March 24. Slept in until 6:30 this morning. Started quiet time while the breakfast pancakes were cooking. After breakfast, I had more time to spend in prayer. Then I looked through a song book and the song files in the computer to see what songs I might already have translated that the students haven’t learned yet. A little before 10:00, I set the keyboard out in the meeting room and then started practicing while I was waiting for the students to come practice. Judy came right after I got things set up, and about ten or fifteen minutes later, Elias and Anna Jean arrived. Elias said that Mike was busy finishing up something he had started on his house yesterday and didn’t get a chance to finish. So we went ahead and practiced without Mike. It was about 10:30 when the meeting started. Daddy had Elias lead songs. Then the students sang “Aleluya”. And then Daddy preached and Matthew interpreted. Daddy spoke from the portion of Haggai chapter one where the Lord was reproving the people for giving their time to building their own houses while they were saying there wasn’t time to tend to the house of the Lord. The Lord told the people to consider their ways and go up to the mountains to get wood to build the Lord’s house so that they could glorify Him. When the people repented and obeyed the Lord, the Lord promised to be with them and help them do the work in the Lord’s house. This message was to encourage the people to get busy taking care of their meeting place which is very dirty and needs a number of repairs. It apparently has been neglected for two or three years. There was a solemn atmosphere in the room as Daddy preached, and we are thankful that a number of people came to the altar. We trust that they will begin to make plans to do cleaning and repairing of the meeting room. After the meeting, I warmed up leftover greens, and uxai, and yams and potatoes for our dinner. Daddy had a short nap, but I didn’t have time for a nap before the next meeting. Matthew led the songs in the next meeting, and Amos preached on God’s call to His people everywhere to be holy and hold fast to their faith. After lotu, Daddy and I both zonked out for about an hour. After nap, I strained the kefir and made a new batch. I had planned to make a meatloaf to use for sandwiches, but found that the meat is going bad. So instead of meatloaf, I browned and seasoned the meat really well and mixed it with mayonnaise for sandwiches. This evening, Philemon came with his printer and computer so we could teach him how to use his scanner. Matthew also came to talk with Daddy. While they were talking, I did the dishes and re-cleaned the paint brushes as they didn’t get cleaned out very well yesterday. “2For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 3For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 4Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 5But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Romans 4:2-5 By faith alone! Praise God! May our lives show forth our justification.
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March 22. The night was warmer and there was a little rain, but the Lord gave us a nice, sunny day. In Bible class, we finished the lesson on church service. Then we took extra time to go into the meeting room where the students could look around and see what needs to be cleaned and/or repaired. That left us with just a little over a half hour for music class today, but that was okay. The other was important and particularly in light of the message Daddy is preparing for Sunday. After school, the students sanded the chalkboard-to-be and put the first undercoat on it. After cleaning out the paint brushes, they went outside to see the sawhorse that Matthew had made for the men to use when they cut firewood. Then they ate bananas and went home. Still had a little time before lunch to work at the computer so did some checking of Hebrews, trying to get it ready for doing the final check together. Worked on it more this afternoon and again this evening, finishing chapter 10. Praise the Lord for His help. Around 4:15 this afternoon, Elias, Mike, and Judy came back and put a second coat of undercoat paint on the chalkboard. They had hoped to put the first coat of chalkboard paint on, but the undercoat was too thin on the bottom half of the chalkboard so really needed a second coat. The board also had to be sanded again first because it was quite rough for some reason. After they left, Daddy and I had supper. Then I worked on Hebrews again until I took a break to wash dishes and strain the boiled water and pour it into its jug. Back to finish what I had started in Hebrews. Then I wrote an e-mail. March 23. It was a foggy morning, but then the sun came out and it looked like it would be a nice day for washing clothes. After lotu, however, it started raining. But we had Anna Jean go ahead and wash the clothes; and before she was done, the sun was shining again. We praise the Lord for enough sunshine and wind to dry the clothes. After that, the weather turned cloudy and cold, with some rain later in the afternoon. Besides washing clothes, Anna Jean prepared a panful of uxai and a pot of yams and potatoes. Those will be for dinner tomorrow as there was still leftovers for today. Then she swept the floors and burned the trash. While she was doing those jobs, I had time to work at the computer. Printed out the next set of ladies’ lessons for Mata—6 lessons, and now I need to write some more for the future. Also typed and printed a paper for Esta from Marivo; printed the teacher’s copies of the next Bible lesson and music lesson so I could proofread them, make corrections, and get the students’ copies ready to print; and printed a sermon outline and corresponding Bible verses for Daddy to use in lotu tomorrow.. By then it was lunch time so warmed up the leftovers and we had lunch. Then we got the clothes in before having our nap. This afternoon, I cut Daddy’s hair, practiced keyboard, and finished getting the copies of students’ lessons ready for printing. It was already going on 5:00 when Elias, Anna Jean, and Judy came to put the first coat of blackboard paint on the chalkboard. It was about 5:30 when they left, and I still had to make something for my supper (had forgotten about making tortillas today). Threw a quarter cup of flour into a small bowl along with a few other little ingredients and quickly made a couple pancakes. Then we had supper. After cleaning up the kitchen, I sat down to print the students’ Bible and music lessons. Before I could get started, Neomi came along with some cucumbers to give us. She stayed a short while to talk, but then left because it was already getting dark out. After she left, I got the printing done, and punched holes in all the lesson papers so they are ready for Monday morning. Then I did the dishes. “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Romans 3:28 By faith alone! Praise God! May our lives show forth our justification.
