Chad Wells Family Blog

Five men came and worked on the wire and blind on the building. We decided to count today how many times the power went off. Saturday, it was only ON for 2 hours. But, today, it went OFF 12 times! Mom helped Pastor Kanan’s little boy today. He had gone to the haus sik and they gave him “medicine”. Mom was trying to explain that it wasn’t going to help his horrible cough. Kirsten was walking by and mom called her over. She said “I haven’t discussed this with Kirsten at all. I’m going to show her what you gave me and we’ll see if she says the same thing”. She handed the bottle of medicine to Kirsten. It was vitamin drops! And, yes, Kirsten said the same thing mom did!

Peter and Regina gave a wonderful testimony in church today. They’ve really shown a changed life throughout this ordeal. They’ve only been saved for about 2 years, but have been growing tremendously. The contrast between a traditional haus krai and theirs is dramatic. They’ve done no wailing, coverings of mud, or displays of hopelessness. They’ve displayed a peace that only God can give and have been a tremendous testimony to all the unsaved family who have been here. We received word that there is a Qantas strike that just started. The Kays are to arrive on Tuesday…. on Qantas! They are now scrambling for new tickets. We will wait to hear what new travel arrangements they were able to get.

Today was the mumu for Poka. They killed 2 pigs. Amber decided she felt well enough today to come (although she wasn’t looking forward to needing their outhouses!). The family will all leave now. Peter’s paid the compensation. He gave the mama line 2 pigs and 4,000 kina (which he got from all of his relatives). He and Regina will continue another week or so with their private haus krai. Here we are enjoying the pig, kaukau, and cooking bananas.

Amber’s already showing signs of improvement. The medicine is working and she’s still drinking as much as we can force down her! Peter’s daughter and father are still improving (although his dad is still in the haus sik). Daniel and Benny worked on putting the chicken wire on the front wall of the building. We are just trying to get it ready for stucco. It’s coming along! When I checked the bees today some of the boys came along. I gave them a lesson on bees! They are very scared of them, and I don’t think my lesson changed their minds much.

Joey left for Hagen today – on the bus. We got 2 loads of sand brought back (a load of sand is about 2 cubic yards). Peter’s daughter and father are showing signs of improvement, so we are holding off driving them to Hagen. Amber is worse today. She has amoebic dysentery. As soon as we realized this we started her on the medicine (as soon as we saw the blood). The boys were a little panicked at first, afraid because she had the same thing that Poka died from. But, we explained that getting medicine right away and keeping hydrated makes all the difference. We are making sure she drinks as much as she can get down. We’ll definitely keep an eye on her! This is a little creek that runs in front of the house.

Kirsten’s RI class went really well today. Unfortunately, it will probably be the last class she’ll do for the year. They will be doing their end of year testing for several weeks. Classes start up again around February. Amber started feeling sick this evening and has a fever. She went to bed early. The cement mixer is still not working so the smaller one (that we brought from the States) was used instead. The concrete floor is finished!!! Joey Anderson did an amazing job! We are so thankful he was willing to come take the time and help us. We couldn’t have done as well. Peter’s father and daughter are both sick. We spent some time trying to convince him to let us take them to the hospital in Hagen. Dad was ready to get in the truck and go. His dad’s been in and out of delirium. He is getting such pressure from his family (they don’t want him to interrupt the haus krai and upcoming mumu) that he couldn’t do it. We told him that by morning, if there’s no improvement, we are taking them ourselves. They are on medicine, so we will see.

Because of the haus krai all of the men from the Pangia church are with Peter and Regina. So, we had the men from the Keremini church come help with mixing and pouring concrete today. The cement mixer broke (I think a bearing seized). We worked on it for several hours but couldn’t figure out the exact problem. But, most of the middle section is finished.

I’m having stomach problems so I wasn’t able to go to the 2nd day of the haus krai. Dad, mom, and Joey Anderson went and dad preached. They buried Poka today. I worked inside and got the posters for youth camp all laid out and printed. Wes, my brother, drew the man running (our theme for camp will be “Run that ye may obtain”). We got them cut out, laminated, and ready to hang up.

This morning I got up early to make a coffin for Poka. I got it done, then we took it to Maiya. When we arrived Regina was not doing well at all. She had been fainting and was very weak. Kirsten tried to comfort her. She prayed with her and they talked of heaven and God’s comforting, strengthening hand. By the time the funeral started she was doing much better. I was in the middle of preaching when Regina’s family arrived. They were covered with mud and wailing as they came. It took around 5 minutes to get them diverted to another area, to continue wailing, so we could continue preaching. I gave a clear presentation of the gospel, and one middle aged man received Christ as his Savior. After the preaching the village leader gave time for Regina’s family to come back and wail over the body. They wailed for over an hour, tearing their clothes, walking around the casket, and flopping on the ground. Finally, the village leader said that was enough and they immediately stopped and sat down with the crowd. The wailing is to show their grief. The more they grieve the more they will have to be compensated. If their grief is small their compensation will be small, too. Peter, as the father, will be required to pay the mama line (the family on Regina’s side). They will do compensation at the end of the haus krai. The family will not leave until they are compensated. But, Peter must feed and take care of the family until then. The whole process is not very helpful to the grieving parents. They must take care of the family that comes as well as struggle to come up with the compensation. All while dealing with the loss of their child.

This evening we received word that Peter and Regina’s little 3 year old boy, Poka, died. He got sick on Thursday and had diarrhea. Today they brought him to the haus sik. He became dehydrated and kept losing consciousness. Then, in the last hour he went downhill fast. We were very upset that they didn’t come tell us so we could drive him to Hagen! He should not have died! Afterwards, once they let us know, I went down to Maiya to be with the family. They brought Poka to the house and we will do a funeral tomorrow. To know that a little boy died from dehydration and diarrhea is heartbreaking! It is so senseless! It’s hard not to just be frustrated. Especially since we are only 1 1/2 weeks from Bro. Kay’s arrival (or, Dr. Kay, as everyone here already calls him). But, we can’t second guess God or what He allows. We will trust that His guiding hand is perfect and that good will result from this bad. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific