The Spencer Walkabout

The Tok Pisin God pod

2011-04-28T23:12:00.000-07:00

Jesus χαίρονται σας. It’s all Greek to me. In the Dark Ages, most churches were conducted in Greek, though the vast majority of people did not understand Greek. The church leaders didn’t seem disturbed by the fact that their parishioners could not read the Bible or comprehend the church services.

Most of us can’t imagine life without being able to read, but this is reality for so many people in Papua New Guinea. Our house meri, Delilah that helps around the house can’t even read numbers. Imagine not being able to read the clock, make change at the market or count. Delilah loves the Lord and attends church every Sabbath despite the fact that she can’t read the hymnal, her children’s Sabbath School lessons, or the Bible. My wife Dalena has been teaching Delilah to read numbers and words, but what about the hundreds of remote villages in which there are so many people can’t read God’s Word? Many obstacles are planted in the path of these tribes hearing the Bible.

It is Written Oceania took on this challenge and developed the Godpod. The Godpod is pretty much a tough little simplified, solar powered ipod with powerful speakers. This is the gift that just keeps giving because stored inside is the entire Bible, children’s stories, health talks and some Ellen White writings in Tok Pisin, the language that most villagers in the many remote areas can understand. About 4,000 Godpods have been made and are ready to be distributed around the country.

The next challenge to sharing the Word with these tribes is in transporting the God Pods to the villages. Battling rugged mountain ranges and vast jungle, it can take weeks trekking dangerous trails to reach many of the remote villages. Many pastors spend weeks hiking between churches. The best way to reach these children of God is by airplane into short, grass strips that many villages have hacked from the sides of mountains. As the only connection with the outside world, these villages work years to build these strips and cut the grass with their bush knives.

Adventist Aviation Services in Papua New Guinea is on of the few aviation programs left in the world still run by the Seventh Day Adventist Church. AAS provides this essential vehicle of support and communication for churches throughout the country by transporting pastors, teachers, medical personnel and supplies, building materials, and recently Godpods.

It is Written Oceania team came to PNG in February, 2011 to promote and film the first distribution of Godpods in PNG. Adventist Aviation Services (AAS) had the unique opportunity of transporting the team around the country. Over a 4 day period the team was able to visit 8 remote villages in 3 different provinces and distribute Godpods at each location. All of those villages were only accessible by aircraft, or by hiking for a very long distance, usually days.

The villagers were overwhelmed as they listened to God’s Word in Tok Pisin. “How can we get one?” That was the question asked over and over. The local pastors and elders were very excited about using it as a tool to witness to non Christians and as a tool inside there own churches.

Our visits to the villages were very impromptu. At most of the villages we were not able to make prior arrangements to let them know we were coming. But that only helped us see how much the Holy Spirit was helping with the entire program.

At the end of the 4 days, on the way down to Port Morseby to drop the team off, they decided that they wanted to leave early in the morning and stop at a couple more villages on the way. There is a beautiful little village almost on the way called Asinowi that I thought would be great place to stop. We didn’t have any way of telling them that we were coming early in the morning, but figured we would just show up and see if we could visit with some of the local villagers and hand out some Godpods. And it would make a beautiful place to finishing the filming for the It Is Written program.

As we landed and parked we noticed that there was quite a group waiting for us. After a short visit we discovered that there was an Adventist church elder waiting at the side of the airstrip. The night before, he had been given a dream that the mission balus (Airplane) was coming and that it was bringing something very important for his village. So he had gotten up early and walked to the airstrip to await our arrival.

It is incredible to me that the man had the dream before we ever decided to go to his village. And then we picked it out of all of the villages we could have landed at on the way. There are 7 villages with airstrips just inside of that same valley that Asinowi sits in, and all would have been great places to give out Godpods. However, the Holy Spirit led and we landed exactly where the people were waiting to hear the Word of God.

Adventist Aviation Services strives to support and serve the SDA church in PNG, a country where there are very few roads. My year and half working as a pilot here in PNG has been a remarkable experience. It is a challenging but very rewarding place to fly. It has provided me with many opportunities to see God actively working and leading. I pray that he will continue to lead in the Godpod project and that they will be an effective tool in sharing the gospel message to all of PNG.

SDA School Opening

2011-04-28T18:40:00.000-07:00

Goroka Town

2011-04-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

Dalena's 30 B-day

2011-02-12T21:45:00.000-08:00

Madang Christmas

2010-12-28T17:43:00.000-08:00

Ever the adventure-seeking men, Bennett and Kyle went night snorkeling right out in front of our rooms with their little waterproof flashlights. The first thing they saw was a leopard shark...yip...I'm still not sure if they are lying either, but they seem pretty convinced.

Little "Addie" is growing so fast. Annah loves her dearly and likes to make her smile.

"Look Mommy, she smiled at me. She likes me."

Adella had her first beach experience at 3 months old and LOVED it! She was just kicking in the water and chillin' on the beach.

Annah and Nova enjoy the bar....with their pineapple/orange juices. They are bestest friends!

Look how clear the water is. Someday we'd like to go scubadiving. There are great corals and many WWII plane and boat wrecks to explore here.

Adella Grace Spencer...welcome to this crazy family!

One of our good friends that works at the hangar went to the village to bring his wife back. His 12 year old daughter was going to stay home alone for 3 weeks, so we took her in for the holidays. I'm pretty sure that she thinks we're crazy!

Hanging out in the pool. It just poured down rain on Saturday (Christmas)

but was beautifully sunny the on Thurs, Fri and Sun.

Look at my new pet that Daddy got for me.

Fun Times! We snorkeled around too and saw some beautiful fish.

Annah was askin for "Lots of toys, Mommy, all for me!" So we thought she wasn't getting the true meaning of Christmas. So we bought lots of stuffed animals and made bannana bread and took it the children in the pediatric ward of the Goroka Hospital. Annah and Nova really enjoyed sharing with the kids and making them happy. It was a special experience and hopefully one that will impact her selfish little 2-year old-all-about-me-ness.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers for our family this 2010 year. It has been a year full of changes in our family and ourselves. We are constantly amazed at how God is working in us and through us here in PNG.

Please pray that God will give us His love and direction in how to best serve in PNG in 2011.

Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year!

Adella Grace Back in PNG

2010-12-15T23:48:00.000-08:00

Adella Grace Spencer joined our family on September 29, 2010 in Tyer, Texas. Dalena was in the Texas for 2 1/2 months and Bennett for 5 weeks. We will post more pics of our time in the US later. Here are a few pics of Addie with her very proud older sister. Addie is about 2 months in these pictures. Enjoy!

Asaro Mudmen Village

2010-09-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

We went with our friends Suzie and Andrew and their 2 cute boys to see the Asaro Mudmen Village and Dance. Suzie's dad was visiting from Australia. They showed us some of their village customs as well as another dance.

This man was showing us how they started a fire by a thin piece of wood that
they pull back and forth under their foot to make a flame.

They were showing us how they make a traditional mumu. They layer rocks and wood and then add the banana leaves and food on top. They the rocks steam the food. Sometimes they make a dry mumu and sometimes they'll add water and make a wet mumu. They did one of each for us.

Annah loves corn and is eating it raw. She couldn't wait for it to cook in the mumu firepit.

Annah is walking on the raised platform where they sleep. It is made by weaving thin bamboo pieces together. They use this same method for the outside walls of their huts.

Annah loves puppies and is insta-friends with anybody under 4 feet tall.

This is the startings of a new hut.

