Travel Update #21- Home

If home is where the heart is, then they made it all the way there.
Though no one heard from them until they reached San Francisco (and by that point I couldn't update here), the brothers made it safely across the Pacific. Around 10:15pm central time in Texas (and at the end of a very long Saturday for the guys)...
They safely returned to their grateful wives and a small hoard of happy little Rodgers.
Both families will be traveling home this week, glad to have our men home.

Pics to follow as soon as possible!

Travel Update #20 - from Goroka

I just heard from Thomas! They made it safely to Goroka, mid-morning Thursday. They're about to run errands in town, and will stay at a mission house overnight.

Katie

Travel Update #19 - Wrapping Up

Well, it brings some sadness to think that this is the last report I will send from Papua New Guinea. We had a good day to end the visit!


Jon and I got going around 5:45am and worked on the walls of the schoolhouse by a little after 6. We quickly wrapped the walls in the metal sheeting and began the process of measuring and cutting the gable sheets. Once we cut out the sheets Jon took the dozer back out to the airstrip to do a little more grading. Over the next few hours I finished with all of the siding and installed an exterior door. All that remains to do on the school house is cutting out a few windows and painting the floors. (This should be done over the next couple of weeks as Matt Crain has time.)


Jon fininshed filling the last little bit of the washout on the airstrip, and cut a few more drainage ditches across to help with water flow during the upcoming rainy months.

We came back the house, showered and got ready for prayer meeting. Just as we entered the church building it began to rain for the first time this week! What an answer to prayer! We had been praying that it would not rain until after we got the school building dried-in. It was only 2 hours after the project was finished that it began to rain! This rain will also help to keep the dust down on the road tomorrow.


Please pray as we take this road trip tomorrow. Pray for saftey over the next few days as Jon and I come back to our families.


Thank you again for all of your prayers,
Jon and Thomas

Jon preaching Sunday

Note from Katie: Thomas and Jon began travelling back to the town of Goroka around 4am Thursday, August 26th - that's early afternoon Wednesday here in the States. They will fly from Goroka to Port Moresby and then to Sydney on their Friday (Thursday afternoon and evening Stateside). They will have a night in Sydney (to rest and maybe tour!) and then leave Sydney on their Saturday afternoon...getting to San Francisco Saturday morning (three hours before they leave, of course) :) They have an eternal layover in San Franciso before finally flying to Texas where their wives and little people will be eagerly waiting for them!


Please be praying that they make all of their flights, and have travel mercies. Their families are looking forward to getting them back safely! :)

Inside the Schoolhouse

Schoolhouse!

Travel Update #18 - International Roof Install Team

(new pictures posted to Monday's update, too - check the previous update)

TUESDAY, AUGUST 24 - Wow, what a long day! It is nearly 8 pm and we are just finishing work and heading in. We got a lot accomplished today but the work was harder than we had expected. We had to build 8 trusses for the roof system. Once completed the truss had to be lifted onto the top of the walls, set in place, and secured. All of that took from 7am and 1pm. After a nice lunch provided by Belinda Richter, we attached cross bracing to the trusses and began securing the roof sheeting. This was a very precarious and difficult job. But we got the entire roof installed and sheeted before dark and then were able to put sheeting on one side of the building using flashlights!

 

We are tired and are reeeally looking forward to a nice night of sleep. 

Only one more day of work in Aibai before we head out. Please pray that we get a lot accomplished on Wednesday!

 

Thank you for your continued prayers,

 

Thomas and Jon

Oh...I almost forgot. While hauling more wood to the work site this morning (which we did not dump!) 

we took a detour to watch the beautiful sunrise from the top of a nearby ridge. Stunning!

Travel Update #17 - Oops.

MONDAY, AUGUST 23rd - 

Have you ever had a Monday where you felt like you should have just stayed in bed and things would have gone better? Well today was that kind of Monday for us...

It all began around 5:40am as we loaded up wood into the truck to haul up and use to build the floor system of the new school house. We loaded up a lot of wood. Everything we would need to complete the framing for the floor. Now you must keep in mind that the wood here is very, very heavy. Get that crazy soft yellow pine stuff from Home Depot or Lowes out of your mind. This stuff is nothing like that. In fact this wood is heavier than the treated material sold at said stores. So it took a lot of effort to load that truck with all of this wood. (44 planks of 2x6x10 and 16 planks of 2x6x8). 

