Baking Bread and town

It's already been over 2 weeks since I blogged last! It seems like time is just flying by! A lot has gone on so I guess I will just pick some highlights. Right after the last blog, Gail Dooley invited me to her house to learn how to make bread. (Not that I hadn't attempted before...I had just failed miserably.) My husband will tell you that (for him) going to the Dooley bread making academy is the best decision I have made in my entire life...next to marrying him, of course. I love this picture though because it shows what I have to go through EVERY time I make bread. (Notice the little hands reaching into the dough ball on either side. I am constantly batting them away...along with two other big hands!) i've gotten pretty good at cranking out bread though, and I have decided I will hold my own breadmaking academy when I return....or make lots of bread and just sell it.

As for all of the other days- during the week the boys and I just do alot of hanging out and playing with the other kids on the station. There are two little guys here, Aiden and Wiley, and the Dooley girls. He really likes the girls, but is conflicted on whether or not he can admit it. You'll have to read Ben's blog for more on that.

Today a group of us went to town and we had a pretty good time. Thane loved not sitting in a car seat. The excitement was a little too much for him though and he crashed on Sam's (Dr. Bennett's son) lap. Caleb stayed back at Aunt Cathy's house to play with a couple other friends. I was incredibly proud of myself today at the store though. As I reached to pick up a package of noodles, a roach came crawling over it. I patiently waited for him to cross the package then picked up what I needed. Then I just kind of giggled that it was no big deal that there were roaches in the store. Even weirder (I don't know if that's a word but I'm using it) I find myself truly longing to live here... I can't believe we are over halfway through this trip!

It's getting late, so I'll fill in the rest of the time gap in pictures and captions...

We always walk everywhere, obviously, so whenever Thane wants to go outside he will line up our shoes and call us to them accordingly.

We like to go down to the river and hang out. This is a picture of Ethan and David "floating down". It looks deep, but really it's no more than a foot. They like to go up river and then walk on their hands back. They say it's fun, but then they complain of all of the rocks hitting them in the stomach, legs, etc. Doesn't sound too much fun to me. :)

This is at the canteena on the station. We like to walk there with the Dooley girls or meet the Riggins boys there and have a pop. The missionary kids like to get something called a doughball. I tried it once- it's dough fried in grease. Nothing else. I didn't finish mine....in fact I only took one bite and I was good for a lifetime. :)

Caleb and Thane posing. They are always this nice to each other and they are always smiling. Always.

Ben and I took Caleb tbung down a relatively calm area in the river. I was terrified we were going to flip and was paddling very hard with my left hand. This is when I lost my gold band. Let me know if you see it in the picture so I can go back and get it. Thanks.

Birthday, bush church, and COOKIES!

This weekend was pretty eventful, and awful fun. On Saturday, the boys took a 3 hour trek each way to a cave with the intent of batting down fruit bats with sticks. Sound fun? Yeah, not to me either. (You can read about their adventure here). I stayed behind with the little boys and went to a 5 year old birthday party for Olivia Dooley. It was a pool party and would have been super fun if Thane wasn't feeling under the weather. :( Caleb had a good time splashing in the pools though and we got to eat some cake- so that in itself made it a good day. At the end of the party, the boys had returned with a bat so Scott Dooley cooked it up and Allison (the oldest Dooley girl) ate it.... with a little coaxing. :)

On Sunday we went to Masi church with the Dooleys. Masi is a little bush church about a 30 minute walk from the station. The scenery on the way to church was, per usual, breathtaking and a great way to spend Sunday morning. The service was completely in Pidgin, but they were definitely serving the same God and I loved being in their worship. (I have a video of the service to post when I return, but it is too slow here to upload it all.) I think one of my favorite songs was, loosely translated, "boss me, papa God." How hard is that to say! Caleb always says to me, "I can't wait until I can be my own boss", and it's true. As humans, what other purpose in life do we have then to complete our own goals as we set them for ourselves. We are the center of our own universe. It goes against our nature to say, "okay God, you boss me." Even when we do say that, it's just really uncomfortable when He wants us to do something that we don't want to do. Then you have that nagging feeling that you HAVE to do something or you will be in trouble with God. We can try and compare this to a parent/child relationship, but it still doesn't work. The main difference between God and me in this aspect, is that with my own children, when I am "bossing them" I am just making my best guess on what is best, but God, yeah, he really does know best.

