or so she has gotten a babysitting job, 3x a week for a toddler and an infant while the mom coaches soccer.  The kids love Miss Meliah! 

CTS Bung (Party)

Every year each department here in Ukarumpa has some sort of Christmas Bung (a pidgin word pronounced boong and means party). Well since Chad is the manager of the CTS department (Communications and Technical Services) , this was his responsibility to plan and organize it.  He has made quite a few friends within his department, he is manager over 11 nationals, and 9 expatriates. So the nationals wanted to do a mumu (pronounced moo moo). A mumu is like a big bbq with pig and or chicken cooked in the ground with lots of vegetables and cooked bananas. They all were happy to do the mumu at our house!  So the planning started and Ruth wasn’t so sure about all these men planning something this big.  Well long story short, Chad went and got a live pig from a farm about 3 hrs away.  And he was very excited about all the happenings of this.  The pig was whacked in the head with the back of an axe and then cut up and put in the ground to cook and then later some chicken was killed and then cooked in another mumu pit next to the pig.  Chad was enjoying each step of this whole process which was about 36 hrs long! Lots of pictures were taken.  It was an honor that the nationals wanted and did the mumu for the whole department.  It was a great opportunity for all the folks in the department to bond, and celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ together.

A Bible Dedication - Part 4

This would be the last day of our time with the Tuam people of New Britain PNG. I woke to the sound of gonging bells which was the announcement to the local area that there would be lotu (church) this morning. They must have a series of gongs that tell people how long before church startes, but I didn't catch enough of the pattern to know how it worked really.

Actually what they use for the bell gong sound, and you see this all over PNG villages, are old oxygen/acetalene tanks or other gas tanks (which they call bottles here). They hang them from a tree and use a peice of iron or something metal to whack them. They are suprisingly loud and make a really nice gong sound.

A Bible Dediction - Part 3

The ride in the small boat to Aromat was in the full sun! The day before on the same boat was gray and cloudy outside, even spitting rain now and then. But this time it was full exposure to the blistering heat of the tropical sun. I had lost my sunglasses, ended up not having my hat or water bottle, cause it was burried under the pile of cargo at the bottom of the boat and didn't even have a towel to drap over myself. For the first half hour, I was fine, but the last half hour or so, I was starting to feel it. I pretty much just stayed huddled up with my shirt colar turned up to try and protect the back of my neck from sunburn. If I had been in that kind of exposure lost at sea or something, it's hard to imagine how you could make it through a whole day!

Anyway, as we approached Aromat island, we could hear men signing and drums pounding. We jumped off the boat just off shore and walked through the shallows to the beach. They treated us like honored guests, immediately lined us up behind a procession of dancing warriors (apparently they had been waiting for us for some time and were ready to start as soon as we got there).

As we lined up behind the male warrior dancers approaching the main courtyard.

A Bible Dedication - Part 2

We had spent the previous day in travel to this remote tropical island in the Pacific called Tuam. I had slept at least a few hours that night on the hardwood floor with a wadded up t-shirt for a pillow. But as soon as the moon came out, a rooster started crowing outside my window every 15 seconds! I'm guessing it started around 2am and lasted well past daylight. It was a little more than mildly annoying :)

I finally lifted my stiff self off of the floor and stretched out all the kinks. Then went outside to take a look around. Something interesting about this village is that they have built huge walls out of bamboo posts and palm & banana leaves, many were about 20 feet high. I had seen a couple of these walls yesterday, but looking around in the daylight, I saw that they were all over the place, and all facing the same direction. My first thoughts went back to the movie King Kong! I was thinking what kind of animal are they trying to keep out of here? I was able to use enough Tok Pisin to ask someone what they were for and they told me it was an attempt to block the wind from the ocean. I thought that was a little strange, cause I hadn't really felt any wind since I'd been there.

So they pointed me toward the ocean and I headed that way. I reached the biggest wall yet but noticed a small openning big enough to crouch through. As soon as I stood in front of the openning I felt a blast of steady cool ocean breeze hit me. Forcing my way through, I found myself standing on a beatufil ocean shore with waves pounding the beach! Definately the kind of scene you would expect from a tropical pacific island.

After taking in some of the scenery, I headed back for the house. I didn't want to be late for breakfast and for any of the dedication ceremonies.

We had a breakfast of biscuts and bananas. And headed for the courtyard like area in the center of the villiage. Here are some pictures of the people as we approached.

Thanksgiving from PNG

As we reflect on thanksgiving week (even though it doesn’t feel like fall here in PNG) we have been asking the kids what they are thankful for and we included ourselves too. 

·         The prayer/support of all of our family and friends back in our home country. 

·         That God gave us all an important job to do, even if it seems insignificant at the time.

·         God gave us our own free will

·         Jesus came to earth as a baby and gave up his son for us.

·         2 great school campus that we have in PNG

·         Comfortable home to live in

·         Being here in this beautiful country learning more about God each and every day

·         Being able to ride horses

A Bible Dedication - Part 1

As promised, I wanted to share my experience at the Bible dedication I attended a couple weeks ago. The translators were Bob and Salme Bugenhagen, and they were dedicating the Tuam and Oov dialects of the Saveeng language on the Siassi Islands just southeast of New Britain.

Our journey started off with bad weather and our flight out of Aiyura airport (near Ukarumpa) being delayed for a few hours. As it turned out, the aviation department was having some computer problems and so I was able to help out while we waited for the weather to clear.

The planes they fly here are small enough that they have to make sure they load them properly to keep the center of gravity within a certain range. So what that meant for me was that I was seated in the co-pilot's chair! That was pretty fun being right up in front with the instruments and flight controls and chatting with the pilot over the headset.

