Andrew at the Autoshop

What does it look like to support Bible translation in Papua New Guinea?  For Andrew it looks like this:

In this photo Andrew is replacing the drive chain and sprockets on the 'Jesus Video Bike', used to distribute scripture, Audibibles, hymn books and educational supplies in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.

Andrew has helped many people this year in his role as a small engines mechanic.  He worked on an all-terrain vehicle that will be used to transport members of a multi-language project around the areas where they work; he has advised on the maintenance of airstrip mowers (so that planes bringing translators and supplies can land); and of course he has performed maintenance on many motorbikes and other smaller vehicles.

A Letter From Andrew's Manager

To all interested in the ministry of Andrew Koens,

In total I have worked 2 years side by side with Andrew, as his manager. In that time he has proven himself to be irreplaceable as a mechanic, assistant manager, and shop historian. He is truly an ambassador for Christ, here in Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea. It’s been my pleasure to see Andrew help all of us get a better understanding of the Melanesian culture in his daily dealings with our national customers and employees. He is always stressing grace and understanding, before any action should take place. 

There have been times when I would be concerned about employees breaking the rules in the shop. Andrew would always stop me and have me ask, “Why do you think they are doing what they are doing? Are they doing it because it’s culturally appropriate, or is it just blatant disregard for the rules?”.  His patience and gentle handling of people have helped so many situations turn out positive.

And he is one of our best mechanics to boot.  We depend heavily on Andrews knowledge base of motorcycles and small engines. He keeps our missionaries', local nationals' and other missions organizations' motorcycles, generators, air strip mowers, chain saws and any other small engines going.

If you are looking to partner financially with a missionary family, the Koens are worth every penny in their service here. They are a part of our community, our family and our work.

James Ernandes

Auto Shop Manager/DO-Fleet Manager

SIL Auto Shop

Our Work

 

Video of us, plus Financial and Drought Update

We put a video together to show you what we do here in Papua New Guinea:

We would appreciate prayer regarding our financial situation.  It has become clear lately that our income has dropped to around only 90% of our needs.  The Wycliffe UK Personnel team are concerned for us and have recently been in touch and advised us to bring this to the attention of our supporters.  If you would like more information about this please let us know or visit our website.

We know many of you are concerned with us regarding the drought here.  This unusually dry period is expected to peak between now and December.  Please continue to pray for the people of Papua New Guinea at this time.   

End of School Year and Film Recommendation

It's the end of the school year here in Ukarumpa. 

This means:

*Friends are leaving, some of them for good.
*Other friends are returning from home leave.
*I (Clare) have finished my semester of teaching Kindergarten part-time (phew!)
*Levi and Heidi are enjoying a five week school break before starting Grade One and Preschool in July.
*Andrew's various jobs continue to keep him busy.  This week his work has included Executive Committee business, rescuing a vehicle that broke down an hour away from our centre, ordering parts for motorbikes, helping newcomers learn about life in PNG and a two-day trip to the town of Lae on Autoshop business.

We have often mentioned the Aitape West Translation Project, which we help to support in different ways.  Wycliffe USA has produced an excellent documentary about this multi-language project, including the moving story of how it got started.  The video can be found at www.wycliffe.org/arop.

And finally, here is this month's photo. Eowyn now loves to join in fully with our daily walks.

Bridge to Kainantu

        One morning, early in August, we received word that the bridge leading into the Aiyura Valley, where we live, had fallen down.   Naturally, because this sort of thing has a direct impact on the Auto Shop department, we decided to go out and take a look.  This is what we found:

       Early in the morning, the bridge had finally collapsed while a truck carrying a load of diesel fuel was attempting to cross it.   We had all been expecting something like this for quite some time, so it was almost a relief to hear that it had finally gone down.  Thankfully the driver of the truck and his assistant were not seriously injured, and in fact the truck you see here was pulled out of the water and driven under its own power to Lae (230 km away) for repairs.  Even the big fuel tank was not serious damaged, in spite of this large group of people industriously trying to poke a hole into it with a big crowbar!

        Unfortunately, this bridge is part of the only good road into the Aiyura Valley, which means that anybody living in the Valley now no longer had a good way to get supplies in.  We had no idea how long it was going to take to replace the bridge, so we started rationing what supplies we had and settled in for a potentially long wait.  We sent a couple of 4x4 vehicles out to see if they could find a way out via a little used dirt road that runs many miles out of our way, but this option proved not to be a good one.  That road was too rough and only skilled drivers in 4x4's could use it, and there were serious concerns about the condition of some of the bridges in that road.