Bennett of course wanted to try out the bow and arrows. The pull-back string is made out of bamboo that's tied at each end of the bow. So, the bow bends more than the pull back part.

Dalena as an "Asaro Mud Man."

Dalena and Annah with Suzie and Lucus.

They weren't sure what to think of the Asaro Mud Men.

The mask is made of a special clay.

The Asaro Mud Men story: Years ago, the Asaro people heard that another tribe was going to come and attack and take their land. So, they made masks and covered themselves with mud. When the enemies attacked, they were met by "spirits" coming out of the riverbank with huge masks. The enemies ran in fear and never returned to try and take away their land.

The Asaro men still do this dance for the tourists.

Then we drove to the top of Daulo pass. I'll have to find out how tall it is. The view is beautiful!

Our 2 little princesses...one still in utero.

Then, they did another dance for us that the men do for the women. Interesting. If I was a young girl, I don't know how excited I would be about this dance.

Kaveve Church and Waterfall

2010-08-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

Most of our Adventist Aviation team went to a little SDA church at Kaveve a few weeks ago. There are little SDA churches every few miles around the country side. SDA comprise about 10% of the population and it seems you are always meeting SDAs wherever you go. On Sabbath, you see so many people walking to church in their best clothes. It's a weird feeling after being in the US where many people have never heard of SDAs.

This is Annah at Sabbath School. I think her favorite part of SS is being with other kids and tryign to hug and kiss them all. She's a social butterfly.

Anyway, Kaveve is a beautiful little village only about a 30 min. drive from our house. Bennett was excited to have to put our Nissan in 4-wheel drive to get up the mountain roads. Our Adventist Aviation team did the Sabbath School and church service and then after a picnic lunch, we hiked to some beautiful waterfalls. The people are always so welcoming when we come to visit. They are so excited and proud to hear about the aviation program.

After church, they lined us up so they could all shake all of our hands. Above is a photo of all the church members.

Bill and I played some songs on the guitar. The people there can sing like you wouldn't believe. Such beautiful harmonies and such gusto for God. Even the kids can sing harmonies already. The kids all sit in the front and we sang some kids' songs for them. See Annah in the front pew with her little friend Leilani?

This is the cute Kaveve church. In front are our friends Brad and Kriselle and their little girl, Leilani. They live in Lae and Brad does all the IT/Computer work for the church and schools in PNG. They were visiting for the weekend and Annah had a great time playing with Leilani who just turned 2. The people work hard to build their churches and put loving care into landscaping around them.

This is on our way up to the Kaveve Waterfall. These 3 gals were some of our guides helped me to ford several streams without falling on the slippery rocks.

This is the most beautiful country that I have ever seen; gorgeous mountains, valleys and rivers. Here's Bennett carrying precious cargo. It was about an hour hike and quite steep in spots.

You can't see, but behind Bennett is where the locals people believe that a one-legged man used to live. He cut a stone in half (which incidently really looks like it was cut straight with a machine of some kind) when he got angry because he wasn't allowed the woman he wanted. I'm not sure if they really believe it now, or if they think it's just folklore.

YEAH! We made it! It was getting close to dark, so we didn't stay long, but it was a beautiful spot. Anybody want to come and visit?

Drunk Driver Crashes Through Back Fence

2010-08-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

Yip, exciting times in PNG. On a Friday night, two drunk drivers crashed and one came through our fence onto my beautiful broccoli plants. Grr. The metal fence wrapped around their car and made quite the racket trying to get free. Annah even woke up and said, "I'm scared, Mommy." I didn't want Bennett to go out there because you never know what these people will do when upset and especially when drunk. Our night guard got their info. We tried to call the police all night with no success. Coming back after Sabbath School in the am, we found the police on the scene "investigating" with the whole road blocked off. They arrested the few drunk people of the car that was stuck there.

The car that came through the fence was a business truck for a telephone company, so they SHOULD pay for the fence repairs. We've sent them 2 quotes, but haven't seen any money yet. Compensation is a big thing here...wether it is by a tribal fight, a pig or money. Most crimes, including rape, can be "righted" by paying the parents some money. We'll see how we do with our compensation. Might not happen unless we show up at their office with some bows and arrows and bush knives. Can you imagine Roger, Bill, Linden and Bennett showing up at a office with huge bushknives and demanding compensation?

This is our night guard, Norman, whom we had to wake up to tell him that someone had driven through our fence. We got some extra guards for the yard until we could repair the fence. On the weekends, everyone is stumbling drunk down the hill and past our house and attempted to stumble into our yard through the hole. Just thank the Lord that we're all safe and sound.

New airplane arrives for Adventist Aviation in PNG

2010-08-01T04:54:00.000-07:00

On June 28th 2010 our brand new PAC 750 arrrived ready to serve the people of PNG. The aircraft, registration P2-SDE landed with only the 25 or so hours it took to fly it here from New Zealand. This is our second PAC and it will greatly enhance our abiltiy to properly provide airservice to the church and the communities of PNG. Our other PAC, P2-SDB arrived in PNG in 2007 and now has around 2700 hours of flight time. In that time it has provided an essential airtransport service for all of the adventist missions here, as well as provided a much needed community service flying operations commercially. The first PAC that was purchased in 2007 was bought using many different offerings and fund raising activities including a 13th sabbath mission offering. In just 3 years of being in service the first PAC has served the people here and been so cost effective it's commercial work has basically purchased the second without any funds being taken from the church. And the good news for the church and people of PNG is that there are now 2 machines to help carry out the work.

Roger and Linden made the long flight over from New Zealand. It takes around 25 hours of flight time. They made a good trip of it and made several stops along the way and spent the weekend in Australia.

The very next morning, I left at 6am and headed out on the airplanes first mission flight in PNG. I headed out to a small island called Mal to pick up some church workers who had gone in several weeks earlier for some meetings. An interesting place. You just head out over the water for a hour and forty five minutes or so and look for this little island. A very beautiful spot with a grass strip. Pretty easy with GPS, but I can only imagine trying to find it without it. This island is fairly remote, they don't even have a regular boat service. And an airplane only comes a couple times a year.

The beach was only a short walk away. Amazingly clear water.

This was the group I picked up at Mal. They had a nice coconut for me to drink when I arrived. They were pretty thrilled to be the first passengers on the new airplane. Since this trip we have already put over 100 hours on the new airplane and it is doing a great job here.

5 Year Anniversary Beach Trip

2010-07-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

I feel blessed to have spent 5 wonderful years with an incredible man that I love. God has blessed us with a beautiful and hilarious little daughter, Annah and another little one on the way. Yet, God had another surprise and worked out a last minute trip to the beach at Madang to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. God is so good!

This is the brand-spanking new Adventist Aviation airplane that just arrived from New Zealand last week. It's the same kind as our other one. These are some friends that joined us on our last minute Madang adventure. Shannon and her family (details in next pic), Linden (engineer for AAS), Matt (volunteer engineer for AAS for a month), and Bri and Betsy (one of our AAS pilot's daughters that are here for the summer.) We left on Friday and came back on Sunday. It takes about 5 1/2 hours to drive to Madang on pretty sketchy roads where you usually get held up. BUT it took us about 25 minutes to fly there in the plane. We had a great time with everyone!

These are some friends that joined us on our beach adventure. Shannon is on the left and has the 3 precious girlies. She and her husband work with CRMF-Christian Radio that helps to provide villages with HF radios for communication. Her mom and sister were visiting from Australia and were excited to see Madang.

