April 14. Praise the Lord for His blessings today! It was quite chilly and foggy when we got up this morning; but the day warmed up quickly, and it turned out to be quite a hot day until around supper time. Then the air began to cool, and this evening it is raining again. Before church time this morning, I worked on music lessons until the battery ran low in the ACER. Then I cut out a picture of a stallion and put the picture onto a yellow matte board. Later, I will see what I can do about painting it. Before Daddy preached, Philemon gave a testimony. It was a wonderful testimony of how God worked in his and his wife’s hearts. After the preaching the last few weeks, Philemon and Lynn sat down together, talked about the messages, and judged their own lives. They realized that they came up short in obedience to God’s word and confessed to God their sin. They purposed in their hearts to begin applying God’s word to their lives. Daddy preached this morning from the discipleship booklet, planning to go through the booklet as even many who “for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” Hebrews 5:12 Daddy does a good job making things practical and comparable to every day life. We praise the Lord for five who responded to the invitation, including two of Philemon’s brothers and his Uncle Jonathan. I did not go out into the meeting room today as I am still struggling with earaches and sore throat, and the door is always wide open, allowing a draft to come through. I sat right next to the meeting room most of the time, however; and it isn’t hard to hear fine from anywhere in the house area. Sound carries very well around here. While I was listening, I used my hands to put a patch on my chair where a rat had apparently eaten a hole and to start crocheting a belt for the dress I was wearing . This afternoon, I charged up the ACER with the inverter and then worked more on the music lessons until supper time. While the ACER was charging, I finished crocheting the belt to go with my dress. After supper, I did dishes. As soon as Daddy turned on the generator, I finished up the music lessons I had been working on. Then I started writing in my journal while bath water was heating. Since the dead rat smell had died down quite a bit, I really wanted to get a bath. We’re still not having much success sending e-mails. It is so hard to get and keep a good connection.
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April 12. Went to bed at 9:30 last night. Was really wiped out from battling this cold or flu or whatever. Was thankful for a little extra sleep. Before I went to bed, I had seen a rat go running behind the kitchen cupboards. Daddy suggested putting a few moth balls back there since the rat poison is gone. Moth balls are supposed to scare the rats away. It rained and rained and rained during the night, but no rain today. Praise the Lord! This morning, the students had their Bible quiz right after prayer and review of memory verse. Then we went right to music class after that, followed by Bible class, recess, and English class. Music class had an interruption when Daddy spied a large rat sitting on the kitchen floor near the table. It was obviously dying from the rat poison it had eaten a couple nights before. Each of the school students grabbed a piece of firewood and surrounded the rat which had scooted under the table. When one student struck at it and it ran out another side, Anna Jean gave it a whack and that was the end of that. Mike picked it up by the tail and took it out to the garbage hole. I’m certainly thankful to have that foul-smelling creature gone. We had other little visitors this morning too. While Matthew was working, a hen and rooster came in the back door that had been left open. Matthew and Daddy chased them out, but they weren’t very happy about it. Matthew said that the hen was looking for a place to lay her eggs, and the rooster was helping her. At 11:15, the students closed their English books, and we had a church service day. The young ladies cleaned the front doors, the offering box, the pulpit, the platform, and the artificial flowers. They also washed the chalkboard. The men moved the chalkboard to its former location behind the pulpit, moved a bulletin board to the opposite side of the room, and took the poles down from above the two windows which had had kunai* canopies outside. The kunai was long gone, and the poles were rotten. The men also scrubbed the tire that the “flower girls” arrange flowers in for lotu. Judy took home dishes and tins that are used for flowers, washed them, and brought them back later. *Kunai – tall grass used for making thatched roofs It was a nice surprise to see Sosthenes and talk with him a bit. He is home from school for a week’s holiday. He came in and helped the men with some of the church work, and also helped his father who was working on our kitchen cupboards. I had hoped to put another coat of paint on the front of the church cupboard, but Matthew had set up his “workshop” close by there. It was after 12:30 before we had dinner. Daddy and I ate while everyone was still working. After everyone left, except for Dallas who was chopping up some smaller pieces of firewood, I finally lay down for nap. It was already 1:45, and I