Week of Oct.24th

This week's picture of the week is of Kim teaching her French II class.  This has been Kim's first opportunity to teach French.  She has really enjoyed having an outlet for her French degree, however she has found it a little bit difficult to teach French while trying to learn Tok Pisin.  From time to time she finds herself speaking a combination of French and Tok Pisin which her students find very funny.

Blessings,
 Jacob and Kim

Week of Oct. 17th

This week's picture of the week is of Jacob's water project.  The 1.5 meter diameter culverts Jacob has been waiting for finally arrived and he was able to get the end sections welded shut, essentially making the pipes into tanks.  He then was able to hire a national contractor named Jimmy to assemble and place the tanks.  The first tank was finished and placed on Wednesday, and the second was placed on Saturday.  (The picture is from Friday morning).  As you can see in the picture, the tanks are large, 1.5 meter diameter by 10 meters long and each weight over a ton.  The steel for the tanks is lowered by hand into the hole and then each piece needs to be cleaned, and all of the joints sealed with putty prior to bolting the sections together.  A 9-inch diameter PVC pipe with holes drilled in it is placed within each of the tanks (This pipe will collect water from the tanks and convey it to the pump).  Once the tanks were completed they were moved into their final resting position by hand.  (The second tank was placed down in the hole parallel to the first tank that is already in position in the photo).   Praise the Lord; no one was hurt during the construction and placement of the tanks.

Blessings,

Jacob and Kim

Week of Oct. 3rd.

After a week at Ukarumpa with Justin and Tammy we took them to the coastal city of Lae for two days and then flew fro Lae to West New Britain.  On West New Britain we stayed in a village house belonging to some translators we know who are working in Kilu Village.  West New Britain was a very major area in WWII in the Pacific and it is littered with plane and shipwrecks to this day. In addition, there is an active volcano a few miles inland from the house we were staying at.  While on West New Britain we had the opportunity to hike to the top of the volcano.  The hike was through the thick jungle and it took us 9 hours to complete.  We also had a chance to visit some plane wrecks.  One of the plane wrecks is a B-25 that had been specially configured for strafing Japanese ships.  West New Britain is also home to some of the world's best snorkeling, some say it beats the Great Barrier Reef, and we had the opportunity to do some snorkeling with turtles, sharks, barracuda, and countless other fishes and corals.  It was a very nice trip.  Attached is a picture of Kim and Tammy on our jungle hike to the volcano, and Jacob and Justin pretending to be pilot and co-pilot on the B-25.

Week of Sept.26th

Prior to Justin and Tammy coming to visit we had several of our national friends asking if we could take Justin and Tammy to their houses.  Obviously, there was only so much time, so we could not visit all of our friends, but were able to visit two of them.  On Saturday, we walked over to Bae' Village to visit Jacob's friend Steve and his family.  Steve was one of Jacob's guys on the water project and has become a good friend.  Bae' Village is a beautiful village full of very wonderful people.  It is a stark contrast to Ukarumpa Village in the fact that Ukarumpa Village has been attacked and burned twice in the last year and everyone is living in small shacks made from burnt out roofing iron.  Bae' Village is peaceful and the people live in grass huts.  Steve wanted to show us how to do a mumu so we could do one for our family when we got home, so he went through the whole procedure with us, explaining what and why he was doing each step.  Then while the mumu was cooking he walked us throughout the whole village, it was very nice.  At the end of the day Steve and his family presented us with necklaces and bilums.  Steve really took a liking to Justin and in addition to a bilum presented him with his own bow and four beautifully carved arrows.  Attached is a picture of the four of us with Steve's family.

Blessings,
Jacob and Kim

Week of Sept. 19th

You may have noticed that we have not sent out a picture of the week for the last three weeks.  That is because we have been out and about showing our siblings (Jacob's brother and Kim's sister) around PNG!  We were very excited to have Justin and Tammy come visit us.  We spent one week at Ukarumpa during which time Justin helped Jacob on his water project, and Tammy and Kim hung out and toured the clinic on center.  On Thursday our friend Enok from Ukarumpa Village invited us over to his house for a mumu (traditional PNG feast).  At the mumu we sat around and ate traditional PNG foods while sharing stories.  The people were very happy to have Justin and Tammy visiting PNG and Enok presented the four of us with bilums (traditional PNG bags).  One of Enoks friends, George, took a liking to Justin and at the end of the mumu feast stood up and took off his own bilum and presented it to Justin right then and there.  It was a great time with friends and family.  Here's a picture of the four of us with Enok's family.