Bennett and I went out for dinner for our 5 year anniversary and

awesome our friend Shannon kept Annah for the evening and night.

Yip, she's an ice-cream lover like her Popsky (Bennett's dad).

And MORE ice-cream and she's a happy girlie.

My friend Shannon and her # 3 little princess, Ella.

The resort has a random assortment of birds and parrots.

Annah liked the one that kept saying, "Hello." Annah called them pigins.

Some local boys out cruising around.

Me with Annah and her two friends that came with us, Lucy and Emily.

Daddy found a blue starfish...which was a hit.

Annah in the deep end of the pool.
She started putting her head under the water by herself..on purpose.

Annah is learning to swim with a lifejacket.

She won't let go of Daddy or I yet when she has it on, but she is getting there.

She a little fish.

Camping with Kama Church Youth

2010-06-26T23:25:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back we had the opportunity to go camping with the youth from one of our local Goroka churches. Our Friends Brad and Kriselle came up from Lae and went along.

Annah had a lot of fun with her friends. She actually did very well, until it got dark. Then she kept say's " I want to go home" I guess we'll have to get out a bit more.

For all of my safty conscious friends, I always let Annah ride on the hood of the truck. Ok, not always just on the gravel or grass roads. J/K I figure that any 2 year old should have the cordination to stay on.

Apparently Adventist in PNG are known for there camping. Which is good, that means we will probably have some more opportunities to get out and see some country side.

How's this for tall grass? I would'nt want to be in charge of trying to mow it. I guess that's why they just burn it from time to time.

Dalena goes flying with Bennett

2010-06-07T16:56:00.000-07:00

The clinic that Dalena goes to for here prenatal checkups is over at the SIL compound which is a 2 hour interesting drive. So if the oportunity comes up for her to catch a flight it is only fifteen minuts away. I had several flights to do that direction, so Dalena rode along for a little while and then I dropped her off for her doctors appointment. Here she is catching some shade at a little village called Tuvou. First we dropped off a few government medical workers in Marawaka. It's a beautiful airstrip at the top end of a valley.
They actually have a very nice long grass runway.

Next stop we landed over at tuvou, just an eight minute flight away. We were scheduled to pick coffee here. But the grass was very long. So we had to get the villagers out with bush knives to start cutting it. I know I have said this before, but in true PNG fashion, the villagers had called out the day before and said that the airstrip was like a golf course, freshly cut and ready, you could play put-put on it. They also claimed to have 200, 50 plus KG bags of Coffee ready to be carried out. Well to say the least the grass was very tall, up to my thight in places and there were only about 15 bags of coffee ready to go. So I told them if they really had more coffee to carry out that day that they should start cutting the strip. I told them I would make one load out and come back. And if they had made good progress on cutting the strip I would carry some more out. Anyhow, they apparently worked for about 5 minutes after I left and then just stopped. So I had to close their strip to all operations due the long grass. The bad thing is that many in the community are Adventist. And they are still trapped in their cultural issues. See they didn't lie about the airstrip, they just told us what we wanted to hear. In the end we got Dalena over to her doctors appointment, but that's about it for the day.

Flying Video

2010-06-06T05:11:00.000-07:00

Hope you enjoy the beautiful scenery in this short video Dalena took while flying with me. Ya, Dalena was looking for the airstrip for awhile too.

-Bennett

A Week in Brisbane, Australia

2010-05-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

Annah and I headed over to Brisbane, Australia for our all-expense paid trip. I will work at Goroka Preparatory School and needed to leave the country to get a work permit. Karli and her kind family hosted us. I had taught in Thailand and attended Avondale with Karli's sister, Lindsay. They were such wonderful hosts and made us feel right at home. Karli's parents were there too. I had spent some time at their home years ago, so it was great fun catching up and Annah got to meet her Aussie grandparents.

Annah with her Aussie "Grammie."

Annah had a great time with her new Aussie friend, Addie.

Me with 4 1/2 muchkins in the tub.

Preggers is trying out the Billy cart to be sure it was "safe" for the kidlets.

The kids spent hours pushing around this billy cart and learning to steer it without taking out a tree or fence or car. Annah just was a bit nervous about it at first and then had a ball and didn't want to get off.

Annah helped her Australian Granddad to make the Billy cart. He had come

and spent a few months with us when Annah was born, so he was excited
to see her again. It was great fun to catch up with him and Pauline.

Annah, Addie, and Darren enjoying an early morning breakfast...I mean brekkie.

Beside the river in Brisbane there is a huge area for kids with lots of different fountains that go on and off. This one had a map of the city. Annah loved exploring the different fountains with her new Aussie buddies Addie and Callum.

Annah loved playing at the fake beach beside the river.

She chased the very strange looking birds around.

On Sabbath, we met up with my friend Julia. We were friends from Avondale College and she was in my wedding 5 years ago. It was great fun to catch up after being apart so long.

Annah just loved her crazy Auntie Jules. (Annah can't say Julia very well.)

We went to a fake beach at a resort and then headed down the beach to

Surfer's Paradise for a real beach experience.

Julia and I backpacked around Thailand for a few weeks in 2003,

so for old times sake we had to eat Thai food. They have Thai eating

places on every corner in Aus. I love it!!

Annah loved the beach and the waves. She kept bringing us sand to "eat" and saying, "food."

Our classic crazy picture shot.

Surfer Girl, Surfer Girl in Surfer's Paradise

She laid in the back of the boat and pretended that she was Jesus sleeping in the storm.

And no, that mommy didn't even give her the idea. Maybe she is learning something

from the stories we read.

Well, wecome back to PNG. Here is the sign in the Ladies' Bathroom.
My rough translation: Wash hands belong you. We no like get sick

Of course, there's no toilet paper or soap in the bathrooms. Ha ha.

Annah got her face painted with a star and butterfly on the Virgin Blue Pacific flight.

Coffman, one of the other teachers from Goroka Preparatory School

traveled with us to Aus. to attend the teacher training meetings.

What a lovely trip to Australia! Annah won't soon forget

her new Aussie friends and Grandparents.

Clinic Opening in Kapi

2010-04-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

We had the opportunity to help the Adventist church here open a medical clinic in the small village of Kapi this last week. Well when I say help, we flew in all the people and supplies. Kapi is a 20 minute flight from Goroka and not accesible by any other way than aircraft or a very very long walk. I didn't get to see the actual clinic, but it was fun to see the grand welcome from locals there. It's amazing how much a very basic clinic with just a few trained locals can help a small village like this. Education is an amazing thing. It opens up doors for really being able to share the gospel. There were lots of people running around in grass skirts and face paint, with bows and arrows and strange musical intruments. They made a great welcoming party. Hope you like the pics.

We flew in several loads of church and govenment officials for the grand opening of the clinic. We recieved a very warm welcome from everyone in the village. I didn't get to see the actual clinic but it has been an ongoing project for the last several months. We have flown in several loads of supplies over the last few months.

I wanted to ask this guy if I could shoot his bow and arrow. I was wondering where his poisonious blow darts were.

So check out these flutes. They only played about 2 different notes but made an interesting odulating sound. The guy in the background seems to have made it into a lot of photos.

Talk about camoflauge, I couldn't tell if these people in green were men or women.

The man on the left is our agent in the village of Kapi. He weighs and fills out a load manifest for us when we come to the village. He helps organize loads as well. Most of the villages we go to regularly we have a designated agent that helps out. We send out some of our hangar workers to help train them. They are all church members, and we pay them by how many people or how much weight we fly out. Some are better than others, but it's nice to have someone there to help load and unload and organize. The man on the right is a church member who came from Goroka ont he airplane to see the clinic opening.