was wiped out. Daddy waited until Dallas was done. Even though I lay down for a couple hours, I didn’t sleep much. Checked my temperature when I woke up, and it was a bit high like it was the other day. Finally gave in and started on amoxicillin. The large doses of supplements didn’t seem to be helping, and I don’t want to run completely out of supplements before our shipment comes from the states. Before supper, I had just a little time to work at the computer. I made sure the music lessons for Monday were ready for printing so I could print them and the Bible lessons when the generator would be turned on this evening. We had a little bit of a late supper since we had had a late dinner. Then I washed dishes and had my “bath” while the house was still warm. However, I did not get to print any lessons. The pull rope didn’t hold, and there is no other way to start the generator right now. Daddy will look at it in the morning, but it was too dark to try to fix it this evening. April 13. Praise the Lord for a dry night last night and a dry and mostly sunny day. It is raining again this evening. Started smelling a dead rat smell yesterday, mainly in the bathtub area of the bathroom. Before morning, however, the whole house stunk with that putrid smell. I slept in a little later this morning, not even sure what time it was when I got up. Did not go out into the meeting room for lotu, but prayed in here out of the cold draft. Since the generator was not working again, Anna Jean and Judy had to do laundry in the bathtub with plungers for agitating and hands for wringing them out. They didn’t seem to mind, though, and they do get along well together which is a great blessing. After they had the clothes hung out, Anna Jean fixed kaukau (white sweet potato) and potatoes for our dinner, and Judy swept the floors and burned the trash. Each fixed herself a cup of coffee before going home. Daddy met with Amos. Then Tomas came with some tools; and he and some of the other men, along with Daddy, went to see if they could fix the pull cord on the generator. A screw or something had fallen down inside somewhere last night when Daddy tried to start it so they had to take things apart to get that screw. They did, however, get it put back together, and Daddy let it run for a while after that. While the girls were washing clothes, I cleaned the toilet in the extra bathroom so it could be used while the girls were working at the bathtub and can also be used until the dead rat smell goes away. Also gathered up all the trash and put it into one large trash bag so it would be ready to be taken out and burned; and when the generator was on, I printed music lessons and Bible lessons for school this coming week. They didn’t come out looking very good, however, as the line-up changes when they are moved from computer to computer; and I can only print them in the Lenovo, but I can’t fix them in the Lenovo because my Microsoft programs are locked up. It is rather frustrating, but will just have to be for now. After dinner, Daddy went out and brought the clothes in. We hung the wet ones in the schoolroom before settling down for nap. I took a little bit longer nap again since I am still not feeling well, but not quite as long a nap as yesterday. This afternoon, I made sure that lesson plans are ready for Monday and wrote some math problems on the chalkboard; found and cleaned a large piece of white board for the students to use for a science bulletin board; sorted some pictures according to categories, finished checking over the last chapter of Hebrews so it is now ready for the two of us to do the final checking together (praise the Lord!), and pinned up the edge of the PNG flag that the was washed the other day so it could be hemmed. Part of the bottom edge had apparently been eaten away by a rat.. After supper, I washed the dishes, but I did not take a bath. The smell in the bathroom is too strong and makes me gag. While I was waiting for the power to go on, I stitched up the hem on the flag. (The flag is now hanging in the schoolroom.) Then I wrote in journal and worked on getting past journal notes together for Connie. April 10. Up at 5:45 this a.m. to get ready to do the laundry. Judy had filled the washing machine yesterday after school. As soon as I was dressed and ready this morning, I added laundry detergent to the water and put in the first load of clothes. Daddy went down to the generator shed to start the generator. I could hear from the house that the generator was not going to start. It appears that the starter has gone bad. Daddy took the inverter down and checked out the generator battery, and it was fine. The only other thing he could think of that might be wrong is the starter. So now we are without generator power. Thankfully we didn’t have much in the freezer. And thankfully we have two pressure cookers in which to keep leftovers. Is it just a coincidence that for my evening Bible reading I have just begun reading the book of Job? I don’t believe so. Though the trials are big to us, they are small compared to what Job went through. “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” Job 1:22 I did not go out into the meeting room for lotu this morning, but rather sat near the fire. It would not have