We are back from POC

We are back from POC (Pacific Orientation Course)  As many of you know I (Ruth) was not all that excited about this new adventure.  And of course since opposites attract Chad couldn’t wait to get started.  I really felt the prayers of everyone while we were doing this course. So thank you very much. Our health was good, nothing major to speak of, which is usually not the case when in that environment.  The heat and humidity was intense especially close to the coast (down in Madang and in our village during our 5 day village stay it is really hot and humid).  Cold showers have never felt so good even Kiery and Anna enjoyed them.

Our typical day was Breakfast @ 7am,

 School start for girls and classes for us @ 8am,

 Morning Tea @ 9:30 (snack time) with our Tok Pisin teacher

 10:00 More classes for us adults.

12:15  Lunch

1:00-2:00  rest time (or get laundry from the line, get kids ready for afternoon hikes or swims or study or just lay in front of fan for a few minutes)

2:00 it was either hike or swim on Mon and Wed.  and the other days was class for us adults and usually a field trip for the kids.  Yes the kids had more fun than we did. :)

4:00 it was “free time”! If the internet was up we could check email or go to the little store for something cold to drink or try to fold laundry or study or watch the guys play volleyball. 

Volleyball!

5:45 Dinner and then the evenings were spent either with fellowship groups or trying to study or get a cold shower or do something that didn’t involve brain power.  Before and after every meal we had duties to help with meal prep or clean up or setting the dining room so that took time also.

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