On the walk back from church, we took a short cut and waded through the river. There were quite a few people down there and they got a kick out of all the little white kids splashing around with their clothes off. Before we came here, I had told a few people that when you come here, you understand what it is like to be a celebrity; people always watching and following you. I have learned on this trip however, that it is more like being a zoo animal. You know how you sit at the gorilla cage and just watch for them to do something crazy so that you can all laugh. Or, you bang on the glass to get them all riled up so you can laugh. Yeah, that's us....the gorillas...albino gorillas.

To wrap up our fantastic weekend, two pretty little Dooley girls came to my door with a delivery of what can only be described as the most heavenly cookies I have ever tasted. We each had a cookie (I had two) then put the plate aside to save for later. A few minutes later, Apa, who I wrote about in an earlier blog, came by to pick up my brother for an evening church service. I asked him to come in and he was absolutely thrilled. When he sat down, I offered him a cookie. Now, of course in the states, you wouldn'

t dare pick up a cookie and hand it to someone, you offer them the plate so they can pick their own for sanitary purposes. Well, not here. When I offered him the plate to pick a cookie, he took the whole plate and sat down at the table with it. Now, mind you, there were probably 6 cookies on this plate. In desperation, I risked being rude and said, "just one Apa, these are for us too." Somehow that did not translate though, and he just kept eating the cookies while talking to us about how kind we were and how he could feel God's presence when he is around us. As he got up to leave, I felt a glimmer of hope as two cookies remained on the plate. With a big smile though, he said, "oh, thank you so much, I will just take these with me because we have to go." After they left Ben and I looked at each other and just laughed. All I could say was "I'm sorry I accidently gave away our cookies." He was pretty understanding, especially since I got the recipe and am making him a batch today. :)

Romans 1:20

This week started with an amazing Mother's Day. I really have such an amazing family. I could not ask for a better husband. He's my best friend and I just really enjoy being around him. Just had to throw that all out there. :)

The day actually didn't start off too hot with Caleb complaining that they were making my breakfast first and declaring that he didn't like "Mother's Day" at all. After a time-out he came around though and we all headed to a resort in the mountains about 2 hours from here for lunch. The first hour, to Mt. Hagen was the typical drive around here: generally okay, but lots of pot holes. the second hour, however, was on a winding dirt road up the mountain with sketchy bridges, washed out road, and drop offs. I was definitely a little scared for my life. Although, I'm finding that pretty much everything you do around here has a little bit of "danger" involved. Judy was our driver though, and she did a fantastic job pointing out drop offs after we had passed them and powering over the "bridges." The resort was absolutely worth the drive. The views were breathtaking and the meal was FABULOUS! We took a little hike up to an orchid garden that was locked, but took some pretty pictures outside of the gate. :)

Being up there reminded me of the episode of

"The Little House on the Prarie" where Carolyn loses her baby boy. Charles climbs up to the top of a mountain in order to ask God "why." I know it's cheesy, but there is something about being up high on a mountain that really does give you the sensation of being closer to God and an overwhelming need to talk to Him. Our talk was about my family's future. I'm just absolutely thankful and amazed at how God has changed my feelings towards the subject.

When Ben first talked to me about coming back to PNG I said "no, period." I didn't want the trouble of taking two young kids and to be honest, it costs A LOT of money. I also NEED my zoo, fast food, cell-phone, and Wal-Mart! We actually had many discussions, but each one ended with me saying no and him saying yes. Ben doesn't pull the "head of the household card" much, but he really felt this trip would be important. I hate to admit it, but he was absolutely right. The farther away I got from our first experience, the more serving in another country seemed to be somebody else's job. When people asked us if we would serve on a foreign mission field I would say, "well, Ben wants to" but I would spend most of my time trying to convince Ben that we should just spend a few months each year on a mission field...definitely not full time. I have realized through this trip though, that if God's plan for us does include full time missions work overseas, then I am actually okay with that. I could even be...gasp...happy about it. In reality, if I treat everywhere we are as my mission field, then there isn't much difference. There really is no greater joy then sharing Christ's AMAZING love with someone...and no greater reward than seeing someone receive it! And as far as safety, a missionary from North Africa who recently came to our church said "wherever God has called me to be is the safest place for me." Anyway, I'm not saying I know God's plan for us, but I really do have a peace about it, whatever it may be.

I'll wrap this up with a funny story from the boys. This morning while I was sweeping I came upon a little gecko (at least I think that's what it was) and Caleb and Thane were both thrilled. Caleb declared the gecko as his friend and was petting him. (Side note: it is AMAZING how long those tails wiggle after they have been detatched. We are talking minutes!) Thane tried to pet him too and accidently killed him. Caleb however, was convinced that the gecko was just sleeping and insisted on taking his friend with us wherever we went. That morning we had been playing "jumping monkeys" which is a game of catapulting monkeys onto a tree. After returning from drying my hair in the bathroom I found, you guess it, Caleb catapulting his little "sleeping friend" across the living room. I need to find out from the other moms here if playing with dead animals is simply part of the mission experience or if my kids are just special.

Tubing

(Gotta love Jordan trying to lean out of the picture. hahaha)

This morning we walked to what used to be affectionately known as "suicide rock." Many of you may recall the last time we visited PNG and we jumped off this rock into the river. Since we were here last, the rock has completely changed and it's not really safe to jump into anymore. (Yes, even though it was "suicide rock" it really was generally safe.) We then got into the river and "tubed" down. (I use that term lightly because that implies that we actually rode the tube. David definitely spent more time chasing the tube and riding the rapids and rocks.) Ben and I did alright as we each took one turn going down the river so the other could hang out with the kids at the bottom. The missionaries definitely did the best staying afloat though. One of the guys that went with us was Apa. We met him through my brother, David, as he works with him during the day. He is just the sweetest guy. The whole time we were out he kept asking if I was okay and when we got to the river he would position himself between the water and I. I didn't even really think about the significance of this until we got back to the house and talked about it.
Yesterday we made a connection between him and this post that another missionary had written a few weeks ago. I'll post his (Dr. Bennett's) blog here:
________________________________________________

Apa

I didn't know how one life could contain so much heartbreak.

He was born with deformed hands. His left hand has a normal thumb and one finger. His right hand has a thumb and 3 fused fingers. Somehow, he seems to be able to handle things and do basic sorts of work.

Although raised in the church, he had never asked Jesus into his life. He followed a life of crime.

By about 2 years ago, he was married and had 3 children. As the only son in his family, he had inherited a large piece of land, and felt pretty well set.

Then one rainy night, he was walking along a familiar path near a river with his 4 year-old son on his shoulders. He was depending on his knowledge of the route, along with the dim moonlight of an overcast night. What he didn't know, and couldn't see, was that there was a place where the heavy rains had washed a section of the path into the stream. He stepped off into the washed-out section and fell and tumbled into the river. He grasped his son's leg with his left hand, but his arm struck a stone, which loosened his grip. They both plunged into the cold, rain-swollen water. He was disoriented at first--perhaps he also struck his head in the fall. In the swirling water he heard a voice saying, "give your life to Jesus." The words were repeated 2 times. There in the blackness, he gave his life to Jesus. Quickly his mind cleared, and he was able to lunge to the surface of the water.

Apa called his son's name, and thrashed around in the water trying to find his son, but to no avail. It was not until 3 days later that the little boy's body was found, some distance downstream.

Sometime after this, his wife's family came and took her away from Apa. He had not paid any bride price at the time of the marriage, and because he couldn't work for wages (no one would hire him because of his had deformities), and because he didn't have any brothers or other close relatives to help him, he had not been able to pay, and her family had allowed him to postpone payment. But now their patience was at an end. Besides, they accused him of killing his son. If they were serious about this accusation, I don't know why they didn't try to take the other children away from him, but they didn't.

He was recently able to get a job as a security guard at the hospital, and thing were looking up. He assumed that if he could save up some money to pay bride price, he would get his wife back. A friend even offered a generous gift to help with the bride price. But then it became obvious that she did not want to come back to him. There were rumors that she had moved in with another man. Then she went to his employer with false accusations that lead to the loss of his job.