March 20. Up just before daylight this morning—5:45. Daddy started the generator a little after 6:00, and Judy came to wash clothes. She had time to hang them out, too, before people arrived for lotu. It looked like it was going to be a nice day, but when Daddy came back in from turning off the generator, he looked at the sky and said, “It’s going to rain.” And sure enough, it started raining right after he got into the house. By the time lotu was over, however, the sky was starting to get bright; and the Lord sent us sunshine until around 2:00. And this evening, He sent us a raging downpour. Matthew did the preaching again in lotu this morning, using I John 1:3-7 as his text and talking more on fellowship with one another and with the Father and the Son. Most of my computer time today was spent working on the music sheets for the Aleluya song book. Esther came by this morning and wanted a couple papers photocopied for the Marivo ladies’ prayer group, and we visited a bit with her before she left. Before dinner, I got a pumpkin and onion cut up and put in the pressure cooker and added lentils and other ingredients for soup. Then we had dinner, after which, while I cleaned up the kitchen, Daddy went out and brought in the bedsheet and pillow cases that had been washed this morning. Then we made the bed and had our nap. Daddy got up from nap before I did and brought the clothes in just before the rain started. Nevertheless, it was a hot afternoon, and I waited again until after supper to practice keyboard. When I got up from nap, I started the soup cooking and cut up the other popo as it was starting to get over-ripe. Worked at the computer until supper time. Mixed up some tuna and cut up a cucumber for our supper sandwiches. After supper, I practiced keyboard. When I was done playing the keyboard, Daddy turned on the generator for the evening. I got everything together for blending the soup and bottling it up, and took blender and soup into the schoolroom since there is no electrical outlet in the kitchen. Got the soup all blended and bottled up and took everything back into the kitchen. When I finished that, I put water on to heat and got ready to do dishes. There were lots of dishes this evening, and it took about an hour to get everything washed up. There was a little bit of soup that only filled half of a small jar so I decided to have that for evening snack. Tasted so good! The first real homemade soup I’ve had since we left the States. March 21. The Lord sent us quite an abundance of rain during the night and a little bit of sunshine this morning. There was a little rain early afternoon, but when I got up from nap, the clouds had passed away, and the sun was shining brightly. The rest of the day and evening has been dry. The students had their Bible quiz this morning, after which we started a lesson on church service—”learning to do.” Hope to finish that lesson tomorrow as Daddy hopes to be preaching on related material on Sunday. In music class, we drilled flash cards, practiced “Aleluya” (“Sing Hosana”), and started learning the parts to “Heven I Gutpela Ples.” (Heaven is a Good Place) After school, the students ate bananas, and we stood around and talked for a while. Then I got busy at the keyboard until lunch time, perfecting the new Bible lesson to start teaching on Monday. After nap, I worked on Pidgin lessons through the afternoon until supper time. After supper, I strained the boiled water, cleaned the keyboard (it was in dire need), and then practiced for a while until it got too dark. Then someone came to the door. Erisa had come to visit for a while. Enjoyed talking with her, even though there were three interruptions to answer the door. Daddy was out back with Tomas where they were checking the water pipes where the water enters the house because all the joins along the way seem to be working. The water ran through fine outside the house so they figured there apparently was dirt or something blocking the pipeline coming up into the house. After working on that a bit more, dirt was forced through the line and the water has been running much better this evening. Praise the Lord that we don’t have to waste a lot of time trying to get water that would only come in a little trickle. At the same time, we are just grateful to have a supply for running water in the house. After doing dishes, I spent the rest of the evening working on the translation of the story of Adoniram Judson. Also enjoyed a nice shiver-free bath on this warm evening. “….but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not…. Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness…. ….thou heardest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies. ….yet when they returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies…. Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God. Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us…. Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly.” Nehemiah 9:17,19,27,28,31,32,33 The mercies of God! what a theme for my song, Oh, I never could number them o’er, They’re more than the stars in the heavenly dome Or the sands on the wave-beaten shore. For mercies so great what return can I make? For mercies so constant and sure? I’ll love Him, I’ll serve Him with all that I have As long as my life shall endure. ~Thomas O. Chisolm
