Tyler and Emily in PNG

The past few weeks I have been reviewing quotes and trying to arrange for a contractor to come and redo my gutters. The old gutters were probably 30 years old and rusty. Some spots had holes 3 feet long so yes, it was definitely past time to replace the gutters.

This was a very important task because this is how I collect water. I have a big water tank under my front porch which collects all the rainwater from the roof. Up until today, most of that rainwater was going straight through my gutters to the ground.

I was getting settled on a quotation which I found through investigative work that PVC/plastic gutters were less expensive than steel/metal gutters. I was pleasantly surprised by this and glad too. I know PVC gutters will never rust. So I got the quote and was expecting a high price which it was. I figured I will buy the materials and they can do the labor. And yes the contractor’s price was about 3x the amount I paid for one 3 meter gutter length. Contractor quoted K120 or $60 per gutter. I found them for K40 or $20 per gutter. It doesn’t take a ‘very smart’ missionary to figure out which is the better deal.

As I was dealing with the contractor and he said, when you buy the materials give me a call. Then he started talking about a plumber. I first thought, he must be talking about his next job or something. But no, he said my gutter job would require a plumber. I said, a plumber? He said, yeah this is a plumber job, it deals with water.

After I told that to our Technical Services (super maintenance man) Bob, he laughed and said, plumber for what? Nonetheless, Bob said he would help me on Monday to put up the gutters if only I would first remove all the old metal gutters.

On Saturday, I climbed up and down the ladder all day to remove the old, rusty gutter in preparation for Bob and his team to come hang the new PVC gutter. Monday at 9 am, the crew showed up to hang and install the new gutter that I provided. All went well and I never knew it would take three ‘plumbers’ to install gutters.

I told Bob, Tech Services guy, if it takes a plumber to install gutters then I guess it takes an electrician to install a septic tank. Go figure.

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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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In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Eph 6:16

The month of January has been a tough month for me and I am glad to see February on the calendar in a few short days. You remember the 14 of January my apartment/flat was broken into. Well, the devil is still hard at work and still attacking me. The next week (I did not have courage to write this last week), my cousin wrote me an email stating there was a fire in Alaska.

Before I moved to PNG, I moved out of my one bedroom apartment and my cousin graciously allowed me to store many of my belongings in his basement. I moved many of my earthly treasures to his place and stored other items in my small trailer at another location. Friday the 13th, I got an email stating the house my cousin was living at had a 3am fire. The fire started in the basement and consumed everything there. The fire did not destroy the house but caused much smoke damage to the two story building. The newspaper story said the floor was hot and nail heads were showing through the carpeted floor.

It is hard for me to put words to my frustration and sadness. I cannot recall all items I placed there for safe keeping but do remember I had a twin mattress, desktop computer, and majority of my clothes. I do anticipate returning to Alaska later this year. At that time, I will have a final count of items lost.

Apart of me says I should not go back and count it all as lost. I should just stay in Papua New Guinea where my life exists now. Why go home to a life that once was? The good news is I still have many people there that love me and a small trailer with some treasures still left. I pray as my trailer which is probably buried under 6’ of snow that there is no major water leak causing mold.

As I review the month of January, I am aware that I am under spiritual warfare. I am being attacked by the ‘flaming arrows’ but I stand in the victory of Jesus Christ. I thank you for your prayers after the break in and now I plead again for your petitions. We serve a mighty God and a loving God who is gracious and a forgiving Savior.

Prayer Requests:
Protection again the evil one
Settling into a new house
Settling into a new community and surroundings
Emily who has left for furlough
Airfare and good flight schedules for my return in a few months

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Eph 6:12

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One year ago today I stepped out of the Air Niugini plane onto the soil of Papua New Guinea. Today marks my one year anniversary of ministry with Pioneer Bible Translators in Papua New Guinea.

Today also marks moving day. I moved out of my apartment/flat into another house. A God given opportunity presented itself and He opened the door for me and for the future years ahead. I will not go into too much detail at this time but the house and location is a significant upgrade that the previous one bedroom apartment I have been staying in for the past 8 months.

Last week, the membership of the branch held its annual general meeting (AGM). All week we discussed hot topics, made decisions, and heard many reports including team ministry reports from all missionaries. It was a long week but I believe somewhat productive. This year will be different for the branch as many missionaries are returning home for furlough, including myself.

