Chad Wells Family Blog

Chad called today and told me that he preached at the market in the Timbari house line and had a great attendance.  He said that the meeting is going very, very well and he’s so glad he was able to go.  He said that it actually took about 5 hours to get to the village from Pangia.  God held off the rain and they were able to make it all the way through.  They only had to be pushed through mud holes twice.

Amber’s got pinkeye or something similar.  As soon as I realized it I started putting medicine in her eye, so hopefully it will stop it quickly.

had left for Timbari today for a 3 day revival meeting. He’s been told that the drive should be about 4 hours.  Usually, though, the people telling him about how long it should take have no idea how long it takes a vehicle. They only know how long it takes to walk so they guess on the vehicle time (not that they actually have any watches to time themselves with).  So it’s hard to know what the time will really be.  He left and then came back within an hour.  A spring shakle broke on the Hilux and he had to come back to weld it.  Thankfully he was still pretty close when it happened.  A quick story to demonstrate the lack of knowledge regarding time and distance.  A man told Chad that it had taken him about an hour to walk from one village to another.  When Chad asked him how far it was the man replied “maybe 100 kilometers”.
Some of the high school girls came by to see me today.  I haven’t seen them since they left when school ended in November.  I was happy to get to see them again.
Amber, Trevor and Derrick (along with a couple of the high schoolers) went to the open air market today.  They were able to pass out some tracts along the way and invite some people to church and to Club ROYAL.

Pastor Sam and 4 of the guys went into Pangia Station, cut 8 logs, and brought them back to the mission station.  The rest of us continued working on the walls for dad’s house.  We ended up quitting for the day right at 8:00pm, but we were able to finish all the walls of the house.  God really held the rain as well as allowed everything to go together quite smoothly.

Today was a busy day on the mission station.  I’ve been using 10 of the young men from Pangia Station.  These guys all have a very bad reputation for being troublemakers and for being up to no good.  They’ve been working very well with me and today we put up 12 of the walls on dad’s house.  They paid attention very well and were eager to learn as I showed them how to nail the walls together.  Jerry continued cutting on the sawmill.  Sam cut today up in Pondi.  It’s great to finally see some progress on dad’s house!
Doreen, one of the teachers at the high school, came by today to see if Kirsten has any books she might be able to use for school.  She was told she was going to be teaching a personal development class this year, but does not have any books or curriculum in order to do so.  Kirsten’s going to look and see what she has.  Hopefully, she has something that will be able to help Doreen teach this class!

After Club ROYAL we all head into the church to have our regular service.  While I was preaching we were attacked by a huge moth!  The wingspan was about 10″.  I tried to continue on but everyone was so distracted that we had to stop and wait until it could be subdued (a.k.a. stomped on).

After about an hour of cutting this morning one of the blade guides on the small sawmill broke.  I had to spend a couple of hours welding that back into place.  It was a bit of a task because I had to take the engine off of the sawmill and bring the cutting head into the workshop to weld it.

Joe and his group of workers finished cutting all the studs that we’ll need for the house as well as squaring the ends of 12 footers to be used as plate material. Sam and I worked on putting a shelf under the workbench so that we can get the rest of the tools off of the ground in the workshop.

Girricks, one of the workmen, was helping to carry in some of the poles to be used on Steven’s house.  As he was carrying them in he slipped and dropped his bush knife and it landed point first into the top of his foot.  It made quite a deep puncture.  It really needed stitches but since no stitches were available Kirsten put steri strips on it.  We’ll have to keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn’t get infected.

Pastor Jerry’s wife, Ketty, came to Pangia today to see if Kirsten would be able to help her with her baby being in the wrong position for birth.  Kirsten looked it up in her book this past week and learned what to do.  She tried to gently turn the baby, but couldn’t seem to change the baby’s position.  Because she doesn’t have any experience with this sort of thing she was afraid to push any harder.  That means that Ketty will have to go to Hagen to have a C-Section.  It was worth a try!

While cutting today the idle pulley on the sawmill broke.  It wasn’t the type of break that could be readily identified and it took Jerry a few minutes to figure out why the blade kept slipping off the pulleys.  We were able to get it taken apart, identified, and then welded back up within a couple of hours.

Joe, and a couple of other men, worked on cutting 2x3s to length to use in building the walls for dad’s house.

