Flowers from New Zealand

The last few days I have been staying with my friend Lynn in Waxahachie, Texas. I decided to go visit some friends. Upon my return, Lynn convinced me to go into my room and make sure the dog hadn't done anything. Though I thought that was a bit strange, I walked in and to my surprise I found these...

...flowers from Alan. What a sweetie! The note read:

I wish I could give you some straight from New Zealand but this will have to do.

Much Love,
Alan T.

He's a keeper!

Talking to Scott

1 Peter 3: 15-16a

Always be prepared to give an answer 

to everyone who asks you to give the reason 

for the hope that you have.

This verse came to mind today when I thought back on my travels.

About a month ago some of my friends and I were talking about flying. One of us asked the question, “Do you talk to the person sitting next to you or do you try your best to ignore them?” I said I tried to talk to them, if they were interested. Some of my other friends said they don’t like talking because then you are stuck next to that person and they will expect to have a conversation with you the whole flight. I thought this was interesting but let it slide as we moved into another topic of discussion.

Well, the last few days have been days of travel. Mandy, my last roommate, is getting married a few days before Christmas, so I decided to attend the wedding and then spend Christmas with the fam. So on December 7^th, I flew from Ukarumpa to the capital, Port Moresby on the Kodiak owned by our mission. That same day, I took a Virgin Australia flight from Port Moresby to Brisbane, where Mandy and I  stayed overnight with some friends.

The following day I flew Qantas to Sydney, followed by my LONG flight from Sydney to LA (12 hours). This was not the end though. My last flight went from LA to Dallas, TX where I am currently. After 2 (or technically 3) days of flying…I’m exhausted!

Now that I have had some time to recuperate, my discussion with my friends came to mind again. Did I talk to someone on the plane(s)? Why?

In fact, I did talk to a guy on my first flight. His name was Scott and he works in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Australia. He was quite friendly and actually initiated the conversation. There was a little baby that cried for at least an hour and a half and she must have woken him up.

He asked, “What do you do?”

I said, “I am a teacher in PNG. I have lived there for nearly two years now.”

This spurred on many more questions. Why would I work in PNG? Why would I allow others to support me? Why wouldn’t I start up a company of my own to help the Papua new Guineans?

Then he found out I was dating and he asked more questions: Do you live together? What does he do? Why don’t you both start up a company and help the economy? You’d really save on plane tickets if you earning your own salary.

I answered the best that I could. I am always surprised when people ask me these kind of questions, mostly because I feel so strongly about the way I live my life and the way I interact with Alan. Although I am on the mission field, I am often working with other believers and with children. Explaining support raising to a believer is one thing…but explaining it to someone who lives there life to increase their income, retired early, and buy more toys, is quite a challenge.

But I tried. I explained how I raise support, how I live in PNG by faith - that God will continue to provide. I explained that I trust in God’s constant protection over my life and those around me. I explained that God put a desire in my heart to teach overseas and he enabled me to come to PNG.

You should have seen his eyes…

Somehow the conversation changed. He said, “I can see that you believe in God, you’re a Christian and I am too. I put my kids in a Christian school...well it's a Catholic school, but it's the same thing. So what do you think about Muslims?” I was confused how we got to this topic but I continued to listen. He went on about his frustrations, his confusion, and other things he was feeling. He shared a bit about his family and his job. He asked quite there was so much evil in the world. The whole time I was thinking, “Shouldn’t I be saying something?” and yet I continued to listen. Finally…he came to the heart issue, he believed there was something bigger out there, something that controlled the universe but didn’t really know what it was. He said he liked evidence, science, and to know how things work together. He needed facts not feelings. Something he could touch, he said. Then he stopped and I knew it was my turn. What do I say? He asked so many questions.

“Why do you believe there is something bigger out there?” I asked, feeling so inadequate.

The more he talked the more I realized he had a lot of questions. I assured him, when he asked what Christians believe about such-and-such, that I can only speak about what the Bible says and what I believe. I explained that the Bible gives hope, encourages love and relationship, believing the Bible and believing in God is a choice…it’s not forced upon anyone, it’s a gift.We talked about how God brings judgement when we die, he is the ultimate judge. But that means that everyone will be judged some day.

He went back to his topic of interest and I sat there a bit discouraged. Frustrated at myself for not having anything better to say. Then I thought about Alan. He would likely have encouraged Scott to go to the Fixed Point website http://www.fixed-point.org/ . So that’s what I did.That's really all the time we had.

After circling Brisbane, we finally landed. I said farewell and went through the terminal. There was so much I could have said and yet what is done is done. I am thankful for the opportunity to talk to Scott and I pray he will go to the website. Maybe something I said will stay on his mind and encourage him to search for himself.

We are not perfect people. We are tired, busy, selfish and lazy at times. I didn’t talk to everyone I sat next to on my last three flights. I tried with one lady but she wasn’t interested, I was tired and lazy for the long flight, and my final flight I couldn’t even keep my eyes open. I think God wants us to engage. Connect with the world around us, even if we stutter when we speak. Remember the reason for the hope that we have.

Giaman Market Trip

On Wednesday, Mandy and I wanted to go to market to take pictures. We didn’t have much desire to buy anything, seeing as we were leaving the country in two days, so we decided to recruit Alan. I called him and said, “Hey, want to go to market with us?”   He agreed, and we met him at his house.

