Archive for the '01-January-2011' Category
This morning started our first week of Bible School. We are doing 2 classes each day, for 3 days. Dad’s taking the first class, from 8:00am-10:00am, and I have the 2nd class, from 10:00am-12:00pm. And then we have a 3rd class each school day where we will be teaching the students practical skills. This has a two-fold purpose. One, the students are able to gain new skills in carpentry, working with the sawmill, etc. Two, we are able to help instill good work ethic and character. This is one of the few things that we’ve changed from the way that Bible School has been done in years past. I really enjoyed teaching class today. Today’s class, that I taught, is Dispensational Truth. I really enjoy teaching.
The power has been out for 12 days. As we finished dinner we looked out the window and saw one of the PNG Power vehicles, and workman, working on one of the power lines. So, Kirsten and I walked out to see if they were going to be connecting our power as well. After much deliberation, one of the workmen finally came over and said that he would be sending out a crew to our house tomorrow, to make all the connections necessary. We just need to supply all the wire and connectors since they don’t have any more. So, we’ll be praying that they come through and that we’ll have power tomorrow!
We had 3 visitors in our high school Sunday school class this morning. One of the boys, Aki, is Daniel’s oldest boy. He’s been working around the mission station for us and is just now beginning to come to church. Daniel has been so excited to see his son show interest in God’s Word and we pray that we will see Aki come to Christ in the near future. Mom and dad came over for our traditional “Sunday Night Nacho Night”. We had a good time with them and discussed some more details about Bible School. Before turning off the generator Derrick went out on the porch to check and make sure the animals were ok for the night. There, in the corner, was the little cuscus! Even though we knew he was still hanging around it was quite a surprise to see him. We coaxed him back into his box. The boys will have to build a cage for him tomorrow. It’s a good thing we have lots of logs coming into the station this coming week. The boys will be using lots of scraps! The kids sure enjoy taking care of the animals and we appreciate the character building lessons that they are learning.
We had an exciting surprise this morning, just as we were getting ready to sit down for breakfast. A whole crowd of people came onto the mission station. John Togula had found, and caught, an 11 foot amethyst python. At 11′ it’s not the biggest constrictor that we’ve seen here, however, it is certainly a very big snake! I talked John into letting me have the skin so, before they cooked it, he skinned it for me. Derrick, Trevor, and Timothy (Pastor Sam’s boy), helped me stretch it out on a board to dry. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with an 11′ python skin! I was able to get some studying done for Bible School today. I’ll be teaching Dispensations, Soul-winning, and Old Testament Survey. Dad will be teaching Baptist Doctrines, Matthew, and Galatians/Ephesians. We have a few new methods that we are going to implement this year. We are excited to see how God works as we teach His Word! As I was on the back veranda this morning I noticed some large droppings that were too small for the dog and much too large for a rat. I pointed them out to one of the men I was talking to and he said that they were from the little cuscus that we had. I told him that it had escaped a couple of nights ago and we clean off the porch every morning. The cuscus is just a small baby and, because of this, has been hiding somewhere close by. There’s a spot on the back porch where there is no soffet, so Trevor went up into the attic to see if he could spy the youngster. After much searching we were unable to find him in the attic, or under the house. A bit perplexed, we decided we should just keep our eye out over the next few days and see if the little guy gives us any clues as to where he is hiding.
Pastor Sam and Daniel continued cutting logs today. The rest of the guys, and myself, began framing the walls for the print shop portion of the Bible School building. We were not able to begin the walls for the dormitory side since we still need to pour the foundation wall on top of the footers. Trevor finished the cage for their tree kangaroo, Little Bear. I think he’s happy to finally be out of the chicken coop!
When the kids went out this morning to feed our ever expanding zoo, Derrick found that the spotted Cuscus was absent at roll call. Joey was hoping to take him to Wewak with him, but because of the cuscus’ apparent disagreeable temperament he decided to leave him for Connor. We poured the last 2 footers for the dormitory side of the Bible School building this morning. I also asked the ladies of Pangia Bible Baptist Church to come and begin preparing the ground to plant the kaukau garden for the Bible School students. This caused quite a stir with the few people who have gardens back on this property. And, I’m sure we’ll be engaged in heated discussions in the near future. However, the government has given us this ground for the use of the mission station. We’ll see what happens in the days to come. We also cut about 1/2 of the 2×4′s that we’ll need for the first story of the Bible School building. What a blessing it is to see progress!
It was a sad morning for us as grandma and grandpa left Pangia with the Petersons and the Andersons piled up in the back of the Dina. We sure enjoyed having them all with us. They were a help and an encouragement! I had the guys dig out a little more dirt on the dormitory side of the Bible School building to help level it out. But, mostly, so that we’ll have some fill dirt on the downhill side of the foundation. While they were doing the digging I went to the high school where they wanted me to cut some trees down, for fear of them falling on the buildings and students. Most of them were smaller pine trees but, nonetheless, we got 30 logs that we’ll start hauling to the station next week. We all had a great evening together as we played one of our favorite board games. It was a good time and it really helped cheer everyone up from the mass exodus this morning after church!
Erik has been doing some maintenance and tune-up work on the sawmills. So, today, Pastor Sam and I, and a few of the guys, set up the big sawmill on the concrete pads that we poured last week. It’s so much easier to set it up, having a level surface to start with. Because we had it all apart to do the maintenance we spent several hours dialing it back in to cut straight and true lumber. We also set up the smaller, old sawmill, that the Petersons had brought a new engine for. However, we had some problems with the drive pulley. We’ll send that into town with dad to get a new key lock for the pulley. The one that we have now doesn’t fit right so the pulley is working itself off the shaft. Amber, Trevor, and Connor got to take the day off of school to go with the Petersons and grandma and grandpa to the Polu River (Derrick is sick). They came back with stories of giant rapids taking them downriver into the jungle. Maybe slightly exaggerated, but they all had a great time!
We got some more of the foundation done today for the Bible School building. Rain cut our work short today, but that was ok because we had a meeting with the prospective Bible School students from 2:00-5:00pm. It looks like we’ll have just a few students this year. That’s okay, though, since it will help us get back in the swing of Bible School. It will also give us more time to get the classroom and dormitory done as well. All 4 families ate dinner at mom and dad’s house tonight. The kids all put on a skit for us and then Trevor did his first official magic show. Marshall, his cousin, has been teaching him some magic tricks. While we were still on deputation a man in California, who uses magic shows to present the gospel, sent Trevor several boxes of props and accessories. Trevor has thoroughly enjoyed practicing these illusions and tonight was his first public presentation.
We had a great Sunday. Joey preached the Sunday School and A.M. service here, in Pangia, while Erik preached the afternoon service. We had our first high school Sunday School class today. We knew there wouldn’t be very many there since school hasn’t started yet, but we wanted to have it going beforehand.