A few weeks ago, it became obvious that some of Apa's cousins were determined to take his land away from him. His coffee gardens were about his only source of income. Because there were many male cousins to divide their family's land, they didn't have much for each one of them. They told Apa that they wanted the land. However, Apa's mother was living on the land, and she had enough influence in the tribe to make it difficult for them.

Last week, Apa's relatives accused his mother of using sorcery to cause the death of another relative. In many deaths, especially ones that aren't understood, it is assumed that sorcery is involved. It is culturally acceptable to take revenge on sorcerers, and the sorcerer's family has no right of counter revenge. It therefore becomes convenient to bring an accusation of sorcery against someone whom one wants to hurt or kill. So the cousins accused Apa's mother of sorcery. They found her in the market, with Apa's 2 children. They attacked her and killed her.

They apparently intended to kill the children as well. The little girl was left on the ground unconscious, and assumed dead. The little boy got lost in the crowd, and was rescued by a female relative, who hid him under her coat. The murderers carried the body of Apa's mother away, and buried her in a location that is unknown to Apa, to deny him of the ability to hold a proper funeral and burial for her. After the murderers left, someone noted that the little girl was still breathing, and she was brought to the hospital, where she recovered. Both children are now safe with other relatives.


Finally, the relatives have burned Apa's house, along with all his possessions. The items he mentioned specifically that were lost were his Bibles.

He came to the house Sunday afternoon, along with Simon and Esther, mutual friends. We had known bits and pieces of his story, but not many of the details. Obviously, most of what has happened to Apa can't be fixed, but we are going to try to help with a few things. Judy had a new Bible which had not yet started "feeling like mine", and she gave it to him. I know someone who can talk to his former boss to see if there is a possibility of getting the job back, and I have shared the story with him. Apa has been given a little cash to help with immediate expenses. Most of all, we are requesting your prayers for him.

AB

Late note: Apa may be getting his job back. His wife, who works at the hospital will probably be reprimanded for lying to the security company and getting him fired, and if he doesn't get the gob back, she will probably be fired. A tiny shred of justice in this painful situation.

_________________________________________________________

I was just amazed when I read this story. I wouldn't have known any of this without reading Dr. Bennett's blog. It is such a contrast from our lives in the states isn't it? We can't sell our home and we ask, where is God? We lose a relative to an illness and we wonder why God has abandoned us. Anytime we are just a little inconvenienced in life we beg God to make it better.
God, forgive us for not trusting You more. Forgive us for our pettiness. Teach us how to be content no matter our circumstance because if we know You, our life is truly in Your hands! Thank you for the hope that we have in You!

Sharing

Sometimes it is amazing how fast God can answer prayers. Last night Ben and I were talking about Caleb and how he has problems with sharing and empathy. I was a little stressed out about it and then realized I should just pray about it and ask God to help me teach him these things. I think it's funny that I don't think to pray about things until I am my wit's end, but maybe that is a blessing because when He answers I know it is from Him.
Anyway, this morning I went with Jill Riggins, her boys, and Judy Bennett to pass out some baby blankets at the hospital. When we got to the storeroom there was a large bin of toys that had been donated to the hospital as well. Immediately mine and Jill's boys started playing with the toys. When we were ready to go hand them out I braced myself for a fight with Caleb about giving these away. God is so good though. Jill told the boys about how we would be handing these out to the children in the hospital who were sick and Judy told them that we can give them the toys and tell them that Jesus loves them. When we got to the ward, the boys were so excited to give the toys out and Caleb would look at each child we were about to go to and try and pick out something especially for them. Just thinking about it here makes me cry. Just the day before Caleb was fighting with me about sharing one of 10 cars with his little brother and here he was, knowing that none of these were for him, happy as a clam to be giving them out! Thane, of course, followed his big brother's lead and was bringing toys to the children as well.




Christianity is about losing yourself, and abandoning your own desires for God's will. It's about being generous with everything you have in order that you may show Christ's love to someone who needs it. I have had so much trouble teaching that to Caleb at home where he is immersed in a materialistic culture of putting yourself first. He has commercials screaming at him that he NEEDS this toy or that and once he get's it, it is his and his alone. I don't know why we are able to be here, but I'm so thankful for this opportunity for my family. God is so good and it is such a joy to be able to serve Him!!!