When we saw him I said, “Hey, Alan, I have a new tok pisin word for you…giaman.” He looked at me funny and I explained that it meant to lie, to trick, something that is fake, or to be a conman.

We told him that we had no intention to buy anything at market but maybe he could give us his money and we could buy what he needed, while he took pictures of us. He was game, of course. Mandy started our venture. She proceeded to buy a pineapple while I was given the task of purchasing two bundles of rhubarb (Alan's favorite). 

Afterwards, we all bought donuts. Mandy said we should get some donuts before we left. We often get donuts on market days but this time we decided to buy them from two different ladies, to see which ones we like best. Alan got in on it and said he would buy from two other ladies, and then we could compare all four vendors. This of course got us thinking about doing a donut challenge.

We brought the donuts home and put them on four different plates. While I grabbed my camera Alan and Mandy proceeded to discuss where each set of donuts came from.

Then we taste tested them. We sorted and graded them by: density, do they have a smoky flavor, how much frosting do they have, and how much sugar each had.

The results are in, the lady at the first table on the left...wins!

You’ve got to enjoy the little things in life.

Recipe for Avocado Smoothie

Since you asked, here is the o-so-delicious smoothie!

2 bananas
1/2 large avocado (or 1 small avocado)
1/2 cup of milk
2-ish T. cocoa powder (adjust based on desired chocolatey-ness!)
sugar to taste

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Chocolate Banana Avocado Smoothie

Are you grossed out? Trust me...it's delicious! You can't even taste the avocado, it just makes is super smooth and healthy!

My roommate tried one a while ago and decided we should makes some ourselves. So we did! I'm a fan!

The other day I felt so posh with my chocolate banana avocado smoothie in my Tervis Tumbler. I walked into school with pride (even though I was wearing an old meri blaus and my poor hair hadn't been cut in a while) and decided I would play a joke on my friend Melissa. She had made a comment earlier about how strange the smoothie sounded. I walked into her classroom and said, "Hey, you should try my shake. It's chocolate!" She took a sip and said, "Wow, that's sweet!". I burst out laughing and said, "You just drank avocado". hahaha...I love it!

All I'm saying is, don't diss it till you try it!

Things that Amuse me

The things that amuse me right now are things that are often uncommon here in Papua New Guinea. Things that stand out from the norm and yet in the states they would be considered "the norm".

New White Socks

The other day I realized I was in need of a new pair of socks. My old ones were loosing their elasticity, they were dyed a brownish-yellow color like most of our clothes, and were wearing down. I pulled out my bag of never been used clothing and found some white socks. They were so soft, so white, and fit! I was so thrilled that I even called my roommate in to admire them. She responded just like me...with excitement. 

 

Brightly Colored Clothing

Clothing in this country fade quickly. They fade and stretch from being dried on a clothes line, from being worn each week and for so long. So when someone puts on a new shirt…especially a white one…we all stop and stare. A new couple came to center a few weeks ago and I found myself staring at them. They asked me what was up and I said, “Oh sorry…I’m not used to seeing bright colors.”

 Paved Walkway

Across the street from my house a building is being renovated. Part of the renovation was to put in a paved walkway. When they first put down the cement I just stood there and looked. We missionaries do a lot of staring and looking. I wanted to touch it! When most of your travel is done on dirt, grass and rocks…pavement is amusing. I laughed to myself and thought what is the point of paved walkways?

 iPad

I was introduced to an iPad this week and it, too, amused me. I would like to preface by stating I have never been a techy kind of girl. I can get around facebook, websites, blogs, and new online grading systems but I have never been up to date on new technology, nor have I had the funds to purchase new gadgets. I remember buying an iPod in 2010 and realized I was WAY behind the time. Honestly though, I am okay with that. Sometimes, and I know Alan would agree with me, new technology is not worth raving about and can even distract us from enjoying one another in person. It still amused me.

Olive Oil

Our store is small and carries what we need. On occasion it has additional things (such as Pringles and Pop Tarts ;) but rarely does it have more than one brand. Today I found three brands of Olive Oil. First of all, might I had, we have not have Olive Oil in the store for a month or so. Now, we have three brands. I didn’t know what to do with so many options!

 Sports Car

The other day during journaling time, one of my second grade students wrote about his dad’s new car that came on a ship. Curious, I asked him if it was a toy car. Missionaries often ship boxes to PNG with toys, clothes, and household items, but have also been known to ship vehicles. He told me that he and his friend had ridden to school in the car. A sports car in PNG, what a concept. But sure enough, I saw it drive by on Saturday. 

Meet Alan

                                                         The first picture I had of Alan T.

In July a new single guy, Alan Halbrooks, arrived in Ukarumpa. It was quite an event, though I doubt he realized it. We all knew he was coming because in church on Sunday morning his picture showed up on the power point along with when he intended to arrive and what he intended to do. When a normal singles gathering is one guy to ten girls, and often the male represented is quite a bit older, we were delighted to have a new member of The Crowd as we call our singles group.

Alan arrived a few days before school began in July and took on his classes as the 9^th and 10^th grade English teacher. Since he came during break, he was invited to many social events. I, for one, only have time to plan game nights or parties when I am not completely consumed in teaching. So we got to know him a bit through our gatherings.

The school year started up but I had grown curious of this blond haired-red bearded man with a jolly laugh. I had decided I wanted to get to know him better. With in a few weeks my roommate Mandy and I were spending lots of time with Alan and our friends Leah, Donna, and Brandy (yes all girls, but this is how it goes).