March 18. Praise the Lord for a sunny morning and no rain until this evening. Back to school today. Learning about the Bread of Life in Bible class and about godly music in music class. We also practiced “Sing Hosanna” both in Pidgin and English a couple times. They hope to sing for the church and for the glory of God this coming Sunday. After school, they all ate bananas since we have an abundance of them right now. Then Anna Jean stayed and prepared veggies—a potful of kavia greens with onions and a panful of carrots. Then she cleaned all the mud off Daddy’s town shoes. Elias and Mike stayed and cut and chopped firewood. George and his team had come and started building a firewood-cutting shelter so they were out there working while the men were cutting firewood. Matthew was also here putting up a strip of plywood in the space between the outside office wall and the roof as the silver paper was too short there and had come loose allowing a lot of cold air to come in whenever the wind blows. He also cut notches in the piece of plywood we had set aside for the printer shelf and put that shelf up in place of one that was too small. I spent the rest of the morning until dinner time adding verses to the leadership meeting notes. Got up a couple times to see how Anna Jean was doing. Also started the greens cooking when they were ready, and started the carrots later. We ate dinner a little bit late again as we waited until Matthew had finished working. So it was 1:30 before we lay down for nap. Didn’t sleep as long today as yesterday, however. After nap, I cut up one of the two popos that were brought to us this morning. Enjoyed a bowlful of popo, banana, and pecans for snack. Daddy and I took some time to plan out where to put the chalkboard in the schoolroom and how it was going to fit properly over uneven poles. Then I practiced keyboard for a while and afterward revised the shopping list in the computer and started typing in the missionary songs that I had written while we were in town. Worked on that until supper time. After supper, we worked together figuring out the costs and other disadvantages involved in using the generator vs. getting solar power. Solar power wins out by far, the only disadvantage being the total cost having to be paid up front. (We were to learn a couple days later that the lithium battery used for the solar cannot be transported by air, so that is a very big disadvantage to the solar power unless another alternative can be found. Please be in special prayer about this matter. Thank you!) Shortly after we started working on the generator/solar write-up, there was a big POW! right behind us and sparks coming from the power board. At first, we were afraid it was my computer adapter because we looked at my computer and it wasn’t charging. Thankful to find out that I hadn’t turned on the power switch so that was why it wasn’t charging. After looking over the various items that were plugged in, Daddy saw that one switch had turned black. The problem was somebody’s phone that was sent here to be charged. We are thankful that the power board was not on a parallel circuit so only the one outlet on it was damaged. After we finished the generator project, I put water on to heat for dishes and washed the dishes as soon as the water was hot. Also had a colander full of lemons to wash. Two young Waisara girls had brought them this morning. We are very grateful to the Lord for sending us more lemons. After writing in my journal, I finished typing the words to the new missionary songs into the computer. Then I wrote out lesson plan notes for tomorrow’s classes. “I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem: for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many.” Nehemiah 7:2 Lord, may thy servants be men of such character, faithful men who fear God above many. March 19. The Lord gave us some nice sunshine today and even some hot weather this afternoon. It was 81º in the house and probably a little more outside. The Lord has also sent us some little rain showers off and on throughout the day, with more rain this evening. After school today, Daddy helped the students pick out one of the better pieces of plywood to use for a chalkboard. Then they measured how high to hang it and got it put up. It took extra work to hang it because the wall poles are uneven on one end and pieces had to be added in to make the chalkboard lay straight. Next time they will sand it and put the undercoat on. Then another time, they will paint it with the chalkboard paint. By the time everyone left, there was just a little time left to work at the computer. Since we finished our new Bible lesson in class today, I used the computer time to perfect the quiz and get the students’ quiz page ready to print out for their quiz on Thursday. Also looked over the church service notes I had written in town and made sure they were ready to print out as well. We will start going through them in class on Thursday, after the quiz. Matthew came while I was working and brought the desk frame he had made for me. He set it down in the meeting room and cut a piece of plywood to make the desk top. Then Daddy carried the desk into the bedroom, and I went to the kitchen to make spaghetti. While I was getting dinner, Daddy went up the hill and, praise the Lord, was finally able to get e-mails in. Now we hope to be able to send some out. Dinner was a little bit late again, and it took quite a while to clean up after dinner and get food put away. When I started scooping the spaghetti sauce into a jar to be put in the fridge, what to my horrified eyes should appear but a large cockroach, dead and buried in the tomato sauce! And to think that we had already eaten some of the sauce for dinner! What could be more gross! Out went the cockroach into the garbage, and the rest of the spaghetti sauce went into the jar for storage and future use. We guessed that if it is heated up well, it should be edible. Just don’t think about the cockroach. We finally got to nap around 1:30, and I slept until a little before 3:00. When I got up from nap, the house was very warm, and there was no wind blowing. I decided to wait until the day cooled down a bit before practicing keyboard. Instead I did computer work. Got last week’s journal notes ready to send to C&C and also got an e-mail ready to send to Pastor Ogle with the notes we had written up last night about generator power vs. solar power. After supper, I practiced keyboard, read the e-mails that came in today, got three e-mails ready to send, did the dishes, and wrote in my journal.
March 17. Not quite as cold today as yesterday, but Daddy still kept the fire going all day. We were a little late getting up this morning, and a little later eating breakfast. Filtered water had to be poured into a jug, and the filter pitcher refilled. First I wanted to put a little water on the stove to heat so I could have warm water to drink. When I went to take up my little jug of salt water, I noticed blood on the counter in front of the jugs. Oh, no! A rat fight! Yuk! I cleaned up the blood spot and disinfected the shelf. Then I picked up the big jug to put the filtered water in, and there was more blood behind the jug. Yuk! More cleaning up to do. Finally got the filter pitcher emptied and refilled. Next I mixed some sugar and water in a small pan and set it on the wood stove to heat—sugar syrup for the pancakes. At last, I started making the pancakes. Went and got a couple bananas off the stalk on the back porch—one to mash and put in the pancakes, and one to mash and put on my pancake. When the batter was ready, I heated up the little fry pan and started cooking the pancakes. Got out a couple eggs and broke them into a cup. Added salt and pepper and they were ready to cook for Daddy after a few pancakes were ready. Read my Bible and did some praying while I was waiting for the pancakes to cook. Fried Daddy’s eggs after a bit, and he ate his breakfast. I continued making pancakes until the batter was all used up. It was a little after 8:00 before I sat down to eat my own breakfast. When I was done, I cleaned up the kitchen. At 8:30, Amos turned on the generator. When Daddy and I went to the office, what did we see on the office desk? More rat blood. Oh, no! More clean-up to do. We were thankful that it wasn’t on any of the computers or papers or anything else that was on the desk. Well, clean-up done and down to business. First of all, I did backups. Had a little time left before lotu to start going through leadership lessons and perfecting those. Didn’t know for sure if I would go out to the meeting room for the church service, but decided I would try. Yesterday, the wind blew on my head the whole time; and later in the morning, my throat started getting very sore. It seemed like the wind was coming from our house area, however, so when the wind blew on me this morning, I shut the door to the house. Daddy was inside, but it isn’t hard to hear in here even with the door closed. One can actually hear quite well, as all the other noises are pretty well shut out. I was able to sit through the whole meeting without the wind bothering me. I actually got quite hot in there and took my sweater off. My face was all flushed before the meeting was done. Matthew preached this morning since Daddy was sick and the deacons had preached the past three weeks and were not prepared for today. Matthew preached on our fellowship being with the Lord Jesus Christ and with the Father and with other believers. For dinner we had leftover greens, and rice to which I had added tuna as we finished the halibut yesterday. I lay down for nap as soon as I had cleaned up the kitchen and brushed my teeth. The bell rang for second lotu just a few minutes after I lay down, but I did not get up. I was too tired and slept quite a while. I understand, however, that Amos’s afternoon message was also on fellowship. After nap, I made honey/lemon syrup for Daddy’s cough, emptied the filter pitcher again and refilled it, washed my hair, ate a banana, made up the starter for water kefir, and played keyboard. By then it was almost 5:00. Daddy was already setting the table for supper. I guess he was hungry. He fixed a tuna sandwich, and I fried up the leftover kaukau to eat. Also cut up some cucumber into the rest of the tuna mix and ate that as well as one Vita-wheat cracker with peanut butter. After supper, I cleaned up the kitchen, strained the water that Daddy had boiled on the wood stove today, and poured it into its jug. Time to sit down for a while. Started up my computer, opened up my journal file, and started entering today’s events. Also opened up the February bank statement file and printed out a copy of the bank statement for Daddy. Then I spent more time organizing the notes for leadership meetings, washed the dishes, played a couple computer games, and had a little sponge bath, as mother used to call it. “And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” Nehemiah 6:3 Lord, help us not to let anyone or anything sidetrack us from doing the great work that Thou hast given us to do. “How often Satan tries to call us off from our work for God! He cannot endure to see us engaged so eagerly on our Master’s business and therefore raises up all sorts of hindrances and hostilities. Amid all these we have but one duty to perform. We must lose ourselves in our work. Ours to reply, 'I am doing a great work, I cannot come down; why should the work cease?' If we will see to God’s business, He will see to our safety.” F.B.Myers
