Chad Wells Family Blog

Kirsten was able to call and wish her dad a Happy Birthday today. His birthday is the 30th, but even though it is the 31st here it is the 30th in the states! It’s hard to switch to taking away a day when we have been adding one for so many years! There are 2 little spots (one on each side of the road) where cell service is available. These spots are about 2ft by 6ft.  It’s about a ¾ mile walk to the spot. She tried in the morning and it was too cloudy, so no service. But there was a break in the clouds in the afternoon and she was able to call him when she and mom were walking to the market – it is on the way.

The Pangia market is about a mile from the house. It is mostly local fruits and vegetables such as sugar cane, kau kau (sweet potatoes), kumu (a spinach like green), peanuts, pumpkin (any type of squash), cucumbers, green onions, ginger, etc. The goods are placed on a box or on a bag, on the ground. I will take some video and post it to the web site soon.

I also spent 1 ½ hours or so talking with two men, John and Jackie, about an upcoming meeting and about some rumblings regarding the work that some of the lost folks in Palipini did. Even though they weren’t asked to do this work they are wanting compensation, or payment (It’s not just America where people try to scam you!).

The power came on about 7:15am this morning – praise God! But, it went off again about 7:30pm. At least Kirsten and mom were able to get some laundry done. Also, we were able to refill the 100 gallon header tank on the roof. So, now we’ll have water for the next day or so even if the power stays off.

Still no power today. I cut logs with Chris Ryman. What a blessing this mill will be as we begin to construct a permanent house for dad. There will be a lot of work in cutting the wood, but it will be a tremendous amount of money saved. The sawmill really makes it possible for dad to have a comfortable house here, in the bush (at least by New Guinea standards!).

Worked on finishing the little bathroom addition that dad started in his bedroom. This is a small hut that dad has finished very nicely inside. But, since it is detached from the main house we thought it best that we put a toilet, shower, and sink in it so that he and mom can stay in it comfortably until we can finish his house. There’s just not enough room in the 18×24 main house for all 8 of us!

It rained most of the day and we had no power. The 18v tools that I brought are really coming in handy!

Brad, Megan, and the boys left today.  Brad left with the generator. He’s going to drop it off at B & M Engineering to see if it can be fixed. Megan said that she considered her visit with us her “paid holiday”, since she was away from schooling the Brad Wells kids. Kirsten and mom really enjoyed the time of fellowship with Megan. What a pleasant attitude and joyful spirit she has!

The kids started school today. Since the men are still using the bunkhouse they will be using the kitchen table until the bunkhouse becomes available. Then that will become their schoolroom (as well as the boys bedroom and laundry room).

Dad and I brought the truck back today. All looks pretty good except for the CD changer cartridge missing. Hopefully it will show up soon. Maybe someone is just “taking care of it” for us. Dad and I spent several hours negotiating with the folks there in Palipini and from the villages in the near area. They did more than what we asked for and, therefore, are wanting more money. This, however, is not how dad operates. Dad has always paid what he said he would pay for the work given. So, when we left, everyone agreed that we should take the truck and that the people who did not get paid for the extra work (the work that we did not ask for) would be included in the next road rebuilding contract. This seemed to satisfy them – at least for now.

It rained almost all day today and we were only without power for about 1 hour.

Pastor Sam asked me to preach the main service and the afternoon service today. Dad taught Sunday School, and almost finished his set of lessons on Christian giving. Mom taught the kids’ Sunday School. They had 14 boys and 13 girls. The kids all had a great time, and although they didn’t understand much of the pidgin, grandma translated some into English for them. Mom started a competition between the boys and the girls that will last a month. Who can bring the most visitors? The winner will get a “bikpela samting”, which means an undisclosed something to be determined later! The kids are excited!

Afternoon services start around 3:30pm. I had to preach over the rain on the tin roof, but the power only went out once, which is why they have their services early, so that when the power goes out they don’t necessarily have to light the Coleman lanterns. There were a few words that I had trouble finding in pidgin, but the congregation helped me when I asked for the particular word. What a blessing it was to watch their faces as I preached in pidgin, knowing they understood me clearly and I didn’t have to spend months and months, or even years, learning a new language. The people love the kids. The kids are really enjoying being with the people, as well. We are all working on learning names. Just like us, they love it when we use their names when talking to them.

Brad, Steve, Chris, Billy, Marshall and Torrey all got in tonight – smelly, muddy, and wet! They’ve been walking through the bush, sleeping in the national houses, and preaching in the churches for the last 4 days and have only a good report. The churches are all doing well and the pastors seem encouraged. On their walk back this afternoon they paid a business man to drive them into Pangia the last 2 ½ hours, which saved them a good 5 hours walking. Brad took my GPS and marked all the villages so I hope to be showing you all an accurate map of the area and where the churches are.

We are just getting ready to head for bed. What a sight this little house is! There are 5 boys sleeping on the floor, Amber’s on the love seat, Brad’s on the couch, Megan’s in one bedroom and Kirsten and I are in the other. Ten people is a lot to sleep in an 18×24 ft house! What a blessing it is to have everybody home safe! Brad and the 2 boys will be heading out tomorrow sometime to head back to Hagen since Brad has Bible School class to teach tomorrow night.

Dad and I did a lot of planning this morning, making sure that I understood exactly what he is wanting to do in the next couple of weeks and the best way to go about accomplishing these tasks. Kirsten, mom, Megan and Amber walked to the Pangia market this morning. It’s a small market that primarily just has local vegetables (such as kau kau, taro, pumpkin, and greens) and some used clothes brought in from Mt. Hagen. The goods are laid out on the ground for your perusal. Kirsten tried out some of her pidgin. I have been speaking it to her for many years so she understands quite a bit of it, but she finally has some more people to practice it on. Unfortunately her first attempt was a little embarrassing. She told the local ladies that Amber was her wife! Everybody got a good laugh, but so goes learning a new language! They got to see a Kopul, a possum-like creature that are usually very docile. A man had caught it and was trying to sell it in the market, for a pet, or…. whatever.