In an attempt to get to know his students on a more personal level, Alan would throw pancake dinners and invite his students to his house. Leah, Mandy, and I would go as chaperones and to hang out with each other. I don’t think I realized as the time how blessed I was going to be to get to know the teens in this way. I was also able to get to know Alan and Leah better and hear their heart for the Lord, for missions and for the youth here on center.

Over school break the four of us were invited to go on a trip to Lae with our friend Donna. We traveled in her Japanese fire truck, avoided potholes, shopped till we dropped, and filled ourselves with oh-so-delicious restaurant goodness. Our trip was very relaxing and also very telling. This guy that was quite intriguing to me had become my friend but on this trip he had become a bit more than that. I found myself attracted to him. I realized I was also passionate about the things he was passionate about. I found that he enjoyed being around me as much as I enjoyed his company. He has direction but not just for a job but to do something that matters and that brings glory to God, which seems to be a rarity these days. My mind began to spin. It's been a while since anyone has been interested in me.

The week following we spent quite a bit of time together, to my delight. We are both fond of tennis so this became a common pastime (though we did more talking and laughing than actual playing…so don’t bother challenge us to a match J). The last day of the week Alan asked me to be his girlfriend. I said yes…and giggled stupidly!

We have officially been dating now for seven weeks. Being the only single dating couple here on center we are the talk of the town, though things are calming down a bit. If you think of if please pray for our relationship, for our direction, and our ministry- that we will continue to devote ourselves to ministering to the children of Ukarumpa.

Here are some pictures. The top one was from our first date at the lovely Led Café, a family in Ukarumpa sells coffee and breakfast at their house on occasional Saturdays. The bottom one was snapped by a papua-ratzi during our annual Carnvial put on by the teens for the community.

Best Good Teacher

I received this letter from one of my second grade students today and thought I would share it with you. It is typed as she wrote it but I will put the correct words, for clarification, in parenthesis.

Dear miss Wolf,
       I Like you. you are my best teacher. and a good teacher and the best teacher and you are nice and I Like you'r haar (hair). I Like you the best you are the very best teacher. and very good teacher. you can teach me very meny (many) things. Love Lidy


Some things I learned:

#1 We need to review letter writing
#2 We need to review what makes a sentence
#3 I need to write my name on the board
#4 I am loved and apparently...I am the best, good teacher

So... What's the Plan?

Sometimes, weekend plans do not stick. For a person who likes to make plans, keep plans, and plan into the future (though I am puzzled how this need remains after spending 27 years of my life succumbed to the change of missionary life) this can be irritating. Amazingly, this time, it felt more like a choose-your-own-adventure book. Have you read one? They are some of my favorite books. At certain points in the book the author gives the reader two choices. Each choice will continue the story but will take it in a different direction. 

Plan #1: A Village Stay

A few weeks ago my friend, Leah,  wrote to my group of friends and asked if we would be interested in going to visit a village this weekend. We would be helping to show the Jesus Video in the language of the people, eat with them (bung kai kai), talk around the fire at night, and spend the night in the village. We all, excitedly, agreed to this plan.

A week later we were told that the missionary in charge of leading our expedition would no longer be available. The trip was postponed to after Christmas.

Plan # 2: Connect

On occasion, ladies from our community gather together, on a Saturday, to connect with each other and with God. This Saturday different activities were planned. After a word from one of the ladies we are given the opportunity to attend different classes. The classes this time ranged from hair-cutting to cake decorating to other things such as weigh room instruction and Korean food demos. Since my plans had been canceled I figured it would be fun to learn to decorate cakes! I wrote the lady in charge of this class and asked if there was a spot available for me. She said it was full but she could squeeze me in…because I was her friend. (It helps to be kind to folks, even if you don’t know them real well) I was happy with this new development and began to look forward to learning a new skill.

Plan #3: Hike to Lone Tree

I am a community group leader. Did you know that? A community group is the youth department’s name for a discipleship group. There are six, oh-so-lovely-and-energetic, eighth grade girls in my group. On Sunday nights, the teens, 7^th - 12^th , meet at the Teen Centre to worship, fellowship, and hear from a speaker. As a community group leader I am also encouraged to come and worship. During our community group time on Wednesday nights we discuss what happened at Soul Purpose and share with one another. 

Last week I felt a bit disconnected from my girls. Only seeing them twice a week was not enough time to really get to know them. One of my passions, other than teaching at the primary school, is to be invested in the lives of teens. Convicted by this, I decided that this Wednesday would be a “hang out” night rather than a deep conversation where we stare at one another. Trust is built in time and with relationship. We made pretzels and told stories. They enjoyed themselves and actually ended up sharing more than I had anticipated.

They also shared that their eighth grade class was going on a hike to Lone Tree. Lone Tree is outside our centre gate, about a two hour hike away. It is named “Lone Tree” because it used to be defined by just that…a lone tree, but now it is a row of trees cascading over a mountain top. They informed me that they were still in need of some adult sponsors. Thinking about my recent commitment to attend Connect, I declined their offer, which was retorted with many sighs. Before they left I told them that I would consider it, I would talk to a friend and see if he was interested in going, and get back to them. The last thing I asked was who was in charge of this sporadic event. Their response: an eighth grade boy.