March 15. Praise the Lord for a good night’s rest. Woke up to a very foggy morning, and it turned out to be another cloudy, rainy day. After breakfast and quiet time, I got busy with housework. There was much to do. The tall kitchen cupboard that I sprayed with bug spray last night needed to be cleaned today. First, I threw out the three dead cockroaches that were inside. The others must have run away somewhere. Then I sprayed each shelf area one section at a time, with bleach solution and scrubbed it with soapy water. After drying off the interior, I climbed onto a chair to see about cleaning off the top of the cupboard. So dirty! I guess it hadn’t been cleaned for the past three years. First I took a rag and wiped off all the loose dirt and dust. Then I sprayed all over with bleach solution. Then I washed it several times with the soapy water until it looked clean again. After that, I found a jar lid and filled it with cockroach powder. Then I started filling the cupboard back up with food and dishes and things. After that the boiled water needed to be strained and put into its jug. By the time all that was done, it was around 11:00. I would need to prepare a veggie for dinner, and there was still the bed to be made, my town bag to clean out and put away, and the floor to be swept. Daddy went down to shut off the generator, and he called for Judy (Bonita) to come and prepare veggies for me. I was certainly thankful for her help. She prepared a pressure cooker full of pumpkin greens, onions, and uxai. Stopped several times in between all that work to talk to sellers who came to the door, bringing us veggies, cucumbers, bananas. The bunches of bananas had to be hung, and we asked the sellers to help us hang them up, hopefully out of reach of rats. I asked Judy if her mother had taught ladies’ meetings the last three weeks, and she said “yes” so I knew she would need verse reminders for today’s meeting. While Judy was preparing veggies, I plugged the printer up to the inverter and printed out the pages of verse reminders for this week and next. When Judy was done preparing the veggies, I added water and salt and put them on to cook. It was already after 12:00 so our dinner wasn’t ready until 12:30. While the veggies were cooking, Judy swept the floor and I made the bed. Judy finished her work and left, and I sat down and started cutting up the pages of verse reminders until dinner was ready. Once the veggies were done, I warmed up the kaukau and fish from yesterday, and then we had dinner. It was about 1:45 before we got to nap. This afternoon, I finished cutting out the verse reminders. Cleaned out my town bag and put it away. Proofread the next set of ladies’ lessons so they are ready to print. There are just six more lessons, and then I will need to write more. I don’t know if I can keep up with weekly lessons, especially with all the other lessons and projects I am working on. After supper, I wrote in my journal and proofread the notes for the first music lesson, did the dishes, and then printed out copies of the lesson. Decided to try using the Brother printer again as the Canon uses up the ink so quickly. It didn’t seem to affect the generator any extra, but it did chew the corner off one of my papers, and the corner got stuck way back in the corner beyond the paper tray where it was almost impossible to get it out. It was almost impossible to even find it at first. The only way we could get it out of that corner was with a long-pointed object, and the only thing we found the right length was a knife. It took some maneuvering to finally work the little corner of paper loose; but, praise the Lord, it finally loosened up and we were able to pull it out with the knife. I was almost afraid to try printing again, but everything went fine after that. “So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.” Nehemiah 4:6 Lord, that your people will have a mind to work, and that we will work until the wall is builded and fitly joined together as one. March 16. Woke up this morning to cold winds and rain. Daddy has kept the fire burning all day. I wore my cold weather jacket all morning and a warm sweater the rest of the day. It was a blessing to see a good number of people show up for prayer lotu in spite of the damp and chilly weather. Daddy stayed inside the house and even lay down in bed for a while during lotu so he wouldn’t be coughing and disturbing people. Today was wash day too so the laundry had to be done in spite of the weather. Sunny stayed after lotu and washed clothes. Even though there wasn’t any sunshine, the wind was quite strong so the clothes got a good start at drying outside on the clothesline. Eric’s two sons Benson and Uriah stayed after lotu too and cut the grass (or should I say the weeds) out in front of the house. They had grown a foot or so high while we were gone. While Anna Jean (Sunny) was washing clothes, I had to strain boiled water and put it into the jug and also had the bed to make. About 11:00, I put a pot of rice on the wood stove to cook for our dinner. I was also working on the next Bible lesson for school and finished that before dinner. After dinner, I went out and brought in the dry clothes. Then went back out and brought in the not-so-dry clothes. Praise the Lord, about half of them were already dry, and the rest were mostly dry. The mostly dry clothes we hung in the house to finish drying. It was about 1:30 when we lay down for nap, but nap had a couple interruptions with knocks on the door and noises. So I didn’t get up until about 3:15. When I got up, the fire was almost died out, and Daddy was still lying down, so I added firewood to the fire. Then I spent a good while practicing keyboard as I hadn’t been able to do any practicing the past two weeks. I spent much of the evening working on music lessons for school. “Also I said, It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?” Nehemiah 5:9 How important our testimony is before the unsaved! We must be very careful to walk in the fear of the Lord. March 14. The weather wasn’t perfect this morning, but the mountain ridges were clear, the clouds were higher than yesterday, there were patches of blue sky and some sunshine, and it wasn’t raining. Praise the Lord! It should be a good day for a flight into Owena.