Once this wood was loaded, I jumped in the truck and headed up the driveway to the road which would take us to the school. As I near the exit of the drive, the ENTIRE load fell out of the truck and onto the ground. To make matters worse I was still on a hill. So we had to reload the lumber in the truck again -- this time lugging it up the hill and up into the back of the truck. We only loaded half of the wood. (The first smart thing we did today!)

We dropped that load at the work site with no difficulty and returned for the remaining half-load of wood, waiting for us at the bottom of the hill at the drive. Once the wood was loaded I handed Jon the keys to the truck and told him to drive it over to the site (to say that I do not fit behind the wheel would be an understatement...it was very uncomfortable). He started the truck threw it into gear...

This was his first time to drive in PNG - and the truck lunged forward. Tragically all of the wood in the back of the truck stayed stationary and hence found itself back on the ground. After resting for a few minutes we put that wood into the truck for the 3rd time! We finally got that wood to the work site without any further difficulty.

You would think things could not get much worse after all of that.

But hey, this is PNG - the land of the unexpected! 

Once we arrived at the work site I jumped out of the truck and closed the door. Behind me I heard a frightful sound.: That was the sound of the driver door window crashing into a thoushand little peices. Not good. Especially when rainy season is approaching. Once the wood was unloaded we went to the Crain's house for breakfast. I had to proclaim to Matt how I had solved the circulation issue in the cab of the truck! I wasn't sure he would ever let me drive his truck again. He took it very well...I think.

Most of the day after the morning mess went much better! Jon pulled off of the dozer for today and Tuesday so we could attempt to complete the school building before we leave Aibai on Thursday. Today we completely framed the floor, sheeted the floor, and framed all of the walls. All went well and fairly quickly, considering everything had to be put together with 4" nails and a hammer. And not one piece of this wood is the same size! True rough-hewn lumber! A very good experience that I will never forget!

We are enjoying spending time with the nationals, especially those who are in the church here. The men have been a great help in building this building. Though many of them understand at least some English, I try to speak as much Pidgin as possible. I have really enjoyed learning this fun language. Probably one of our most spoken lines is "Hey, monkies go way back!" This is our attempt to keep the kids away from the work site so none of them get injured. The people love teaching us as much pidgin as we can comprehend! And it is not a difficult language to learn. Most short term missionaries get most of the language in just a few months!

Thanks for all of your prayers

Thomas and Jon

Travel Update #16 - A Day in the Lord's House(s)

SUNDAY, AUGUST 22 - We had a wonderful day of worship in the Lord's house. Jon and I stayed home for the first service (while the team went to Kilau, another small village nearby with a 2nd church the missionaries attend). We attended the morning service at Aibai. We were told that service started at 11am. At 10:40 Jon shouted across the house "Hey man, I hear singing!" So we dropped everything, grabbed our Bibles, threw on our shoes and quickly climed the hill to church. As we approached the building we could see Matt Crain standing outside. Uh Oh...we thought for sure we were in trouble. So we quietly and meekly appologized for being tardy. He couldn't figure out what we were talking about! Apparently the music director, Jimmy, starts at random times depending on how many people are present! Knowing that sure made things a bit easier!

We sat through a nice strong song service and then the preacher got up. Wow! This man, David Seeno (a national assistant pastor from Kilau) is a great evengelist. He was "shucking some corn." The exciting part, for me at least, is that I understood a lot of his sermon! I was thrilled! It made the service so enjoyable!

Tonight Jon, Matt and I sang a trio at church services in Kilau and Aibai, and Jon was able to preach both sermons. What a wonderful time with the believers in both villages!

ok, gutnait!

Thanks for your prayers,

 Thomas and Jon

Note from Katie: Thomas called briefly my Sunday morning, his Sunday night, from the front porch of the Berbin's house where he and Jon are staying, though the Berbins are here in the States on furlough. It was after 10pm there, and the sun had set and a pretty full moon had risen - so bright that he could see from the porch Mount Elembari glowing in the distance. Thomas told me that they feel rejuvenated from their Sunday day of rest and worship, and are ready to get to work tomorrow and see what they can get done before leaving New Guinea later this week. 