been good to have cool air blowing on my head in the meeting room. Tomas preached this morning from James 3 on the tongue being a fire and a world of iniquity. He did a good job. After the meeting, we asked the school kids if they would mind working first and then having school so we could get the clothes out to dry before it got to be too late in the day. They were happy to do that. Sunny worked on the clothes, plunging them in the wash water to clean them, wringing them out, filling the bathtub with rinse water, plunging the clothes again to rinse them, and then wringing them out again. While she was doing that, Judy prepared a pumpkin for one pressure cooker, and some greens, onions , and uxai for the other pressure cooker. Then the two young ladies hung the clothes out together. The two men, in the mean time, were cutting firewood. Daddy called Christy to see if she and Connie were getting to use Microsoft, and they don’t have any problem since they have the use of the internet. Then he called Pastor Ogle to ask him to pray for us and have the church pray. A little after 10:30, we started school, having math and then English. During the break between classes, I put a pot of rice on the wood stove to cook for our dinner. Daddy and I ate dinner while the students were doing their English exercises. After school, the men chopped up the wood that they had sawn earlier, and Daddy and I had a nap. I was really wiped out today and had a fever too so I was thankful for an extra long nap—slept about two hours. While I was sleeping, Daddy brought in the clothes. And after I got up, I hung the ones that weren’t quite dry yet—some in the schoolroom and some in the bathroom. Had a drink and snack and then graded the students’ English lessons and put some math work on the chalkboard for tomorrow. Did the dishes right after supper. Since we have no generator power, I am having to use the ACER partly on battery and partly on the inverter. The battery runs down quite quickly as it is old and not strong. Proofread the next Bible lesson and made the students' copy. Then added the details into yesterday’s journal notes that I had jotted down late yesterday evening. And lastly wrote today’s journal notes April 11. No rain last night or this morning, but rain this afternoon and evening. Praise the Lord for some sunshine this morning. We decided we would just sing in music class until we can get the keyboard fixed or get something else. I can’t teach music with just a chromatic pitch instrument. Praise the Lord for Matthew coming this morning and working on the cupboards. He has supports set up all along the bottom and is now ready to cut the plywood and put it in. We had just come to the end of the school morning when we heard the roar of a plane engine. It was SIL, bringing passengers in and coming to take passengers out. Daddy had gone up to see the pilot. It was Jamie. Jamie asked Daddy how things were going; and when Daddy told him about some of our trials, Jamie offered to come down and look at the generator. He said the problem is not the starter because it turns over when you try to start it. Without much difficulty he fixed the broken pull cord, and the generator started right up. So he believes the problem is actually the battery for the switch starter. Even though it tested good on the inverter, he said you can get a false reading. It would need to be tested another way to know for sure, but that looks like the problem. Praise the Lord for Jamie’s offer to help and his knowledge of mechanical things. So we do have power again this evening, and the girls shouldn’t have to do laundry by hand on Saturday. He also looked at the keyboard and determined that the problem is that the adapter has gone bad. So Daddy will take the adapter to town and see if he can find another one like it. While Daddy was still at the airstrip, I went ahead and warmed up the dinner and also ate. I was quite hungry as all I had had for breakfast was a bowl of fruit and had not had anything else since then. Daddy had his dinner while Jamie was looking at the keyboard. After Jamie left, we had our nap which was interrupted by Daddy’s phone ringing—just Digicel with a special offer. I got up shortly and got busy in the schoolroom first of all—erasing the chalkboard and writing just a few numbers on it, then making sure that all lesson plans were laid out for tomorrow. The rest of the afternoon, I worked on Hebrews continuing with checking of grammar and spelling for chapter 12. Finished checking chapter 12 this evening. We had to have the battery light on in the kitchen at supper time because the rainy weather had made the house fairly dark. Right after supper, I did the dishes and then had my “bath” before the evening got too chilly.
