July 13. Praise the Lord for two important answers to prayer today. Many of the men in the community came out early this morning and cut the grass on the airstrip. Daddy heard officially from Brad that our airstrip has been approved by MAF as long as it is kept up. About the only other thing I accomplished today was drawing up a diagram for a 20 x 32-foot house which is what we have enough roofing iron for if we shall need to rebuild. Praise the Lord for e-mail going out this evening. Now I can go ahead with other e-mails. Thank you, Lord, for all your blessings which you bestowed upon us today. July 14. When we went to bed last night, the sky was full of stars. I said to Daddy, “It will be raining by morning.” Sure enough, it was. The weather was quite cool almost all day, and I was not able to get out. This morning, there was only time for two classes — Revelation and outreach. I had a little time before dinner to start writing the monthly update, but it was hard to get my thoughts organized. This afternoon, Mata brought some bananas and got a pair of shoes for Amos and a sweater for herself. I started writing an e-mail to Pastor Ogle so we could send him the progress report and prayer request regarding the house situation. However, Nandana came by to talk so I put the e-mail aside until this evening. Praise the Lord it went right out. Later in the evening, I wrote another email. I also transferred some photos to the computer and then to a flash drive so I can edit them in Kodak Easy Share in the ACER. “2Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. 3Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.” Luke 10:2-3 July 15. A beautiful, clear, blue-sky day. Praise the Lord for a nice day for hanging out the laundry. Even though we didn’t have school today, the morning was quite busy. Spent about an hour and a half writing an e-mail to C&C. Then Paqo came with three of her grandchildren and stayed about a half hour visiting. Her daughter Susen came along for a short time and joined her. Paqo has not been well for a couple years. Was treated for TB for a year, and for the past year has been slowly gaining back her strength. After they left, we got a snack and then went outside for a while. Daddy wanted to go for a walk, but my hip and knee suddenly started hurting again yesterday. He could have gone for a walk himself, but didn’t. At least we got to enjoy the sunshine and some fresh air. While we were out, the helicopter came to pick up Apa’s daughter Mata at the health center. From what Paqo and Susen said, she was having complications from delivery of a baby (or perhaps twins again) and the lower part of her body was all swollen up. The rest of the morning and part of the afternoon I worked on and completed the monthly update. Praise the Lord for His help. And praise the Lord for one e-mail sending out this morning. Finished the e-mail to the girls this evening right after supper while I was waiting for bath water to heat, and Daddy sent it out while I was bathing. We thank the Lord for e-mails sending well lately. After bath, I had pumpkin to whip up in the blender and put away in the fridge. Not long afterward, Nuanda and Ana came to visit and talk about the house situation. July 16. Another very cold morning. Oyaqava came after our prayer time. He also is upset about the way things have gone, and he is now attending Liberty with his wife. How much better that he and his wife attend the same church anyway. Culture class covered some areas that were very helpful to them in this church matter; and all that has been going on, as a whole, has been good missionary training for them to see how to handle adverse situations that my come about after they go out to do mission work. This afternoon I added acknowledgments to updates so those would be ready to send to our daughters for mailing. Then I added the wet ingredients to the muffins I had started this morning and put those in the oven to bake. Hot ginger-lemon-apple-bran muffins. Yum! After supper and dishes, I read an e-mail and wrote a couple as well. July 17. “Keep praising, keep praising, though the way be dark and drear; Keep praising, keep praising, God will answer, never fear; Keep praising, keep praising, thankful hearts to Him be raising; Has the Lord not said, there is glory on ahead, so keep on praising Him.” ~Wendell P. Loveless Yes, the way is often dark and drear. And often trials come in bundles. How thankful we are that the Lord is in control, and He knows what He is about, and He knows what is ahead. It was a very tiring day, but it is always a blessing to have the missions students around each weekday morning. Their faithfulness and dedication is such a blessing. As we finished music class this morning, news had just come that Jackson’s little girl, about Gideon’s age, had been bitten by a poisonous snake and was in pretty serious condition. Praise the Lord, they were able to get a helicopter to evacuate her. However, several hours had elapsed, and they were concerned about whether she would make it or not. We have been praying for her and for her family’s salvation. We did hear word about Maita, who was evacuated on Wednesday, that she is doing okay and has given birth to another set of twins—a boy and a girl. Her first child was a boy, second was boy twins, third a girl, and fourth another set of twins—six children in all. Praise the Lord for that news. When I wasn’t needed in class or in the kitchen this morning, I did have time to write the e-mail with updates for e-mailing. I put it in drafts, however, until the other two e-mails send out. Tried sending them, but could not get a connection for more