Youth Weekend

I have to say, that the SIL Encounter weekend was a wonderful experience. First of all, it was so GREAT to have a bunch of people on campus. (Could I BE any more of a "people-person"?!) I was so excited to be around youth again, but I'd forgotten how long it takes for kids to accept and trust you. I'm so used to my TLC kids back at Open Door coming up to talk to me, that I was a little disappointed at how hard it was to get these kids to open up. It made me miss my TLCers a TON! (I ♥ you guys!)
Anyway, on Sunday morning, one of the boys from the retreat decided that he wanted to get baptized. He went to the leaders to ask about it, and they started to tell him when the next "corporate" baptism was at church and he said "No no, I don't want to wait for that... I want to do it here, now!" The first thing I thought of was that when I got baptized, it was so important to me to have my family and friends all there... but that's not how it was done in the Bible. This situation reminded me of the eunuch in Acts, and it was so inspiring! He was just burning for Jesus! We don't have the facilities at ITF for baptizing, and the closest river is about a 35 minute drive. So we put a tarp in the back of a truck, filled it with water, and Izzy was baptized right there! WOW, it was so cool!On Monday evening, at about 9:30pm, I got a call "Nicky, we have another guy who wants to get baptized... can we use Emma's kiddie pool?" By the time they were all ready to go, a few more had decided they wanted to take the plunge as well. A dad who'd come along on the trip to help with security baptized both of his sons. In the end, 16 kids got baptized that night, for a total of 17 during their retreat! What a beautiful and exciting thing to see God at work in the lives of these teens!

In other, much less exciting news, things here have returned to normal. It is officially rainy season, so it rains every day - but not all day long - usually just in the afternoons. This is a very good thing for the villagers, who are thankful to have their gardens watered after an exceptionally long dry season. Everything has already become even more green... more lush and wild and beautiful.
Our ITF family continues to grow, and then shrink, and then change. We have 2 more Germans arriving on Tuesday - Tobi & Jonathan - who will be here for the next year.
Life continues to be an adventure. It's amazing how different my daily activities are here... how much my "routines" have changed. It still feels like a dream. I know that I will be changed forever because of this experience.

"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell."
- C.T. Studd

A day in the life...

Many of you have been asking me what my “typical day” looks like. HA! I’ve been at ITF for nearly 6 weeks now and have yet to experience a typical day. Honestly, my job title of Administrative Assistant is not really accurate. We are thinking of new title options for me. But it doesn’t matter, my job is to be a servant – so I do whatever needs to be done. For the last couple of days that includes such glamorous tasks as sweeping, dusting, moving bedding, organizing a workmeri calendar, getting a package ready to mail, making a sign for a garbage can, packing up curriculum, and yesterday I was conscripted to the Poop Patrol. We have 15 German Shepherd security dogs on campus, and we have a youth retreat descending upon us this weekend, so needed to clean up poo. Yuck! But it had to be done, and a group of us worked together on it.

Here’s what today looked like (remember – not a “typical” day, but probably typical of what a day before a conference might look like):

6:15 am– rise & shine! Throw on my “dog clothes”, start a pot of coffee, take care of the 2 dogs in my charge, have some breakfast, devotion time, respond to a couple of emails

8:00 am(ish) – head down to “the circle” (of cabins). Heath & I are in charge of logistical mattress moving and getting the beds ready for the conference. Here I am moving a mattress:

Here I am trying to communicate with and instruct the workmeris about what needs to be done… in all pigin. GAH! This was good for me because it forced me to use the language in every day life. They loved it! They told me that now I am a real Pisin Meri.

After mattress moving, I headed to the classroom to clean the Media Room. It was SO GROSS in there! Everything was covered in dust, dead bugs and gecko poop. So I dusted, tidied up, and vacuumed. As you can see, the vacuum did not work extremely well... It’s only morning, and I’m already covered in dirt and sweat!

Here is Andy cleaning out the cobwebs in the classroom (I'm glad that I didn't have that job!)

12:00 pm – Lunch *sigh of relief*. Usually Beth, Andy & I have lunch together on Beth’s porch, but because of our schedule we are having supper together instead. I have an hour to eat and relax a little bit… I used most of it to chat on line with friends back home! :o)

1:00pm – It’s thundering and started raining. Good thing we got those mattresses all moved this morning! Made new phone directories to post all over campus. Worked on Generator, school run, on-call & phone schedule for next week. (it stopped raining by the time I had to distribute the new phone lists). Emailed the dentist at Lapilo (my friends the Tiedjes – who I met at PFO) to make an appointment for Andy who has a terrible toothache.

