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 23, 2010

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







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