This picture isn't from Thomas-though I know he'll bring one back!
This was taken by Jon Berbin last year, from the Berbin's porch,
of Mount Elembari.

Travel Update #16 - Long, Long Days

SATURDAY, AUGUST 21 - As I sit here writing this update, the sun has already set, a beautiful nearly-full moon has risen overhead and Jon is still out on the dozer! He has been working hard since 7am (it's now 7pm) and he shows no sign of stopping. The only thing that may stop him is running out of fuel! 

He has labored all day to fill in the large washout on the side of the airstrip. The only way to fill this in is to push dirt from a big pile across the airstrip - a distance of over 100 feet! Once he has pushed in a load of dirt he must pack it by rolling over it several times. This will help to keep it from washing away with the coming rainy season. He has also cut a number of diverting drainage ditches that will slow the water runoff from going down the airstrip, and will drain it to the sides before it gets to the old washout area. The work gets very tedious and boring after a couple of hours but Jon has been doing it for more than 12 hours. The new pictures that have come through are from 5 hours ago: at that point he had filled more than 20 feet of the hole and had about another 6-8 feet to go. I'm sure he will not come in until he has completed the job.

I got the lighter job today. I spent the morning precutting 2x3 lumber for the walls of the school building. This will make the construction proceed a bit faster on Monday. Once that was complete I installed beams on the posts (which we installed yesterday) that will carry the floor of the building. Lord willing we will get the floor and walls up by dark Monday evening.

Please pray for our speedy work and our continued saftey,

Thomas and Jon

WOW what a view!

Travel Update #15 - Workin' Days

FRIDAY, AUGUST 20: 

Well our first full day of work at Aibai was very busy.

Jon ran the dozer on the airstrip all day. There are a couple of large piles of dirt that have to be removed from the airstrip and a big washout that has to be filled. Jon began by peeling off a 3-4 foot layer of good black topsoil from the larger of the two piles. This topsoil will later be stirred into the clay surface of the airstrip so the grass will be able to grow. After peeling off the topsoil he pushed dirt all the way across the airstrip to the washout. He began to slowly fill in and pack the washout. Tomorrow he will continue with that long process and hopefully be able to finish that before the weekend.

While Jon worked with the dozer I worked on a new school building for Belinda Richter. I dug 12 holes 3 feet deep and then set 12 posts in the holes, in concrete. These posts will sit over the weekend for the concrete to cure and we will begin framing the floor and walls of the building on Monday. This kind of work is something I love doing so I am very grateful to have this opportunity to do this project for the mission group here!

Tonight we enjoyed a nice meal with all of the missionaries here at Aibai. What an...um...shall we say... interesting experience! This is a wonderful group. All of the calories I consumed  at dinner, I think I burned instantly with all of the hard laughter we enjoyed together...quite the experience!

Thank you for your prayers. As we near the end of our trip (only 4 more work days) we need your prayers even more to be able to accomplish as much as possible.

Jon and Thomas

note from Katie: I talked with Crystal briefly last night, and we're both doing well. Just counting the days until our men get back! The guys have a little more availability to call us from Aibai, able to call from their lodging house instead of hiking to church to find cell coverage (although, at the house they have to practically balance on one foot and hold their lip the right way to get more than one bar of service). Now: if I could just wake up in the early, early morning when the calls come through...

Trip Update #14 - finally Aibai

THURSDAY, AUGUST 19TH:

Good Night All!

We have arrived safley in Aibai! We arose this morning around 4:30am and arrived in Aibai around 6:30pm. A very long and grueling trip! No major problems but the road was full of perils: steep drop-offs, narrow passes, bridges narrower than the dozer...very exciting!

Hopefully some of the pictures we sent came through and you can see some of the fun we had today.

Thank you for all of the prayers offered on our behalf!

