A brief video of my recent flight with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) from Madang to Mt. Hagen with a brief stopover in Simbai, a bush village in rural PNG. Enjoy your inflight video!
Archive for the ‘Newsletters’ Category
Reason for the Season
Posted in Newsletters on December 20, 2011| 1 Comment »
This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. 1 Timothy 1:15
As I reflect on Christmas and why I celebrate Christmas, I think of the manger but I also think of the cross. As Paul wrote to Timothy and to the church, Paul himself declares he was the worst sinner of all. However, the good news of Christmas is Christ came to save you and me. Yes, swallow your pride and accept that we are indeed sinners. I am not ashamed to ask for forgiveness because I do sin. I am not proud to sin but as a human here on Earth, we are sinners by nature. God the Father sent his Son through the Holy Spirit to be born by a virgin, Mary. Immanuel, had a mission, an objective, and a purpose just as you and I have a mission in life. His mission was to save sinners.
It might not feel like Christmas in my part of the world, but the reason to celebrate the birth of a Savior has not changed over 2000 plus years. As we share, give, and fellowship this Christmas, pause to read the Christmas story and rejoice with the coming King.
The song lyrics repeat, ‘It’s starting to feel a lot like Christmas…’ well I believed those lyrics until I came to PNG. As the temperature soars to above 90 degrees the Christmas tree and gifts seem to be in conflict. The mood of Christmas seems to take a very different atmosphere in the tropics. Imagine swapping July 4 with Christmas…doing so will help you put your Christmas worldview with mine. Christmas makes me want to have a BBQ on the beach and play volleyball not sit by a fire, drink hot cider, and watch the kids play in the snow.
Don’t get me wrong, the Christmas-eve and Christmas services still take place and gifts will be opened. In fact, this year we are planning both a Christmas eve dinner and a Christmas get together for all expatriates with PBT.
As Christmas does not feel like Christmas, my mind is moving forward and thinking more and more that 2011 is ending and 2012 is coming. I reflect over the past 12 months and stand in awe of what God has done in my life. Just last Christmas I was in Anchorage, Alaska with the temperature below zero and now I find myself 6 degrees south of the Equator in PNG. Wow…what a life change. I will be reflecting more and highlighting my year in review on my next post.
PS – I am starting to wonder if Santa will be wearing all those ridiculous layers of clothes when he stops at my house on Christmas eve…I guess I will have to stay up to find out. But if I stay up and wait for Santa, then he might not come after all. So…maybe I will just eat all his cookies and go to bed early.
Merry Christmas from Papua New Guinea!
Networking at the College of Nursing
Posted in Newsletters on December 13, 2011| 1 Comment »
I am embarrassed to see my last post was before Thanksgiving on November 22. Wow…I must confess I have been out of the office more than I have been in the office since then. A quick recap, Thanksgiving I spent in Ukarumpa (6 day holiday) back to Madang for one day then caught a plane to Mt. Hagen to visit the Nazarene Hospital station for 7 days then finally back to Madang on Tuesday, December 6. So here we are twelve days until Christmas but who is counting…all that comes to mind is “on the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me twelve drummers drumming…”.
On 29th of Nov I jumped aboard a Cessna 206 flown my mission partners, Mission Aviation Fellowship. Pilot Jason from Alberta, Canada flew me and three others first to Simbai then onward to Mt. Hagen in the Western Highlands. It was my first bush flight with MAF and an exciting opportunity to see the jungles, rivers, and mountains of beautiful Papua New Guinea. 
The main reason for this trip to the Nazarene Hospital station was to visit the College of Nursing and help with networking their computer lab. It is a new computer lab with 20 computers with hopes of up to 36 computers. I brought 610 meters or 2000 feet of Cat5 network cable with me to do the job. I worked hand and hand with August who is a Nazarene pastor and supervisor of the computer lab. In fact, August just graduated with this Masters of Religion the Saturday before I arrived.
August and I started by mounting 50mm PVC pipe throughout the room so we could neatly manage all the network cables. Then the arduous process of measuring and using the fish tape to pull all 36 cables started. The ‘measure twice cut once’ line came to mind frequently as I measured over and over again before I cut the cable. After all was said and done I left with only 15 meters or 50 feet out of 2000 feet left to spare. The last step was to correctly wire each individual cable to a RJ-45 network connector.
I taught August how to separate the 4 pairs of twisted wires and correctly orient and crimp the 8 wires into a connector. After 72 completed connectors we tested each cable end for quality and correct orientation. Only three connections needed re-worked with new RJ-45 connections. August was happy and I was happy as well. On Monday before I left town to come back to Madang, we bought 2, 24 port network switches for the computer lab.