As you have heard, I am officially the Administrator of IT for the branch. Following the meeting and for the weeks ahead, I will be seeing fit that my ‘new’ office is to my liking. It will be a big task to sort through the various odds and ends that were left by the previous administrator.

I am stilling moving forward from my recent break-in and theft of electronic equipment from my apartment. I am grateful for the many prayers and hedge of protection that has been around me. Last week, I heard more bad news from Alaska as well. I am trying to move forward and not dwell on things that I cannot change or influence. The ‘deceiver and destroyer’ has been trying to discourage me and knock me off track but I press forward with Christ at my side.

Thank you for praying and please continue praying for me. I enjoy the ministry that God has put in front of me here in PNG. My I aim remains the same, to bring honor to Him in all I do.

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A typical Saturday turns out to be anything far from ordinary. A day planned to spend time with friends out of town ends with an unexpected phone call. A phone call from a fellow missionary stating my flat/apartment has been broken into. As I arrived back to my home, indeed I found that a person broke in through three security doors. The person used a 1/2” piece of rebar to pry and force entry through these security doors. Once inside my home, they took any and all electronics that they could find. Including three laptops, GPS unit, camera, speakers, MP3 player, mobile phone, along with a pair of sneakers and a water pump/filter. The police were notified and came to the scene of the crime to document and interview.

The good news is no one was harmed or injured. Plus the Lord was looking after me as my personal and work laptop was not at my home but at the office. The person also did not steal either of my two external hard drives which store all my personal information and data. Thus I did not lose any critical data or information. All three laptops were not mission critical. Their primary purpose was home entertainment (movie watching or music playing) plus emergency backup to my main laptop.

I am actively working with the local authorities. I provided a detail list of items stolen and the values of those items. I am far from holding my breath on the chance of recovering any stolen items.

The biggest distraction to me has been personal violation of my home. I feel disturbed, interrupted, and simply violated. The trust or sense of security I had in my little apartment is now gone. I personally feel safe but none of my possessions I feel is safe while I am absent from the home.

Please pray for me as I struggle emotional. Pray for security and safety while I reside at my home. Pray that I may rest well at night. Pray that God will convict those who broke in and stole from me. Pray that the local police will be active in searching for those who have committed this crime.

As I have been mediating and praying over the past few days the scripture God brought to my heart is that of Jars of Clay in 2 Corinthians 4.

⁸ We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. ⁹ We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.

¹¹ Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.

¹⁸ So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
2 Corinthians 4 (NLT)

I may be knocked down however I am not destroyed. Yes, trouble is lurking on all sides. However, Paul challenges us to fix our eyes on things that cannot be seen. Not to fix our eyes on earthly material possessions but things that are stored in heaven where moth nor rust will destroy. Thus these things we cannot see will last forever.

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So here we are year 2012. 2011 has come and gone and was it a year to remember. (If you are a blog follower of mine, you can view my 2011 Year in Review for more detail.) As I reflected on the past year, I give honor and glory to God for blessing me and holding me close to Him. During the past year, I have done many things in which I never dreamed I would do. Only through God all things were made possible (Matt 19:26). Now with the new year upon us, I glare into the future and see a bright future and many great things to come. With the official notice of my role and long term future with PBT, I am excited to see how God will use me to build His kingdom here in Papua New Guinea. I am reminded that I must continue to ‘Trust and Obey’ as the popular hymn title states.

With the new year comes resolutions, goals, and new beginnings, I like to focus my energy on how I can grow and become closer to God in my relationship with Him. In a recent e-devotion, I captured this which I believe gives me a good focus for 2012:

Consider that we’re on a journey, through Jesus, to become like the heavenly Father, where we become one with his heart, one with his mind, and one with his other-centered focus. We are called to become Christ-like, and when we resemble Jesus, we resemble the Father (John 10:30).

During the holiday season it became known to me that Christmas and any other known holiday is just not the same on the mission field. Being stripped of your comforts and traditions lessens the joy and steals the attitude of being like Christ.

Please join with me in prayer for the annual general meeting, pray for my attitude that it may represent Christ, and pray for my patience and irritability when dealing cross-culturally. Continue to pray for health, safety, and security on the mission field. Pray that God will cast satan out of my life and out of my way.

To read the full January Newsletter: click here

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How can I sum up 2011? Well, let me try to capture and highlight each month of the past year.