Thomas and Jon

Last photos from Kiari:

Fence Posts at the Kiari Airstrip

The Super Cool Yellow Rain Suit

Us on Top - we finally climbed the mountain :)



Photos of the Trip to Aibai:

On the way to Aibai: the dozer and truck (and onlookers)

Big Tree down in the road

Dozer fording the River

Wood Bridge

A Narrow Pass

A Crowd of Good Company

Thomas called me a short while ago from Noumani, on the road between Kiari and Aibai - it was about noon their time on Thursday. They are slowly getting the bulldozer moved to Aibai. They have been moving some dirt along the way to fill in parts of the bush road, and at one point had to stop for about 2 hours to remove a fallen tree.

photos of the bush road from Kiari: (taken previously by Jeff Owens)

They were stopped briefly at Noumani, where the Crains from Aibai had made the journey to meet them. Thomas and Jon were transferring their supplies and belongings from the Kiari Crew vehicles to the Aibai truck. Thomas said he felt surrounded by good company: so many families and missionaries that we pray for back home, all walking around him as he spoke with me on a cellphone. The Smiths, Jeff Owens, Elizabeth Ellinghausen, the Crains...and they will see even more friends when they arrive in Aibai later in the day. 

At Noumani they were saying goodbye to the Smiths and Jeff, and then heading on over the bush road to Aibai with the Crains. Elizabeth is going to visit Aibai as well. They hoped to reach Aibai, bulldozer and all, by sunset. 

I, for one, will breath a heavy sigh of relief once that bulldozer (and the driver!) is past the mountain bush roads! :)

Travel Update #13 - off to Aibai

As I post this, at 3pm Wednesday here in Greenville, the guys are just getting on the road with the bulldozer entourage. Please be in prayer for a safe journey! - Katie

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18 - Today was a day of light chores and preperation for the trip to Aibai. Jon and I worked on a generator at the school house, serviced the bulldozer with Jeff and worked on the door of the truck. The window in the truck door had fallen off and was an ordeal to reattach! We had a few minutes to relax this afternoon proir to Wednesday prayer service.

At service Jon was able to preach. His first time through an interpreter! He preached out of Psalm 78 on a family that glorifies God. A very challenging and convicting message.

We are headed to bed a little early since we roll out around 5am. So this will be our last report from Kiari. Our next report should come, Lord willing, from the "megatropolis" of Aibai.

Please pray for our trip on Thursday. It will be about a 10 hour trip. The dozer is a slow moving machine that has to be followed by a support vehicle with fuel, tools and a Boskru - pronounced "boss crew" - see pidgin isn't that hard! Jeff will be our support vehicle from Kiari to Noumani where Matt Crain will meet us and help us get to Aibai. By the time most of you read this we will be on our trip!

Thomas and Jon

Why you need to pray:

 (a pic from a previous year of the road)

Travel Update #12 - Work Of The Dirt and Work Of The Word

TUESDAY, AUGUST 17 - We have been in Kiari for a week now. So much has been done, but the time is flying so fast I fear we won't get everything accomplished before heading over to Aibai on Thursday.

Today I ran the dozer all day again, because Jon wanted to go do saw mill work. Around 4:30 I cut off to work on a challenge for Fellowship tonight. Fellowship is an opportunity to minister every Tuesday night in a home where people who will not attend regular church will often attend. They rotate every week between 11 different locations. I preached out of John 3:16-19 on the condemnation that man is under due to their refusal of the Light that was sent into the world. It was another interesting experience - preacher with an interpreter. I found it very difficult to keep a steady train of thought! But the Lord was good as He always is, and I rest in the fact that His word will not return void.

While I worked with the dozer during the day Tuesday, Jon went out with Jeff to finish cutting the tree they worked on yesterday -- and then mill it. They worked alllllll day. After Fellowship I heard Jeff returning with the truck, so I helped him unload the wood and rode back to the milling site to help wrap things up. We all got in around 10:15pm. A really long day for Jon and Jeff, so I think they may sleep in a bit in the morning.

Tomorrow is our last day in Kiari. There is still some minor grading to do (crowning the airstrip and putting in 'wishbone' drainage) and then install the remainder of the fence, and then they are ready for the seed. However, the work at Aibi needs the dozer (and getting the dozer over there is a long and complicated ordeal on its own, and is easier to handle with Jon and I here and able to drive it).

Later this season or first of next, they will bring the dozer back to Kiari to add the finishing touches, probably after they get their inspection or close to it.

We head out early Thursdsay morning to begin the trek over to Aibai. Since the work at Aibai is further along than the work here, Lord willing we should be able to get most of that airstrip done!