They (College of Nursing and Nazarene Hospital station) was very pleased and glad I came to volunteer my time. I had many good compliments from missionaries and national staff that I came to help. I took joy in serving the Kingdom one meter of network cable at a time. These students will now have the opportunity to share and store files and data in a computer lab environment as they seek a Christian education in nursing from the Nazarene Health Ministries.
I will be sharing more pictures and stories from my recent trip to Kudjip and my visit to the Nazarene Mission Station.
Pasin bilong wari na tingting planti
Posted in Newsletters on November 21, 2011| 1 Comment »
This past Sunday I heard a familiar passage of scripture from Matthew 6. Matthew 6 ends with the Jesus telling the disciples, do not worry or be anxious. Do the birds worry about what food they are going to eat? Do they worry about what they will drink?
Jisas i tok moa olsem, “Olsem na mi tokim yupela, yupela i no ken tingting planti long laip bilong yupela na tok, ‘Bai yumi kaikai wanem samting? Bai yumi dring wanem samting?’ Na yupela i no ken tingting planti long bodi bilong yupela na tok, ‘Bai yumi pasim wanem laplap?’ Ating laip em i winim kaikai, na bodi em i winim ol laplap samting.” Matyu 6:25 (Tok Pisin)
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Matthew 6:25 (ESV)
As I sat on the wooden bench with my mind racing forwarding towards the upcoming holidays, then next year, then coming back to the USA, etc…. I was gently reminded that I am not to be anxious or worry about life. God is in control and I fully trust in Him. God has proven himself over and over again to be faithful and just. The good news is I can still hold to that promise for tomorrow.
As the passage reads on Jesus says, “But seek first the kingdom of God” (Tasol namba wan samting yupela i mas mekim i olsem. Yupela i mas larim God i stap king bilong yupela) v33.
Everyday the challenge is to seek first the kingdom of God. Not to be anxious or fret or worry about the day or even tomorrow but Jesus challenges us to seek first the kingdom of God. Why? Because all these things will be added to you.
I hope you have a blessed and thanks filled Thanksgiving holiday this Thursday.
New Life and New Relationship
Posted in Newsletters on November 14, 2011| 5 Comments »
With the season of Thanksgiving fast approaching, I find myself blessed and still counting the many reasons why I am thankful. The biggest development in my life over the past six months has been a new relationship with a girl from Montana. Her name is Emily Hinebauch. Emily is bright, beautiful, and well a wonderful cook. She knows the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.
She is one of six children and four of them are boys. She has been through the mill when it comes to putting up with brothers always picking on her, though she is the second oldest. Emily is a missionary with PBT and acts as the resident Scripture Use Specialist. She serves on the field as a missionary in many other roles as well. Her humble, servant heart is what shows the most and is one of the key traits that caught my eye early on.
We officially meet at the airport when I flew into the Madang airport. She along with a few other teammates met me at the airport. She not only greeted me with a smile and a hello but with a hot cup of Papua New Guinea coffee. I knew right then that this person whom I have never met had to be special. Just as I, she enjoys a hot cup of Java; black without any additives.
As she was winning my heart by her fine cooking skills and lady charm, I started to win her heart with stories from Alaska. As Emily loves the cold, cool weather along with snow and mountains; my Alaskan adventure stories started to sound very appealing to her. I brought out all the stops and showed her all my Alaskan DVD adventures from kayaking in Prince William Sound to canoeing on the Yukon River. I think Emily was starting to fall in love with Alaska before she was falling in love with me.
It is apparent that God is crafting this relationship together. Neither one of us decided to leave the USA in search of love. It is our hearts desire to serve the Master and His Kingdom first. As we both shared stories, we both found out that we have been praying for many years for the right time and right person to come into our lives. I would never have thought I would have to fly away to some South Pacific jungle nation to find such a beautiful young lady with a heart sold out to God.
On the day I told Emily I wanted to pursue a deeper relationship with her, Emily was speechless and could not utter any other words than…Can we pray? As we prayed, I told Emily the only way this relationship we are beginning will work is if God in in the center of our lives.
It is my pleasure to introduce Emily and that you will please include the both of us in your prayers.
Please join us in prayer as we seek God’s wisdom and discernment in our relationship. Pray for God to ease any anxiety or stress and God to give patience in our growing relationship with one another.
Not Another Parable
Posted in Newsletters on October 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »
As I was sitting in church this morning and listening to around parable of Jesus I began to think. Yes, I have heard this parable many times. Yes, I have read it many times in all three Gospels. But today, it is in a different language. As I listened to the parable of Jesus calling his first disciples (Luke 5:1-11) I began to listen as it was my first time.