These are Asaro Mud men. They were not as fierce of warriors as the some of there neighboring tribes, so they made these giant clay head pieces and apparently were pretty effective in scaring off the enemies. I just wasn't fast enough to run around and get a picture in front of them with the airplane in the background.

You've got to love the sun glasses.

I really enjoyed getting to see everyone dressed up in there traditional garb. It's a pretty entertaining mix of the old and new.

Sick Kids and Stuffed Animal w/ Story

2010-03-27T17:47:00.000-07:00

Some friends from Lae came to visit us in Goroka and do some work on the computers. They share how they enjoyed taking stuffed animals to the pediatric unit of their hospital in Lae. So, Kriselle and I bought up all the cute stuffed animals at a second hand shop and washed them on Friday. They have tons of thrift stores here with clothes and stuff from Australia. You can get some good stuff.

Sunday morning, we left Annah with our house meri and headed to the hospital. We had over 30 stuffed animals and we gave the all away. Moms looked haggard and many sat openly breastfeeding their babies. It was the little babies that really got me though. They are just so precious with huge tubes up their noses and ivs in their tiny little arms. One little boy had a belly that looked 9 months pregnant. He was so excited to get a stuffed animal and a Bible book in Pisin. The little girl at the end had on the most adorable pink dress with crocheted booties. She just stared at us with her big, beautiful eyes, but was too small and weak to reach for the toy.

One baby was screaming as mom and a nurse were holding him down to put a tube in. I just lost it. I couldn't work with pediatric patients ever. I just see Annah in each of them and start to cry for the moms and the baby. I left an animal for the little screaming guy. He couldn't have been more than 2 years old. Sometimes I feel like Bennett is the only missionary and I am just home raising a baby. So, this day was special as I saw kids smile and moms grin.

Dalena and Annah's Adventures

2010-03-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a more recent picture of little, baby Shad. He's getting big. Our house meri, Delilah has 3 kids. Her husband works at the hangar and the currently live below our house in a little room. On the couch with me are Lincoln (whom Annah just loves to play with everyday) and Willa. They also have an older son, Able.

Annah loves to "read" books. I will start teaching at Goroka Preparatory School at the end of April. Apparently, you have to leave the country in order to get your work permit. So, April 18-25, Annah and I will fly to Brisbane for a teacher training session about our new curriculum that we will be using from Australia. GPS has about 50 students grades K-7. I will teach music and tutor 2 mornings per week and Annah will attend the Kindy class. Annah is pictured here with her Kindy classmates. They have an assembly for parents every fortnight and present what they have learned.

Flying flying flying, sorry if you don't like flying

2010-03-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry there probably won't be any great strories here, I'll just share a few pics from my last months travels. Also I appologize as I have yet to figure out how to consistantly get the words and pictures lined up where I want them to go. So it might be a bit of a haphazard layout. Hope you like the pics though. On a little side note, I saw snow here for the first time the other day. I was flying at 15,500 feet and got into some falling precip and the temp was minus 1 C. And sure enough there it was snow flakes coming down. I was flying some local people around and I think they were a little nervous. They wanted to know if I had ever flown in this sort of weather before, and I thought they probably couldn't even imagine a winter in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They seemed reassured enough after I told them some of my snow stories.

There are a few pics here of a very large lake out near the Indonesian border. It is called lake Murray. It's pretty huge for being down in the flatland swamp areas. We have several chuches in the area so I have flown pastors and workers in and out of the airstrip numerous times. It's a good strip, 600-700 meters long and flat. Get's a few mud holes somtimes but overall good. Kinda of funny I just saw a warning from another mission aviaiton program the other day that pilots should be cautious as pastors are smuggleing marajuana out of the strip. (Hasn't been our pastors, but anything is possible in PNG)

There are a lot of sinkholes and caves that I see flying over. These pics dont' do them much justice. You'll be flying along following a small river when the river just drops and disappears into the ground. I tried to get a picture of one where there are 2 large sinkhole type caves, right beside eachother with a little village hut sitting in between the two giant holes in the ground. You just have to hope they don't sleep walk. Looks like the holes drop straight down several hundred feet.

These pics, I was flying along at 12,000 ft on top of a cloud layer. It was a wonderfully calm morning and it was amazing how far you could see ontop of the cloud layer. This zoomed in pic of the mountain is Mt Gileway (spelled wrong but that's ok, they probably just misspelled it on the map and I'm right) Anyhow it is 14,600 and sum odd feet tall. For perspective, I'm at 12,000 just over the clouds. There are several nearly 15,000 ft peaks in the country. This is on a trip out to the western highlands where the terrain is perticularly tall and rugged. Most villages a very remote, and like much of the rest of the country the only way there is by a/c.

This Airstrip is Tekin. It looks pretty nice in this picture, like it's some wide long gravel strip. But it sits around 5,700ft and is 10 percent slope. It would be a pretty easy strip if you didn't have to worry about winds. It sits in a bowl area and the winds just seem to swirl around in there. Usually strong down drafts on short final and also after takeoff. But the people are great. This is where I got the plane stuck in the mud up past the axels flying with Roger. Kind of embarassing but got a little off the good part of the runway during rainy season and the soft soft mud on the side just sucked me in on landing. I had full control back to center but it didn't seem to help. Finally came to a stop pretty close to the edge of dropping into a big ditch with both wheels literally burried to the axels. I had only been here (In PNG) for a little over a month so was a little discouraged. Anyhow like I said the people were great, we hooked up 3 sets of rope to the landing gear and with about 50 of them pulling we pulled the bird right out of the mud hole. So when I first started flying in and out of Tekin by myself it was a bit intimidating, but now I actually like the place. I have definatly had a good learning experience here. It's probably good to keep expanding my horizons.

This is a pic of several missionary families that we moved to lake murray. I think we had 13 people and all of there earthly possessions. Hope they like it there, it's a long way from there home and the only way out there is by boat or plane. Lake Murray is the big lake out by the western border with Indonesia.

These casuary birds are basically a small emu. The villagers always seem to give them as gifts. These two were given to some pastors whom I flew out to Kapiago for a prayer meeting or something. Anyhow, I don't know what they do with them. But my job was just to figure out how to get them on the Ballus.(airplane) They have very strong claws (Talons as napoleon dynamite would say) so we just package them up good and put them in the cargo pod.