The girls had asked me to be a sponsor on Wednesday. My boyfriend, Alan, was asked on Thursday. And somewhere in there they had asked a mother of one of my girls. The trip was intended to take place on Saturday. Did you see how I wrote intended? This plan, sadly, did not come to fruition. Now, do not hear me wrong, I am not against events planned by teenagers. I do feel, however, that often we adults do one of three things. I have seen adults not allow teens to try but also not help them. There are other adults who do everything for the teens. And lastly, I have seen adults who allow teens to lead and yet make themselves available to help think through each step.

My question to the first two groups of adults is: how are they going to learn if they aren’t given the chance to try or given the support to be successful?

Let me continue my story. On Friday afternoon I decided, as a sponsor/chaperone, I needed to know what Saturday looked like. I tracked down the boy in charge and asked him what the plan was. He informed me that we were leaving at ten o’clock, hiking, having a picnic, hiking, and returning around three o’clock. I then asked him who the sponsors were. He told me it would be me, Alan, and Mrs. Lenn. Knowing that three of us were unfamiliar with the trek I then asked: who knows the way. He informed me that he did. Again, I am neither against teen leadership nor teens taking initiative but I do have an issue when safety is not considered. I promptly informed him that he needed to find one if not two more male sponsors, who know the way, to go with us. I also did my best to remind him that in order for girls or women to leave centre we need a number of men to accompany us. If they were doing a youth event on centre the sponsors he had secured would be satisfactory.

He proceeded to look for sponsors but was unsuccessful. I’m sure we can do it another time.

Plan #4: Gummy Trip

Waking up on Saturday morning and cooking with Alan and my roommate Mandy, was not a bad beginning to my weekend. Different than what I had expected, sure, but not bad at all. Mandy and I take great joy in our PNG coffee with fresh cow’s milk. YUM! Alan proceeded to make a hardy meal of potatoes and eggs, which were quite delish!

Afterwards we took a walk and happened by our friend’s house, who lives close to the river. It had been raining heavily the previous night so the river was high and fast. Remembering that our friend had some gummies, or inner tubes, that could be used in the river, we decided to ask. Throwing us her keys, she gave us free access to her storage shed where we found just enough tubes for our newest idea…tubing down the Ba-e River. Excited about this sporadic venture, we rushed off to find others willing to join us. We successfully found seven teens of who quickly changed and followed our lead. Oh the bliss of jumping into a freezing cold, caramel colored river. We jumped in close to our friends house and climbed out at the main bridge. Surprisingly this was a longer trip than we had expected. After climbing the muddy bank up to the road we agreed to make the trip a second time.

So even though my first three plans for the weekend were repeatedly altered it was still fun and memorable for all.

There are Moments...

There are moments, as a teacher, where my students make me laugh and other moments where I feel like crying. Sometimes these moments can happen with in minutes of each other. When I was teaching in the North Carolina I would say, “Every day something happens to remind me why I am enjoy teaching and something else to remind me that I still have a long way to go.”

This past week I was teaching my second grade students how to improve their sentences. We began with a simple sentence:

            We are having fun.

I explained that this sentence is okay. It has a subject, an action, and is a complete sentence. We talked about how we can use “meatier” words to make the sentence more interesting and give the reader a better mental picture. We talked about how often readers ask questions such as: Where are you having fun? Who are you having fun with? What are you doing that is fun?

After modeling how to write an “okay” sentence, I modeled how to write a “good” and a “great” sentence. They were then left on their own to write an okay, a good and a great sentence. The ones I read and that were read out loud seemed to sound as though they understood the concept.

            We are having fun. (okay)

          We are having fun at the beach with my family. (good)

          My family is  having fun surfing on the waves at the beach. (great)

          We are having fun. (okay)

          We are having a lot of fun. (good)

          My brother and I are having a lot of fun at the store. (great)

And then I read these:

            We are having fun. (okay)

          We are really, really having fun. (good)

          We are having really, really, great, super fun. (great)

          We are having fun! (okay)

          We are having lots of fun! (good)

We are having lots and lots of fun with my friends at my house and we laugh until we cry! (great)

We are having fun. (okay)

We are having good good fun. (good)

We are having the best funnest fun ever from the whole world! (great)

This of course, made me laugh and sigh. I guess I will be teaching this concept again next week. 

Teaching

It occurred to me that many of you may not know what I do on the mission field and how that supports Bible Translation. Hopefully you will get a glimpse into my every day life...well at least the working side of things.

Tucked away in the valley of the Eastern Highlands lays Ukarumpa. We have two schools, a primary campus for prekindergarten- sixth grade, that is seconds away from my house, and a secondary campus for seventh-twelfth grade. I am currently working at Ukarumpa International School at the Primary Campus (UISPC). I am the Grade 2 teacher (that's second grade for all you Americans reading) and I love it! Last year I was co-teaching in the kindergarten classroom until I was asked if I would move up to second. It has taken a bit to adjust and I certainly do not know everything (or will I) but I continue to learn and appreciate where God has me for this time. Just a side note, does ANY teacher every REALLY know what they are teaching? I have not yet been blessed with having the same grade or curriculum for more than one year in a row, and this is my fifth year teaching. Every year I have either had to change schools, grades, or curriculum. It certainly keeps me on my toes.