We didn’t get up extra early because Brad had told us that we would be the second flight and wouldn’t need to be at the hangar before 8:30. He said that someone would call us before they came to pick us up. About 7:00, we heard the twin otter take off, and Daddy saw it turn toward Hagen. That was rather strange. They don’t usually start flying that early for one thing, and they don’t usually go to Hagen unless there is something wrong with the plane. Well, we were soon to find out. Nuanda had gone early to the hangar, and he called Daddy to let him know that the plane had indeed had a problem yesterday and needed to go to Hagen first thing this morning to have work done on the plane. Nuanda would call us again whenever he had further news. Well, we may as well do something other than sit around and twiddle our thumbs. So we got out our computers and started working, Oh, no, not again. My computer started acting just like it did last week when it had the virus. So much for the anti-virus protection they put in. Well, there was no time to take it back to the shop today. As soon as it started responding a bit again, I shut it down. The next thing we knew, Daddy looked out front and there was the MAF truck. Nobody had called, and we wouldn’t have even known it was there if Daddy hadn’t looked out. The plane was on its way back from Hagen and we would need to be ready to go when they returned. Well, they would have to wait a few minutes for us to pack up, which we did as quickly as possible. I have to be really careful not to rush and get stressed out, however. Otherwise my heart starts racing. It didn’t take too long to get ready as we didn’t have as much to do since we had only a few items with us for the night. Daddy carried things downstairs, and Ben helped us load things onto the truck. Daddy dropped the key off at the office, and we headed for the hangar. After we unloaded and went inside the hangar cargo area, I noticed there was a heavy box on top of a box of ours that was fragile. I went to move the heavy box and found that someone had turned the box of milk Daddy had bought yesterday upside down, and milk was leaking all over the place. Daddy came and got the wet box of milk, and I went and asked for a rag to wipe off the box underneath it. Thankfully nothing had leaked inside that one; but the box with the milk in it was ruined, and Daddy was busy wiping off all the milk cartons and setting aside the ones that were leaking. There was no empty carton around to repack the milk in so Nuanda and Tokave went across the street to Goroka Food Mart to ask for a box. They were soon back, and the box was repacked with notice on top not to turn the box upside down. It wasn’t long before the plane was back. They loaded up the cargo as quickly as they could, called the passengers to board, and we were soon air-bound and headed for Owena. Greg and Glennis were our pilots today. Even though the weather was good in Owena, the strip was very wet and muddy. That meant cargo got muddy because there is no place to unload it other than on the ground. There was just one passenger and a little bit of cargo to go out of Owena so the plane was soon off to its next destination. And we headed for the house, preceded and followed by many children and a few adults carrying cargo. I was so very thankful to be home. As soon as the carriers were paid (lollies and chocolate wafers for the little ones and soap for the men who carried the heavier loads), we got busy unpacking. But look at the clock. It’s past noon. Time for lunch. What shall we have? Daddy suggested trying the chicken sausages we had bought. Oh, I’d better get the freezer box unpacked and load up the freezer first. That done, I heated up half the chicken sausages, and we enjoyed those for our lunch. Daddy had his in a sandwich, and I ate mine plain. Then he had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and I had peanut butter and jelly crackers. After lunch, we did a little more unpacking and then off for nap. After nap, Daddy went down to the generator shed and put the new parts in the generator before starting the generator. Then he ran the generator for an hour before supper and turned it back on again after supper. The new parts, however, don’t seem to be the answer to the generator problem. The lights still keep blinking. After a while, I started fixing supper. Used up the rest of the kaukau we had bought in town and cooked up the rest of the fish because that won’t keep long if it doesn’t stay frozen. While supper was cooking, I started cleaning everything out of the tall cupboard. Not that I wanted an extra job to do right away, but the cockroaches had multiplied significantly in our absence. Ugh! There is nothing I hate worse than cockroaches. Except maybe flies and rats – I’ll give them equal place. We are also having trouble getting water. When it comes, it just comes in a trickle most of the time. Gibson told Daddy that someone had cut a pipe up near the airstrip, and nobody has bothered to fix it yet. We did finally get enough water to do the dishes. After I did the dishes, I wiped off the tall cupboard shelves and then sprayed the whole inside of the cupboard with bug spray, shutting the doors to keep the spray in and hopefully kill all those ugly cockroaches before I wash the cupboard and put everything back tomorrow. By then it was going on 8:00, and I was ready to have a snack and sit down for a while. When I first turned on the computer, it started out acting strange and not responding again; but as I waited and kept praying, the problem cleared up, at least for now. So I am very thankful to the Lord for helping it to work properly.