Baby Sad (Shad)

2010-03-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

A month or so back after a fairly normal day at work I pulled into the drive way at home and was greeted by Gideon. Gideon is one of our workers at the hangar and he and his family used to live below our house and work as a security guard. Anyhow Gideon asks if I can drive a relative of his to the house sick (hospital) to have a baby. (On a side note relative is a fairly loose term here, it could be a sister, cousin, second cousin, a friend’s cousin, maybe just someone from the same village, I never did get the relation of this person, but that’s ok.) So Gideon and I backed out of the drive way to find a fairly young girl just lying in the ditch outside the fence. I guess she seemed pretty happy to just have the kid there. Anyhow, no worries we just drove her over to the house sick and Gideon’s wife stayed there with her, and I didn’t think much of it. Later that night the girl gave birth to a little boy.
Now the next day we find out that the girl didn’t want the baby at all. (sounds like the husband was out of town for a awhile and so the kid wasn’t the most legitimate to say the least) So as Gideon said they didn’t like that baby and wanted to throw it out. So Gideon and his family decided to take on the child. Now it’s important to note that they already have 3 kids and had just moved into a very small hut. And since Gideon has a job all of his relative like to come and stay with him in his 8X7 foot hut. So Gideon went down and paid the 20kina (8 USD) hospital delivery fee and picked up the kid. Dalena went with them to get the baby, and took them to get some nappies(diapers) and clothes. Also kind of entertaining that the mom just left the next morning and walked home to her village. So Gideon’s family got the kid at about 11 hours old.
We were a little concerned because they were just going to feed him cow’s milk from the store. I asked Gideon several times about feeding the baby, and that it might be a good idea if the mother could feed the kid for a little while at least. But he wasn’t terribly concerned, he said if the baby died they would just bury him in a cardboard box or something and maybe get another one. (Gideon is a fantastic guy, but you just see that life seems a bit cheap here)
Gideon’s sister came from the village to take care of the baby. Her husband had divorced her because she didn’t have any children, so she would come and take care of the baby as her own and move in with the rest of the family in the tiny little cooking hut.
So, Dalena shared this story with her inter-denominational craft group of ladies. Two of the mom’s that were from Australia and Switzerland, had huge amounts of extra formula from their babies which they donated to the cause along with some bottles. Dalena tried to explain how and when to use the formula since all moms here nurse the babies almost until grade 1.
Well, we hiked up to their little hut to give them more formula and check on the baby. Gideon told us how thankful he was for our help with the baby and that he wanted me to name the baby a family name that I liked. I always liked my brother’s name, Shad. “Sad,” says Gideon, testing it out. We had forgotten that the locals here can’t say the “sh” sound, so the poor baby will forever be baby “Sad.” We tried to remedy the situation by explaining that both our dads were named David and it was a good, strong Bible name. However, Gideon said that their village already had a David, so they would call him “Sad David Gideon.” They don’t usually have last names, so the father’s name becomes the children’s last name.
Annah shared one of her precious bunnies and her soft, pink blanket with baby Sad. Baby boys here wear as much pink as the girls, so you have to be careful in assuming if it's a boy or girl by what the baby is wearing. This sharing was a big sacrifice for Annah and good for her little soul.
Baby “Sad” is now about 6 weeks old and has fat little cheeks. We’ve heard that you will be expected to pay school fees if you name a baby. We’ll see!

Sorry, I'm not very good at moving pics around on this blog. The first 3 pictures are when we went up to visit the hut. The last 2 pictures are when we took some clothes and nappies to the baby in the hospital.

Family Photos

2010-02-24T17:56:00.000-08:00

A week of flying in PNG with Bennett

2010-01-30T17:29:00.000-08:00

A typical week flying in PNG

Monday started off with a wheels up time of around 7am. We first landed in Usurupia (close to the mission headquarters in the area) to pick up a few of the local missionaries there to take them out to Lae for some annual training. And in true PNG fashion when we landed none of the missionaries were there. Either the message never reached them to be there or whoever sent the message was not familiar with area and didn’t realize that because of the very large mountains it would have taken many days to hike there. (Communication is an interesting process here, you never know quite what to expect, also all of our missionaries in the villages and the mission directors here in PNG are local Papua New Guineans which is good but with so many different areas and cultures they might be from anywhere on the island which sometimes adds a little to the confusion and at times things are just we’ll say “lost in translation”) So anyhow it was fortunate that Roger (Chief pilot here) was with me because he knew which villages all the missionaries were based at. So it ended up working out alright the villages were only about a five minute hop apart so I was able to get checked out on several new strips. One of them is Boyco which I will post a photo of, you can recognize it by it’s large curve in the airstrip. Anyhow to continue to make things interesting, we were told we only had the missionaries to pick up for a two week training event in Lae. However at every stop they had brought their entire family. So it wasn’t long before we had 9 or 10 people in the back. So we ended up making an extra shuttle to Lae. But after a few extra stops we had almost everyone where they needed to go. We weren’t able to make a pick up in the finister mountains due weather, looked really good on the side we could see but we got over the ridge and it was totally cloud covered. (There really isn’t much for wx reports here, gets a little interesting at times) So all in all a fairly successful run and made it back to Goroka by around 1pm. ( Seven landings already for the day, not bad for having some longer legs) I had a quick lunch and them headed on my own over to a little village called Haia to do a medivac flight. I landed there only to discover that the patient had gotten on a MAF airplane that had landed there earlier. (another good example of communication problems) But as medical problems are usually not in short supply, there was a pregnant woman who needed flown out to the hospital, so I took her and someone to help her out of the village. We made a stop in another village Kiaramui on the way back since we were nearly empty. We do service flights for the different villages, for so much money they can fly out to Goroka or send cargo to be sold at market. So we stopped and picked up another seven passengers and about 9 large bags of peanuts, and took off out of there at landing weight adjusted max takeoff. Basically carrying around 2400 lbs of payload. And then made it back to Goroka by around 4:30 or five.

Tuesday was an extra early start. I showed up at 5:15 am for a first light departure. The weather was pretty rainy but there was sufficient visibility and cloud ceiling for a safe departure. The first leg was out to Tokua close to Rabual out on the islands on the eastern part of New Britian. We were taking a teacher and his family and some students out to Sonoma our Adventist College in the area. We also had several students on board. It is interesting flying throughout the islands as there is a lot of WW2 history. There is also several volcanoes along the way. I’ll put a few pictures up of those. Rabaul was a big port and airbase for the Japanese during the war. Apparently it was even a big submarine base. There were supposedly places where the subs could go into caves and then pop up and be serviced and resupplied. The second leg was from Tokua to the Manus Islands. We carried a body in a coffin and the family back to their home island. We were able to carry the coffin and the whole family for about the same cost as the local airline was going to charge for the body and one family member. We flew seven family members and all there belongings and the coffin. We just made a quick stop for fuel on the way in Kavieng. Then after dropping the family and coffin in Momote, manus islands, we picked up a teacher and their family their and flew them back to Goroka where they were going to teach at our Adventist high school there. We made it back to Goroka around 4:30 pm to finish up the day with around 8 hours of flying.

Wednesday, We had another early start a first light departure for Port Morsby the capital. Bill Norton got to do all of the tough work that day, I was sitting in the right seat and giving him an instrument proficiency check. We flew a teacher and her family and all of their belongings, they were moving to Port Morseby for her to start a program at Pacific Adventist University, our university in the country. We also flew Roger Millist our chief pilot down to go to a two day auditors course in Morsbey. We flew down on an IFR flight plan, which really isn’t any different here than a VFR one. Then we shot an ILS in Morsbey.(the only one in the country) We dropped everyone off there and then picked up 2200lbs of building supplies for a small school out in a nearby village of Efogi. On the first load we carried 14 bags of concrete mix and 17, 10’ steel posts. We did a little IFR work on the way out to the village of efogi and offloaded our materials there. We then loaded up a small sawmill we had flown in there several weeks before along with a lot of vegetables and greens and flew them out to Morseby. We offloaded the sawmill there and then took the last load of building supplies out to efogi. On this load we had a lot of medal roofing sheets that were around 12 feed long. Somewhere in the mix there we flew several more practice instrument approaches into morsbey and did a hold or two. We dropped the materials off in Efogi and picked up the work team that had been there for several weeks working on the school and clinic there. We flew them to to morsbey dropped them off and then picked up a family moving to Goroka to teach at the Adventist school there. We finally arrived back in Goroka around 5PM. I know it sounds like we move teachers everywhere but school is just starting for a new year so there is a lot of moving teachers about.