Change is not uncommon at this school. Flexibility is a must. A couple came to visit a few days ago and a few of my teacher friends had dinner with them. They are recruiters for Wycliffe and they asked us this question: What do you like and dislike about teaching at UIS? We thought about this for a few seconds but none of us had any trouble thinking of something. We said: kids are excited to learn. Kids thank us for teaching them. Kids have two parents who love them, love the Lord, and work hard. Kids are disciplined at home and work to stay in touch with what is happening at school. Parents trust that their children are getting a good education. The cultural diversity of both teachers and students makes life interesting. There were many other responses but I won't continue.

Our responses to our dislikes varied a bit pending on the campus we work at. Being the only primary school teacher at the dinner table I mentioned the struggle with the village program. Let me just add here that preparing things for the village program takes a lot of time but I REALLY do enjoy the role I have in Bible Translation through preparing materials for village families. I will talk more about this later in my blog. I also said it is difficult to meet the needs of students who are coming from a wide variety of previous educational experiences.

This is what I am facing this year. Missionaries are encouraged to take furloughs (trips back to their passport countries after a certain amount of time to refresh, catch up with friends and supporters, or for a variety of other reasons) meaning their children are removed from our school system and are educated at home or in a school system in their home country. This year I have: six students who were here for 1st grade but not necessarily for Kindergarten, four students who are Papua New Guinean (they have been in our school system since prekindergarten, but English is not their first language so they are still working to catch up with their peers in some areas), four students who missed 1st grade here and were either home schooled or went to a school in their home country, three students who are new to this country and the school, and one child who has never been in a school setting before and who is new to the country. Can you see my struggle? How do I teach new materials when I am not sure what each of them has mastered the year before? I continue to struggle with this but thankfully it is getting easier as I get to know each child.

In addition to this, my classroom is constantly changing. When missionaries arrive they attend a Pacific Orientation Course (POC) in Madang Province. This  course introduces them to the culture, language, and climate of Papua New Guinea, and equips them with tools they need to survive on the mission field. These courses currently run in August and January. This means that the teachers are responsible for providing materials for students who attend POC. This year I have four students attending the August POC and one (as far as I know) attending the January POC. When we are informed of students who are going to POC or to the village we begin to make a "village bag". You can see in my picture above what all might be included in a "village bag". I make sure there is a folder with our curriculum map, weekly plans, student parents, lesson plans, math manipulatives, student workbooks, students readers, pencils, etc. Once everything is put together I make sure to meet with the parents to explain what I have put together and how it will, hopefully, make their teaching experience run smoothly. This is all done in addition to my normal teaching week.

Please don't read this and think I am asking for pity. I am writing to inform you of what all my job requires and also to show you that as a teacher, I am directly helping Bible translation. I am honored to be helping make a parents load lighter while they are living in the village. I also very much enjoy being able to encourage my students and their parents by speaking with them each day on the radio. When asked How do teachers help make your time in the village more bearable? one translation family replied:

" This (having a village program) made home-schooling so much easier, making Susan's load bearable when basic living was so much more difficult and time-consuming in the village. It also kept the kids on task with their class, making the transition back and forth between the village and Ukarumpa smooth and easy. Our kids looked forward to talking to their teachers and friends on the radio each week. Our kids' classes would be praying for them while they were in the village and would sometimes also sends notes of encouragement to them. All of these things helped our children to feel they were still part of the class, even when away from them.  When we are in Ukarumpa, having our kids in school frees Susan to concentrate on other work. We are often able to bring national men here and make progress on translation work and training."

I am honored to be able to assist parents who are translators in preparing materials for their children. 

Hopefully you have a better idea of how God is using me here in Papua New Guinea.

Next week I will share some oh so funny stories from my two little boys who are currently in their villages. Stay tuned!

Simple Luxuries

There is something about food that just comforts my heart! This blog post is all about the simple luxuries of food! My family jokes that you are not a Wulff if you don't like to eat, sleep, and laze around...I guess I am a "good Wulff". 

My first simple luxury is box of blueberry pop-tarts. To be completely honest I wouldn't buy these in the states, mostly because there are so many other options but this box was given to me for my birthday! What a great birthday present! Thank you Mark and Lynn! There is just something about having an easy breakfast that is full of sugar to warm my little Southern heart. 

Another simple luxury is making "concoctions" with my roommates. Every once in a while they turn out great! Our frappuccino out delicious. We took a picture and drank them slowly. I closed my eyes and put on some Jack Johnson and pretended we were at Starbucks. When I opened my eyes I asked if we wrote down  how we made them...nope. Oh well, maybe we will figure it out again but this moment will always be remembered. In addition to the frappuccino we added sweetened heavy whipping cream and chocolate shavings. What luxury! All you Ukarumpians who are reading this don't come knocking on our door...we don't remember how we made them! Sori tru.

One of my favorite lunch options is a packet of Indo Mie noodles. They are great! I love that they come with different season packets. As pathetic as this may sound, they always makes me smile. Well done Indo Mie! You make my day.

My last simple luxury for today is a strawberry milkshake with a dollop of whip cream. This milkshake seriously made me think of Chick-fil-A. Soon I will partake in your wonderful goodness, but until then I will mix my own strawberries, milk, and cream for a mouth full of happiness.