Blessings,

Jacob and Kim

September 12th pict. of the week

This week's picture of the week is Kim with our friend Marjan (from Holland) at the Yopno Bible dedication.  Marjan arrived in Ukarumpa the same day that we did.  We have had numerous adventures with her, and have adopted her into our family.  (In Tok Pisin, she is our adopted Wantok).  Our next adventure with Marjan is another highlands Bible dedication in December.  Following the dedication will be a multi-day hike from the highlands jungle down to the coast with overnights in remote tribal villages, then a speed boat ride (on the ocean) to Lae, followed by either a plane or bus trip back to Ukarumpa....it should be quite an adventure!

Blessings,
Jacob and Kim

August 2010

Who knew a month could possibly go so fast?  In the first week in August, we had the opportunity to travel to a Bible dedication 28 years in the making.  The Yopno live at 7,000 feet in the heart of the rugged Finnisterre Mountain range.  Therre are no roads and no navigable rivers near the Yopno, the only way to the village is by airplane, and the runway has only been contructed in the last three years, prior to that it was hike-in only.  The dedication was on a weekend and we spent approximately 26 hours total in the village, but what a 26 hours it was!  The Yopno were excited to have God's word in their language in the form of a written Bible and Megavoice players.  We enjoyed watching the Jesus video (based on the book of Luke) in Tok Pisin with them the evening of the dedication.  (Most of the Yopno people had never even seen a movie before).  As more and more flaming torch carrying Yopno villagers arrived throughout the movie, the crowd swelled to the hundreds.  Any thought provoking moment in the life of Jesus portrayed by the film would bring a clicking sound emanating from the tongues of the many Yopno pressed in around us.  It was a blessing for us to witness.

Kim's school schedule has been very fluid this past term.  As the Branch Photographer, she missed the first week of school while covering the Molima Bible dedication.  Upon her arrival back to school, she was switched from tutoring two young girls to teaching a seventh grade Pre-algebra.  After 4 days of seventh grade Pre-algebra, she was switched again to teaching Digital Photography.  She is now teaching high school French and Digital Photography, both of which she enjoys very much.  She fills the rest of her day in with her photography job.

Jacob's water project is moving forward.  The hole is now complete.  Due to a large seam of coal (9 meters thick) encountered in the hole that has been leaching some form of petrol chemical, Jacob has redesigned the intake to ensure that contaminated ground water from the coal seam cannot infiltrate into the water collected from the river.  The redesign involved ordering large diameter pipes.  Jacob is now waiting for the pipes to arrive so he can continue the process of constructing the intake.

We are expecting visitors!  Kim's sister, Tammy, and Jacob's brother, Justin are planning to visit us for a few weeks in the middle of September.  We are super excited to have them visit.  We are planning a week in Ukarumpa for them to spend time seeing what we do and helping out as much as they can,  Tammy as a nurse and Justin as an engineer.  We have some friends here who are translators on the island of New Britain and they have offered to let the four of us stay at their village in their house and use their truck for free!  New Britain has some of the world's best snorkeling, is home to many WWII aircraft wrecks, and has an active volcano.  We are hopeful that it will be a fun adventure for Justin and Tammy.
Prayer Requests:

• Praise the Lord that the excavation portion of the water project was completed early.
• Praise the Lord Justin and Tammy will be visiting us in September.
• Please pray for Kim as she is juggling photography and school duties.
• Please pray that Jacob has continued wisdom while working on the water project.
• Please pray for Ukarumpa Center as raskol activity is once again on the rise.
• Pray that God will use our efforts here to advance Bible translation in Papua New Guinea.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!  
Jacob and Kim Brotzler