April 8. A chilly damp day. Rains arrived in the afternoon. My ears and throat are quite troubled by this long spell of cool, damp days. The church men came early this morning to cut the grass and cut down the trees behind our house so that the helicopter could land there if he would. We praise the Lord that the clouds were high enough and the fog thinned out quickly this morning for the helicopter to bring in our fuel. It was SIL’s helicopter that came, and they arrived not long after 8:00. They are helping NTM with some of their work as NTM is behind in flying, probably due to the illness of one of their pilots, and maybe the weather too, I don’t know for sure. But we are very thankful for their bringing our fuel. This weather is really affecting our sending e-mails too. Some of them may have sent, but we cannot tell. Three out of four disappeared from the outbox list, but the number 4 is still by the outbox name. And none of the three are listed under sent items. So where did they go???? It’s crazy. We had just barely started school this morning, when we heard the helicopter coming. I could see by the anxious look on the students’ faces that they wanted to go out and see the helicopter, but they didn’t say anything. I finally asked them; and of course, they were ready to head out as soon as I asked. The helicopter landed on the level area just above the back of our house as we had hoped. That made it so much easier to roll the drum of fuel down the hill and into the generator shed. Our Bible class was shortened a bit. We did start learning a new Bible verse and also finished a lesson, except for the discussion questions. They did much better in math today and then had their first English lesson which was on nouns. I dismissed the students and went to warm up dinner. But the students stayed and finished today’s math lesson. We had already finished dinner when they finished their lesson. Afterward they put firewood under the house that Wenke had brought this morning and they cut down the fern plants that had been planted in the ditch out front. Then they went home. After nap, I finished writing lesson plans which I had started in the morning while the students were doing independent work. Then I wrote journal notes and worked on the next Bible lesson until supper time. Washed the dishes right after supper. Finished up the next Bible lesson. Made up another math sheet and printed out copies. Then tried to practice keyboard, but the connection where the cord attaches to the keyboard seems to be shot so it would not work. Daddy put batteries in, but the cheap AA batteries only worked for about five minutes. So we’ll have to find another way to learn the parts. April 9. Rain, rain, rain—rain during the night, rain this afternoon, and rain this evening. We continue to pray for sunshine and drier weather, yet we know that God knows best how to answer our prayers. Cold (or perhaps flu) germs have come along with the weather, and I’ve been dosing myself with all kinds of supplements. Rats, rats, rats. So noisy at night. This (or these) rat(s) is (are) the most foul smelling things I’ve ever smelled. And it’s hiding place is right behind the kitchen cupboard. I’m so glad to get away from the kitchen after doing dishes in the evening. We just hope the critter doesn’t die back there. Didn’t quite finish the discussion questions in Bible class today so will finish them Thursday morning and then let the students use the rest of the time to study for a quiz the next morning. In music class, I had a hard time teaching the singing parts without the keyboard. I did remember the tenor and bass, but hadn’t gone over the alto yet with the keyboard so had a hard time getting it right. Anna Jean remembered it pretty well, however, and that is her part. Dallas has a bad cold as well. His cold must have affected his thinking as he didn’t do nearly as well in math today. While the students were working independently on their lessons, I cleaned the bathroom sink and Daddy’s basin. After nap I washed my hair, cut up a popo, and worked on Sunday school lessons. After supper, I did dishes, took a bath before the house got too cold, and printed a picture to go with the next Sunday school lesson. From then on, I could not do anything else in the Lenovo. Microsoft says that the program is not licensed so they won’t let me work in them. A few minutes later, Microsoft locked up Daddy’s computer too. Seems like there is one trial after another; Satan seems to be fighting hard against any work we are trying to do here. We believe he does not want to see things change in the church. As long as the people have just been playing church, not dealing with sin, and not actively serving the Lord in sincerity, he has not been bothered. Therefore we will keep pressing on, counting the trials all joy. “2My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” James 1:2-4 Daddy suggested trying to put my files into the ACER and using the ACER, Worth a try. Backed up all files from Lenovo with no problem. Amazingly I am able to take these files that are from the windows 10 computer and use them in this old ACER XP. Before the evening ended, I had time to check through the first ten verses of Hebrews 12 and sew the hem back in the legs of a pair of Daddy’s trousers.