We all know the story of Jesus telling Simon Peter to let his net down even though he spent all night fishing and didn’t catch a thing. Peter gave in to Jesus and said I will let my nets down for you. As I was listening to the speaker in Tok Pisin I found myself listening attentively and following along the best I could. I followed the scripture reading with my Tok Pisin Nupela Testamen. At the conclusion of the message the speaker asked a question in the form of a statement: Jisas mas istap insait long bot bilong yu. Jesus must be in your boat.
A few other questions came to mind, is my net full or empty? Who am I listening to? Is Jesus leading my life or guiding my boat? If I try to solve the daily problems of life myself, I will indeed find my net empty. However if I follow God then my nets will be breaking with blessings.
Odd picture of the week: The building next to the PBT office has been torn down stick by stick and this week I caught last remaining item – stairs. I found it a bit odd and funny seeing the stairs leading to…well hot air.
Another picture is the preferred mode of water transportation from island to island to town. These ‘banana boats’ are water taxis with 40 hp outboard motors. Of course the man riding ‘shotgun’ has his feet dangling over the bow of the boat.
Praises:
Good Health
Prayer Requests:
New tentative role – Tech Services
2012 Budget preparation
Spiritual Warfare maintenance
Wisdom and discerning for God’s plan next year
Thump, Thump, Thump
Posted in Newsletters on October 23, 2011| 1 Comment »
First, I must apologize for no post last week. I am sure all of my faithful blog followers were disappointed. This week I will include a special ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ video of my everyday drive along the beautiful S. Pacific Ocean. I hope you enjoy it and don’t hail rocks my way or get car sick from the bumpy ride.
Last weekend, Emily, and I along with three others from POC (Pacific Orientation Course) in Madang went to Ukarumpa in the Eastern Highlands. A nice mountain drive that is about 5 hours. If you remember I made this trip solo back in July. We were wanting another getaway from Madang and seek cooler 
temperatures. Before we left on Friday morning, I prayed for safety and protection on the road. God was good and we arrived 30 minutes before the expected time. However, within a 1/4 mile of entering the SIL centre I noticed a thump, thump, thump…I asked Emily do we have a flat tire. Sure enough, a flat after traveling 250 km and 4.5 hours but we were safely at our destination.
Missy and I tag teamed to change the tire while Emily supervised our pit crew style work. Missy noted it only took us 12 minutes to change the tire…not to shabby for some missionary amateurs. I still praised God for a safe and speedy drive to Ukarumpa.
The weekend was very nice as I enjoyed a holiday away from work and much needed cooler weather. It was 59 degrees the morning I left and it was 90 degrees once we got back to Madang at 1 pm.
Also this week I finally got the care package my mother sent 4 weeks ago. 
For some reason the package spent two weeks vacationing in Australia before making its way north to Papua New Guinea. I got the package on Wednesday and was thrilled to open it and see what goodies were inside. I got some popcorn, M&M’s, magazines, and Combo’s along with other extras. I am already starting to enjoy the goodies and fast to read the news events even if the magazines are back in August.
Praises:
Good trip to Ukarumpa
Nice care package from home
Health
Prayer Requests:
New tentative role – Tech Services
2012 Budget preparation
Spiritual Warfare maintenance
Wisdom and discerning for God’s plan next year
Things that make you go…hum
Posted in Newsletters on October 10, 2011| 1 Comment »
Being in a foreign country there are just some things that are well, different. The obvious being language and culture. Being in the Asia-Pacific part of the world there is a big influence from Australia and SE Asia (Indonesia, China, India, Korea). It gets real fun when you go to the local store to purchase food.
What the Chinese and Asian companies try to accomplish is take an American product and spin it into an Asian product. Most of the time, I can’t be fooled by a spin of Pringles, sunflower seeds, or plain Saltines. Today I went to the store and found ‘Ding Dong’. Normally these are the chocolate Hostess cakes with cream filling inside. This ‘Ding Dong’ is made in the Philippines with mixed nuts. Hum…who would have thought of a Ding Dong with mixed nuts.
What else would you want to drink in the morning to wash down those pills than Pure Azz juice? Don’t worry they come in all varieties.
Oh the Hello Panda, those are just small bite size crackers filled with sweet cherry filling. Not a bad treat, just another random product from another random Asian country.
Nonetheless, going to the store is quite an adventure in more than just a few ways. Make sure you look good because you don’t want to miss a chance to wash down Ding Dong with Pure Azz.
Tyler and Emily in PNG 