To Town

It's been a couple of days since I posted, so I will go back to Tuesday. Dr. Erin and I went into town for my big shopping trip. Generally, the missionaries will go about once a month and get enough supplies/food to last that long. Last time we were in PNG I posted about how horrible these town experiences were, but we actually had a great time! Mainly this was because my brother stayed back at the house with the kids so I could just concentrate on getting what I needed. The stores were the same as I remembered them. Most of the goods there are brought in from Australia so it varies trip to trip what they will have. The people also generally left me alone while I shopped. They were always watching, but not following and grabbing like they did when I had a child with me. Anyway, it was really nice and not stressful at all! There are, of course, some major differences from stores in the states. For one, you have to ignore the beetles and roaches crawling around and the dirt all over most things. I couldn't believe how filthy my hands were after shopping. I have to admit it did make me squirm a little when I saw the cockroach in the raw meat cooler. I decided though that I will cook all of it anyway so it's no big deal. Erin was very helpful as well and would gently say "no, you don't want that" if I picked up something "dangerous" :). On the way home, we stopped at a gas station where people would come up to the windows and try to sell random things like sandwiches and eggs. I really thought that was funny.
It takes about an hour to get into town and I really enjoyed chatting with Dr. Erin during the ride. She told me about some miracles that she has seen at the hospital and some other stories of the area. One miracle being a child that was hit head on by a vehicle but was able to leave the hospital a week and a half later by God's grace. I believe she wrote about it in her blog so you can check it out there. http://erininpng.blogspot.com/
Last time we were here our family would take walks down to the river. I learned from Erin that there have been tensions in that area because of the death of an important man. Many people believe that when someone dies it is because of witchcraft. They will then try to punish whoever they believe is responsible. I guess when this man died they started torturing people in his own extended family. It's really sad. One of the other missionaries told me that there have been some sketchy things happening around the river with drug and alcohol use and even a child rape victim in the last few weeks. Please pray for these people, that they would come to know the Lord.
"He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit."
Ephesians 2:17
When we returned home, I was pleased to see that my children were still alive. Uncle David had taken them on a walk and given them a nap. It did make me laugh when we went to change Thane and his diaper was on backwards...but I think we got off fine if that is the worst that happened. :)

Dung beetles

Day 1: I got a call from one of my missionary friends asking if I would like to take a walk this morning. We decided to walk down by the hospital and to the canteen where we got some biscuits and soda. We then sat at the main circle drive and chatted while the kids played. Now if you know Caleb, you know that he has one level for his voice: super loud. He came running over to Jill and I yelling, "mama, dung beetles!" We were engaged in a conversation so I told him to go find more bugs. Later, as we were getting ready to leave we walked over to see exactly what the kids were doing. There, lined up on the cement, were 5 dead beetles...one decapitated. Caleb explained to me who they were and that one was mad because the others had cut off his head. He then led me to another area where they had "built a home for the beetles", and sure enough, there a few more dead beetles were positioned on a nice bed of straw.
Now, two days ago I frantically went through Target looking for a few cheap toys to take for the children. We were already in Chicago and I had forgotten to pack ANY for our two month journey. I had thoughts of my poor children sitting in an empty little house with no toys, bored to death. If i had only known... Maybe I will bring some of these for souveneirs. Your kids will love them...and I'm pretty sure they won't get sick as long as they don't eat them.

Here in PNG

We are here, we are here, we are here! It was quite an adventure getting to this point, but after 40 hours of traveling, we are here! I sat down on our last flight of the journey, a one hour jump from Port Moresby to Mt. Hagen, and just cried! I will spare you the details, but it was seriously the longest 32 hours of my life! I was puked on, peed on, cried on, slept on, and wondering why I didn’t just send Ben alone, but after being here only one evening I can say the trip was worth it! It is so nice to see our friends again!
The most amazing people that I have always encountered, home or abroad, are the ones allowing Christ to shine through them. That’s why it is so wonderful here. God’s presence radiates from so many people around you and God is good, all the time!