By far the best luxury, in my book, is Led Cafe. A family in our community graciously open their beautiful house on Saturday mornings from 8-11. They serve breakfast burritos with homemade sausage, scones, hot drinks and other delicious goodies. Yesterday I partook in the breakfast burrito and my favorite hot beverage...the latte! My first roommate, Joy Candee, introduced me to it and I have taken it upon myself to introduce it to others ever since. Led Cafe is also a great place for a date! :)

My current roommate, Mandy, and were talking yesterday and we remembered back to a weekend that we went "out for coffee" every day! Friday night we enjoyed coffee, dessert and games at the WA center with friends. Saturday we attended Led Cafe for our lattes. And Sunday we went to a neighbors for a cup a' and dessert. Take joy in the little things.

Hating on Yogurt

On my list of thing I miss about America, buying yogurt at a store is close to the top. It never occurred to me that I might have to make my own yogurt when I got to the mission field. The job of making yogurt is tedious and I literally hate it, so I thought I would share it with you. Tedious things make wonderful blog topics, right! This, of course, is just one way to make it. My friends make it in other ways but all of them are just as time consuming.

First you have to find a few clean jars about the same size. These are plentiful since we (missionaries) have a hard time getting rid of anything...even used wrapping paper. The jars and jar lids are then sterilized by pouring boiling water over them.

Now it's time to make the yogurt. Hopefully I remembered to keep the yogurt starter from my last batch. Some people open the first jar, take some yogurt out, and freeze it as the starter. This is what we would try to do. I have heard many clever ways to preserve yogurt starter (yes, we do talk about things like this on a regular basis). If you don't remember to keep the starter you have to beg some off a friend. If their starter is old your yogurt may be more sour than you are use to or not set properly. Taking the yogurt starter, I mix milk and water (checking the water temp because that makes a huge difference). The mixture is then poured into the jars (that have been emptied of the boiling water) and each jar is tightly sealed. If they are not tightly sealed then water will seep in creating a soupy mess. Trust me, it's really annoying to spend this much time and then realize you messed it all up because the jar tops weren't on tight enough.

The jars are then placed in a giant metal pot and water is poured to the top of the jar. This is actually trickier than it looks. The water has to be a certain temperature and, for some reason, I can NEVER get it just right. People have told me that the water has to be "dishwater hot" or "hot enough that you can still stand your hand being in it". What does that mean? When I was living in the village I was teased for having sensitive fingers and hands. They said this while pulling hot sweat potatoes out of the fire with their bear hands. I laughed and said, "Just because my hands/fingers still have feeling does not make them sensitive". All that to say, I rarely got the water to an adequate temperature.

Finally the pot is wrapped in thick heavy towels. I have heard of people putting the pot in the oven but this has never been practical for me. The heavy towels create an insulation for the pot. This then sits for many hours, often over night, so the yogurt can set. After all this work, hopefully you have four jars of yogurt. I was lucky if I could get yogurt that came out smooth and not clumpy. When I used this method it was often clumpy. Granted, it still tasted like yogurt, but what a pain. This is why I am hating on yogurt. This is also why I daydream about walking into a grocery store and buying 10 containers or yogurt!

A few weeks ago I was invited on a trip to Lae for vacation. Lae is a good size town in Papua New Guinea with stores, a swimming pool, and restaurants (and other things of course but these are the most appealing to me)! While there, I saw this EasiYo for sale and I had to get it. A YOGURT MAKER, HELLO! I brought it home with me and made a batch. This is what you do. First you sterilize the jar and red lid. Then you pour the mix packed (ahhh the convenience) in the jar with water to the top and shake. Finally you pour boiling water into the thermos, put the jar inside the thermos  and hours later...smooth and glorious yogurt! Forget the towels, temperatures and stress...I got an Easiyo!

Friends...enjoy your store bought yogurt. Eat it and think about me!

Thanksgiving Service in the village

The Thanksgiving Service

In 2009 the people living in the Ukarumpa Village (near our center) had some terrible things happen, resulting in many of their huts being burnt down and a few people being killed. During that time Ukarumpa Center assisted them, prayed with them, helped them in what ever way they could.

Last year Ukarumpa Village, out of thanks to the Lord and to our community for their assistant, brought a bunch of garden goods and gifts to our meeting house. We rejoiced together in the way the Lord had spared them and encouraged them during that time.

This year, on Sunday August 12^th, our community was invited to visit the village and have a joint Thanksgiving Service. Deciding to go, I packed my water, TP, bible, and hand sanitizer and walked out the door to find a rainy and dreary morning. My roommate and I went anyways, meeting other people from our community as we walked. On our way we came to a “bridge”. I say “bridge” because it is WELL worn. It must have been some kind of Car Bridge back in the day but today it is hardly a walking bridge. Many meters over the rushing river pay a bunch of wooden boards suspected half-hazard by chain tethers. On the wooden boards lay metal plates that could possibly have been used during World War II.

When we came closer to the bridge my roommate and I chose to wait for the group ahead to get across successfully. They were taking great caution where as we figured, if we walked across quickly we would not have to think about the rushing water, the extreme height, the wobbly bridge with no hand rails, and the slippery metal plates. As our friends crossed foot over foot more guests arrived and began talking about their fears of crossing. Finally we crossed and didn’t look back. Let me just add, this is not a bridge where you can look at your feet and not look down. Each metal plate has round holes all over it making your stomach churn.

On the other side we walked the half mile or so to the village and was greeted by smiling faces of villagers, employees, friends, and others from our community. After shaking hands we settled on a woven mat under a large blue tarp held up by smartly crafted bamboo poles. Time passed as more visitors and villagers joined the festivities. One older lady didn’t have a seat so I convinced her to share our mat with us. She was a sweet old lady, likely a grandmother of many in the village. She held my hand tight and talked about what was happening and pointed out each of her children and grandchildren.