We were all planning on going to Napeni today.  Pastor John Yogama did not send word as to whether or not the road was passable so we weren’t sure that we would be able to go.  At 7:30am this morning we got a phone call saying that the Hilux wouldn’t be able to make it, but the motorcycle should make it through.  So, I hopped on the motorbike and headed off for Napeni. At one point I actually could not tell where the road was because of the grass, over 4 feet tall!  Four and a half hours, 2 small rainstorms, and a lot of mud later I arrived in the village.  It was excellent timing since the Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church had both just let out.  We had a full house. I preached on Nicodemus and how religion will not get you to heaven.  It is only by the precious blood of Jesus.  We had the priviledge of seeing 3 men come forward and get saved, all three of whom have been long time members of other churches, but admitted that they had never actually asked Jesus Christ to be their Savior.  After the services John asked if he could come to Pangia to spend a couple of hours with me so that I could show him how to start a youth ministry in his church.  I am hoping to be able to meet with him, along with another interested pastor, before we leave. The trip home was exhausting.  I’m sure I’ve now more than doubled my total hours on a dirtbike.  I arrived home covered in mud and ready for bed.

Pastor Sam and I worked on sharpening blades today.  We have gotten a little bit behind in sharpening, with both sawmills running.  It was a good thing for a Saturday.

Connor’s eyelids have turned purple and under his eyes are a beautiful green/blue.  The swelling is going down a little bit, but he still just looks awful!

We also heard today that just after I went through the roadblock in Kauapena the men stoned a vehicle.  They also cut the driver of another vehicle and then stole his bus.  These roadblocks can be very volatile and we thank God for His safety!

On the way back from Hagen today I came to a big road block at Kauapena.  The villagers had dug a large ditch across the road and were charging 50 kina (about 20$ U.S.) for them to lay planks across the ditch for the vehicles to drive over.  There were three or four vehicles ahead of me that, even with the planks, were having a hard time getting through.  After about 45 minutes it was my turn.  So, I got out of the vehicle and went to ask why they had dug a ditch across the road.  Their response was that they had not dug a ditch and the governement just refuses to fix the road.  After telling them that I would pay them 200k to put all the stones and mud back in the ditch they realized that I wasn’t just another white foreigner but was actually someone who knew what they were up to.  They became quite ashamed and just waved me through.  These roadblocks are so unpredictable.  Most of the time they are just some folks looking for some quick cash who aren’t actually looking for trouble.  This appeared to be the situation today.

We celebrated Connor’s birthday today.  He was such a good sport about celebrating it a day late.  We had a great time together as a family.  Kirsten even made pizza.  Connor was allowed to choose any kind of birthday cake he wanted (as long as we had the right ingredients).  He chose a pineapple sour cream pie, of all things!  We were surprised at his choice, but it was quite delicious.

Wayne’s arm finally seems to be better.  The infection has gone down and the pain seems to have dissipated.

Today is Connor’s 7th Birthday!

Chad had to go into town today to take a truckload of lumber to Simon, the land surveyor.  The land survey should be all paid for now and hopefully Simon will be getting the survey done soon!  The banks were all closed today and the ATMs are still down.  Chad tried to get his cash from Best Buy, the Hagen grocery store.  They withdrew the money from our account but then told Chad that they didn’t actually have any cash to give him at the moment, so to please come back in an hour or so.  He went back at the appointed time, but the store was closed!  He finally got with the manager and he told Chad that the store had run out of money so they had closed early.  He was very sorry that he didn’t have Chad’s money, but should tomorrow.  We were very disappointed that he wouldn’t be home to celebrate Connor’s birthday.  It was decided that we will celebrate tomorrow instead, which will still be his birthday in America!

Steven started his “hut remodel” today.  He and his family moved their stuff out of the house (which only took a few minutes) and into our cookhouse where they will live until he finishes the house (not the most ideal place since it only has half walls).  Then they started tearing down the house.  They will reuse a lot of the material that they are taking from the old house.  The old house is about 10′x15′.  His new house will be about 12′x18′.  The boys have enjoyed going out and helping him.  Amber even joined in for a bit and helped to take the kunai grass off of the roof.  Connor watched while sitting on a chair outside.

Last night I woke Connor up every couple of hours and had him walk around a bit till I felt he was awake enough.  Then I let him go back to sleep.  He slept on the couch in the house with us, instead of with his brothers in the bunkhouse.  Today his pupils look the same size again and beyond a headache he’s not feeling too badly.  The swelling is spreading out a bit, though, and it is  making his eyes close a little bit.  I don’t know if he broke his nose, too, since he seems to be getting two black eyes.  He’s not enjoying being around people at the moment because everyone stops and stares at him!  I don’t blame him, but I also don’t blame them either!