Thomas and Jon

Note from Katie: Thomas also mentioned separately that Jon will be preaching at their Wednesday evening church service in Kiari, which will be verrrry early Wednesday morning in the States. And though they preach in English through a translator, I also was assured that they are eager students of the Pigeon tongue, and for proof I got a love note written in pigeon. :)  At least...I think...that's what that is.....

Kiari Airstrip Photos

This is where Thomas and Jonathan have been working. These photos were taken in the fall of 2009 by Dale Crawford of GFA when he visited the area, and are from the www.gfamissions.org gallery.

The airstrip  

(Yes, that curvy red strip on the side of a mountain is it!)

Travel Update #9b: Saturday, Aug 14

Thomas was finally able to send me their update from last Saturday. This is a few days old and now out of order, but here you go:

As I type this update I am being sarenaded by a symphony of thousands of rain drops dancing on the metal roof over my head! This is an unusual sound because this area of PNG has not seen rain at all in the last 2 months. The rain barrels which supply the water for the missionaries have been critically low, limiting every use of water. From showers to dishes to toilets...everything has been on highest restrictions.

This rain came very quickly about 2 hours ago. I was on the airstrip grading away when I saw a lightning bolt. A few drops of rain hit the muffler stack and instantly turned to steam and blew away in the wind. As more drops fell the dry dirt turned to a thick mud and began to adhere itself to every part of the tractor. My tracks began to spin, preventing me from getting a good grip on the land. The blade would retain half of it's load after I pushed a pile across the field. I continued to press on, enjoying the wetness of the rain on my skin, knowing what an answer to prayer it was. I started to sing very loudly while making a bigger and bigger mess of the area that I was working in.

 It was then that I noticed Jon standing on the hill in his Super Cool Yellow Rain Suit. Now a note about this rain suit: It's DRY season. Who wastes space in a suitcase with a full rain suit when you are going to an area that is experiencing a drought? Well... Jon does, apparently! There he was, standing on the hill in his Super Cool Yellow Rain Suit, with an umbrella! Now a note about the umbrella...IT WAS LIGHTNING! Who stands in the rain in a Super Cool Yellow Rain Suit with an umbrella in *lightning*? Well...Jon does, apparently! I watched as he made his way down to my mud hole and I wondered what he thought he was going to accomplish in the thick mud.

 Well like a good brother he wanted to make sure that I was ok. We decided after a few more lightning strikes that perhaps I was the biggest idiot of all. You see, unlike a car driving through a lightning storm, a bulldozer has no rubber insulating it from the ground. Which means I was driving the biggest lightning rod in the area! Now Jon's umbrella and rain suit paled in comparison to my wonderful display of brilliance!

It was at this point that we decided to head back up to the house. So Jon jummped on the dozer and stood next to me (yes we know you aren't supposed to do that...but hey it's PNG...no OSHA!) 

Now 3 things to keep in mind; 

1) It had been raining for about 45 minutes and

 2) the drive up to the house is about a 45 degree slope. 

 3) remember how I said the mud was sticking to my tracks and making it difficult to get a grip? I'm sure you can guess what happened! We did make it up to the house, but made quite a mess in the process. 

Well one good thing that may come of this rain - besides the water in the rain barrels - may be putting out some of the random fires that the nationals start on the side of the hills. 

The other day we were standing on the end of the airstrip working on fence posts when one of the national men walked up with a smoldering stick. He walked over to a pile of dry brush - now keep in mind that we're in a dry season - he stuck the smoldering stick into it, quickly starting a small fire. Well you know what happens to a fire in dry season. The fire quickly became a roaring brush fire on the side of the mountain! Jon and I were shocked and made some comment to that effect. Everyone else, including the missionaries, simply ignored the fire and went about working on the fence. We're like..."hey there's a big huge fire...like right there...don't you see it? AHH!" They all kept working. We couldn't believe it. Eventually the fire died out. We were told that this is a regular occurance as the nationals are trying to burn off the old vegitation to make way for good crops in the coming rainy season. Sinse that time I have seen the same thing happen 4 other times!  Apparently they are pretty confortable with the idea of having roaring fires right next to their grass and wood huts... I'm just not too sure about this!