April 7. It was a sleep-in morning. Didn’t get up until 6:30, thankful for a little extra sleep. Got dressed, emptied filter pitcher and refilled it, made pancakes, ate breakfast, had quiet time, talked with Christy and Connie. Then it was about time for lotu. Dallas led the songs this morning, Daddy preached, and Matthew translated. Before Daddy preached, Jonathan gave his testimony of how the Lord worked in his heart and brought him to repentance from his waywardness. Such a clear testimony of the work of the Lord to chasten His children and bring them to repentance. Daddy’s preaching dealt with surety-ship and indebtedness. The Lord used it to deal with hearts, and a good number of folks came to the altar to pray. The men met together briefly after the first service, first of all for Daddy to ask them about cutting down a couple trees and cutting the grass on the level area behind our house so the helicopter can land there tomorrow; and then to discuss among themselves what to do about charging phones. It was decided that only the owner of the phone could bring the phone and come get it. Also that no one can bring his phone after dark or come get it after dark. The second meeting was shortly after dinner. Philemon led the singing, and Amos preached. I could hardly keep my eyes open during the meeting and went straight to nap afterward. Daddy talked with Matthew very briefly and then came to nap. There wasn’t a lot of time between nap and supper, but I used that time to finish up lesson plans for tomorrow and bag up some tracts for Graham and write a note to go with them as Korin will be taking the tracts out to Goroka for Graham to pick up there. After supper, I got flash cards ready for math class tomorrow and then wrote up yesterday’s journal notes as I hadn’t had a chance to do that yesterday evening. Did some scanning and printing and set up the next Bible lesson in the student file. Started work on the next Bible lesson. “4And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” I Corinthians 2:4,5 God is not looking for men to preach His word who are wise in their own conceits. He is looking for men who will humbly preach in the power of the Holy Spirit. Our faith should not, and cannot, stand in man’s wisdom. Only in the power of God.
April 5. After a few hours of morning sunshine, the Lord started sending us rain late morning. Around mid-afternoon, the sunshine was back again. It is raining gently this evening. We had some good discussions in Bible class this morning, but Mike also asked a question about what a person should do if they realized that a certain work was God’s will and went about to be obedient to the Lord, only to be told by someone else that he couldn’t do it. It was a question based on personal experience, in which he and several young people were going out and preaching the gospel in other villages. Since he was discouraged by another believer from doing that, he stopped. He didn’t say who discouraged him, but it was heart-breaking that someone would hinder the preaching of the gospel to those in other villages. Mike wondered if he had done the right thing in quitting, or what should he have done? I told him that, if we are being obedient to God’s commandments, we often need to endure hardships and just go on doing the Father’s will no matter what others may say. It may be hard, but God will give us strength to carry on and will strengthen our faith through it all. With that discussion, we went over time in Bible class so our music class was shortened. We did have some time to work on the tenor and bass parts for “Ye Must Be Born Again.” I thought they had learned them before, but they said they hadn’t. After school, Anna Jean filled the washing machine so it is ready for washing clothes in the morning, and Judy swept the floor and burned the trash. I worked on Monday’s lesson plans. This afternoon, I readied the monthly updates for mailing, except for acknowledging support. I just copied the spreadsheet from the ACER onto a flash drive this evening and will try to add the acknowledgments tomorrow. This evening, I printed out John 6:68,69 in Pidgin for the students to memorize next week, fixed up a couple music sheets so they are ready for printing, and made up a math lesson to reinforce what they have been learning as three out of the four had a hard time today. April 6, 2019. This morning there was no water running through the pipes when we got up. Amos went up to check it out and found pipes that were separated at the joins. He rejoined them, but there was still no water. All of a sudden, after lotu, water started running again. Praise the Lord for that as we had wondered how we were going to wash clothes. Dallas had charge of lotu this morning. AnnaJean wasn’t at lotu so afterward I asked Judy to wash clothes again. She just started that job when AnnaJean showed up. Since I had already given Judy the job of washing clothes, I gave AnnaJean the job of preparing food—a pressure cooker full of carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onion. It is a blessing to be getting carrots here in the village now. Kaipo has carrots growing in one of her gardens. The two girls hung the clothes out together. It started raining lightly just as they got started, but I told them to go ahead and hang them up anyway as there wasn’t room to hang them in the house. We were thankful that there wasn’t much rain and it didn’t rain for long. A few of the clothes were dry when we brought them in right after dinner. We had to hang a few around on hangers and on some of the lines in the schoolroom to finish drying. While the girls were working, I wrote an e-mail to Pastor Ogle and got the progress report ready to send. Also worked on Sunday school lessons. After nap, I cut up a popo, cleaned and organized the church cupboard, repainted one coat of undercoat on its door, had a snack, and practiced keyboard. This evening, I finished the last Sunday School lesson in the series about Josep. Now I need to plan a review game to cover those lessons. Also fixed up a coloring page to be used for art class; wrote a short e-mail to send updates to Christy for printing; washed dishes; had snack; printed music lessons, math pages, coloring page, Bible lesson; had bath and devotional time with Daddy. “26For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29That no flesh should glory in his presence.” I Corinthians 1:26-29 Praise God! That means He can use me.
