Tyler and Emily in PNG

It has been two weeks since my last post and a lot has happened since then. Everything from leaving the tropics of Hawaii to snow filled fields of Montana. Throw in Easter, meeting new family, battling being sick, time change, drastic temperature change, and engagement. So how do I wrap up the past two weeks…it has to start with the exciting news that I am engaged to my beautiful fiance, Emily.

A few short days ago on a mild sunny day, I got down on one knee and asked the most important question of my life. “Emily Jo, will you marry me?” As she giggled with excitement and danced with joy, she said “Yes, of course.” We hugged and kissed with overjoyed hearts. I presented her the ring (aka the ‘rock’) and she giggled once again as the surreal moment was happening. Her finger has been the most sought after sight in Havre, MT. At church I told her I should charge a $1 viewing fee so I could recoup some of the costs of the ring. I think I could easily made $100 at church.

Following the phone calls to parents and family the announcement was sent to the mega social network of Facebook. It is amazing how fast and broad the real world is when you post news or change your relationship status. Within minutes, likes and comments were posted to our pages. It is almost scary to see first hand the reality of sharing such an announcement on Facebook.

My time is drawing to an end here in the north central plain state of Montana. Mid-week, Emily and I will be traveling together to Indiana to visit my parents and family. I am excited to see my parents and formally introduced my wife-to-be to them for the first time. There will be many more appointments, faces to see and hugs to be given. I look forward to reunion with family and friends and to share the joy that the both of us now have.

Please continue to pray for me this week as I am recovering from a cold and as I prepare for travel to Indiana. Pray that God will lead and direct my time in the Mid-west with family and friends. Pray that God will lead and give wisdom to both Emily and I as we prepare for marriage.

I close with a picture of Emily and I at Pictograph Cave State Park south of Billings, MT.

I have been back in the good ole USA for 1 week now. No, I did not kiss the ground when I landed but I was glad to be back on home soil or lava rock in Hawaii. Since I have been back, here are a few small things I have noticed that are different than life in Papua New Guinea.

• Power – lights come on instantly when you flip the switch
• Power – no blackouts, power is dependable
• Hot showers – freedom to take hot shower without be ashamed of over use of water and electricity
• Real food- yellow cheese, milk, cereal, pizza, … well just American food
• Too many options – restaurants, services, more than one TV channel
• Technology – smart phones everywhere, fast internet, iPad, DVR

I have also noticed I tend to find myself gravitating outside rather than sitting indoors. Being in the warm tropics all homes have open air concept with the windows open and drapes pulled to the side. Here I find air conditioning and the house to be shut to the outside world. I miss the sound of leaves and the wind blowing the palm trees.

As far as culture shock…the biggest shock has been seeing scandalous women on the beaches of Waikiki. Talking about going from one culture of modesty to practically string bikinis in Hawaii. I noticed this ‘casual’ dress on my brief stop in Brisbane, Australia then it followed me to Fiji, and now in Hawaii. I shake my head in disbelief and well…admire the beauty of a woman but think really, is this woman really wearing what I think she is or isn’t wearing.

Overall, my time back in America has been pleasant. I have two beautiful nephews that love their Uncle Tyler and of course I love them dearly. I brought them gifts from the Land of the Unexpected. The picture below, the two boys are wearing bilum hats that are typically worn in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. This past Friday, Gabriel the oldest, worn his bilum hat to school for hat day.

Here in PNG their is a prepay system for electricity. You pay first for units or credits, then you input a series of digits into the meter. Once the credits you purchased expire, you have no more power until you buy more credits. It makes it impossible for the power company to loose money, you are never indebted to the power company.

Check out this video:

The songs titles and lyrics are rolling through my mind…I’m leaving on a jet plane don’t know when I will be back again…I’m coming to America, today…Mama, I’m coming home. Can you name the artist’s?

So yes, one of the longest days of my life will be here this Sunday. It will be 44 hours long. I leave PNG at 6:15 am and arrive Hawaii 45 minutes later after traveling through two countries…hum, I love time travel but I don’t think my body will enjoy it too much.

This last week I am finishing last minute projects that I had going and have meetings with folks about my duties that will be left unattended. Many of the team members already feel my absence and wonder, what we will do when Tyler leaves. Well, I don’t think they will miss me that much and I know they will survive. The year 2012 will be another survival year for the branch here in PNG. I am the sixth and final person to leave on furlough so far this year. The manpower and team members are dwindling.

As I came to work on Monday, I had a odd thing going on with the satellite internet. We could send/receive emails without problem but when we would try to go to a webpage an error came, ‘111 connection refused’. I checked the router/firewall and found the web proxy log has completely full. Over 12 GB of logs, so being a Linux machine I had to reach out to our external consultant for help. He promptly cleared the log but that was not the problem. He found out from a recent change on our external network that someone changed a cable around. The cable was suppose to be plugged into the LAN port but someone moved in to the WAN port thus causing mass confusion on the network. Once this was found, webpages were functioning as normal. I hope the rest of my week is much more calmer and no big problems flare up.

Please pray that my travels will be smooth and all my flights will be on-time. Pray that customs and immigration officers will be pleasant to work with. Pray for strength and health as I travel and prepare the long arduous journey. Continue to pray for the plans that lie ahead and the busy schedule of events once I return to mainland USA.

It has been a great journey so far in PNG and I am leaving with joy in my heart. A joy that God has given me and an assignment to bring God’s word to the people of PNG. I am eager to leave for this period of time but excited for the plans God has ahead of me.

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.