Thursday, I had the day off due to excessive duty hours. With the rules here you can’t work more than a 12 your duty day or 90 hours in a 14 day period. It was a nice break.

Friday Normal start around 8am. I flew the Gulf Mission area president’s family back home to Kikori the mission headquarters there. Its an old military strip made out of medal grating just laid out on the ground. It’s long by standards here, around 2000 ft. But can be interesting when wet. I landed and saw a twin otter that they were trying to pull out of the bushes that had lost control and vered off the runway. They were trying to get out with a small craine when I arrived. I then dropped a new teacher off from there in a small village on the coast called IHU. Very long grass, almost didn’t land there, but it was very dry at least. I returned from that flight to Goroka with a few students going to our Adventist school in Goroka. And then I finished up the day by dropping off a new Nurse and her family at a village with a clinic about a 20 minute flight from Goroka. I then flew over to a close by village and picked up 5 passengers and 10 bags of coffee and some peanuts to fly back to goroka. It made for an early finish for the day by 4pm and very excited about the arrival of Sabbath a little break.

Here is the Twin Otter being crained out of the shrubs.

This is the portable saw mill and load we brought back from Efogi

Just a few volcanos around

The coffin flight to the manus Islands.

This is Haia where I picked up a patient. A beautiful place with palm trees lining the runway. Here are a few of the local children. They were very excited about being in a picture

This is the airstip (or ples bilong Ballus as they say in pidgin) named Boyco, don't you like how straight it is.

Annah's 2nd Birthday

2010-01-09T17:00:00.000-08:00

Annah had her 2nd birthday and we are feeling super old now. We started out the morning at the pool where Annah swam, we played squash, and then ordered pizza and skyped Bennett's parents, GB and Popskee. Annah was to have my (Dalena's) parents here for 2 weeks and they led lots of fun games at the party for all the kids. Then we made shapes with peanut butter playdough-which Bennett renamed "cookie dough" so that the kids wouldn't think they should eat play dough.

There are more pictures on our picasa website.

Mom and I decorated a cake like the Madang Beach (just in case you can't tell what it is). We used jello for the water and colored it blue with food coloring and it promptly started melting everywhere. Annah had lots of nice friends from the Pentecostal and Baptist missions and from our church and some neighbors. She's a little social bug. The neighbors gave her a bilum (purses that men and women here wear) and a Meri blouse (that the lady's here wear). Daddy and Grandpa put up a tire swing and a regular swing that is great entertainment. Annah misses my parents so much now. Thank you Jesus for 2 wondeful years with our precious daughter, Annah!

Christmas-Part 3 The Beach at Madang

2010-01-06T17:58:00.000-08:00

We headed out to Madang a few days after Christmas for about 3 days of beaches, snorkeling and fun with my parents and our family. I'll add more details later. Gotta run for now. Annah is starving hungry.

Flying flying flying

2010-01-03T17:24:00.000-08:00

This is one of our other pilots here Bill Norton. He is currently back home in the states for his yearly leave. I was trying to show how close to the terrain we were on this approach, but of course pictures never quite look the same. Bill has been a great instructor here.

This is Tumobile, The png/indonesia border goes right down the middle of the airstrip. The locals don't seem to concerned about which country they are in. We flew this load of medical supplies out in early dec. It consisted of several hospital beds, wheel chairs, crutches and other misc. supplies. I think the beds were donated by a hospital somewhere. Kind of interesting I think they were the nicest beds they had ever seen and I bet they had a difficult time even fitting them into their little clinic there.

The people seemed really thrilled with there new equipment

Dalena's parents flew in for a visit over the holiday's. Dalena's Dad and Mom both got to fly with flew me a bit last week.

An interesting looking strip here

We landed in a little village to pick up some sick people and they seemed to be having some kind of local dispute. This guy in the blue uniform was the local police. Check out the size of his knife in his left hand. It was the biggest rambo knife I have ever seen. He was there to keep the peace I quess.
This is my favorite copilot Annah, we just had here 2nd birthday party yesturday. I'm sure there will be pics to follow soon.

December has been a very busy month here in PNG. It seems many of the area church missions have decided to schedule as much as possible into the last month of the year. It has been good experience and I am learning a lot. And so far I have been fortunate to not have to many embarrassing moments. Here is one funny story for you though. We were carrying church members from Port Morsby (the country's capital) out to a big campmeeting out in the mountains where the early adventist church first had a lot of growth in country. Anyhow we were carrying people and supplies out for the meeting. Kagi is a fairly steep strip, around 12 percent all the way up with a small spot that is just kind of level at the top for parking. Anyhow, we had just parked and I had gotten out to start unloading the plane, when it starts rolling away down the hill towards the edge of the airstrip.(I had either only half set the brakes or forgotten the parking brake all together, pretty good move) Anyhow the locals just roared with laughter as they watched the white man (me) jump into the cockpit head first to get the brakes on. The plane hadn't rolled very far but they thought it was pretty entertaining. Some of the people from Port Morsby even had cameras and filmed it. I think they would have all just watched it roll right off the hill. They do seem to have a sense of humor though and like laughing. This last picture is a load of goods for a small adventist school in the bush. 3 drums of fuel, a generator, lots of tables and chairs and several wheel barrows. We had flown a portable saw mill in there the week before as well.

Christmas 09 Part 2- Waterfall Hike

2009-12-31T16:55:00.000-08:00

After church last Sabbath, we had a little picnic lunch and then hiked up to a waterfall out of town about 10 miles near the Adventist high school. Roger and Carol Millist (director) and Brookes Payne (mechanic) hiked with us. It took about 1.5 hr each way at like 6000 feet, but of course my fit parents put us locals to shame and buzzed to the top. The water was cold, but my crazy parents jumped right in. They rock...it was cold water. I only went part way into the waterfall. It was quite steep at the end, but a bunch of adorable, local girls had steady feel on the mud with their flipflops and barefeet and helped us along the steep and slick parts. The scenery here is just stunning!

Christmas 2009 Part 1

2009-12-31T16:31:00.000-08:00

What a Christmas we have had!! My (Dalena's) parents came from Taiwan where they are missionaries. So, Annah had a special Christmas with her NiNi and GongGong (Chinese for Grandma and Grandpa) who brought her so many toys for Christmas and birthday (Jan. 7). Presents i

I started out by taking Dad to the market. Even after his world travels, I think he was surprised at how muddy, crowded and dirty it was. I tried to warn Mom and Dad that this is different than Taiwan...you have to be careful to lock your car and watch your money. Then Bennett took them to a grocery store. Dad went to make change for a large bill and he stashed the cash in his front pants pocket. A few aisles later, Dad slapped the sneaking into his front pocket and yelled "thief" and the unsuccessful guy was taken away. Probably for a better lesson in being more sneaky.

At church, the little kid's Bible Class got out early, so of course, Mom proceeded to read them Bible story books, then sing songs, and then act out Bible stories, which the kids absolutely LOVED. Go to our picasa site for pics and videos of Mom's impromptu teaching side shining forth. There's a link in the top right corner.

More to follow about our waterfall hike and beach adventures.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-05T18:50:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving was a time for us to miss our families and reflect on how God has bless us. We has a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with all the Adventist Aviation staff at our house.