Palipini village sent word today that they were able to get the truck out of the creek and up onto the top of the mountain by sheer manpower. This wasn’t exactly what we asked them to do, but we’ll go Monday or Tuesday to see what all happens. There are some rumors floating around, and such, that we’ll need to address. Most likely revolving around people wanting more money or …. more money. That’s usually what it’s about in America and it seems to hold true in Papua New Guinea, too. The good news is that the truck is allegedly safe and no one was hurt in the process.

I also cut another tree today so that I can build the boys bunk beds to free up some room in their bunkhouse so we can set up the kids’ school in the same room.

Kirsten’s getting the hang of doing the wash and will make sure to do it anytime there’s power and sunshine together. The kids get their clothes quite dirty! They love it!

Dad and I finished designing and planning the workshop construction this morning. We might not have quite enough wood from the trees here, on the station, but we’ll get a good portion of the shop built. The shop will allow dad to bring his tools from Palipini and have them organized so that we can use them here and have a place to work out of the rain. We also got a good start on finishing the bathroom addition that dad started in his bedroom. Kirsten and I, and Amber, are staying in the small 18×24 ft house, the boys will sleep in the “bunkhouse” (the old tent shed) and mom and dad are sleeping in the back end of another building that they’ve turned into a bedroom. And now it almost has a full bathroom added to it. We should be able to get the shower ready for mom and dad to use by Saturday afternoon. The toilet and sink are already up and running.

The power is on today! It’s nice to have lights in the evening rather than candle power. Also, Kirsten was able to do some laundry (there’s a nice washer/rinser that makes washing much easier than by hand). Brad, Marshall, Torrey, and Megan Johnson arrived in Pangia last night around midnight. Brad, Steve, Chris, Billy, Mar

Marshall and Torrey are all going on a big trek to survey the churches. They left today and plan on coming back Monday. They drove from Pangia to Palipini with us and started their walk from there. We went to Palipini today to survey the situation with the truck and to see if we could find a safe way to remove it. There was also a bit of tension with the village because they are feeling a bit forsaken. Dad has based his operations out of Palipini for over 17 years and it’s a bit of a change for the village. Because we came back to the village in the middle of the night and were removing the generator, a key piece for a missionary’s way of life, the village is very unsettled and is not understanding exactly what is going on. So, we spent several hours in the church with them and dad explained that he was not deserting them, but simply relocating so that he could better serve them. “Them” being the tribe, as a whole, and not just their village. This kind of change is very hard for them, but after much explanation they saw the reasoning behind it and were ready to move on to the issue of getting the truck pulled out. After much deliberation we came to the agreement that the people would start work on digging the ground out from under the front end of the truck so that the truck could be put level. Then the men will begin digging the road down to the bottom of the creek. We believe this will be the safest way to proceed. We’ll go back to Palipini when the village sends word to Pangia that the ground has been removed and the truck is ready to be pulled out. Dad paid one of the neighboring villages 100 kina (approximately $38 USD) to carry the 800 pound generator the 2 miles back to where Brad’s truck was located (we chose to leave Brad’s truck back on the main road because of the uncertainty of the rest of the bridges along this 2 mile stretch). We made it safely back to Pangia with the generator right at 8:00pm.

Still no power today. But, the generator runs the fridge fine. We had to return it this morning at 7am, but we picked it up again at 2pm to use until 7am tomorrow. I built a small shelter for the generator so that it won’t get destroyed in the rain. We had our first church service in New Guinea tonight. What a blessing it was to hear the people singing and to see their smiling faces! Brother Chris Ryman preached tonight, in English, and Pastor Sam translated into Tok Ples (the local language). He preached out of Psalms 116:1-2, “I Love the Lord”. Kirsten and the kids are learning about the differences between PNG sun and Idaho sun. Mostly because of the higher elevation and the proximity to the equator, the kids all got a pretty good sunburn. Especially Derrick! He had to stay inside today because his nose was quite blistered. But, a lot of aloe vera gel later it’s already looking a bit better. I don’t think anyone will forget their hats or sunscreen in the near future!

A couple of weeks ago dad was contacted by a government official who requested that dad cut down some trees here, in Pangia station, that were dead and were a potential hazard. Dad was able to cut several trees and bring them into the mission station where we have begun cutting today. We’ll divide these trees 50-50 with the station. These trees should provide enough to construct most of the workshop that dad and I are planning to build, as soon as we finish cutting. This is a great blessing because we will not have to travel several hours out into the jungle to find suitable trees to cut until after the workshop is built. I was able to get the sawmill fine tuned and get one log cut today. The kids are having a great time playing with the kids that live here, on Pangia station. They have a huge language barrier, but speak the same “play language”. They’ve been tossing the football around, checking out the creek together, and just enjoying being kids. We’ll be starting school the first of next week, which will give us time to hopefully finish getting settled in.

Kirsten was able to get situated and unpacked today. We still don’t have power, so she’s had quite the unusual welcome. Well, I guess it’s normal for New Guinea. The water works without power (until you use up the 100 gallon head tank) and the stove top is gas, so at least cooking hasn’t been a problem. Dad went with one of the nationals to another village to try to borrow a small, portable generator from a business man. Hopefully, this will save the rest of the perishables. The generator only powers the fridge. We have no new information regarding the truck today. We’ll go back on Thursday to discuss a few ideas and see what we can figure out with the people in Palipini.