Chad Wells Family Blog

This is Junior, our cockatoo. He likes to sit in the vine on our porch. Mom and dad’s house is in the background. I got 7 logs back from Tindua today. We had a bit of a confrontation this evening with the lady making the gardens on our new property. It ended up becoming quite a commotion, with us needing to get the police officer and making phone calls to the lands officer. Her final answer is this: “If you will just pay me for every leaf I have planted, and am planting, I will leave and not cause any more problems”. But we will not pay her. Her son finally said that she won’t plant anything more. His mom, though, says she wouldn’t be planting if we actually had the paperwork in our hands (since it is all still in the government office and we don’t have our copy of the paperwork). In her next sentence, she says that paperwork doesn’t mean anything and she will continue to plant kaukau and wants money for all of it. It really all comes down to a love of money. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

I worked on a lot of maintenance today. Two of our diesel fuel drums were having problems – dirt and water getting in – but we got it all cleaned out and transferred to the fuel depot. We also got the fuel pumps working correctly. We had Daniel and his family over for dinner this evening. His wife is still unsaved, as well as his son, Aki. Kirsten made beef and broccoli over rice. She says it is hard to figure out what to make for the people because so much of what we eat could be “yucky” to them because of such new tastes and textures. But they really liked it. We are praying for Daniel’s wife and son, that they will soon receive Christ as their Saviour! Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

Here’s Derrick and Connor in their Sunday School class. In the back of the room is some of the printing equipment. That’s one of our storage areas! Pastor George, from the Palipini church, preached today and gave an illustration about a girl who died a week ago. During the haus krai (funeral time) the girl who died called her best friend on a cell phone to tell her that she should die soon as well because her new husband in the afterlife is very kind to her. This just illustrates how even though these people have access to some technology their superstitions and cultural beliefs have only changed in format. They have the same basic idea. Even though the Christians know better it is hard for them to separate themselves from it all.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

I worked on the booklet maker and finally got it all working right! Rust was the problem. We do have a bit of humidity here! Where the paper was hitting the metal to start the fold it was catching on the rust. I cleaned it all up and got it all running smoothly. I then adjusted the collator. Now, all of the booklets for the Character Class are stapled, folded, and ready to go! What a blessing this equipment already has been! Thank you so much for your continued prayer as we work to get this print shop up and running. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

Since our print shop building is not completed yet, and therefore, our print shop is not running yet, I asked the high school to print the first semester of the Character Class booklet. Their copy machine is very old and dirty, which makes the copies barely readable. Some pages have so much interference that they are unreadable. But, it is still better than nothing. I am so looking forward to having the print shop up and running! I also received the schedule for teaching at the high school – finally! I will have five classes and they will start next Thursday! I worked this afternoon on getting the booklet maker (that we brought over) adjusted. It still needs more work. The papers are catching and crinkling in the folding process. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

While Drew was here he worked on finishing the bathroom. He got this floor all put down. We just took rounds from some of the trees we cut for the sawmill then put them on the floor! Makeshift tile – using what is free and making a neat floor at the same time! Kirsten and I finished scraping off the grout and I got a coat of varnish on it today.

Dad and I spent several hours making decisions regarding the mission station and his old house, in Palipini. I will be going there sometime in the next few weeks to disassemble the house and bring the roofing iron, plywood, electrical, and plumbing back to Pangia. We will use what we can in the Bible School building. As soon as I have the roofing iron I will start building the trusses. We have the needed wood for them all cut and stacked beside the building. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

We got Robert and Drew onto the plane, safe and sound, this morning. There were 2 sad boys after they left (Wayne and Lawrence)! We, too, were sad to see them go. We really enjoyed having them with us for the last 3 months. They were a blessing to the ministry and to us!

This picture is the guys going through PNG security. They pretty much just smile at you and put a “security checked” sticker on your bag.

After the airport we finished up our shopping and drove back to Pangia. On the way home the truck started overheating and we had to stop. As always, people appeared almost instantly. While we were working on the truck Kirsten got a good opportunity to sit down and witness to several people. One lady, in particular, was very interested. We were near Bro. Ted Mullins’ area and Kirsten encouraged her to visit one of those churches. We pray God will continue to work on her heart and that she will go to church to hear more! Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

We headed out with Robert and Drew this morning for Hagen. The kids are staying behind – we will be back tomorrow. They ran to the gate to say goodbye (Trevor and Connor climbed up onto it in order to say goodbye more effectively!). We made it into town safely. We brought Lawrence and Wayne in with us so they could see the guys off at the airport (they all became fast friends over the last 3 months).Once we got into town we started on the shopping. Drew and Robert were needing to pick up more stuff before they head out tomorrow. Lawrence’s backpack was stolen out of the back of the truck. Wayne was supposed to be security during that time, but when we came out of the store he was sleeping. Thankfully only that one thing was taken, but he is pretty disappointed. It had the Bible that Steve Brogden had given him in it. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

Mom and dad left yesterday to go to Hagen so Amber is teaching school while they are gone. Today was her official first day of being the only teacher for the day. She loved it!

We worked more with the sawmill today. We will be leaving for Hagen first thing in the morning so the guys finished getting their stuff all packed up. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

We got back from our bush walk this morning. We had a fantastic time! The waterfall was beautiful! We were the first white people to ever sleep there and the first white people (in remembered time) to go down to the waterfall. It was great, but we were all happy to be home, get a shower, and eat something besides fish and rice. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific