How We Say Goodbye

In the life of a Christian worker living overseas saying "goodbye" is part of a cycle. This cycle comes to an end (or a beginning, depending on how you look at it) every May. May is the time of year when school comes to an end and families leave temporarily or permanently.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about May. Here's how I feel: I love you, May, because you bring the end of the school year. I hate you, May, because the tears flow when friends leave. May, you bring an empty feeling that could last for a while.

I celebrate my good-byes. I celebrate because I've learned lessons that were taught in a unique way by unique individuals. I celebrate because their journey ahead is full of exciting [scary] unknowns, where God will prove His faithfulness in a special way. I celebrate because new individuals will come into my life, new relationships will be established, and new lessons will be learned.

We have a unique way of saying good-bye. These next few posts will be about who and how we say good-bye.

I'll start with one that is very special to me. This is the 8th grade class.

 

They were the first class that I ever taught. (Yes, I was one of the "crazy" ones who combined culture shock and my first year of teaching.) Although I did not teach all of them in 6th grade, I did teach all of them this year in computer class. Iam so thankful in who they have become. Yes, they are still figuring out who they want to be in this world, but let's be honest- aren't we all still trying to figure out who God wants us to be and how He wants us to live in our world?

Josh and I were invited to a celebration of them. It was wonderful to honor their lives. Their parents had an opportunity to share baby photos and give words of wisdom, encouragement, and to declare their love and thankfulness for their child. It was beautiful. I'm convinced those students will remember the special words their parents said to them. It's not often when a parent will share their thoughts on an individual child, and it's not often that an 8th grader will sit still and listen. :) So with the 8th graders we celebrated their lives and accomplishments, and we said good-bye to them in middle school and welcome them to high school.

The 8th graders created this painting of the "8th Grade Sneak". This is a surprise day when the whole class and their teacher spend the day together doing something other than school. This year they had breakfast together, spent the day at the beach, watched a movie, and had a sleepover- the boys camped out and the girls stayed in a house.

Here we are at the 8th grade celebration:

A Saturday Project

One difference we face living here is we have screens instead of windows. Our screens keep out the mosquitos but allow air to flow through the house. Over time the screens will become brittle and fragile. A small tear in them will eventually grow larger, allowing all kinds of things to come inside!

The culprite:

The damage:

 
 

[Some of] The supplies:

The Work:



The Results:



(Paint will come later!)

Yajasi Hangar Project

This picture was taken in March

     Yajasi is in the process of a major remodel. Yajasi has been quickly outgrowing its hangar and administration building which is more than 25 years old. The decision was made a couple years ago that Yajasi needed a new hangar. It is hard to believe that at the end of the earth land is hard to come by at our airport in Sentani, but we were unable to reasonably acquire another parcel of land. The remaining option was to build a new hangar right over the footprint of the old hangar. We have sacrificed a little parking space in the back but the resulting capacity of the new building far exceeds our current needs. Last week the building crew finally brought down the old hangar to make way for the new hangar.  Fortunately, Yajasi is still able to conduct flight operation during this transition time.  We are very thankful that we have a few alternative locations where we can accomplish regular maintenance while they construct the hangar roof and pour the concrete floor. These are exciting times at Yajasi. The old hangar structure saw a lot of great men and women work under its rafters and saw many pilots, missionaries and nationals safely come and go.  We are excited about how this new structure will aid us in achieving the goal in Papua of providing safe transportation for the isolated people groups of Papua who are still in need of God's Word.

This picture was taken on April 28th.

Summer!

Summer is coming! We have just a few days left, but those few days seem to be really busy. Pray that we would finish the school year well. :) I'll post more after the summer begins!

Recent Happenings

Since Josh has been back from the village, life seems like it's going faster than ever before! Here's a quick run down with some photos of what I actually took pictures of. 1. Grade 6 All School Chapel- Each month our entire school (K-12) comes together for a time of worship. It is normally led by a class from the elementary or middle school. This was our time. We had been practicing our songs since the first day of the second semester. We had a live band (a first for them), they wrote their own scripts, they memorized verses, and much more. The theme was related to what we've been talking about in our Bible class- When there is encounter with the Holy Spirit, Change happens. They shared parts of Paul's and Peter's lives and wrote a modern day story about a group of mean girls who meet Holy Spirit at a youth retreat. All in all, it was fantastic! God was lifted high. I am SO proud of them. 2. Easter weekend- Hallelujiah, He is Risen!! Josh and I both had a long weekend. We spent the weekend with friends. Saturday morning we got word the two local soccer teams were having a game. What a unique cultural experience! The scenery around the stadium was amazing. They even had chants and hooligans. :)

Sunday after church, we hid the eggs for a group of "nieces and nephews". In Papua, our friends' kids call us Uncle Josh and Aunt Amber. They had a blast finding the eggs, and I think they had even more fun ripping into the candy inside them!

After we left our egg hunt, we went on a spontaneous motorcycle ride to a place dubbed by local expats as "The Cross". The Cross is on a hill that overlooks part of Lake Sentani. Most people go at sunset and take photos. We ran into some of our friends flying RC planes and taking photos.

