Tyler and Emily in PNG

I have been studying and reading 1 Samuel. I am reading and following the story of David and his escape from King Saul. Saul pretty much wants David’s head as David took the head of Goliath. The book of Samuel displays how David is running from Saul yet David is following the compass set by the Lord.

In 1 Sam 23, David sees the Philistines are attacking the town of Keilah. This concerns David even though his main goal is to escape the grasp of Saul. But David asks the Lord, ‘Shall I go and attack these Philistines?’ He asked God again, my men are afraid, what do you want me to do? God answered again, ‘Go down to Keilah for I am going to give your enemy into your hand.’

The passage continues and David asked the Lord for his direction and the Lord alerts David and his men that the people of Keilah will turn you over to Saul if the citizens capture David. So David hurries off into the wilderness.

Jonathan, whom has pledged his loyalty to David tells him, ‘Don’t be afraid. My father will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel and even my father Saul knows this.’ But the cat and mouse game looms on as Saul wants David to be dead.

As I have been reading through 1 Samuel, it is interesting to follow the Lord’s guidance and guiding David in the right direction. Not once has David been caught in a corner, but always one step ahead of Saul. It is comforting to me that God travels with me on the roads I travel. God points out dangers and corrects my misdirection as a parent corrects a child. David asked twice for direction earlier in the passage and God answered specifically, go and attack the Philistines I will be with you.

It is not easy to follow the map laid out by God nor it is always clearly marked with huge overhead signs pointing to exits or mile markers. So how do we read God’s map for each day? I believe in order to read the map we must first, consult Him in prayer, search His Word, and Trust in Him. God speaks but sometimes we don’t listen. We need to learn to trust in Him and follow His path, not ours.

Prayer Requests:

Pray that my final 4 weeks will be fruitful
Pray that I will have a Christlike attitude during these final stretching weeks before I return to America
Pray for wisdom and God’s leading for my time in America
Pray that I may dawn the armor of God daily to fight the evil one

PS – Sorry I did not write last week, I had a major computer crash that took urgent need to recover and rebuild.

Here are a few pictures from a visit to my wasfamili on Sunday afternoon:

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Saturday I woke up with many things to do yet the lack of motivation to start any of my projects loomed large. I did my normal Saturday reading of the ‘Wantok’, national newspaper in Pidgin and drank coffee. However, I still did not want to start priming the hand rail, start working on security lights, or give the dog a bath. Oh, not to mention the power went off at 9:30 am. I was reminded by that when I was planning to drill a hole for a lag bolt.

About lunch time I got a call from Bob whom I knew was going out to the bush to transport some materials for one of our national workers. He calls and says, ‘I have a problem. Can you help?’ He said he lost his slave cylinder to the clutch thus he is stuck on a hill in the jungle of PNG. So I got some rope, grabbed a drink, Bush biscuits, and headed to rescue Bob.

I meet him on the mountain then drove down a bit to where the Toyota Hilux was resting on the hillside. I turned around, fixed the rope to our bumpers and threw the truck in 4 High. I gave him a jerk and another jerk, and pretty much nothing. I knew then I had to figure out how to put this 4 cylinder Nissan pickup in 4 Low. After reading the manual and figuring out you had to depress the shifter, I got in 4 Low. And yes it made a big difference but still a 4 cylinder pickup is not much power. I pulled the dead weight truck only to put myself in a small bind. I backed up and tried it again and again.

By this time, the whole neighboring village is watching and offering advice on how to drive in the bush in 4 Low. Ah…wait man em i save long driv insait long bus, yu bai lukim. I told the guys to get behind the white truck (Hilux) and push. All I needed was a little push to help me jerk the truck and get it rolling up the hill.

Let me explain the trail we were on…the trail was a 2 path off road dirt trail but this smaller trail was more like a single foot path. So we had one tire on the path and one tire in the bush. The problem we were facing was the weeds and bush was slick and the wheel was not gripping. My 4 wheel drive truck has limited slip differential so when one tire spins the opposite tire is idle. I knew I need to get all 4 tire spins to get out of this jam.

The weather was starting to turn and sprinkle a bit. We knew we had to get out of there soon. By this point I was almost to the point of giving up or trying a new approach to this monster. I offered a silent prayer – ‘God help us get out of this pinch we are in.’  I gave it another jerk and pull…and just like that with the help of the men pushing, I pulled the truck up the hill.

Once we got to flat ground, Bob was able to start the truck in gear and keep the truck rolling down the hill back to the highway. Once we got back to the highway, we decided to pull the truck the rest of the way into town due to the risk of not having a clutch.

It ended up being another day in the life as a missionary living and helping others in a bind.

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Last week, I went for a road trip to pick up a PBT translator flying back from the village via helicopter. Check out the short video clip.

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Here it is Monday and I just finished following the Super Bowl. Glad to see the Giants have downed the Patriots once again. As a Colts fan it was odd to read the recap of the game and all of the references to Manning. To me there is only one Manning, that be Peyton. Usually the reference to the younger brother is prefixed with Eli. However, I am still glad to see anyone beat the Patriots. Kind of like beating the Yankees in baseball.

Today has been a slow day. I worked my tail off this weekend spending all day Saturday and Sunday outside working on the house and yard. As my father would say, ‘I have to go to work to rest.’ Saturday I hired a workman to put up new barbwire on the security fence. Sunday, I tore down one of those old fashion 8’ diameter satellite dishes used to Skype aliens or something. One huge eye sore piece of rust to me. I found huge colonies of termites that I had to destroy and spray. Sadly, I think much damage has been done to the forty plus year old house.

My new favorite pastime is to walk around the property with my 24” bush knife or machete as you would refer to it in America. It gives a man some power and since of masculinity especially when I strike a branch or foreign object that is not pleasurable to my eye. Maybe if Tool Time made a bush knife, Tim ‘The Tool Man’ Taylor would call it the Binford Slasher 24”. Too bad I haven’t found one of those in the store yet.

One of the small joys today was when I saw the garbage man come today to the office. After spending last week throwing decades of junk away from the IT office, I hit a wall. I had no more space to put the junk because all trash bins were full. I’ve been throwing away 3 1/4” diskettes, old power supplies, motherboards, Windows 95 books, damaged hard drives, dial-up modems, and much more unnecessary stuff that I deemed as junk.

This week I will continue to ravage the IT office and clean up. Tomorrow I volunteered to drive out of town to pick up a colleague and translator from the bush as he shuttles via helicopter to the pick up. Between cleaning up and straightening up the IT office and my house/yard, I will continue to be busy. And without saying, I dearly miss my young lady, Emily. I am going to shame her on Friday when my birthday arrives. I know I will survive even if I have to eat pizza at the Lodge by myself.

To view my February Newsletter, click here.

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