than a half minute. Later I worked on a church leadership lesson and finished that this afternoon. Shortly after Sunny left, Daddy went down to start the generator. I had gotten the blender set up to puree the kaukau I had cooked today and was waiting for the power to go on. But it never went on. The generator appears to have some kind of electrical problem. Therefore, I had to put the kaukau in the pressure cooker, and also the pumpkin that was in the freezer, and bring them up to pressure to keep them. We thank the Lord that there isn’t anything else left in the freezer that would spoil quickly. While I was doing dishes, I put my computer on the inverter to charge up so I could use it again this evening. This afternoon, Daddy and I had pretty much decided that we will just stay in this house. We are too old and do not have the health and strength to move everything out and rebuild. And there is no suitable place for us to stay in the meantime. If they want to tear down the house on top of our heads, so be it. What can we do but commit our well-being into the hands of our faithful Creator? “31But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. 32Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:31-32 July 18. Cool and cloudy most of the day, but not much rain. Since the generator isn’t working, Sunny had to do laundry by hand today. We suggested that she ask Judy to help her, and Judy was happy to do that. Even though there was hardly any sunshine and not much wind, the clothes got mostly dry outside. We brought them in before nap, and we hung the mostly dry clothes in the schoolroom to finish drying. After the girls hung out the clothes, they had a cup of coffee and some bananas. Then Judy went home, and Sunny swept the floors and refilled the buckets which they had used to fill the bathtub with rinse water for the clothes. Early this morning, I had filled the tub from the tap for the washing. Later in the morning, while Sunny was still working, Amos came to help Daddy turn the generator around so he could try putting the old brushes back in to see if that would solve the problem. Well, the generator ran for a half hour and then turned off. Daddy will see if he can have some parts sent in on the plane Thursday (MAF is supposed to be coming for coffee) so he can try to fix the generator. Otherwise he will have to get a new one when he goes out to town. When they were done working on the generator, Amos and Sunny and we two stood around talking for a while — about the house situation and about the translation situation. There was a lot going on down at Wanyapeq today. They were dressing up Erisa’s daughter who already has two children, but was never dressed up for her wedding. Erovi had come earlier this morning to get something to help dress her up. We are wondering what the significance of this dressing up is. When I wasn’t busy with other things today, I was working on the next Revelation lesson. It is such an interesting study that time gets away too fast. It was getting close to 5:00 this afternoon, and I hadn’t put on any eggs yet to boil for sandwiches for supper. I hurried to the kitchen and put the eggs on. After they started boiling, I set the timer and came back to the computer until the bell rang. I put a couple of the hot eggs in cold water so they could cool down a few minutes, enough to be able to handle them and peel the shell off. It was about 5:30 when we had supper. Put bath water on to heat before supper was done as the house was already getting chilly. Then I worked more on Revelation until the computer battery went too low (the computer had been on most of the day). Put the dish water on to heat, plugged the computer into the inverter to charge, and sat down to crochet a few minutes until the dish water was ready.
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July 12. Praise the Lord for the sunshine today! The following song was the first that we sang today, and what a great encouragement! How Firm a Foundation How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word! What more can He say than to you He hath said, To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled? “Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid; I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.” “When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow, For I will be with thee, thy trials to bless, And sanctify to thee they deepest distress.” “When through fiery trials the pathway shall lie, My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply; The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.” “The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes; That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!” ~”K” – in Rippon’s Selection of Hymns, 1787 It was hard for us to sleep at nap time. So we got up and did some other work. I made good use of the time and wrote up the June progress report. Amos, Mike, and Dallas families went today to Kairaba for outreach. Amos had just gotten back when Daddy turned on the generator this evening. He gave Daddy a brief report of their trip. The church there had asked them if they had anything to say. They said they had some things to teach so the church gave them a speaker and microphone and they taught the first of the chronological lessons. The people were grateful and amazed — ”We never heard that before!” they said. This evening, Nuanda came by, and we were able to talk with him. Nuanda prayed with us before he left. July 11. We were awakened several times between 4:00 and 5:00 this morning with someone’s phone alarm going off quite loudly. It was one of the phones Daddy had charged last