April 3. Praise the Lord for no rain during the night, and the sky was even full of visible stars during the middle of the night and early this morning. We were up by 5:45 so Daddy could start the generator and Judy could come and wash clothes. She was done with the washing by 7:00, and it didn’t take her long to hang them out either. There weren’t quite so many clothes today. Nobody rang the lotu bell until well after 7:00; and, consequently, lotu (church) didn’t even start until 8:00, and that with only a handful of people. Matthew preached on I Thessalonians 5:19, not quenching the Holy Spirit. He did a good job of organizing and had good illustrations. It was about 9:15 before the students got settled down for school. After Mike prayed, the students finished the written exercises in their math lesson that they started yesterday. Anna Jean was done first so I had her start cutting out the Bible verses for Sunday school while I graded her lesson. Judy finished next and helped Anna Jean with the cutting. While they were working, I got lesson plans written for the first part of the Unit 1 science lesson. After they left, I put tomorrow’s math practice on the chalkboard, got the tenor and bass notes mapped out for “Wanpela Buk I Stretpela,” and practiced keyboard. Then it was lunch time. When we finished lunch, we went out and brought in the clothes. And after nap, I washed and cut up a popo and cleaned everything out of the long kitchen cupboard so I can spray it for cockroaches. Then I can have the girls clean it tomorrow. After that, I had a snack, bought some eggs from Philip, and started adding the tenor and bass notes to the music sheet in the computer. This evening, I finished adding the music notes to the song and printed out a copy. Completed one new lesson for ladies’ meetings. Strained the kefir and washed the dishes. Daddy strained the boiled water this evening so that was a big help for me. April 4. No rain during the night and a good amount of sunshine today. Rain this evening. After school this morning, Mike and Elias helped Daddy replace the screen on the back porch door. Then they chopped firewood. Judy and Anna Jean cleaned the shelves in the long cupboard, scrubbed the back door, the back porch door, and the tool closet door, and cut up greens and onions to be cooked. This afternoon, I got the March progress report written; and this evening, I wrote the March update. After that, I did the dishes and then practiced keyboard. “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” Romans 15:13 Praise to the God of hope for the joy and peace that comes through believing and the abundance of hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. April 1. A new month, the fourth month of the year already. Lots of rain during the night. A little bit of sunshine today, but mostly cool and cloudy. Very strong winds in the afternoon. We started the new school schedule today, adding their first new class, math. Bible and music classes, therefore, have been shortened a bit. The students did very well on reading and writing numbers up through the quadrillions when they didn’t even have millions in 8th grade in the community school. It is hard to believe that they didn’t have numbers in the millions in eighth grade. The had had millions in 6th grade in GCS, which actually was using the 5th grade math book. Now we are using an 8th grade book. After school, I made up tomorrow’s lesson plans and then looked over the next set of Sunday school lessons. I don’t have a set quite complete yet, but will print out the first lesson of the set so Mike will have something for this coming Sunday. Got that lesson proofread; and this afternoon, I prepared Bible verse cards to print out to go with it. Also looked for visuals. By lunch time, I wasn’t feeling very well again; but, felt somewhat better after eating. Just very tired and ready for a nap. My nap was interrupted when the curtains were blown down by a big gust of wind. I had rested long enough by then so I was okay about getting up. After nap, besides preparing Bible verse cards for printing and looking for visuals, I made up a music quiz for Thursday and practiced keyboard. This evening, I printed a Sunday school lesson, Sunday school verses, Bible quizzes; photocopied some English work pages; scanned a picture to print for the Sunday school lesson and cropped and painted it to get rid of extra objects; did the dishes; strained the boiled water; strained the kefir and made new. April 2. Another day like yesterday, but warmer and without