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