night. Consequently, when I finally got back to sleep, I slept until after 6:30 this morning. When the morning began, it looked like it was going to be a nice day. Daddy started the generator, and I wrote another short note to C&C and sent the last of the old journal notes. Daddy tried to send the e-mail, but didn’t get a connection this morning. Sunny washed the clothes and hung them outside, but it wasn’t long before the fog came up and the sky became filled with clouds. Light rains fell for a while, and it seemed that the clothes weren’t going to dry outside. So I brought them all in, and we hung shirts and blouses on hangers and the rest of the items in the schoolroom. After Sunny did laundry, she refilled the buckets, swept the floors, had coffee and bananas, and burned the trash. Then she went off somewhere to get us some greens, and I was hoping she would be back in time so we could fix them for dinner; but she was gone a long time. It was while she was gone that we brought the clothes in. While Sunny was sweeping floors, I punched holes in new lessons and put them in the students’ notebooks. Also punched holes for the new two-ring notebooks for all the papers that Judy, Mata, and Taqita already had. So now everyone has the same kind of notebook, and it should be easier to get new lessons punched without having to use two different hole punchers. While Sunny was gone, Sera came to get some Maggi (noodles) and visit a little bit. This afternoon, I got the questions written up for the Revelation lesson I was working on so that is now complete. This evening, I got the rest of the printing done that needs to be done for next week so am thankful to have that done. Tomorrow I will have to punch holes and put all the papers in their notebooks. “….for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.” Ezekiel 11:5b How sobering to think that God knows every one of our thoughts! And how careful we should be to bring into captivity all our thoughts to the obedience of Christ! July 9. A very cold morning again (53º), but a nice, sunny day. And the Lord gave us a beautiful sunset this evening. Classes went well. I didn’t have any cooking to do this morning so worked a bit on the lesson on Revelation chapter 6. We talked a bit after class as we had just learned that Tuino passed away in 2017 from TB. So we had a late dinner. I didn’t sleep as long at nap time, however, so had a bit more time this afternoon to work more on Revelation and finish up chapter 6. By the time I got done with bath and then dishes this evening, I didn’t have a whole lot of computer time. Printed more pictures for outreach. Then I had keyboard to practice too. July 10. Praise the Lord for His help in getting the lesson written on Revelation chapter 7. It is a lot harder to write these lessons than it was the lessons on chapters 1-3 because there are so many things that are not made plain to us, and there are so many theories. However, we do not want to put man’s idea or our own ideas in the lessons, so a lot of things are just to be left unexplained. In the evening, I wrote a very brief note to our daughters and attached some journal notes. Praise the Lord for a good connection (eventually) to send that file out. Later, I about pulled my hair out trying to print new lessons with a computer and printer that did not seem to want to cooperate with each other. Finally managed to get copies of the next Revelation lesson printed for each student, and printed out the teacher’s copies of the next two music lessons. There wasn’t much time left to the evening after that. Will need to do more printing tomorrow evening. July 6. Down to 53º this morning. Brrrrr! Definitely a day for a fire. Even at noon we were cool and wanted a sweater or light jacket on. The Lord gave us a couple hours of warmth this afternoon before things started cooling down again. It was meal preparation day again so washed, peeled, and cut up yams and potatoes. The two of them certainly help each other to make a tasty mashed root veggie. After I got the pot of yams and taters on the wood stove to cook, I decided to go outside a while and try to get warm in the sunshine. But it was not warm outside, so I did not stay out there. I put the second coat of varnish on my painting so now it is ready to have a wire attached to the back and be hung up along with the other pictures in my art gallery. Also started on the next Revelation lesson since I finished a lesson on church leadership yesterday. Took about a two-hour nap today. Was really wiped out after not getting any sleep at nap time yesterday and missing a lot of sleep on a recent night. After nap, I had a little bit of time to work on the Revelation lesson. These future lessons are going to take a little more thought as the meanings of much of it is not as clear. While I was doing dishes after supper, Elise came with bananas. She was interested in buying clothes and seemed to be having a good time looking through the boxes of blouses, shoes, and jackets. She took a pair of flip flops for which I did not charge her since I had given shoes to the school students. Then she bought a poncho and a sweater, plus a spool of thread, and some lollies and a chocolate for Dalista. This evening, I spent more time on Revelation lessons. July 8. A very cool, cloudy day. Judy came early and did the laundry. The men came and cut the grass. We were able to start school on the regular time schedule. Before school, I put eggs on the wood stove to boil. After prayer time, I cut up and peeled a pumpkin and put that on the wood stove to cook. In music class, we started learning parts to “Nupela Nem long Heven” (A New Name in