the cold winds. The students had very ripe bananas (finished up the old bunch) and peanuts for snack today. Then we had some review and class practice for math before they started their written lesson. They stayed on a half hour after class was over to continue working on their written exercises. Hopefully, they will finish tomorrow. While they were working on their lesson, I looked through the music sheets to see what needs to be printed, printed out the picture of Joseph with his coat of many colors to be used with the Sunday school lesson, and started making up the quiz for the current Bible lesson. Found a piece of construction paper to glue the Bible picture onto as the only white paper I have is copy paper. And I only have red and orange cardstock. Judy stayed afterward to fill up the washing machine so it is ready for washing clothes in the morning. For dinner, I made a small pizza to use up the leftover meat and pasta sauce that was in the fridge, and we had leftover choco greens to go with it. After nap, I washed my hair; and afterward, I worked on lesson plans for Thursday, cleaned the chalkboard, and practiced keyboard. This evening, I finished making up the Bible quiz, printed out a copy of the music for “Wanpela Buk I Stretpela,” and then worked on lessons for ladies’ meetings. March 31. March is just about over. Today has been a cool, cloudy, and mostly rainy day. Slept in until after 6:30 this morning. Even then, Daddy had to wake me up. After getting pancakes made, eating breakfast, cleaning up the kitchen, and having quiet time, I started changing the discipleship booklet from 1/2 letter size to 1/2 A4. Mike started Sunday school again with the children. He just did review, however, as I had printed lessons that he already had taught. I didn’t realize that the copies of the previous lessons were in one of the boxes on the schoolroom desk. I thought they were just empty folders in the box. I will have to get a new lesson printed for him before next Sunday morning. I turned off my computer at 10:00 as it was scheduled church time, but Mike was still teaching Sunday school. So I started planning out math lessons while I was waiting for the church meeting to start. I’ve decided to just add one new course a week until they are up to full schedule, starting with math. Daddy preached this morning on eternal security. Mike did a great job of interpreting and did an excellent job of reading the Owena Scriptures, particularly since he had no previous preparation. By lunch time, I wasn’t feeling well. Earlier in the morning, my throat and ears were hurting a little bit; but by noon, they were hurting a lot more. Right after lunch, I lay down for a nap, even though the bell had already rung for second lotu. After nap, Elias, Anna Jean, and Judy knocked on the door and came in. I said, “I know what you want. You can go look at the books.” Yesterday, I had laid out their new school books on their desks for them to look at. Mike wasn’t with them. He must have been busy with something else. I was straining the boiled water when they came in. Afterward, I fixed a fruit snack and then finished getting the discipleship booklet fixed up in the A4 format. When that was done, I looked at the Sunday school lesson file to see where I had messed up, and then looked in the cupboard to see which lessons I had printed. I had done lessons numbered in the 60’s where he had already finished through lesson 81. After that, I mixed up some tuna and mayonnaise for supper sandwiches, and we had supper. When supper was over and the kitchen cleaned up, I practiced keyboard, wrote some math practice exercises on the chalkboard, rearranged the school room, wrote in my journal, emptied the filter pitcher and refilled it. Washed the dishes next, and then printed out a copy of the first discipleship book for Daddy. March 29. At 5:00 this morning, the she stars were shining brightly in the sky. They sky was still clear when we got up, but within a couple hours, the earth had become enshrouded by fog. It stayed cloudy most of the morning, but the Lord sent us sunshine around midday through most of the afternoon. The students had their quiz this morning in Bible class, and then we went right to music class. The students and I had decided that we would make today a church service day and start cleaning up the meeting room. Mike and Elias took down the rotten silver paper that was over the south end of the room. Judy and Anna Jean washed windows. I cleaned all the books off the top of the cupboards and cleaned them. Mike wiped all the dirt off the top, and I washed the tops. The young ladies swept up all the pieces of silver paper that were all over the floor after the men’s job was done. When that work was done, I started checking over Hebrews chapter 11; the two men chopped firewood; Anna Jean filled the washing machine so it is ready for washing clothes in the morning; and Judy went home. Later, I put a pot of rice on to cook for dinner; and closer to dinner time, I browned the rest of the ground beef, added spaghetti sauce and other seasonings, and added it to the rice for Spanish rice. We had just started eating dinner when we heard MAF’s twin otter circling the village. Daddy headed up to the airstrip as we were