Tyler and Emily in PNG

Emily reflects on her recent 10 day trip to Gandep Bible College in rural Papua New Guinea to teach a scripture use course.

At the recent Scripture Use course I taught, the students were asked to pick a verse from whichever book of the Bible that had already been published in their language. In the past the teachers assigned a scripture verse for the sake of making memorization charts lesson easier for the students.

During this course some students only had the book of Mark; others the book of Luke, and a few had a whole New Testament in their language while others had no translated scripture in their language at all. It was unique to see what verses of the Bible they chose. Yes, of course a few students found a really short verse since it was easier to memorize and put on their chart they were preparing to make…the least amount of work possible. But others chose meaningful, lesson teaching opportunities.

I was blessed by our student Peter’s choice. Peter is a Kire speaker and has had the New Testament in his language since 2000. He chose Revelation 3:20. Now my first gut reaction was when he came to me with his selected verse was, oh no what in the world will this memory verse chart say. But when I opened up my Bible to check the context of the verse I was happy to read-

“Nde mbarara, gu thçmkamani thsgap kav, thçma fukfugap ki. Guma the na kamthooý mbararagip, thçma ntararga, guv hen ýgirçp, ana phorgç kçrga. Gu ana phorgç kçv, ana phorgç mbçrga, ana na phorgç mbçrga.” (Kire translation)

Okay, so I really didn’t understand it in Kire so I had to look at it in English,

“Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, we will share a meal as friends.”

It is a verse from the “message from the one who is the Amen-the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.” The verse reminded me of the gift of community so many Papua New Guineans have taught me. It also brought out the image of Christ that someone else would see and humbly reminded me of how precious it is to be a part of the family of God. It also deepens my desire which burns inside of me to share a meal as friends with Christ and many, many Papua New Guinean brothers and sisters in heaven.

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.

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.

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.

When your car approaches another zero on the odometer, sometimes it might be a big number like 100,000 miles. You might stop, get out of the car and literally push the car to roll it over the milestone mark. Well this past weekend, we stopped to celebrate a milestone mark in Tyler’s life, the rolling over of the big 3-0! Yes, God has blessed him with three decades of life.

On February 9, with the help of our colleagues we celebrated Tyler’s 30th birthday. We took advantage of the reason to celebrate and barbecue party at Rempi. Rempi is a small house along the ocean about thirty minutes outside of Madang. The location is great for good snorkeling and for those who don’t enjoy the water there is space on the porch to play games. It was a beautiful day, perfect for time of fellowship and playing! Emily prepared a great lunch as Tyler grilled hamburgers for all to enjoy.

On February 10, Tyler’s actual birthday we enjoyed a nice breakfast before church, attended church, then took a spin in our boat for a few hours. The evening ended with a nice steamboat dinner at the Madang Lodge. Steamboat consists of pork, steak, lamb, chicken, and fish combined with lots of fresh vegetables. You cook them on your table in the pot of boiling water in the apparatus shown on the right of the picture below. The other day someone asked Tyler how old he was and he hesitated a bit and replied, 30. He shared that I guess I am no longer that twenty-something and now I am the new twenty-something which starts with a three. Tyler likes to believe he is just that much more wiser and experienced than his better looking and younger wife.

This week our office is currently under remodel. In order to have space for the future teammates we have been praying for we have started on our plan of office remodel. The particular part of the office that is being remodeled is the area where Tyler works. Hopefully by the end of this week Tyler’s new office will be finished. The other two offices that will come from this remodel are Directors office and another shared office space. All three rooms have air conditioners that have already been installed and adequate desk space for people to go about their work. What a blessing it is to have to dream about new office spaces for incoming teammates. A prayer we have prayed many times and still continue to prayer daily, “Lord send more workers into your harvest field.”

By Emily

This morning in my daily devotions I read the story of Joseph. The coat of many colors, jealous brothers, sold into slavery, dreams interpreted…these are all the things I remember reading of the story of Joseph from the time I’ve been able to read. It’s a popular story of the Bible. While reading this morning a new portion of the story seemed to resonate with me and that is the part found in Genesis 45:3-8.

“Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph; does my father still live?’ But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Please come near to me.’ So they came near. Then he said: ‘I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and the lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.”

As I meditated on this passage throughout the day, I wonder what God is preparing to reveal to me. Will I encounter hardships to be bent and molded in order to find new ways to glorify the Father? Or has God led me through a season that He wants me to identify ways to respond as Joseph did, “For God has sent me.” Perhaps, it’s the reminder to simply recognize each passing days and the trials and joys of each are opportunities to claim the His power over them.

One thing I do know is that I am thankful that God has allowed me to learn of Him through the Word in my language. What a blessing to start the day in His Word and what an honor to be able to serve in a capacity to help people of this world have that opportunity.

Lord, humble me to recognize this gift each and every day!

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.