The service began with singing. We sang songs in Tok Pisin, English, and the village language of Gazup (I didn’t sing but the village people did and it was beautiful.). How honored God must feel when his people join together as one and lift his name up. Our community children sang some songs and so did the village Sunday school class. The service was long but God honoring. At the end each village clan (family) brought garden items and gave them as a tithe/offering to the Lord. What a wonderful picture of giving of what you have. Even little children held a head of lettuce or some carrots to offer to the Lord.

I am grateful I was able to share this day of Thanksgiving with the people of Ukarumpa village and many from my community. Though I was not here during the events that preceded, I am grateful that I can participate in the thanksgiving of God’s provision and protection.

Would You Rather

On Wednesday I welcomed my students to their new classroom (we have a year round school system). I showed them around the classroom, explained the rules and behaviour system, showed them their desk and toured the campus. Since Kindergarten and First grade are on the other side of the school campus, we had to make sure they knew were the bathrooms were and so forth. Over break we made a big switcheroo. The second grade classroom was moved into the fifth grade, the fifth grade was moved to a spare classroom, and all our stuff was shifted. This way second grade would have more space for the age of the students.  The change threw students off the first day of school.

The first few days I try to get to know my students a bit. They usually tire quickly and need more breaks. So after working real hard on some phonics and writing assignments we took a break and did a “getting to know you” activity.

I took them to the back of the room and had them stand in the middle. I explained the rules of the game Would You Rather. The teachers had played this game the day before when we met together, so I thought it might be interesting to see how my second graders would respond to similar questions. I told them that they should move to the side that they would rather do/be, talk to the other people on that side, and then we would share.

The first question was: Would you rather have the ability to fly or to be invisible? They separated and began to talk. That was the fun part! I love hearing kids share with each other. When I was teaching Kindergarten this game would have never worked. Little children don’t know how to work together yet, or to discuss or reason as a team. Afterward they shared their answers. The children who would rather fly would like to be high in the air and go real fast. The children who would rather be invisible thought it would be fun to play tag and no one could find you.

Then I asked: Would you rather be really small or really big? Everyone went to the really small side. My favourite answer came from one of my out-of-the-box boys. He said that he wanted to be able to sit on a flies back! Gotta love kids and how their minds work.

My final question was this: Would you rather know about God but not tell anyone or not know about God and tell everyone? This one got them thinking. The majority of the kids moved to the side where they know about him but don’t share him. Four children went to the side where they don’t know about him, but still tell about him.

I asked the one side, “Why would you want to know about him but not tell anyone?”

One little girl said that sometimes people don’t want to hear about God and so they get mad and might even hurt you. Another child said that the Bible tells us to know about God and believe in him. One little boy said that if he knew about God then he could go to heaven.

I then asked the other group, “Why would you want to not know him but still tell people?” They thought about it for a bit and then they said, “God teaches that we should tell others about him.”

Then I began to ask questions. Doesn’t the Bible tell us to know him and make him known? If you don’t know Jesus but yet you are telling people about him, how do you know what you are telling is true? Are you being obedient if you keep the good news to yourself? Would you be leading people astray if you don’t really know what you are telling them?

We talked a little about how we are called to do both. If we know about God we are expected to tell others about him, even if they don’t want to hear, even if we will get hurt or laughed at. We talked a little about Paul and what his life was like.

I then told them that I would rather be in the middle: to know him and make him known to others.

What a wonderful teaching moment God gave me! I am excited to teach my eighteen little ones to go deep into God’s word and to watch their faith and understanding grow.

Bat Lasagna

Bat Lasagna

Today we celebrated my friend Melissa’s 26^th birthday with a fondue party! All 19 friends were asked to bring some item that can either be dipped in a cheese or chocolate fondue. With two AMAZING homemade fondue recipes simmering in crock-pots we gathered around two round tables each with a lazy-susan in the middle. Our stomachs were filled with delicious veggies, breads, fruits, and treats. This was defiantly my favourite party I have had so far! Thanks for giving us a reason to have fun Melissa!

Our table began to have some quite random conversations, which created a great amount of laughter. Of course when one table begins to laugh the other table listens up to see what is going on, but often not at the beginning of conversations. I bet you’ve done this before. So at one point one of the guests said that she remembers her mom only cooking lasagna for her and her siblings when someone had died. When our conversation ceased, a guy from the other table told a story about how he attended a village church and when the service was finished they killed a large amount of bats that had been flying around.

Someone from our table said, “I guess you could make lasagna”. Everyone at our table laughed and so did the other table. After a second I thought about it and realized that we were likely laughing for two different reasons. They were thinking of lasagna made with bat meat and we were thinking that something died so it’s cause to make lasagna.

After explaining why we were laughing we all realized that the idea of bat lasagna was not really that repulsive to any of us, since many of us have actually eaten bat! We laughed again and started telling stories of the challenges of eating bat meat.

Oh… the conversations that arise in Papua New Guinea Funny how our mindsets change with the experiences we have.

The Art of Cleaning Clothes

Yes, there is an art and pending on your “washing” situation it may differ a bit. Here is my experience with washing and drying clothes.