Church in the Bush

2009-12-05T17:44:00.000-08:00

Last Sabbath we headed out to a village called Karamui for church and some baptisms. We had to fly for 20 min. and then hike for 45 min. So we loaded Annah up in her backpack carrier.

Bennett seemed to be a pied pier, collecting little followers as he went along, carrying Annah. She was quite a hit, with everyone trying to touch her hair and skin. She was a trooper and loved the attention.

This was a district-wide campmeeting with over 10 churches there, so the front stage held the speakers and mic and everyone else (maybe 200) sat on gunny sacks or whatever on the ground. Since we had hauled our guitar all the way out there, they made us to a special song too. Yikes! They honored us and gave us bilums (bags) woven with chicken feathers and down. They all sing with such gusto and enthusiasm and beautiful harmonies. After church, we all walked down the the river for the 63 baptisms. It was an amazing experience..so exciting to see so many choose Christ.

We were fed a feast afterwards of papaya, pineapple, boiled bannanas, greens, and rice. Annah ate everything in sight and chased the local village kids around. She thinks that every person under 4 foot is instantly her friend and they just love her friendliness. She'll just grab their hand adn walk around together.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! It's been fun learning the culture and see how God is working here in PNG.

2009-11-18T16:42:00.000-08:00

Hello again from the land that time forgot. I know these photos have been posted for awhile, but I apologize I am just getting to posting anything about them. I am very much enjoying the flying here. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get totally used to looking out and seeing some of the airstrips here. (I don’t know if you can exactly call them runways) These are some pictures of my first week of flying here. The airplane seems very capable. On some of the shorter flights where we don’t have to carry as much fuel we are carrying around 2400lbs of payload, that’s even with 2 pilots on. The normal seating configuration is for 8 in the back, but we can slide them all a bit closer together and get 2 more in for total 10 seats. And the back two are side by side so we have an extra seat belt between them for an 11th person. We flew a lot of church members back down to the southern coast after a campmeeting here and at one point had 11 people and 4 small children and all of there stuff. (Here if they are under 4 they can sit on there parents lap, we do weigh everyone though instead of using an average weight) In fact it seems the people are pretty light here, if we are carrying just passengers we will usually run out of space before weight. The Pod on the bottom of the plane is very helpful with getting everything on. We fly all sorts of interesting things.

Yesterday we flew several hospital beds and lots of wheel chairs and crutches and medical supplies out to the western border. A very intimidating strip that I will have to send photos of later. The hospital beds must have been donated or purchased from a hospital in a large city somewhere as they were pretty nice. I bet people will now want to go to the house sick (hospital) there now just to stay on the new beds that I’m sure are nicer than anything they had ever seen before.

Then last week we flew several portable saw mills out to different villages. My dad would have very much appreciated them. They were set up on a small trailer maybe 8 feet long and 4 ft wide. We just had them disassembled and were able to fit it in through the main door. We could just carry one at a time, but still pretty amazing. The longer rails that attach to it we just slid in from the back of the cargo pod. You can see in one the photos of us also carrying building supplies. You can see the medal roofing materials and bags of cement. Like I said we get to carry all sorts of bizarre things. On one flight I looked over at Bill (one of the other pilots here that has done most of my training) and I said what is that smell? “Lamb flaps” he says “and that they are supposed to be carried in the pod because they smell horrible.” And if you are like me you are thinking what are lamb flaps? Apparently they are the left over of the left over of lamb meat, probably a lot like what goes into hotdogs. But anyhow it was something that was ordered by they village to be sent out.

We have done several medical transport flights as well. It gets a little tricky because the plane will land and all of a sudden there are 50 people claiming to be very sick. So it takes a little discernment as to who is really sick or who is just trying to catch a free ride. We also do a lot of flying for the communities for hire. Many of the villages grow coffee or peanuts and we fly them out to market. Also the villages will save up there money and make a very big order of supply goods and we will fly them out to the villages. The idea is to not only earn a little money for our program but to ultimately have a positive interaction with the communities and provide an essential air service for them. We figure that if they have to work for it and pay a little for the valuable commercial service that we are helping them more than by giving them everything for free. And it does provide us with a way to interact and impact the communities in a positive way even if we have no church or missions there.

Well this blog has gotten a bit lengthy so I stop for now. I’m sure we will have lots to add as we continue our journey here in PNG. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and thoughts

Annah, Home, Market and More

2009-11-12T22:35:00.000-08:00

This is our new home. Annah is already saying “home” when we drive in to our driveway…..after opening the padlocked gate. There is space in the front and back yards to play. There is currently a PNG family with 3 kids living in the cement block room under our house. They were taking care of the property when the house was vacant. They have planted beautiful flowers and have a big garden. They are a wonderful Adventist family and the father works at the hangar during the day. They are building a house and planning to move out soon. We will still have a guard to stay in that lower room at night after the family moves out. Second picture is our front yard.

Annah, Lincoln, and Delilah are “reading” Annah’s book. They are part of the family that lives under our house. They have no books, so Annah likes to share hers. Their other kids are Able, 9 and Willa, 8.

Annah with her stroller in the yard. She loves to push it around and around the house. Thanks to our Hernando neighbor Brianna…never knew your little stroller gift would make it all around the world did you?

Poor Lincoln, Annah is so bossy to him and he always does what she tells him to do. She’ll say, “Come, hand” and make him hold her had for lap after lap around the house. Or make him push her in the stroller or on her handy-dandy new tricycle that Bonnie got her.

Poor Lincoln, Annah is so bossy to him and he always does what she tells him to do. She’ll say, “Come, hand” and make him hold her had for lap after lap around the house. Or make him push her in the stroller or on her handy-dandy new tricycle that Bonnie got her.

Annah making friends with the neighbor girl, Vernorah, who is 3 and loves to touch Annah’s hair and come over to play.

Annah is a big girl now and has been sleeping in a twin bed. It had a side rail already on from the last missionary family that had a 2 year old. She seems to really like it. I brought material to make curtains for Annah’s room.

For my Aussie friends, here is Annah eating…no, not just eating..licking the Marmite off the toast and asking for more. You GO GIRL!

Open Market- There are just piles of fresh produce that seem to go on forever. There are so many ladies selling the same thing for the same price. There are lots of yummy veggies, but the fruit isn’t so good because we are at 5,500 feet (don’t ask me how many meters that is.)

Annah wore her monkey leash and acquired lots of free food due to her cuteness. She stays with me very well and is fascinated by all the people and things going on.

ICE-CREAM-Annah eating a chocolate-covered banana ice-cream bar. Grandpa Dave should be proud. This was after a long day of shopping the outdoor market and all 5 of the stores to get kitchen stuff and food for the house. She was a trooper…especially since every where we go, everyone touches her face and hair.
Bennett gets a clothes hanging lesson from Bonnie. I think the nationals find it quite funny that Bennett helps out with home stuff, but I sure love it.

First Sabbath: We attended the Kabaiufa church which is the Seventh-Day Adventist church that is on the high school campus and is composed mostly of the students and faculty. It is in English. There are about 8 or so churches in Goroka but this one is about 15 min. out of town where the high school is located. The flowers around the church and the tons of flowers the pick for Sabbath are just gorgeous! Lots of gorgeous lilies and bulb flowers and bushy flowers.

Random:
The other Adventist Aviation Services folk working with us are:
Bill and Bonnie Norton-flew here in the past and are from the US.
Brooks and Susan Payne-Aircraft Mechanic, was at Andrews University, from the US
Roger and Carol- CEO, from Australia, lived in PNG many years as a pastor and pilot

They are all so welcoming and lovely friends and coworkers. We have already been over to visit and eat at their houses multiple times.