March 11. It was around 6:15 when we got up this morning. In between breakfast and quiet time, we also did packing and cleaning and getting ready to move out of the flat. We had the beds all stripped and bedding and towels in the laundry basket for the house worker to wash. I was doing dishes and Daddy was sweeping the floor when she came to work. She wondered why we were moving out. Christie hadn’t told her to wash up the bedding from this apartment. “I’ll go down and talk to Christie,” she said. When she came back, she said that Christie would call us. We waited and waited quite a while before Christie called. She said that she thought people would be staying in here for a board meeting; but they won’t be, so the flat is free for you to stay until Wednesday. We were thankful that we could stay. Daddy then called Emmanuel Lodge and canceled our booking there. We hadn’t made any down payment or signed any agreement. Later in the morning, Daddy received another call. It was from MAF Hagen. They said that a package had come for us from the states, and they were needing some kind of payment for it. It wasn’t clear who the box is from or what is in it. The worker in Hagen got our e-mail address so he could send us the information and copies of the documents he had received. The package had come via FedEx from New Jersey and contains printed matter. It is in Moresby, and they are wanting K515.22 for customs and other costs. Even when we looked at the documents, it wasn’t clear who the box was from; but the US vale of the package indicated that it is likely the school books we had ordered. But why would it come from New Jersey and why would it not have Rod & Staff’s return address? What should we do? If it is the school books, we don’t want to abandon it. K515.22—that’s about $150, an added expense, but not too bad for customs, airport terminal fees, and getting it sent up to Goroka. Daddy would have to walk over to MAF and give them the payment to send up to the main office in Hagen. So that is what he did. We do hope that the school books is what is in the package. We don’t know what else it could possibly be. It was already noon when Daddy left and was around 1:00 before he got back. He had run into Danny while he was there, and Danny wanted to talk with him about going back on the flight with us. Then Daddy was thirsty and stopped at the store to get something cold to drink. While Daddy was gone, I set up last week’s journal notes in a file to send to Connie. After he got home, we had our dinner and then had our nap. After nap, I wrote a thank you note and another note to send to C&C to deliver. Then wrote C&C a couple e-mails, attaching the two notes and the journal notes. Started writing today’s journal notes before supper and continued in the evening. Worked on music lessons after that. Listened to a message by Pastor Weiss and also one by Adrian Rogers. Around 10:00, Graham called Daddy to ask him to send him more tracts. He has given out all that he had, and one student took a bunch of tracts back to his village to give out. Praise the Lord that the word is getting out through the printed page. May the Lord raise up laborers to take the whole word of God to those in need of a Saviour. March 12. Washed a load of clothes this morning, checked over Hebrews 6 for grammar and spelling, worked on notes with ideas for church service for the school students, and made up the quiz for the coming Bible lesson. Daddy had to go out about 11:30. MAF called and wanted him to come pay for tomorrow’s flight ahead of time. Philemon came by and walked with him over to the hangar. He had to pay the whole amount, and the other passengers would be responsible to pay him back. They also made him pay a surcharge for building materials which is to cover possible damage to the plane. He was gone an hour or more, but still hadn’t heard from Michelle about the car. After he had been back here a few minutes, she texted to say we could use the car now. So he walked over to MAF and picked up the Land Rover. It was around 1:15 when we left here to go to Papindo for lunch. After a little lunch, Daddy bought bread to take back to Owena, and we bought another carton of milk to use here. Then we drove over to YuYu to get nails for Mike. Drove back to Papindo, but Philemon still wasn’t there so we drove over to NTM to pay for the plane flight for our fuel. Back to Papindo again to pick up Philemon and his wife and child and one of Katherine’s workers. A quick stop after that at Chemica to pick up an axe head and some 3” nails which weren’t available at YuYu. Then we had to hurry on over to MAF with Philemon’s cargo and meet all the people over there who would be going on the plane tomorrow, weigh up their cargo, and settle accounts with them. MAF would close at 3:00 and it was already 2:45. Finally after that, we got to go back to the apartment. It was going on 4:00, and I was dog tired. Had a light snack and then a welcome nap. Daddy didn’t get a chance for a nap though. He had to go downstairs to pay our lodging bill, and to get some black ink for our Canon printer and a box to pack the solar light in. Then he had to take the vehicle back to the Venters. When I got up, I did a little packing, and then it was supper time. The Lord is sending us more rain this evening. Checked over Hebrews chapter 7. March 13. Rain through the night and woke up to a very foggy morning. Up around 5:45 for a quick breakfast, house cleaning, and packing up once again so we would be ready around 7:00 to go to the hangar. It was around 7:30 when the MAF truck came for us. Loaded our cargo into the truck and then ourselves and headed fro the hangar. Unloaded and got weighed up. It was still raining lightly in Goroka with lots of fog on the mountain ridges, and weather all over the Highlands was the same. At 8:30, it was still raining in Owena, so our flight was moved ahead; and as soon as it was clear enough in Goroka, they loaded up the plane and headed for another airstrip. While they were gone, Daddy and I went for a walk across the street to the West stores to get something for snack. At 10:00/10:30, it was still raining in Owena so they canceled the flight because the Owena strip would be too wet even if the rain stopped. Other places had opened up so the plane would make other scheduled flights. Daddy called CRMF to see if the flat were still open. Praise the Lord, we could come back here for the night. We picked out a few items we would need to bring back