Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
What's in the Box?
The box below is carried on the back of the 'Jesus Video Bike', a motorbike that Andrew often works on. The Papua New Guinean book-salesman has travelled over 50,000 miles in the last few years distributing hymn books, Audibibles and school supplies to speakers of the Kamano Kafe and Agarabi languages. Recently a waterproof Kamano Kafe New Testament has also become available to purchase - with a banana leaf design on the cover. (It's been discovered that if Bibles are simply given away they tend not to be valued; so they are sold for a subsidised fee, which also helps to cover the printing costs.)
I am enjoying teaching Levi's Kindergarten class. Heidi and Eowyn are being well cared for by our cleaner/babysitter one morning a week and at the Ukarumpa daycare on the other morning that I teach. I'm also keeping busy with teacher recruitment. Recently this has involved facilitating trips being taken by student teachers and other visitors who want to investigate opportunities to teach here.
Eowyn and I will be back in Brisbane from 11th - 16th March for a check-up with the the kidney specialist. I'm looking forward to that little break!
We greatly value your prayer. Here are some pointers:
* The Jesus Video Bike travels on lots of remote dirt roads. When it rains these roads quickly become dangerous mud pits. Pray for safety for Franky our book salesman and wisdom and creativity for Andrew in finding parts to maintain the motorbike.
* Pray that those people who are hungry for God’s Word would have the money and see the motorbike as it travels to 22 different open air markets.
We are having a very busy year so far. Andrew has been attending many meetings recently (last week he had one set of meetings in the mornings and another set in the afternoons!). Next month, we also have the biennial conference for all members of our organisation here in PNG.
I am enjoying teaching Levi's Kindergarten class. Heidi and Eowyn are being well cared for by our cleaner/babysitter one morning a week and at the Ukarumpa daycare on the other morning that I teach. I'm also keeping busy with teacher recruitment. Recently this has involved facilitating trips being taken by student teachers and other visitors who want to investigate opportunities to teach here.
Eowyn and I will be back in Brisbane from 11th - 16th March for a check-up with the the kidney specialist. I'm looking forward to that little break!
We greatly value your prayer. Here are some pointers:
* The Jesus Video Bike travels on lots of remote dirt roads. When it rains these roads quickly become dangerous mud pits. Pray for safety for Franky our book salesman and wisdom and creativity for Andrew in finding parts to maintain the motorbike.
* Pray that those people who are hungry for God’s Word would have the money and see the motorbike as it travels to 22 different open air markets.
*Pray for wise decisions to be made at our conference, including the decision about whether to re-elect Andrew to the 'Executive Committee'!
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Recruiting Teachers
My official work assignment here in Papua New Guinea involves recruiting teachers to come and serve at Ukarumpa International School (UIS). We have a huge need for more teachers, so this role is keeping me busy!
Although I've been involved at the school for nine years, I have even more appreciation for the teachers now that Levi is a pupil there. We're very grateful that he is able to get a good education at UIS that will prepare him as well as possible for his future.
Part of my work involves writing to teachers who may be interested in teaching here; another aspect is making the needs of our school known as widely as possible.
One thing I've been working on lately is sending out weekly prayer requests, asking people to pray for various teacher needs.
This week I'm asking people to pray that we'll have all the teachers we need for the next semester, which starts after Christmas. One of the classes we still don't have a teacher for is Kindergarten (roughly equivalent to UK 'Reception').
If you recognise the boy standing next to the teacher on the back row, you'll understand why this is of particular interest to me!
We're always grateful for your prayer. Here are some things you may like to pray for with us:
* Please pray that God would provide a Kindergarten teacher for Levi's class next semester.
* We also are in need of several new teachers for the 2015-16 school year, as many of our current teachers will no longer be here.
* Pray for wisdom for me as I work out how best to use the time that I have available for teacher recruitment.
* Andrew would appreciate prayer for wisdom as he takes part in the next Executive Committee session from 19-28 November.
Although I've been involved at the school for nine years, I have even more appreciation for the teachers now that Levi is a pupil there. We're very grateful that he is able to get a good education at UIS that will prepare him as well as possible for his future.
Part of my work involves writing to teachers who may be interested in teaching here; another aspect is making the needs of our school known as widely as possible.
One thing I've been working on lately is sending out weekly prayer requests, asking people to pray for various teacher needs.
This week I'm asking people to pray that we'll have all the teachers we need for the next semester, which starts after Christmas. One of the classes we still don't have a teacher for is Kindergarten (roughly equivalent to UK 'Reception').
If you recognise the boy standing next to the teacher on the back row, you'll understand why this is of particular interest to me!
We're always grateful for your prayer. Here are some things you may like to pray for with us:
* Please pray that God would provide a Kindergarten teacher for Levi's class next semester.
* We also are in need of several new teachers for the 2015-16 school year, as many of our current teachers will no longer be here.
* Pray for wisdom for me as I work out how best to use the time that I have available for teacher recruitment.
* Andrew would appreciate prayer for wisdom as he takes part in the next Executive Committee session from 19-28 November.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
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:
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:
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