        Anyway, much to our delight, the government very quickly sent in a bridge building expert, and under his able direction the new bridge came together fairly quickly.  By early September the new bridge was in place!  It's still not quite done yet (there is a plan to improve the foundations and then to shift the whole bridge over onto the new foundations), but it is usable.  The dirt ramps going up to the bridge are still too rough for 2 wheel drive vehicles, especially if it has rained, so things are still not quite back to normal yet, but al in all, we are very excited about this new bridge:

   

Rescue Truck

Here's a picture of the AutoShop Rescue Truck:



          This is a late '90's Toyota Land Cruiser--this is the truck we have been using to go out and rescue people when they have breakdowns in this area.  In its day, it was a nice truck, but now it has 480,000 km on it, and those have not been easy kilometres.  I (Andrew) would estimate that 90% of that has been on rough dirt roads, and not everybody who has used it before us has been a careful owner.  It's missing various bits and pieces, (the driver's door can only be opened from the outside, for example, as all the interior door mechanism is gone), the home made tool box in the back has been broken into and is awkward to work around, the engine runs alright, but doesn't have as much power as it should, etc.  You get the idea.  Anyway, this old truck is getting to the point where it often breaks down when we are rescuing people, so we got the go-ahead to replace it.  We looked around at local options but the price for any new vehicle that could do what we needed it to do was astronomically high, and good used vehicles are very difficult to find here.  We carefully weighed our options and decided to go ahead and import a used truck from the USA.  So, after hours of searching eBay and various other internet car dealers, I finally picked out this 2002 Ford F350 4x4 from a Craigslist ad in Tennessee:



         It has everything we were looking for: the good International diesel engine, a manual transmission, even a manual transfer case, and under 100,000 miles.  The utility bed was not something that we were looking for, but it is definitely a bonus.   Once purchased, the truck went to some of our colleagues in North Carolina to be outfitted for us in PNG.  Working within the budget I was given, I managed (working via e-mail from here in PNG) to specify all kinds of good stuff to put into the truck, including locking differentials in both axles, a winch bumper (the winch will be removed from our old rescue truck and put on to this one), better wheels and tires, work lights, a sturdy roll bar (made by our colleagues in NC), and a few other things.  We tried to make the truck as capable as possible for our needs while staying under budget, and I think we did pretty well.

         Since it got here, we've already been using it a lot, and so far it has performed very well.  It's nice to have a truck that actually has enough power to safely pull our crash trailer and which has been set up to be hard to get stuck.  It's nice to finally have the right tool for the job!

         In other news, July is going to be a busy month for me --in addition to my normal work as assistant manager/motorcycle and small engine mechanic at AutoShop, I've also got meetings in Port Moresby (capital city) for the Pacific Orientation Course Oversight Committee and then later in the month at least 2 weeks of Executive Committee meetings here in Ukarumpa.

     

Family Photo 2013

Greetings from Ukarumpa!

We had this photo taken so that we could send it to 'Ken's Cycle Center' in Tennessee, which is where Andrew worked before he came to Papua New Guinea and also where the T-shirts came from.

These are Andrew's two vehicles that currently run.  We affectionately refer to the 1963 Landrover as the 'Coconut Car' because 'Powered by Coconut' is written on the side. Andrew won't be driving this car very much over the next few weeks though: Once again, the bridge to Kainantu (our nearest town and our only access point to the 'Highlands Highway') is in a bad state of repair.  At the moment, small vehicles are still driving over it (if the owners are willing to take the risk) but it means that it's increasingly difficult to obtain supplies.  Diesel and petrol/gas are usually sold at the Autoshop but last week Andrew had to put out a notice saying that sales would be limited for the foreseeable future.

It wouldn't help if the 'Coconut Car' really was powered by coconuts because coconuts only grow in coastal areas, which we'd have to cross the bridge to get to!


To find out what this photo is about, see Andrew's latest blog post!

Prayer Points:

- We praise God that the first five months of Clare's pregnancy have gone very well.

- We have have had several months of good health.  Levi and Heidi are both doing well, with Levi enjoying his new preschool class.

- Andrew has a lot of engines to work on at the Autoshop, but not a lot of time to work on them.  He has 'Executive Committee' meetings for the next two weeks, and then we'll be leaving for the UK in a little over two months.  Please pray that he will prioritise well and not get discouraged.

- Please pray that more people will join our team of financial supporters so that we are able to cover all of our regular expenses for the rest of this year and in the future too.

Falling Down Bridge

Celebrating Ten Years in Papua New Guinea