Tyler and Emily in PNG

We have officially been back in the ‘land of the unexpected’ for two full weeks. It has been a busy 14 days. Last week we were contained in a conference room for a week long annual branch meeting. It was a good meeting which as a group we accomplished much and set forth for another year. We elected three new directorship roles and disbanded a long running committee which has changed focus over the two previous decades.

Since I have been back, I have encountered some home repairs. Though we do not own this house, we are responsible for much if not all of the maintenance work. After been gone for the past 10 months you can guess the repair list. I knew a few of the issues I needed to address such as replacing terminate damaged floor boards, installing new fly wire, and leaking faucets. However there were two unknown projects that needed immediate attention.

Last Saturday I got the ladder out to journey upward to the roof. It was my goal to check on our new gutters that were put in place last March before I left the country. I wanted to check the integrity and see how much gunk has gathered in the gutters. The placing of the ladder was imperative for what was to be seen. As soon as I climbed to roof level, I found a rather disturbing scene. I had a hole in my roof! Luckily, the hole was over the eave and no water had  come inside the house. However, this hole still had to be fixed ASAP as we are in rainy season and who knows how long the hole has been in the roof. End of story, Bob came yesterday and got it all fixed.

The other disturbing scene was seeing water come up from the ground. I knew that was not good! Yes, it has been raining everyday, but that does not mean water should be coming up from the ground. Of course I didn’t have a shovel so I had to buy a new shovel in town the next day. As I started to dig where the water was coming from I found a 3” black pipe. I traced this pipe back to the laundry/garage building and I knew it was discharge or gray water pipe. As I continued to dig to find out where this pipe went, I quickly found that the pipe simply was cut-off and ended right there in the yard. It was no more than 8” below the grass. I again talked to Bob about this problem and he mentioned to me, that many people in PNG discharge their gray water into the yard. This was our case as well. Problem solved but the problem has not been fixed…perhaps I will just cover the pipe back up and let the washer machine empty out into the back yard.

Besides home repair we had another issue with our truck. We had no working air conditioning. I thought that was funny since when I left in March it worked great. So I thought, I guess the freon could have leaked out or expired over the past year while the truck was sitting idle. After all, we did have a rat chew through some mechanical wires in the engine compartment while we were gone so perhaps the same rat got a ‘high’ from a leaking air conditioning unit. Once again, I talked it over with Bob and he had a look at it the next day. As we were diagnosing the problem, Bob spotted a loose wire on the compressor. With a cheap wire nut we were able to join the two wires thus supply power back to the compressor. Ah…the refreshing breeze of cold air in hot, humid Madang is once again welcomed.

So our first two weeks back have not been lacking any excitement. And not to forget, I also fixed the hot water heater by replacing the booster switch with a spring loaded timer switch.

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts as we have been settling back into the swing of life in PNG. Be on the lookout for our February newsletter by next weekend.

Read Full Post »

The long awaited arrival back to Madang has finally come and past. We arrived 6 hours later than scheduled on Sunday afternoon, but we cannot complain. All flights, connections, and international transits were great. Our only hang-up was in Port Moresby with our domestic flight to Madang which was delayed till 3 pm from its original departure at 9:30 am.

Before our arrival back to PNG, we enjoyed a beautiful stay with my brother and his family in Honolulu. The newest member of the family baby Rachel Elizabeth Hewitt was a joy to hold. My brother put Emily and I up at the Hale Koa Hotel (military resort) in Waikiki which was a pleasure. Emily and I enjoyed a Hawaiian sunset and a walk on the beach plus some last minute R&R Waikiki style. Though the stay was short we enjoyed many of the sights of Oahu including military history (USS Arizona, Missouri, and Utah Memorials), North Shore and a whole island drive.

This past week we have been adjusting back to the time and temperature of PNG. (We are +16 hours ahead of central time) We unpacked, setup house, went shopping, bought market foods including great pineapple, papaya, and bananas, and enjoyed friends with a few game nights.

We have withheld from working too much at the office though I did get pulled into quite a few jobs from day 1. I fixed three computer system fans one morning in the publications office that I noticed were not working. Keeping airflow and computers cool in the hot climate here is very important. The office also got a brand new copier/printer/scanner/fax machine on Tuesday which will be my job to setup and install. I started to read the quick start manual and play around with it a bit this week to get a feel for what will be ahead the week after next.

Emily has been busy with setting up home. Putting pictures around the house, clothes in the the closet, and finding out what is in the kitchen. The house we are staying in is a new house for the both of us though I lived here for six weeks before I left last year. Today she will be preparing cinnamon roles for our annual general meeting next week.

Thank you for your prayers last week during our travels. We are free of illness and gaining our legs back from the jetlag. We have been going to bed early and rising early as well. Please prayer this next week for our annual general meeting. We, as a team, will be meeting to discuss business and matters at hand. We are also slated to elect three directors roles, too.

Read Full Post »

Welcome again to the year 2013. I guess the world did not end after all as the Mayan calendar predicted. I like to look at the new year as lucky 13, or it is just more fun to have that perspective. There is plenty on my mind but before I get carried away I want to reflect on what God did in 2012.

2012 Highlights:
The biggest news this past year was tying the knot with my beautiful bride. May 14 was a wonderful day and God gave me a wonderful woman, Emily. Yep, that was the best thing to happen last year so I guess the rest is just trivial.

Ok…for those who like more…we spent June at church camp, the rest of summer in Alaska, fall in Dallas, Nov in Indiana, and finally back in Montana to wrap up the year with Christmas. I don’t think I ever experienced a Montana Christmas like this one, a frozen –20 F morning. Santa had lots of hot chocolate in Big Sky that night.

However, the year did end on a high note. Emily’s home church does 5th Sunday offerings where all the offering from the 5th Sunday of the month goes towards missions that her church supports. Last year, there were 5 5th Sundays in 2012. A rarity in itself and Emily and I got the pleasure to share during the morning services about ‘Good Gifts’. The Sunday offerings were totaled and it was the largest 5th Sunday offering Fifth Ave Christian Church ever received. Praise God! All of the money given that Sunday went to missions and world outreach. Wow…what an awesome faith promise and statement. It is very humbling to be apart of a church body with such a world vision.

2013 Preview:

As you are aware, we are in our final hours of being stateside. We are departing Montana tomorrow for our start back to Papua New Guinea. We are stopping in Hawaii to visit my brother before continuing across the Pacific.

As we have been saying good-bye, I have been telling folks see you in 1000 days. That is about the time we are projecting to be on the field this term, 3 years or about 1000 days (365×3). Yes we are leaving the comforts and luxuries of America and trading them for the rough and developing country of Papua New Guinea. We are both ready and eager to return to our team and ministry we left behind over 9 months ago.

We know the work will not be easy and tough times are expected but we know and God has confirmed to us that we are to be in Papua New Guinea serving him during this season of our life.

We are so thankful of the times we had this past year to reconnect with so many of you and share what God is doing through us with PBT in PNG. We (everyone collectively) are on one team and it is exciting to see what the team can do through Christ whom strengthens us. We can do anything!

However, anything can easily turn into nothing unless we first pray. Emily and I ask you to pray for us specifically over the next few days, weeks, and months as we start our home together in PNG. January is a packed month for us as we have important team meetings for one week, Jan 21-25.

Recently, I heard Oswald Chambers quoted from his Oct 17 devotion…

Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work.

http://utmost.org/the-key-of-the-greater-work/

It is easy to forget that the most important tool in the bag is simply, prayer. As we start our new year together and as we depart the confines of the USA, please remember us in prayer.

Fifth Ave Christian Church praying over us last Sunday.

Read Full Post »