Internet: We don’t have internet at home yet. Dial up is available but quite expensive and slow, so we may try to get that soon. The hangar has high speed internet where we can do pictures, banking and email. So please don’t be upset if I haven’t emailed you. My parents haven’t even gotten a decent email. But because we don’t have a car, it’s made it difficult for me to get to internet access and Bennett’s been picked up and dropped off by Bill so he hasn’t had much internet time either. No flying is done on Sabbath-Saturday and then the employees can have one other day off. Bennett had Sunday off last week, so we spend a few hours at the hangar then.

Other Expats-Most expat (white) people that live here are here with a mission organization like New Tribes or JARS or MAF or other mission organizations that are not flying. The rest of the ex-pats are here with the coffee companies or natural resources companies: oil, coal, gold. There are many natural resources and this is such a beautiful country with mountains, beaches, waterfalls, cliffs, etc.

Some other expat ladies walk every morning at the National Sports Institute where it’s safe with many guards. I try to go at least 3x per week and we walk about 5 km/3 mi which is a great way for me go meet other ladies, have adult convo, while getting some exercise. Annah chills in her nifty 3-wheeled stroller on the grass track. Glad I didn’t bring the umbrella stroller…ya, wouldn’t have cut it.

Tues am-The expat ladies for all the denominations and companies get together at the Bird of Paradise Hotel and do crafts and order western food etc. There is a big pool and a kiddie pool (about 8 in deep) there. Annah spent the 2 hours happily in and out of the little pool with the other little girls there. She now calls everyone that is a small person a, “Friend.”

Next Week: Look for a flyin’ blog from Bennett who is loving the flying here and a blog about what we’ve discovered about the culture.

Our destination at last

2009-11-07T21:38:00.000-08:00

The flights went really pretty well. Dallas to L.A. then LA to Brisbane AU and then on to Port Morseby PNG. We were very excited when we went through customs and found all 11 of our checked bags had made the trip at the same pace we did. We had a good welcome, Roger Millist, who runs the program had flown down in the PAC 750 to meet us as soon as we got off the airplane. We got in around 1230 pm (that's GMT plus 10 or zulu plus 10) We hit the ground running. Roger had me lined up to head over to a clinic at 2pm to get my aviation medical done. Pretty interesting, probably one of the more thorough medicals I've had. I had some blood work done, and my first ekg test. I'm pretty sure my urine sample cup had been used a few times before me. The names written on the side and then market through was a pretty good give away. I figure this whole experience will really help with my obsessive compulive clean-germ worry syndrome. It went well and I walked away with my class 1 medical with everything ok. We got a little sleep monday night. We all ended up awake at 1a.m. Annah was ready to get up and get going, just a little confused about why it was so dark out. I figured it was a good time to do a little studying for my aviation tests I was scheduled to take that day.

Here's Annah and I doing a bit of studying at 1am. She was a little more alert than I was at that hour. The tests went well. Hopefully I'll have some local pilot cerificates sent our way this week.

We loaded the PAC up to the brim. We had all 11 of our checked bags plus a pretty good load of DHL stuff plus 5 people. This was Annahs first look at the plane. She was very excited. There aren't many pictures in this post of our attractive family member(Dalena) as it seems she is always running the camera. We finally launched for Goroka on Tuesday afternoon. It is very beautiful country. It was good to get into the pilot seat just a little. The airplane flies really well. If I can just get used to the Air traffic control services and how the airspace works I'll be doing good. And Annah, being just like her father was not happy to be anywhere but in the pilot seat. We had a nice flight on over to Goroka. The AAS (Adventist Aviation Services) team was all out and ready to give us a warm welcome when we arrived. It was good to finally arrive. Everyone made us feel very welcome. It was such a blessing that everything worked out and we made all of our connections and had all of our bags show up. And it was such a reasurrance to show to such a wonderful welcome to our new home and AAS family.

The Trip Beggins At Last

2009-11-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

We finally got loaded up and hit the road on Friday, October 30th. We pulled a trailer load of stuff over to our family's property in Texas for storage. We a had a short but nice visit with family there and then flew out of Dallas on Saturday evening. I thought we did pretty good, 9 checked bags and a lot of carry ons. We ended up checking two more in L.A. The poor ticket agent in Dallas looked pretty overwhelmed when we showed up. Amazingly we were able to check the bags all the way from Dallas to Port Morseby, Papua New Guinea.

We had a short stop in LAX before catching the long haul to Brisbane Ausrtalia on Quantas. We went out of Security and had a short visit with my brother Will and Louisa, a good friend of Dalena's. Will and Louisa brought Annah fun toys for the long plane ride. Louisa even brought us awesome haystacks and pumpkin bread and Annah an adorable backpack that she calls her "purse" and wants to wear everywhere. Will brought Bennett some of his sponsored shoes that we stuffed into our carry-ons somehow. Thanks guys! You rock!

6 days 'till go time

2009-10-25T18:49:00.000-07:00

Highlights this last week:

1) Fun lunch with Krista, Jim and neighbor friends
2) Lovely last lunch, walk and sundown worship with church friends after church Sat.
3) Neighborhood get-together in the beautiful, warm weather at Julie and Howard's hangar. Brianna pulling Annah around in the wagon for hours.
4) Mostly moved our in-laws, Bev and Dave into our house. They've kindly agreed to look after the place for awhile and we'll leave it for sale.
5) 5- 50 lb bags and 3- 70 lb bags packed yippee...what to pack for 4 years? No, only 1 year...we'll be back to visit in less than a year so we can get what we forgot.. ha ha.
6) Annah's bewildered face at the missing toys, highchair and rearranged house. Poor Baby!
She has no idea how many changes lay ahead.
7) My parents visiting from Taiwan last week! So fun!

I'll work on getting some pics posted. Please share this blog with anybody that may be interested. We're planning to share pics and stories when we arrive in PNG which I'm guessing will be more interesting reading.

13 days and the countdown has begun

2009-10-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

OK, so this is my first attempt and hopefully not last attempt at blogging. I always hated writing and have started and stopped a vast array of journals and diaries in an attempt to...I guess to try to like writing. We'll see how this goes.

13 days and counting until we depart for Papua New Guinea for THE SPENCER WALKABOUT. For those of you who are not familiar with the "other" forms of English. The British definition of a walkabout is a walking tour or an informal stroll. The Australian definitions are 1) a a brief, informal leave from work, taken by an Aborigine to wander the bush, visit relatives, or return to native life or 2) an absence from work.

The Spencer definition of a walkabout? Probably more of a flyabout in the bush.

Either way, we feel God has called us on a walkabout for him in Papua New Guinea. I like the idea of absense from work, but I have a feeling that God has a different work for us for the next 4 years. I pray that we will always be walking (or flying) in His shoes no matter where they take us.

LEAVING: late Oct. 31 (should we dress up in costumes?) Dallas to Las Angeles to Brisbane to Port Moresby and arrive on Monday Nov. 2 around noon. Bennnett will take all his tests for his flight certifications on Tuesday morning. Then the mission plane PAC 750 will fly us and our stuff to Goroka in the Eastern Highlands where we will be based.

Tonight our Memphis First Seventh-Day Adventist Church family had a special farewell time for us. God has blessed us with so many friends and family here that we will miss dearly. We appreciate all the prayers and support!

-Written by Dalena

Keep tuned for more updates.