3:00pm – time for more manual labor… met Andy & Heath in the classroom to set up and clean 120 chairs for the conference. Then went back to the office to send out some more emails (follow up emails to the ITF alumni), and try to arrange the dentist appointment again. Sent out final schedule for approval

5:15 pm – took a nice hot shower and got all cleaned up! Had some quiet time and did some reading.

6:30 pm – dinner at Beth’s. We had pork stir fry and fresh mango for dessert. This is the first time I’ve had the mango here, and it is DELISH! Could the fruit here be any more tasty?!

7:30 pm – headed to the Mixter’s house to play games with them. They have us (Beth, Andy & I) over to play games about once a week or so. They’re a fun couple that are the same age as I am, with a little girl named Adonai. Earlier this evening, Adi came knocking on my door to show me a huge moth she caught. Very cute!

I have such a lovely PNG family.

And now I’m back in my hut and about to get ready for bed. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?! I know it will be something totally different (as far as job duties anyway). I’m pretty excited for the retreat this weekend. It will be nice to have so many people on campus, and to work with Youth again.

"In the Kingdom of God service is not a stepping-stone to nobility: it is nobility, the only kind of nobility that is recognized."

Change

I haven't written in a little while because frankly, I was just going through a rough time. I felt guilty about it, because everyone is being so encouraging and supporting me here, but the reality is that sometimes it's HARD! I could list all of the things that I was struggling with, but it's not that important in the big scheme. Thankfully, my sister Robin & our friend Clifton helped me get of my funk by having me think about things that make me happy. They asked me to make a list of things I love here, rather than the things that I don't like, or the things I miss back home (or the people!) I thought you might like to see that list. It's not entirely complete, but here is what I have so far...

Things I love about PNG

1. The night sky (probably my favorite thing here)
2. The wispy fog on the mountains in the morning
3. fresh papaya, bananas & pineapple
4. the bougainvillea, pansies, & banana trees (the landscape in general!)
   
5. the way little girls run up and hold my hand or give me flowers
6. the way the nationals all wave & smile at me when we drive by or walk by. I'm like a celebrity!
7. time is so fluid. I rarely know what day it is, and am shocked to realize it's September.
8. relationships are the most important thing in this culture – which is perfect for me!
9. the kids chasing muna & giggling at twilight
10. finding creative ways to have fun during my free time (pie nights, pranks, eating bugs... whatever it takes to be silly and just have FUN)
11. volleyball on Saturdays
12. national ladies scooting close to me while we are sitting on the ground working our bilums. They are very touchy-feely, and it’s nice.
13. wearing skirts can be quite comfortable, especially since I wear them t-shirts and flip flops.
    
14. not really worrying about my hair or makeup or what I'll wear that day.
    
15. The simple life style all around!
16. The cool mornings & evenings, and the hot afternoons
17. watching the sunset over the mountains from my porch swing
18. hammock naps on the weekends
19. how generous the staff here is with each other. It’s really true – that sometimes the people who have the least are the most giving
20. the earthquakes - since they haven't cause any damage, they're just kind of amusing.
21. the silence. Usually the only thing you hear out here is the generator, birds, and people talking or laughing. No airplanes (occasionally we hear one, but it’s rare), sirens, traffic, church bells…etc.
22. the wind. There’s usually a really nice breeze. Seriously, the weather is PERFECT here.
23. the coffee!!!! And I get to enjoy this daily.
24. owning a machete. It’s practical, and just cool
25. eating kaukau fresh out of a mumu
26. being in an environment where everyone is passionate about serving God with their lives.
27. buying fresh fruit & veggies at the village market
28. seeing a baby in a bilum
29. have I mentioned being with the Nationals??? Their smiles and their warmth make everything better.
    
30. the smells – which may sound funny since the aroma around here is quite pungent. It smells like sweat, pigs, brush fires, smoke and even more unpleasant things. But PNG (the villages) has it’s own unique smell, and when I’m away from it too long, I actually miss it.
31. knowing that I am exactly where God wants me... serving Him, and serving others .