Goroka Weekend!

This past weekend we took a little family time along with 3 of our friends here at Kudjip and headed East 134 Kilometers which took us 2 hours and 53 minutes down the road to Goroka (Gore-row-ka). It was time for a little R & R. Mike Chapman, our hospital project manager, his wife Diane, our MK school teacher and a friend of theirs, Gary, who is here for 6 weeks helping with the electrical work for the new hospital, went with us. We stayed at the CRMF (Christian Radio Missionary Fellowship) guest flat. We did some shopping because prices are a little better closer to the coast and sometimes you find some items that we may not see or have not seen for a while in Hagen, also, I believe, because you are closer to the coast.

Some of the worst road between Kudjip and the North Coast is actually between Kudjip and Goroka which is kind of in the middle.

We had fun eating at the Mandarin, a Chinese restaurant. It is kind of an unwritten rule that

when we go to Goroka we plan to eat at least twice while we are there. One day we got adventuresome and went exploring. While on our adventure we came across the University of Goroka and drove around the campus area and actually stopped at one of the buildings to ask if anyone knew where a certain resort/restaurant was that we were looking for. We finally found it and Susan and I realized that we had actually been there before but didn't realize it from the directions. It is a beautiful place and you can see Susan pointing out the directions in the picture, above right. (Susan was specifically pointing to Syndey in hopes that this may be helpful to her parents who will be visiting us in Dec/Jan followed by a few days in Sydney!!) We had a very nice lunch at "Pacific Gardens". Of course the Kids had their opportunity to swim both days, at the Bird of Paradise Hotel, a high point for them, of course anytime they get to splash and play in the water is a good time for them. We played some great games of domino's at night and even watched Mike's Brisbane Broncos (He's also a Denver Broncos fan ... boo hiss) play Rugby on Saturday night and they won defeating the Dragons. Now they will continue on in the playoffs.

Sunday was a very special time for us. While on furlough we spoke at the Collville Nazarene Church in Washington and had the privilege to meet Pete and Janet Breuer. They are a wonderful couple who are following where the Lord leads them and for this time it is here in PNG. They are serving at New Tribes Mission in Goroka. NTM works in translation and aviation. Janet is a nurse and gave Susan, Ethan and Diane a tour of the clinic on the compound. Susan also had a chance to meet the 2 doctors that work at the clinic. Pete works in maintenance doing all kinds of things which is what usually happens on the mission field. He is currently building the metal work for a concrete ramp that is being built into the clinic area. Before we left Kudjip we contacted them by email to say that we would be in Goroka and wanted to see them. They were gracious to invite us for breakfast Sunday morning and then we all went to the Sunday service at NTM. It was a wonderful breakfast of Cinnamon rolls, coffee cake and of course there was PNG fruit.

We felt the Lord's presence during the service and appreciated the message brought by Dave Taylor. One of the hymns sung was the "Love of God", I do like this hymn very much and I can't help singing it and not think of my Pop as he and I have sung this song together many times, one of those sweet memories. It was just a great Sabbath Morning.

After we left NTM we headed for our final time at the Mandarin (for this trip) for lunch then packed up and headed back down the highway for our return trip to Kudjip. It was a great weekend with friends, seeing friends again and meeting new friends and of course just getting away for a few days. As you can see in the picture we met some new little friends. Near and around Daulo (Dow-Low) Pass (which is the highest point on the road between Kudjip and Goroka at 8128 ft) you will often see these little ones trying to make a few coins selling these flower wreaths and necklaces to people passing by on the road. We stopped to get a few photos and bought wreaths and took some pictures of the little ones. Then continued our journey home.

Tree Days!

We own a book called, "You Know You're an MK When ... " by Andy and Deborah Kerr, for

instance you know you're an MK when ... 'You watch National Geographic specials and recognize someone'. Well here in PNG you know you are an MK when ... you get 3 days off from school because they are cutting down a tree close to the school house

and you want to be sure the children are safe from a tree or limb coming through the school house. And such was the case this past week here at Kudjip. Cutting down the tree was quite a feat.