Glory”). Then I had to be in the outreach class today to help Daddy with the start of a new lesson. Had only a little bit of time to work at the computer as we had to go out and get the clothes in early before the rain came. A few of them were dry and could be put away, but the rest had to be hung up in the schoolroom after the students left. I slept a little over an hour and a half at nap time. Before supper, I had to make tortillas and prepare the eggs for sandwiches. After supper, I cleaned up the kitchen, pureed the pumpkin in the blender, and then took down and put away the rest of the dry clothes that were hanging in the schoolroom. Had a short sit-down break before doing dishes. Printed some course one lessons and a teacher’s copy of some course four lessons. Mom and Dad's newsletter is finished and is uploaded below. Just click on the "file" button to download in pdf format. It will also be placed below their profile information on the sidebar of the blog.
July 3. Very cold this morning—53º. It was a long time before the house warmed up. We were thankful for the warmth of the sunshine. The time to sing during music class was also helpful in warming up the body as well as warming the soul. Mike was back to class today, but Taqita did not come. She was hurting too much after that long walk, but she will have the weekend to recover now. After school, Mata filled the washing machine; Elise cut up greens that I had washed; Mike and Dallas filled the small diesel drum. Because of all that was going on after school, it was 2:30 before we lay down for nap, and 3:45 when I got up. I was so grateful for a good rest as I had not slept well last night. To start with, I was having a hard time getting warm. Then the rat made all kinds of rat-cket. After getting up a couple times to see what the rat was into, I was having trouble breathing so that made it hard to get back to sleep. A funny thing happened, though, the first time I got up. I knew the rat was either in the storage closet/pantry or in the bathroom after the soap. Sure enough, the soap had a couple little bites out of the end so I put the soap in the bathtub where the rat can’t get to it. The rat came up from behind the sink counter, poked his head out, and looked around. I hollered at him, and he took off running. Bold rat! He was kind of cute and looked rather skinny, but I still wasn’t too happy about his presence and commotion during the middle of the night. Today, when I wasn’t teaching or helping in a class, I worked on the lessons on church leadership. With the short time that was left after nap until supper, I worked on painting. This evening, I printed out copies of Pidgin I Thessalonians through Hebrews for Daddy and me to proofread together. July 4. Didn’t need to get up early this morning so slept in until it was a bit lighter out. It is still rather dark at 6:00 these days, and will be until the sun works its way back to the southern hemisphere. After breakfast, I sorted the clothes and got them ready for Sunny to wash. She came just before 8:30. After doing the laundry, she swept the floors, refilled all the buckets, and ground some rice and corn. For my dinner, I decided to make some corn biscuits with cheese filling. I had to sift the ground corn as it was obvious that it had a lot of chaff in it, and it had quite a bit more chaff than I realized—must have been about 80% or more chaff. The good that I was able to sift out went into the corn biscuits along with the whole wheat flour. The rest went into the garbage. I don’t think we’ll bother to buy and dry more corn. It isn’t worth it for the little bit of good that comes out of it. The biscuits did taste good. Daddy still had leftover spaghetti for his dinner While Sunny was working this morning, I did some more revising of the lessons on church leadership. This afternoon, I washed my hair and then painted until supper time. It took a long time just to do one flower and get the colors blended right. This evening, I was able to finish the last flower and part of the flower that was in the background. July 1. Wow! Half this year is gone already. Perhaps the Lord will come before the year is over. We must keep busy doing His work. There is so much to do. A damp, chilly morning. We were thankful that the sun did come out later. Late afternoon, the Lord sent us some rain. We were up early to get the laundry ready. Then Daddy started the generator, and Judy came to wash and hang out clothes. We were ready to start back to classes for BMS (Missionary School) at 8:00, but it was past 8:10 before any students showed up. Mike and Taqita weren’t here today as they are on their way back from town. We had a late lunch and late nap. After nap, I cut up the other popo as it was ripe and ready. Then had a fruit snack before working on the painting. Had just about an hour to paint before supper. “Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.” Ezekiel 3:10 Should not we do so as well with ALL of God’s words? July 2. Very cool and cloudy almost all day, turning colder late afternoon and rainy most of the evening. Mike and family did not make it back yesterday afternoon so we had only five again in BMS classes this morning. Spent most of my computer time today proofreading and making some adjustments to the next Revelation lesson so I could print out a copy for Daddy. Printing out a copy turned out to be quite a frustration. Both printers ran out of ink. After I changed the ink in the Canon, the Canon wouldn’t print. It just sent blank pages through. So I had to print the teacher’s lesson copy all black and white. If we can’t get it working before the students’ lessons are needed, will have to print all their lessons black and white too. The big problem is that I won’t be able to print the pictures for the students to color for outreach. After a snack break and a chance to think more clearly and pray, Daddy and I thought that I should check the new cartridges I had put in and make sure they were installed correctly. Well, they were; but, in my haste, I had failed to remove the orange tabs that were covering the ink connection. Could have saved a lot of frustration, but am thankful it was just a simple problem. This afternoon I enjoyed relaxing with paintbrush in hand. Finished all the leaves in the picture I’ve been working on and just have the flower petals left to do—pretty pink and yellow. I wish I knew what kind of flowers they are. “18When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. 19Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.” Ezekiel 3:18,19 June 29. Thank you, Lord, for such a lovely morning. Some blue sky, but still some clouds. Hardly any fog, however, and much warmer than it has been. It is dark until later in the mornings now so hard to get up at 6:00. It was 6:30 again before I finally arose from the bed. No more sleeping in after today though. Have to be up and ready for Daddy to come tomorrow morning, Lord willing. And, Lord willing, we will start back to school on Wednesday. Today started out with several knocks at the door so it was a while before I got my breakfast. By then I had a migraine and had a headache the rest of the morning. First thing after breakfast, I started washing some clothes. Put some music on to play in the CD player so my mind could dwell on pleasant things. Before I was done rinsing the clothes, Yanahdo came to the door. I was happy to see her. She wanted some yarn so I gave her some from my supply that I’m sure I will never get a chance to use. Also gave her some salt and Maggi. And, even though I wasn’t quite done with the laundry, I asked her if she wanted me to read some Scripture to her. She was delighted; and I was delighted, too, for that opportunity to be a blessing. After she left, I rinsed the rest of the clothes and then went outside to hang them up. It was so nice to get out in the sunshine. I kept thanking the Lord for the sunshine and the little wind that was blowing. When I came inside, I emptied the wash tub, had a protein drink, and put some eggs on to boil for sandwiches and perhaps a protein snack. After that I made the bed, and, at last, got a chance to sit down. Worked on the Revelation lesson the rest of the morning. This afternoon was spent starting another painting. Right after supper, I did dishes and then had a sponge bath so I was ready for a relaxing evening and a phone chat with my special friend. Also finished up the Revelation lesson. Just need to add questions at the end. June 30. Wow! It was a busy day! I woke up at 5:45. It was still dark, but I didn’t dare go back to sleep because the plane would be coming early and I wanted to get my breakfast and have quiet time before people started knocking at the door. Daddy said he was going to call at 7:30 for weather, but it got to be 7:45 and he hadn’t called yet. So I called him in case he had tried to get through but couldn’t. When I called, the weather was nice. There was lots of blue sky and just a couple little patches of fog. It would be a nice morning for the flight. About ten minutes after I called him, I saw some fog coming up over the western ridge and some coming down river from the east, but there were still lots of open places. It wasn’t long before the two banks of fog met and began climbing higher and higher and higher until nearly the whole village was enshrouded by fog. It was too late to call Daddy back now as he would already be in the helicopter on his way here. Several days ago, I had read Mark 11:24, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” And this morning I had read Luke 1:39, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” So I sat and prayed, asking the Lord to move the fog up and away as quickly as it had come. Praise the Lord, by the time the helicopter arrived, much of the fog had cleared away, and there was plenty of open space for the helicopter to come in. He hadn’t been on the ground long when the Lord had lifted the fog completely away. How wonderful to have Daddy back home again!—twelve days away is soooo long. Well, now there was the work of unpacking and putting things away. Six new chairs had to be cleaned and set up in the schoolroom. And food had to be prepared for our dinner too—rice for me, spaghetti for Daddy, a small bunch of carrots to peel and cut up, and meat sauce to make. It was 12:30 before dinner was finally ready. I was very grateful for a nap. Was awakened from nap by cool wind blowing in and a few drops of rain and also a knock on the door. Made a popo crisp with the rest of the big popo that I had been cutting pieces from the past couple days. Since there were no oats in town, I used Weet-Bix for the topping. Then I sat and relaxed and painted until supper time. Had bath right after supper before the air got too cool. Printed out students’ copies of the music lessons for tomorrow. The dish water had just gotten hot when Dallas came by. If we weren’t going to start school tomorrow, he would go meet Mike and family on the road and help them; but since we are going to try to get back to school, he will send his younger sisters and brother. He said he had just gotten back from Kairaba where he spent most of the night teaching Rovi. After Dallas left, I re-heated the dishwater and did the dishes. |
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