3. Harrington Hostel is now open! This past week our friends, Chase and Kelli (see previous post for more info on their work here) had a building team from America come to help them work on their village home. They came back to town on Friday. It's a long standing tradition to go to the local pizza place when they return from the village. We had a guest from the group stay two nights with us. Saturday we went to the beach and hosted a bbq. Josh is gettin' good at grillin' chicken, y'all! Sunday night we had another friend stay with us. We had a great time with our friends. It was so encouraging to feel connected to the body, and to for just a second catch a glimpse of how cool our roles as support workers really is! We have been busy, tired, but so thankful for the opportunities to serve! :)

Fufukanay

*Disclaimer* All Yetfa words are probably misspelled. Sorry Chase:)


The Reynolds Family on our way to Bias

Fufukanay is the greeting in the Yetfa language in Papua, Indonesia. I just got back from spending a week with the Yetfa people helping a Wycliffe Bible Translator friend put in a foundation for his new house. The Reynolds arrived in Indonesia about the same time that Amber and I did in 2008. They have already started the work of learning the Yetfa language so that they can translate the Bible. The Reynolds and I flew into Bias on a Tuesday and got to work on putting in the foundation for their house. Next week there is a work crew coming from the United States that is going to start framing their house. We had one week to get the foundation ready for them.


Before we started setting the foundation posts.

My dad is a general contractor that builds small homes, so I have been a part of foundation work in the past. I am used to backhoes, cement trucks and a steady stream of supplies from the local lumber company and hardware store. The jungle had our wood, the river had our rock and gravel and we brought the cement. We got to work right after we landed the first afternoon and cleared a burned out ironwood tree that was laying across the footprint of their future house. We took some machetes to a few stubborn bushes, laid out the locations of our posts and were all set up for the real work to begin the next day.

Awa Wamea


Pak Sion



Pak Yos, Chase, Pak Sion, Awa Wamea

Chase and I had some help from the local people the first day. Pak Yos (the pastor at Bias), Pak Sion (Chase's main language helper), Pak Yeri (cool dude), Awa Wame (the chief). We started digging holes big enough for our posts. I quickly realized that about 5 inches below the topsoil was the purest clay that I have ever seen in the ground. I also found out that the hard clay quickly turned into the consistency of a Wendy's Frosty once a wandering thunderstorm found Bias and hosed us down. The sun is intense here on the equator so we all welcomed the tropical deluges. The only other relief to the heat was a dunk in the river that runs past the village. I don't know how the water stayed so cold, but it was so good that it brought about spiritual analogies that wouldn't make sense unless you had been elbows deep in the mud all day under the intense sun.



Out Bird Hunting with Pak Sion

After three days of digging and setting posts, we ran out of material. The wood cutter didn't cut enough posts, there wasn't enough rock and the sand was still on the bottom of the river. Fortunately, we ran out of supplies about an hour before sundown which gave us enough time to go down to the river. Saturday is a declared day off in the Reynolds' household and my back and shoulders couldn't agree more. We walked around the village and Pak Sion took us up to his garden house. Chase and Sion took their pellet guns and we tried to do a little bird hunting. We never did get a bird but we got to walk around the jungle for a couple hours.

We went to church on Sunday and Chase let the people know that we needed some help getting rock and sand to finish the foundation. That afternoon we dug some more holes and got everything set up for the big push on Monday.


Monday's work crew

Monday morning we woke up to pouring down rain and Chase went out to dig some more holes. There were 64 posts in all, so we still had some digging to do. I went out and joined Chase once the rain let up around 7:30 and the rest of the village started showing up. Women went down to the river and started bringing up rocks and sand. The men went to the other side of the river and started bringing out the wood the wood cutter had prepared. The river was flooded but there was still about a 15ft clay wall on both sides. Those iron wood foundation posts weighed from 100 to 150lbs and the men were able to scale that 15ft wall of slippery clay with ease. As they neared the top of the hill they would all hoot together in unison. I tried doing it a couple times, only to get a couple odd looks. Apparently the hooting has to be done in context. Chase and I hopped in there and tried to carry up the heavy ones to the top. We made it, but it wasn't pretty. We ended up getting the 64th post in the ground before sundown on Monday.


All 64 foundation posts in the ground.

We spent Tuesday morning using the rest of our cement and sand up to add extra cement to the posts. I learned another Yetfa word while I was there. "Aneso" means perfect. They used it whenever we dropped a post in the ground and it was centered with the other posts and at the right height. If it wasn't, we had to haul that 100lb post out of the hole and add or take away rock. Needless to say they were quick to say "Aneso".

Embarrasing cultural experience.
The first day we were digging holes, I saw an older man leaning on a shovel. I politely pointed him towards a hole that wasn't dug quite deep enough and told him that he could dig until the handle of the shovel was even with the string we were using to get the correct height of the posts. With a smile, he started digging away. I looked back towards him five minutes later and he was past the handle and I directed him towards another hole. Once he was done with that hole, he went back to the first hole and dug some more. I looked back at him again and just started to laugh. That night Chase told me he was the chief. He was a cool old guy that I never asked to dig a whole again.

Joining the Translation Process

My 6th grade class had a really neat opportunity to be apart of the Bible translating team. They were able to do some checking before the final copies of the New Testaments were sent to the Yawa people group here in Papua. They flipped through every single page of the NT and wrote down any folded pages, smudged ink, or other things. That's stuff their parents do, and now they're doing it too! :)







Please pray for this class. We are leading chapel this Thursday in front of the whole school! Pray that the students will remember their script lines, song lyrics, speak loud and clear, and most of all that God would receive the maximum amount of glory!

P.S. Josh has spent the past week in the village with some of our great friends helping lay the foundation for their village home, where God's Word will be translated! Pray for them as they wrap up that part of the job. A building team will join them from America to continue the building project. :)