January – I left the frigid, arctic cold of Alaska on the 21st. I remember packing up my apartment and finding my water had froze, I guess there was no better time to leave Alaska than then. I arrived to Papua New Guinea on the 23rd and was greeted warmly at the airport. My weary eyes were heavy and ready for rest. After the branch annual meeting, I was off to Pacific Orientation Course (POC) for 14 weeks to learn culture and language.

February/March – POC is located on top of an overlooking vista of the Bismarck Sea (Pacific Ocean). I remember waking to numerous South Pacific sunrises. During POC we went on a three day hike, swam 1 mile in the ocean, and continued language acquisition in preparation for five weeks of village living.

April – This month was challenging and satisfying. I learned so much from my local wasfamili (watch family) and the customs of the land. I enjoyed the simple life style yet satisfied lives they lived. This relational culture is friendly and caring. Sleeping in a tradition village house under my mosquito net was something I never imagined doing.

May – After five weeks of village living, I was glad to be done. I was ready for running water, electricity, and of course my computer with internet. POC was finished and now I was ready for my next chapter of this journey. I started orientation at the office in Madang learning the in’s and out’s of living and working in town. Transition from POC to village living to my flat in town was challenging but again it is life of a missionary.

June – After settling into my new flat and office with PBT, it was time to get to work. The previous IT Administrator left the country, so I was left to my own devices to figure out all these cables, servers, and computers. Not to mention the first week on the job, we had an internal cabling problem which lead to no internet for a few days. Nothing like being thrown into the fire or should I say initiation into the life as a missionary. One good experience was celebrating the Queen’s Birthday with a kayak trip to Krangket Island. Then shortly after starting a relationship with my new found best friend, Emily.

July – The fourth of July was well just another day in PNG. However we did have a BBQ, bobbed for apples and lite sparklers. A few weeks later, I had to go see this place everyone talks about, Ukarumpa. Ukarumpa is the headquarters for SIL and in fact the world’s largest mission station. I wanted to venture up to the Eastern Highlands to visit my friends from POC. A nice four day weekend and a return trip by PMV.

August – Emily and her roommate left for two weeks to teach at a bush Bible college. While they were gone, I built them a book shelf and had it painted and installed by the time they came back to town. One weekend, I expanded my cultural exposure by attending a cultural show in town. Many of the regions of PNG were represented and it was an educational experience to attend.

September – Once again, I found time to escape town and kayak to Krangket Island for a little leisure time. At the end of the month, the branch met for a spiritual retreat at the Madang Lodge. The president of PBT came from Dallas to lead the retreat which was focused on rebuilding taken from Ezra and Nehemiah.

October – You may have thought I was only the IT guy but starting this month I assume another temporary title, Technical Services (or super-maintenance man). For the next three months, I would be filling in for the man who went home for furlough. Learning to share two work loads would be a challenge but it was necessary and I felt I was the one who could handle it.

November – Sharing two work loads is more difficult than I originally thought. I found it hard to divide time and found myself interrupted quite frequently only to be frustrated. As Thanksgiving came closer, we (Emily, her roommate, and I) made plans to go to Ukarumpa to spend the holiday with another missionary family. The cooler climate was welcomed and a bit of rest from two work loads was relaxing.

December – I returned to Madang for one day then I was off to catch a plane to the Western Highlands of PNG, Mt Hagen and the Kudjip, Nazarene mission station. I wanted to return to Kudjip for sometime and finally made it happen. This time my purpose was to help the College of Nursing install network cable for their new computer lab. I helped August run 2000’ of Cat5 cable and was able to visit other Alaskan based missionaries on the station as well. Christmas was blazing hot at 93 degrees but rather low key. A time of fellowship and good eats is something that will always be associated with Christmas.

How do I sum of 2011? God has blessed me far and beyond my imagination. My intent was to come to PNG and serve God through information technology with PBT. I believe I have done far more that just serve through IT. God has used me in many more ways. It is great to be apart of a family that loves God and loves people. Bringing the Word of God to people and language groups is an exciting adventure to be on. And I cannot forget to mention that God even brought a wonderful relationship to my life, which is changing my life each and everyday. Coming to PNG, I was not intending to find such a joyful smile but as I put my trust in God and surrendered to Him, He blessed me far and beyond my imagination. I look forward to the many more blessings that God will pour out in the year 2012.

Happy New Year!

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