expecting a couple packages. He also wanted to talk with the pilot about the possibility of flights the end of April and beginning of May so he was glad that Brad was one of the pilots as he knows best what is going on. As it stands, that will be a bad time to go out to town, as that is when MAF will be getting rid of their twin otters and will just be starting to work on getting the caravans checked into the bush airstrips. So he is going to have to try to go out a couple weeks earlier than planned. (That plan didn’t work either as there is no place for Lewis to stay and still hard to get a flight booking. He has, however, been able to book a return flight with NTM.) Note: The Lord did work things out, and we praise Him for help in this. I finished my dinner and put the rest of Daddy’s dinner on the wood stove to warm back up. Shortly Elias and Mike came with the two boxes. Yes, they contain the school books. And after a while, Daddy returned. He finished his dinner, and then we had nap. After nap, I cut up the popo. Then I finished up the checking of Hebrews 11. That took me until almost supper time. After supper, I strained and bottled the boiled water. Then I put the dirty rags (from this morning’s work) in bleach water to soak. After that I opened the boxes of books. and laid them out on the desks. There were no dictionaries, and there was only one reader. The dictionaries I had chosen are out of print. We had ordered 7 readers so the teacher and two extra men could each have one as well as the four students. Well, we’ll just do without reading class for now. They will have plenty of reading to do in science and history class. And I will reorder readers and order other dictionaries. After the ladies’ meeting, Apekio stopped in to visit. She has been sick for several weeks so it was good to see her up and around again. After she and Yunis and Misaina left, I started wringing out the rags so I could dump out the dirty bleach water and rinse the rags in clean water. Before I finished, Susan came by to visit. She had brought Korin’s phone up to be charged. Enjoyed a little visit with her and then went back to rinse the rags. But then I asked Daddy if he would wring them out for me because he has a stronger hand. After that I got busy writing in my journal. Then it was time to wash dishes. Afterward I printed teacher’s copy of the new Bible lesson and the new music lesson. Proofread them and then washed up. March 30. Up at 6:00 as usual. It was a mostly cloudy day with just some little sprinkles of rain and a little bit of sunshine too. Before breakfast and quiet time, I added the laundry detergent to the water in the washing machine and put the first load of clothes in, ready to be agitated as soon as the generator was turned on after lotu. Had breakfast and quiet time. Then it was time for prayer lotu. Matthew was in charge this morning. We sang a couple songs, and then he took prayer requests and chose three men to pray. After lotu, Amos came up to me and said he wanted to come see us this evening. He had a big grin on his face, and I wondered what he had up his sleeve now. Daddy started the generator, and Anna Jean washed and hung out the clothes, washed and cut up greens and onions, swept the floor, and shelled a small batch of peanuts. While she was doing that, I worked on setting up the students’ Bible and music lessons so I could print them out later. Then I started on an e-mail to Carrie at EBC in response to her request for information on a “typical” day in our lives as missionaries. Then it was dinner time. Also after the meeting, Apekio swept the meeting room floor. We were happy to see her back in lotu after being so sick and not even being able to get out of bed for a couple weeks. Mata raked the grass that the men had cut yesterday, and Matthew fixed (hopefully) a leak in the roof in the church area. After dinner, I cleaned up the kitchen and Daddy went out to bring in the clothes. Then we had our nap. After nap, I worked on an e-mail for Rod and Staff as there were some books missing in the order that had arrived. We want to try to get the ones that were missing, but also exchange a couple of them for some different books and add a couple other things to the order. Daddy shaved and washed up right after supper, and I did the dishes and practiced keyboard so we would be ready when Amos came. He showed up shortly after Daddy turned on the generator, and we had a good talk together. He was thinking about the story of Elijah and Elisha and how Elisha received a double portion of Elijah’s blessing when Elijah was taken to heaven. Amos’s desire is to have such a blessing from Daddy. That led to discussions about how to receive God’s blessing as well as other discussions. After Amos left, I was able to get the students’ Bible lessons and music lessons for next week printed out. Also got three e-mails ready to send to C&C. We have been having a really hard time getting e-mails to send lately. “13For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:13-15) Lord, may your church send out more preachers to preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings to those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death. |
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