As we left Aiyura Airport

Life is Full

We feel awful that we haven't been blogging as much lately but we're hoping to make this part of our routine again.

A lot has happened since the October. Here is a quick summary to get you caught up in the life and times of the Michael family:

Chad's Manager Position
The original plan was that Chad would become the acting CTS (Communications and Technical Services) department manager in December. Well, things were accelerated and he has been managing since the 1st of November! There are about 20 people in that department all together. Eleven PNG national staff and nine expatriates. There is a lot of email to "shuffle", forms to authorize, supervision of staff and all kinds of other managing duties to keep Chad super busy during the work day. But he still takes an hour lunch and hasn't worked any weekends so far! Please pray that he would continue to balance life between God, home and work well.

Ruth's Teaching Position
Ruth has been helping in the first grade class at the international school here in Ukarumpa. She has really enjoyed being in the classroom and has mastered the copy machine just like back home at CHS. Currently, the class is team taught by two teachers with Ruth as a helper. But next year, one of the teachers will be gone on furlough during the first term, so they have asked if Ruth would be willing to team teach during that time. She is very excited about it and we are beginning to plan for that. That may mean we stay a little longer than our original 1 year plan, so we are grappling with all of that.

Meliah's Network of Friends
Many of the seasoned veterans here in Ukarumpa have said that the worst year to enter your child into school here is 10th grade (Meliah's grade). The academic expectations are really high, and the way their class scheduling is setup makes the class load very demanding. Also, they have a big emphasis on what they call senior banquet, and the fund raising for that event starts in 10th grade. So there is always a bake sale, or a fund raiser of some kind going on with the 10th grade.
But Meliah has fully adjusted and adapted to all of these things and is surprisingly loving it here! She has made a ton of good friends and seems to be doing very well socially. Her grades are very reasonable as well.
While I'm amazed at how many activities seem to be going on at any given moment, sometimes we'll just get a knock on the door and it will be a group of 10th grade girls going for a walk and wanting Meliah to join them. Sometimes they go on prayer walks where they will pray for the school, for the individual families around center. The 10th grade even has a group they call "Beer and Cigars" modeled after C.S. Lewis and Tolkien where they talk about challenging theological issues.
These are good kids and good influences. Ruth and I have really seen a change in Meliah's character for the better as she spends time with her new network of friends.

Annakah's Loving Spirit
The 6th grade teacher is Mr. Raube (pronounce Rob) and the entire class loves him! Annakah just had a movie night at Mr. Raube's house with the rest of the 6th grade class and had a great time. Mr. Raube is a definite blessing to Annakah and the rest of the students in the class. Annakah loves school and is doing just fine in her academics. Thank you Mr. Raube for what you do!
She has had a little harder time with friends, as there has been some girl drama happening. But she has such a loving and sensitive spirit. Several of her strongest friends now are girls who she had spats with but they have since made up. They even organized and performed all on their own, an American Girl play. It was a parent invitation only performance, but wow! They spent the better part of two months working on the set, costumes and rehearsing. They all did great!
Overall, Ruth and I think Annakah has adjusted very well to living here in PNG. Both her and Kiery are tithing from their allowance in little jars they decorated, and they also have an offering jar that they want to give at the end of the year to a Papua New Guinean family to help them pay for their school fees.
Annakah is also quite the entrepreneur! She came up with a business idea to sell cold lunches at the school in the mornings when students line up at the front gate. There is no hot lunch here, so every school morning, everybody makes a cold lunch for their kids. Annakah thought she could setup a stand in front of the school gate and sell cold lunches! She even typed up a menu on the computer and has thought about pricing and a lot of other details. Mom and Dad aren't all that excited about having to setup a cold lunch assembly line each morning, so we are gently breaking that news to Annakah. She is one good thinker!

Kiernan's Love of Life
Kiery is a blessing to our entire family with her constant smiles and silliness! She has an infectious laugh and giggle that you just can't help but be happy when you hear it. She had a great sleep over at her friend Leslie's house the other night. They had a blast! Every week Kiery and her friend Tsion alternate between our house and her house and have a play date after school. There are also several first graders that live really close to our house here on center and they come over often to see if Kiery can come and play. It's sush a good feeling as a parent when your kids have good friends.
One thing that has really blossomed since we've been here in PNG is Kiery's reading! She has skipped several of the reading levels in first grade this year and is now doing what I think they call independent reading assignments. With all the girls, Ruth and I have read to them just about every night until they were reading on their own. I was shocked when Kiery wanted to read the Berenstien Bears book to me instead of having me read it to her. And she did it! Hardly even paused for harder words and even had tone and inflection. I was beaming with pride!

Well, that should catch you a little bit on our family happenings. We have a lot more to blog about and will soon. We didn't mention that:

• Chad preached a Sunday morning sermon at church on Ephesians 2 (and facilitated communion)
• Ruth and Chad went together on another successful Lae in a Day trip.
• Ruth will be giving her testimony at Sunday evening church in about two weeks.
• Chad went to Melbourne Australia for a technology conference and saw kangaroos and hiked through the Grampians.
• Annakah has a duet on her Trumpet at the Christmas concert.
• Meliah is one of the star players on her basketball team.
• Chad went to New Britain to attend a Bible dedication ceremony (lots of pictures and video to share from that)
• Chad went as a Cabin Sponsor to the High School Encounter Retreat (lots of embarrassing pictures from that)
• Kiery was the Star of the Week last week in her class.
• etc. etc. etc.