We did get much accomplished on the airstrip today before the rain came. Still more dirt to move,

 but little by little, inch by inch, the landscape of the airstrip is slowly changing.

We still covet your prayers,

Jon and Thomas

Travel Update #11 - Making Progress - going to Aibai?? :)

MONDAY AUGUST 16  - Well a new week of work has begun! Not too much exciting happened today with me. I simply climbed on the dozer around 7am and worked until 6:30pm. I got a good bit of dirt moved today but still more to do tomorrow. The upper part of the airstrip is finally starting to take shape! No longer just a bunch of dirt piles and steep walls. We have moved most of the piles, leveled off most of the area where dirt has been pushed for the last 2 months (this area had to go down more than 15 feet), and began leveling the runway side to side. One side had to go down about 3 feet and the other side had to go up about 3 feet. All of this leveling has to be done while keeping the 12% slope intact. It's a lot of fun. After about 2 hours on the dozer the front blade becomes like an extension of my hand - I feel like I can literally make it do anything I want it to do. Yeah...it's fun work!

Well, while I did the fun work Jon went off to collect lumber for the remaining fence posts. Let me explain something: when you need wood to make something out here in the bush, you can't simply run over to the local Home Depot and grab what you need and start building. No, first you must find a tree. Here in PNG ownership is quite interesting. On a given peice of land ONE person can own the building, a SECOND person can own the land and a THIRD person might own the trees on the land. So not only do you have to find a nice tall, solid, straight tree, you also have to find the correct owner and figure out his price. Once you settle on a price the tree will be marked and you can go cut it down.

 Now the tree that was chosen for destruction today was at the top of a hill running along the bush road. Randy climed up the hill with the "man-of-a-chainsaw' and proceeded to decapitate the tree from it's root system. When the tree fell it slid down the hill right toward the road, being de-barked and de-limbed all the way down. Once the tree came to rest the real work began. Jon had to climb the side of this mountain, with said chainsaw, and cut the main trunk into 8' sections. Once a section was cut it had to be rolled to one side and slid down the mountain to the river below where it would await its final doom at the hand of the saw mill. The wood was very hard and the grade very steep, but Jon survived! I could only wonder...was it the supper cool yellow rain suit that made a difference for him?

Thomas

Jonathan hasn't emailed full updates, but he did talk with Crystal and shared some of his experiences: "He was observing how much the native kids loved his ipod and "cool-dude" headphones. He allowed several of them to put it on and their eyes just widened in joy and amazement!  They may never be able to hear the triumphant strains of a full orchestra or the rhythmic beat of a marching band again...sounds that we simply take for granted. He talked to me while looking over the side of the mountain some several thousand feet down, he is loving being in that incredibly beautiful part of God's creation :), if we were not back here in the states, he might never return to the boring old USA:) Jonathan didn't talk a lot about the airstrip, just said that he is losing weight as he is digging post holes and milling lumber, and loving every minute!"

Note from Katie: Thomas mentioned in a brief separate email that they might be able to move the equipment on Thursday to start work on the runway in Aibai (where they originally planned to go!), if the work on the Kiari strip continues in the next day or two so well! This would be a huge praise to the Lord. I know Jon and Thomas are enjoying their time with the Smiths et al, and are excited to be working in Kiari, but they really desired to get to Aibai if at all possible and do some work for our good friends, the Berbins. 

IF they're able to move on to the Aibai Airstrip, they will have to drive "the elephant" bulldozer down the hazardous bush roads to the village of Aibai - a good 10 hour drive by bulldozer. Please be praying for good weather, great progress on the airstrips, and safety as the guys work and move equipment. thanks!

Travel Update #10: Four Thousand Words from the fat Americans

 Thomas managed to upload 4 pictures and send them through Catherine McQuaid's cellphone, since sending a photo by satellite email probably literally costs as much as sending a thousand words. Here they are!

(Click for bigger photos. Note the stickers on the side of the bulldozer. There's one big square one under Jon's elbow, and a long one along the top of the nose of the tractor. :)   You can also see the cool-dude headphones the guys got for the trip: noise cancelling so they can listen to 

Pastor Minnick's Romans series sermons.