to the flat with us. Then we waited quite a while for a ride. Ben had said he would bring us back, but he was busy unloading the plane that had just come in and loading it up for the next flight. Finally pilot Tim said he would get the key and take us back. It was now going on lunch time. When we got back to CRMF, we unloaded the truck, Daddy got the keys to the apartment, and we took stuff upstairs. Then Tim took Daddy over to Papindo café to get us some take-out lunch. Right after lunch, I had a long nap. Have been having a bad earache in my right ear for the past three days and felt really wiped out today. Praise the Lord for a little sunshine this afternoon. This evening, I spent more time working on the Reading and Writing Pidgin course. March 10. Woke up to a nice sunny morning. The Lord brought us another rainstorm this afternoon. After breakfast and quiet time, I packed and taped up a couple boxes. Looked at e-mails. Talked with Christy and Connie via skype for an hour—a great time! Listened to a good message by Adrian Rogers covering what the Bible says about national leadership. Put a pot of rice on to cook for dinner. Wrote an e-mail or two. Then it was dinner time, followed by nap time. After nap, I washed my hair and had a fruit snack. We listened to a message by Pastor Weiss that C&C said they had listened to. That message didn’t finish the lesson so we listened to the other half in the evening. After supper, I packed a few food items that we won’t be needing again before tomorrow noon and evening. Then I washed up the dishes right away as there was quite a stack of them since we had finished up some things from the fridge today; and also I didn’t wash out the bowls in the morning like I usually do. Also washed out one of the buckets we bought so we can carry drinking water over to the other lodging. We didn’t see any drinking water there, but Daddy will call and ask in the morning just to be sure. This evening, I worked on lessons for reading/writing Pidgin. March 8. We didn’t hurry to get up this morning because we didn’t think we would have a car to use today. However, Michelle sent Daddy a text saying that we could use the Land Rover until 11:30. During and after breakfast, we had the opportunity to talk with Martha a while on Skype. The connection was not really good, the picture was a bit blurry and the sound a little distorted, and the connection kept going in and out at the end. But we were still able to see one another and enjoy a little chat. Right after that, Daddy walked over to MAF to pick up the car. We went to SengDa Hardware first. Couldn’t find hydroseal, but found sealing tape for the roof. Couldn’t find the kind of axe that the people like to use for cutting our firewood. (We have been borrowing Amos’s axe and wanted to get one of our own.) Then we went next door to the SengDa department store and got a SIM card for our internet modem, some flex cards, and batteries upstairs. Downstairs we bought just a couple small items, including eggs. I was hoping to get more apples, but they didn’t have any left. Then we headed to Papindo central where we got some halibut and fresh peas and a couple other little items. We really wanted some good chicken, but nobody sells chicken breasts or nice meaty chicken anymore. They cater to the PNG people who like the wings and legs and any parts with lots of fat and bones. Next was Bintangor where we picked up some fresh napa cabbage and tomatoes. Then to Didiman Hardware to look for an axe, but they didn’t have the right kind either. On the way to Didiman, we stopped at a roadside market and bought a few bananas and a popo. We hadn’t had any bananas since coming to town so I was very thankful to have bananas again. From there we headed back to the house. After a snack, Daddy took the car back over to MAF. I divided the fish into several portions and put some in the freezer. Also divided the ground beef that Daddy had bought yesterday into several portions and put those in the freezer. Cooked one portion of the fish for our dinner and part of the peas that we had bought and enjoyed those together with kaukau and the carrots I had cooked yesterday. After nap, we took a walk over to Emmanuel Lodge. The office worker showed us one of the self-contained flats, and we made arrangements to stay there on Monday and Tuesday. From the Lodge, we walked on up to the pharmacy out on west highway, and Daddy bought some amoxicillin. He has gotten a chest cold, and his cough does not sound good at all. A few little drops of rain fell on us while we were walking, but thankfully most of the rain went around to the east of us. What was left of the afternoon, I worked on the February progress report, and this evening was able to get that sent off to Pastor Ogle. Afterward, I washed the dishes. March 9. Saturday. The Lord sent us rain during the night and rain this morning. He sent us a little sunshine this afternoon and more rain this evening. Right after I got up and dressed, I put the first load of clothes in to wash. I only had enough laundry detergent for one load so at 8:00, as soon as the corner Papindo was open, Daddy walked up to the store and bought another little packet of detergent. I was busy hanging out the first load of clothes when he returned. Got the second load started and then finished hanging up the first. Shirts and blouses were hung on hangers in the house, and other things were hung in the breezeway so we didn’t have to worry about the rain. No rain comes in there. Daddy just barely made it back from the store. About the time he got there, he started having a reaction to the amoxicillin he started taking yesterday for his bad chest cold. After he got in, he lay down for a while. Apart from a nap after dinner, he has been up the rest of the day, but has felt rather weak. I got the last of the February journal notes ready for Connie this morning and sent them off with an e-mail to the girls. Wrote several other e-mails throughout the day. I had forgotten that there wasn’t much left of the cooked veggies to go with dinner so I let Daddy have as much as he wanted, and I would cook some more later. There was still plenty of fish and kaukau. After nap, I cut up a popo to have for snacks. Brought in the clothes and folded them. And before supper, I prepared napa cabbage, carrots, peas, and onions, and put them into a Dutch oven to cook. I didn’t eat any for supper, but had some for evening snack. |
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