First of, I have to either, make sure I wash my clothes the night before and let them sit in my washer (nope, they don’t mold…cold here at night, mid to low 60’s or so) or wash them when I wake up. Since our washer is “newer” it only takes 45min-1 hour to wash a whole load, oh including the time it takes to fill it with water. Did I mention that the water comes from the river? J Thankfully our washer only shakes our house a little bit so my roommate and I are still able to have a decent conversation…well, if we shut the back door that is.

After the clothes are washed and spun I plunk them into a laundry basket and head to the clothes line behind our house. We share this with our neighbor (since we live in a duplex) so we technically only use two sides.

There is a running joke on the mission field that everyone knows what kind of underwear everyone wears because they are hanging up outside. Though very true, I decided I’d rather keep private as much as I can. I hang some shirts on the smaller part of the line. There are different ways to hang shirts, believe it or not. My roommate hangs them from the shoulders and I hang them from the base upside down.

Always aware that the first sight of rain means a race to pull everything off the line, I make every effort to beat the rain. I shoot for using less clothespins and hang things close together!

I then move to the second shortest line and hang a shirt or skirt on the end and then proceed to hang my undergarments, followed by another shirt or skirt on the end. 

The middle line is where I put the towels, pants, and jackets. That way when the wind blows them they will not hit the near by bushes. The outer lines are used for more shirt, shorts, and skirts.

Finally, if I am brave, I will lift the clothes line up higher, (because…peanut gallery… I had to lower it being a lady of 5feet 1 1/2 inches.) so the clothes can catch the wind. The other day it was brought to my attention that the hole near the crank is for oil. When oil is put inside, it allows the clothes line to spin around more easily. I pick up my basket, my bag of clothes pins, and walk away quietly praying for sun and the rain to stay away for a few hours.

I remember doing laundry in the village. We only brought a few pairs of clothes to begin with and even then we brought clothes that could make a few different outfits. When we were in great need of clothes we would take the dirty ones down to the river. Our village was fortunate enough to have a nice size river running right through it. We would fill one bucket with water from the river and bring it back over to the side. After transferring our clothes to the bucket of water we would then add some soap. With our hands we would stir the clothes in the soapy water and then choose an item to work on. We were taught to take the item to the river (with our skirts tucked into our shorts might I add. Sorry I don't have a picture for you), throw it on the water, and rub it between our hands. We would then get the items completely wet and then ring it out. If it was not “clean” enough we would do the whole process again. If an item was dirtier than the others it would get a scrub on the broken down tree that laid across the river. I quickly learned that scrubbing would wear my clothes down much quicker so determined that my clothes were "slightly" dirty.

After washing all of our clothing and putting them in the second bucket we would either bathe or return to the village. A clothes line had been assembled for us beside our village house where we hung our clothes. Since it hardly rained the whole five weeks in the village we were fortunate to have dry clothes by the end of the day.

That was the process we went through in the village (note: every village is different).

Hanging up clothes is an art, while driers are a luxury.

Courageous

I watched the movie Courageous tonight with my roommate. Of course, I cried. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. Afterwards my roommate and I were talking about our dads and how thankful we are to have them in our lives. They took the challenge and have continued to live their lives to bring glory to God. I can only hope that men of all ages will stand up, take charge of their family, and lead them the way that Lord desires. Not just because of a movie but because it’s the right thing and the only thing to do. The harder you work to build godly children the more likely they will grow up to be godly men and women, leaders of the next generation, godly moms and dads and spouses. I promise I’ll do my part as I teach them in school, as I am an aunt and an honorary aunt. Let’s be courageous together.

How to light a stove

I went over to a friend's house tonight to play games and some how we began talking about her stove. Since I do not have a picture of how terribly old and run down it is, I will do my best to describe it to you. Unlike our gas stove that lights when the flame hits the gas and is small and fairly new, hers take many steps to work properly. It is big and wide and in great need of repairs...or better yet, replaced. I will explain it to you in steps as she did so nicely. I told her, "I wish I had a video recording of these steps because then maybe someone would feel sorry for you and buy you a newer stove". Here goes:

1. First of all, the knobs are so old that they disintegrate so she bought some new knobs, which apparently do not fit. However, she still keeps them in a peanut jar beside the stove. When she wants to turn it on she has to place a smaller piece of the dial, add the new knob but it's not calibrated correctly so you have to line up the off mark on the knob to the on mark on the stove.
2. To turn the oven on she has to turn the knob to select the temperature but she can not be sure that is the actual temperature she will get.
3. Then she lights the match, being careful that the head of the match does not fly off and land in her hair, on her clothes, or on the floor (Go Paradise matches). Once the match is lit she has to quickly put it at the back of the stove on some sort of "holder".
4. After the match is in place and the temperature is set, she pulls a lever that is inside the stove. This allows the gas to come out.
5. Finally, and let me just say I had to laugh when she said this, she puts her head in the oven and she blows in order for the lit match to ignite the gas.
6. And let me add, if for some reason your match does not stay lit or your gas tank runs out repeat steps 1-5.

I feel sorry for my friend that this, unfortunately, has become normal to her. She was telling us this story with a straight face and we were all thinking, when do you say, "I am not putting up with more. I need a new stove.”

It seems as though the longer you are a missionary, the more you put up with that should really be changed. Sometimes we just need to tell someone in order to see how ridiculous something really is.

To my friend, I hope someone will see this as a problem that is dire need of change and help you out. If not, feel free to bake things at my house!