In Ohio, as kids growing up, every winter we would look forward, with great hope and anticipation, to "Snow days." Well, when you live in a tropical climate snow days just don't happen! So you get the monthly "Teacher Shopping Day." No school because the teacher must go once a month to shop so they don't starve to death. And then every great once in a while you get something like "Tree Days!"

The story behind the taking down of this beautiful and majestic tree is a sad one. My guess (and only a guess) is that this tree was probably close to 80 years old, it was big. It was close to 80 feet long, the stump at it's widest was 50 inches and one of the limbs measured about 15 inches in diameter. About 3 years ago our maintenance crew was taking down another tree close to this one, it was smaller but deadly. One of our maintenance guys was in the tree (that was just taken down) when this other tree or a limb came down and knock him out of the tree. He lived for about 5 / 6 hours and passed away. Months later the College of Nursing girls dorm was being dismantled and was going to be rebuilt. The construction crew that was hired to come in and build the new dorm ringed the tree. That is they stripped the bark off of the tree all the away around it about 6 to 8 feet in height, in order to kill the tree. They did this for two reasons. First to limit the amount of leaves and debris from building up in the gutters. We rely on the rain from the roof to fill our water tanks. This water is then pumped into our homes and the college of nursing dorms.

But the sad part of this story is the second reason. They felt that Jakaba's spirit (the man who fell out of the tree and died) was in the tree. Initially, there was a great attempt to save the tree as we are very protective of our trees on the compound. But when a large limb, still with leaves fell out of the tree 3 weeks ago it was felt that the tree was not going to make it and in fact was dieing slowly. As Paul Harvey was famous for saying, "And now the rest of the story." The limb that fell out of the tree came down just 5 minutes after our school kids had been in that area playing and getting in line to reenter the school. Had it fallen and struck a child it is highly possible it would have killed them. We serve a mighty God who looks out for us and our kids and we thank Him for His hand of protection on our kids and teachers!

It was quite a site to see the tree coming down limb by limb. There are some things that you almost always see a Papua New Guinean with, a Bush Knife/Tomahawk or a spade. And they can work wonders with any of them. There was a team of 4 who came in to take down the tree. One guy named David was the tree climber and chopper. That 15 inch limb I mentioned earlier, he chopped off with his axe! In fact the only time he used a chainsaw was at the base of the 50 inch trunk when it was time to cut it down. These guys didn't use bucket truck or anything else fancy. David just climbed from limb to limb cutting each one off and moving to the next. He was in the tree for 5 to 6 hours straight. Aside from 2 limbs that we needed to use a rope on to drop them in a better location, he dropped the limbs right where he wanted.

There were a couple of things that I thought were cute or on the interesting side. At one point David was in the tree and wanting to go up higher. I am assuming that he didn't like his options for going higher, so he tied a short piece of a small limb to a rope, sat

on it like a swing, while the 4 of us down below pulled him up to the next spot he wanted to be at. It still brings a chuckle when I think about it. One of the last limbs to come down, if chopped off as is would come down on the MK School, so we got a rope and 15 guys and tied the rope to the limb and we went to our pulling position. After the limb came down I decided that we should have had 17 guys because a small limb coming off of the big limb just caught the edge of the MK School porch roof and grazed the spouting enough to put a slight dent in. We also had one limb that we roped and pulled, however, should of had another 3 or 4 guys instead of the 4 we did have. This limb came down and clipped the overhang/eves of the MK School and sheared it off along with the electrical box, which by the way was disconnected. The actual school structure was not damaged. We thank the Lord for only these minor damages!

The second morning I showed up and they were cleaning up a little getting ready for another day of cutting. I had thought that I would pray with them before we got started but as I was coming back towards the tree they were on the other side praying for Gods hand of protection upon them before David started up the tree for another day's cutting. I was told that 3 of the 4 tree choppers were Christians but that David the man in the most dangerous position was not. Please remember him in your prayers that God would get a hold on his life.

Although our kids don't get "Snow Days" here in PNG, "Tree Days" work just as good, especially if your a kid looking for a day off from school!

In the first picture on the right you can see the MK School porch, roof and water tank and in the picture on the left you can see the College of Nursing girls dorm.