The plan

Thomas and Jonathan Rodgers are preparing for
a 3-week mission trip this August 7-28
to Papua New Guinea (a small island located north of Australia).
Papua New Guinea

The brothers will be working with some heavy equipment the Lord has miraculously provided to finish installing a runway on the side of a mountain at the missionary compound in Aibai, PNG. Aibai is a small village where our friends the Mike Berbin family and a team of other missionaries lead medical, educational, and church ministries.

Both Jonathan and Thomas have experience using such heavy equipment; Jonathan owned a large landscaping company for a number of years, before entering the ministry himself in North Carolina. Thomas learned to operate the equipment while working for Jonathan, and has gone on to use bobcats and bulldozers frequently with his own renovation and property maintenance business. While the runway in Aibai has been "started", it needs to be graded, extended, and then topped with soil from another property to encourage a grass surface and prevent washout.
Partially completed airstrip at Aibai
(the airstrip is located to the left of the Aibai mission compound; note the goats and man standing on the near end of the large airstrip, and the washout lines currently crossing the property)

It will take the men all of their 2.5 weeks on the ground to complete the task, and hopefully will allow the Berbins to see the answer to 15 years of work and prayer, when they fly in and land on the new airstrip. For the first time they will be able to avoid the hazardous road trip to the village when they travel back to Aibai early this fall after their current furlough in the US.


the current method of reaching the Aibai village:
a hazardous mountain trip over washed-out roads
and precarious bridges, through areas favored by theives;
this trip takes 6-8 hours *on a good day*.

The trip is highlighted by the raw beauty of the Papua New Guinea mountains.


How can you help?
Please pray!
-for Thomas and Jonathan to have safety as they travel and work

-for the equipment to work efficiently (no breakdowns!) during the short time alotted for the trip

-for preaching opportunities while the brothers are there - teaching the gospel to some who've never heard

-for safety of their wives and children staying behind in the States

-for financial provision - each brother is raising $4500 to cover trip expenses

Want more information? Email us





Monday, August 16, 2010

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!
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