The Chapman’s in PNG

The ladies are extremely busy preparing and cooking meals for the team of 25. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks during the day finds everyone with an assignment from Terry. Filling the ice trays and keeping the water filters full take an incredible amount of time. Keeping up on the ice is very difficult. The meals are being enjoyed by all. Each evening finds the team also preparing for one station family who has been invited to eat for the evening meal. This is a great time to get to know each other. Thank you, team.

First Day on the Volunteer House Project finds all the exterior walls framed standing. The guys worked hard and found that using hard wood is not that easy. All of Mike’s PNG men were helping with the construction. This morning the day started with a devotional from Pastor Dirye, who was the first District Superintendent of the Nazarene Church in Papua New Guinea. The maintenance department lead the music and sang in Pigin. There were 50 in attendance. The women went to town to grocery shop, purchase 2 sewing machines, and material for the window coverings.

It was a great day.

The Brothwell Team has arrived. Plane late from Brisbane into Port Morseby so they overnighted. We drove to the airport this morning to meet the team. It was great to meet everyone. I drove the ladies back to the station in the van. Mike drove the dyna (pickup) with all the luggage. Sam and Jeff drove the Land Cruisers with the men. We arrived on that station at 11:15 AM. We prepared lunch. Everyone enjoyed eating vegetable soup, salad, and fruit. They were ready for something other than airline food. The team had a tour of the station and hospital. The men went to the work site and started laying out walls and setting up a jig for the trusses. They are excited to get started Thursday morning. The women were getting their grocery lists together for grocery shopping Thursday morning in Mt. Hagen.

We are excited to have them here with us and the started framing of the Volunteer House. Ladies are sewing the curtains and closet closures.

Since the phones had been out all day Tuesday in the Mt. Hagen and Kudjip areas it was difficult to get information on the flight. But, the e-mail received from John on Monday evening said that they would be in on the 5:30 PM flight. We left the station at 4:30 PM headed for the airport. We watched the plane unload and NO TEAM!!! Mike checked with the ticket agent. He couldn’t tell if they had even left Brisbane. We headed home disappointed but will try in the morning. We were over half way back to the station when we received a message that the plane was going to land at the airport. We turned around and headed back to the airport. When we arrived everything was locked tight. We headed back to the station. We were 15 minutes on the road when another radio message came insisting that the plane would land. We waited at the agriculture school and watched the air for the plane. At dark we made the decision to go back to the station with a radio message staying that there was not a plane. It is difficult to drive in the dark because of all the people walking on the side of the road. I was glad to arrive back safely.

I don’t know why the team is. Hopefully in Port Morseby. Flexibility is the key.

Mike and the workmen (28) completed the foundation slab last night, Saturday, at 4:30 PM. Andrew was sick, so Mike was power troweling and screeding the cement . Noah, hospital construction supervisor, stopped to check out the pour. As he was looking over the pour with Mike, he said that there were two guys from the hospital project offering to help with the cement pour. Jacob and John were an answer to prayer. Both men know how to work cement. Mike had just been wondering what he was doing to do to get the finish work completed before losing it. Jacob took over the screeding and Mike ran the power trowel. Jacob offered to stay all night but Mike sent him home. Mike power troweled every three hours through out the night. Sunday morning, I went with him to the sight as he finished the final power trowel. We made sure water was on the slab all day so as not to dry to quickly and crack. Jeff and Jessica Meyers helped this afternoon watering the concrete. Thank You!

Received an e-mail from John Brothwell, the team is delayed in Los Angeles and will have to stay overnight. They are to leave on the 11 AM tomorrow. We researched online Quantus Airlines learning that the engineers had a strike May 29-30 in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. This strike caused 17 flight cancellations. We will wait for updates from the Brothwell team.

We had a busy day putting the final touches on the houses.  Judy Bennett is responsible for all the housing on the station for the volunteers.  Gail Dooley, Kathy Radcliffe, Mete, Lena, and Bette are on her team.  They have done an outstanding job.  Lena and I went through the kitchen making sure that she understands all the food preparation and cleaning proceeds.  She will be helping the ladies of the teams during the days.  Lena will also help them learn language and answering questions about the PNG culture.

Today, I am teaching Lena how to operate the washing machine and propane range in the kitchen for the Work and Witness teams. Lena is going to be helping the teams in food preparation, cleaning, language, and culture. We are doing final preparation in the houses. Placing all the groceries and preparing Monday evening meal and Tuesday morning breakfast. will take us most of the day. Lena will gather all the vegetables and fruits when the team chef orders them. She will also gather the chickens needed for that day’s meal. We are finding that the food costs have increased because of the road closure. Stock feed for the chickens has tripled in price causing a chicken to cost 25K. When we first got here, a chicken cost 18K. It will be a busy day.

Last Saturday I baked 8 batches of bread preparing for the first Work and Witness Team arriving June 2nd.  They will have French Bread, rolls, bread loaves, and cinnamon rolls to start their week.  We will be preparing the first evening meal on Monday - vegetable soup, cabbage salad, fresh vegetables and fruit plates, bread sticks, and snicker doodles for dessert.  The first graders made the snicker doodles with Gail Dooley.  Everyone has been a great help getting the housing into shape, gardening done, beds made.  Maintenance has worked hard on the bathrooms, water, painting, and alarm system.  We could not have been ready.  We have a great team here on the station at Kudjip.

Mike has the schedule in place for each day and evening activities.  The team will be hosting one of the missionary families or PNG families at the evening meal.  A mumu is planned for one Sunday while the team is here.  We want the teams to experience the PNG culture while here.  They also have the option to visit a coffee plantation and Bible College.  It will be a busy time for everyone.

Here we come.  The 2nd half of the slab will be poured Saturday, May 31st.  Mike and the workmen worked until dark tonight preparing the pad for the cement pour.  Mike will meet workmen on site at 7 a.m. in the morning.  They will work all day pouring cement again using hand cement mixers and wheel barrows.  We are very excited to have the slab done tomorrow before the Work and Witness team arrives on Monday.  All the building materials for framing, roofing, and siding will be delivered Monday for the Team to start framing on Tuesday.  Talk about God’s timing.  This is exciting.