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!)