Tyler and Emily in PNG

As I sat in church, I glared out the top window and noticed huge palm branches stretching out in all direction. I remember as a child we would also wave palm branches or something resembling palm branches on Palm Sunday. We would yell ‘Hosanna in the Highest’ and sing song as we heard the story of Jesus arriving in Jerusalem on a young donkey.

Though this Sunday the message was not about Palm Sunday or Jesus arriving in Jerusalem, I still like to read the account in the gospels of Jesus. I was particularly attracted to Luke’s account in chapter 19 and how Jesus approached the Pharisees.

As Jesus was riding on donkey and approaching the city of Jerusalem and crowd was shouting…

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory to God. v38

The not so friendly Pharisees who were amidst the crowd asked Jesus, ‘Teacher, make your disciples stop shouting!’ Another words, these followers of yours are making us, Pharisees, uncomfortable with all of this ruckus. Jesus answered them with this cute response, ‘If they keep quiet, these stones will start shouting.’ Could you image a concert of stones or perhaps a rock concert shouting out to God?

Every Sunday there is a given time for testimony during the service. This Sunday a man stood up to testify. He told a story of a man at a previous church that shared a testimony every single Sunday. The man continued to say, this gentleman had a fire inside his heart to share the amazing things of Christ. He had a concern for others and for the sake of Christ.

As I listened to his testimony, I pondered, do I have a fire in my heart to share Christ every day or every moment I have? Do I have a testimony to share every Sunday or any other day? I was challenged by this man as well as the disciples to ‘shout’ Hosanna for the coming of the Lord.

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I sat down at my computer desk (aka my other job) after a long day finishing at 4 pm and tried to gather my thoughts of what I accomplished for the day. All I could think of was the two flat tires that I had to fix at 9 am. This was the first task of many on that Monday though I could not remember what else took place.

That is pretty much the picture in a nutshell what Tech Services looks like here in PNG. (Tech Services is your equivalent of a handy man/utility man/maintenance man, etc.) If you recall, I once before had the double duty of two jobs, IT and Tech Services back in Oct/Nov 2011. That was for a definite time period as the person was on furlough. This time around I am the man for the job infinitively. Yes, that is right, I am pulling double duty for an unknown length of time.

Last week Monday, Emily and I went to the airport at 6 am to say goodbye for the final time to our good friends, teammates, and our Tech Services boss man…Bob Harper and his wife Jacque. So pretty much by default, I assume his job responsibility and also supervising three national employees. I can report, so far so good.

As I have been sharpening my handy man skills at work, it never fails that somehow work and home always mix. I wrote before about the hole in my roof and the pipe to nowhere, well this past weekend I tackled another job. This job has been known for many months or perhaps years though it was critical I was able to band aid the problem while we were on furlough last year. The problem we have in PNG is termites (or white ants as they are referred to here).

These buggers love two things we have in quite abundance, water and wood. It is also part of my job to be the exterminator so every weekend I grab my spray bottle filled with chlordane and spray any new termite tunnels. Our home has 100% wood floors so as time progresses and the termites get hungry, our nice wood floors slowly deteriorate. It was my goal to replace three boards this weekend that had large holes in them. Nonetheless, it was a liability.

I purchased the boards, sanded them, applied clear coat varnish, and they were ready to be cut and installed. The job turned out to be more of a challenge than I hoped for partially due to the curvature of the lumber and the boards I bought were not 100% matched to the original. In the ‘Land of the Unexpected’ you learn not to take ‘no’ for an answer so I did overcome these obstacles. Though the finished job is not your professional quality workmanship, it will pass inspection of this house. It also helps that the location is not in a high traffic area, and most visitors will never notice the repairs by sight.

(Sheba gives her four paw approval)

If I could re-title this blog post it would be – ‘honey-do’ list gets shorter.

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Ah the first week of March and my birthday month is over so no more excuses. I apologize again to the faithful followers of this blog. I have not been as faithful to you as you are faithful to this blog. I am finding it more and more difficult to sit down and write my life journey with you. Not that I don’t have time but by the end of the day I am exhausted of looking at a computer screen. During the day, I am busy helping others and solving end user issues that even writing an email to a friend or family member does not happen.

Though there is good news…the Hewitt monthly newsletter has been published! You can find the March newsletter here.

One highlight of the weeks past was attending the pukpuk races. A pukpuk is a crocodile in Tok Pisin. We do not have pukpuks in Madang town though we do have lots of them in rivers in PNG. I had never been to a pukpuk race but heard of them in the past. It is held at the country club and this year it was to benefit the disability center in town and also Rotary Club. The basic idea is that of a horse race though instead of horses you race pukpuks. There is a fishing line tied to the pukpuk and a reel of sorts at the finish line that you (the jockey) wind up to reel in the pukpuk. Of course, the fastest pukpuk wins the race.

PBT took part in sponsoring the races and I was one of their two jockeys. The other jockey was Michelle. She really stole the show with winning 4 straight races. Sadly, I did not win a single race and I have to blame the poor reel. Trust me, there was definitely an advantage and disadvantage depending on what lane you were assigned to with what reel.

It was still fun to watch the races and cheer on our team. In the end, Emily and I won a nice stainless steel electric teapot and also a free large pizza. It was an evening worth attending and we have fun.

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