 Now tell me - two very close brothers go to the other side of the world to a beautiful tropical land, leaving the nagging ("take a shower!") women behind, where they can play in the dirt all day with a big tractor and wear cool-dude headphones to listen to sermons

 - now tell me they're not having the time of their lives.)

I also received an email update about their Sunday. I think there's an update missing: Thomas told me via phone call that the Saturday update should bring a few laughs, but I haven't seen it yet. I'll see if he can send it again. Meanwhile, here's Sunday:

Well today was a nice slow day. We arose and enjoyed a breakfast with the Smith family of baked oatmeal. Then we headed down to church which is about a 20-30 minute walk. Church was a great experience! I enjoyed singing in the Pigeon tongue. What really threw Jon and I for a loop was that Randy preached this morning in Pigeon, a language I barely understand, and he had a translator giving his sermon in"talk place" which is the local tribal language...boy were we confused!

We had our lunch at church and waited for the afternoon service. After the service Jon and I and 5 of the young men from Kiari (Suo, Rocky, Phillip, Bandi, Thomas) decided to attempt to climb to the top of a mountain behind the Smith's house. One problem...ok maybe more than one...the elevation change from church to the Smith's house is probably about 500 feet (not to mention the additional hike to the top of the mountain), and takes about 20-30 minutes to traverse. Well our wonderful national guide deicided it would be better if we ran! Ha! Do you know what it feels like to be out of shape, in high elevation and running after a national who doesn't have shoes on? Yikes...it was painful! I made it to the Smith's house in record time, breathing very heavily! Our 5 friends weren't even sweating or panting!

 Well, I bailed at the house, but Jon decided to continue the rest of the way with the guys. About 5 minutes later I heard Jonathan shouting from the school yard. He wanted me to climb the last 75 feet and join him. So I gathered my remaining strength and water and climbed up the hill. I found Jon sitting at the top absolutely wiped. He couldn't go any further either! So we sat there and enjoyed the nice view from the school yard overlooking Kiari. Like a couple of sad, out-of-shape Americans, we never made it to the higher ridge! We plan on trying again on Monday...we'll see.

After all of that craziness we came back the house and enjoyed a relaxing snack time with the Smiths and Jeff. We had popcorn, banana cake, pb&j and Coke! We also enjoyed a bunch of photos showing the work on the airstrip up to this point. We were completely amazed! Our work here is just a drop in the bucket compared to all of the countless thousands of hours that have been poured into this airstrip. We are truly blessed to be a part of something so big. We plan on attacking more of the project tomorrow.

Jon and Thomas

(note from Katie: Hey, Crystal, now that we know they can run the distance between the Smith's house and the church, we should be getting phone calls more often, hey?) ;)

Travel Update #9 - can you hear me? can you hear me?

Since Thomas told me the only place they can get reception for the cell phone is down near the church in Kiari, I've been hoping that perhaps the guys could call before or after their Sunday services. Sure enough! A little while ago I FINALLY got to talk with Thomas, after a full week!
However - apparently they were in a big cloud on the mountaintop, and the call was breaking up very badly. I could hear him enough to learn that they got alot accomplished on Saturday, and enjoyed some nice rain Saturday evening and a great night's sleep. It's a beautiful Sunday morning and they're preparing for Sunday School, then a break, then Morning Service and a service in the afternoon.
The call was so bad that we were wasting expensive cell minutes exchanging "can you hear me?" so we gave up - he'll try to call again later if the clouds clear.

They have an email typed up to send out -  maybe even with pictures! - but the satellite service is down and they can't connect to the internet currently. I'll post it once it comes through...

Info for the curious

No news, but here are a few links to more information for those of you who are curious,
and some prayer requests. Please sign the guestbook, linked to the right!

Weather forecast for Kiari, Chimbu Province, Papua New Guinea

Who is Jeff Owens?  

(also: Jeff's Website)

Who are the Smiths?

History of and more information on the GFA Missionaries in Papua New Guinea

Demographic information on Papua New Guinea

Prayer requests: 
note the weather forecast calls for some rain in Kiari over the next few days. I'm sure the rain will slow work on the airstrip - I can't imagine what it'd be like to "drive an elephant" bulldozer in the mud.
Pray that the Lord would give good weather for the work to continue full speed ahead. 

