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





Thursday, August 19, 2010

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! :)


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