Also: as we near our US Saturday evening, it will be dawning Sunday morning for the tired workers in PNG. Pray for a good refreshing Lord's day and good day of rest, that their bodies will be renewed with energy for another 6 days of labor.

Travel Update #8: preventing squashed pigs in the sweltering heat

FRIDAY, AUGUST 13: Well, today got a little hot! I think we got all the way up to 79. I sure hope tomorrow isn't that bad...sure can't get much accomplished in that kind of heat!

I say all of this of course in jest because I know that many of you who are reading this wish it would just get down to 79 overnight! The weather has been tremendous here in Kiari. Some clouds and some sun provide nice working temperatures throughout the entire day.

Today Jon and I got up nice and early with the intent of accomplishing a lot!

I began work on the dozer around 6:45am. There is still a good bit of dirt to move on one section of the airstrip. This is a time consuming process as the only way to move the dirt is by pushing it one blade-full at a time. But I'm not really complaining since I got through 5 sermons in Romans before lunch! It is a lot of fun to be halfway around the world pushing dirt with a bulldozer and listening to Pastor Minnick exposite the Word of God.

While I worked on the dozer Jon continuted to dig holes for the fence that is surrounding the airstrip. This fence is being put in to keep pigs and goats off of the runway. As Randy said, "a 1000 meter fence is a lot less expensive than a plane hitting a pig." 

After lunch we shot grade (used a transit to determine the slope and level) on the airstrip and discovered that we had a lot more dirt to move than originally thought. So Jon took over the dozer work and I headed over to continue digging more fence post holes. I used a post hole digger along side of a national man who had another post hole digger. I remember now why I was supposed to bring work gloves. All of the nationals helping with the fence roared with laughter when I yelped at the pain of a popping blister. For some reason they get great delight in seeing me suffer! Well admittedly it may not be from my suffering but from trying to be all manly "white man can do it with out gloves"! I won't be doing that again! 

Yesterday one of the younger men was commenting on my funny looking skin. It took me a while to figure out what he was talking about, but eventually I understood and explained to him that what I had was a curse of the white man. When a white man goes to a tropical region and stays out in the sun all day he changes from white to red to brown. He thought that was quite humorous!

Well the sun has been down for 3 hours now. After a nice dinner of potato soup and bread, with oatmeal and raisin cookies for desert, my lack of energy has caught up with me. I think I'll call it a day.

Thanks for all of your prayers

Thomas and Jon

Travel Update #7: Busy days

Wow - I'm feeling spoiled! I think Thomas has emailed an update to me two days in a row! Word from the bush will be sparse, since satellite internet service really costs the missionaries by time/data size. :(  Thomas also told me that he wants to call, but "calling from Kiari is very difficult. Can only call down by the church...a 30 minute walk. I have been so busy that I can't get down there. I will try though." Addelyn and I are back from our camping adventure, so when Daddy calls we can try to answer the phone this time - and we'll have reception, for sure. I haven't talked to Thomas since last Saturday, and it's starting to feel like a really, really long time! :(

THURSDAY AUGUST 12, 2010 - Today began bright and early for Jon and I. We got up around 5:30am, did devotions, dressed and enjoyed a nice breakfast of eggs and fried potatoes prepared by our wife-less host, Randy Smith (Elana returns Friday from a ladies retreat in Kilau). Following breakfast we prepared the dozer for a long day of work. We checked all the fluids, greased all of the joints, filled it with diesel fuel and checked the track tension. Once this was done Jon began a long day of grading on the airstrip. He was able to accomplish a great deal. Tomorrow we should be able to shoot grade points and be sure that the airstrip is at a nice 12% slope.

 While Jon was grading I left with Jeff and a few men from church and headed off to another village about 35 minutes away where we began setting up the saw mill. Setting up the saw mill took nearly 2 hours. It required a lot of leveling and squaring to get all of the parts to line up so they would not bind while in use. We milled 5 logs today each about  9 feet long and 2 feet in diameter. The wood we were milling was very hard, and very heavy. The milling took till after dark. We finally headed back to Kiari by 7. when Jeff and I were pulling into the compound, we noticed that Jon had just come up from the aristrip with the tractor. Both of us having put in a long day, are exhausted and ready for bed. Lord willing we will accomplish more on Friday.

Thanks for all of your prayers,

Jon and Thomas