OE is done and I am home, PTL. Even though it has taken some adjustment, I am home and we are back together as a family once again. Janna and the kids seem to do well while I was away.
Eipomek is a village in the mountains of central Papua. This year it was the home of Outdoor Education which saw 82 people fly into the village and work on different projects, do kids clubs, and try to serve the local missionaries in any way that we could. We were there for 2 weeks living in rooms and going to the bathroom in the jungle. Our shower was the river and our food was made up of things that we had brought in and local foods. The local food included sweet potatos, white potatos, different types of vegetables, and of course pig meat. The first day there we bought a pig and butchered it for meat with our meals. Some of our students killed the pig and ground up the meat. So needless to say, this is what I would call "roughing it".
One other thing we were able to do was to hike into different surrounding villages for 4 days and 3 nights. This was a very interesting experience. Each leader was in charge of 9 students and so 9 students and I hiked for a while through the mountains to get to the village of Sarabom. There we stayed in a traditional hut with the people for 3 nights. I am sure that you can not even imagine what this is like. The huts are round with a fire in the middle and a penned up pig in the hut as well. Our 6 girls slept in this area with around 9 other women and the pig with the fire in the middle. The hut is no bigger than about 15 feet in diameter, so you can imagine how the girls slept. Women and men rarely sleep in the same place and it just so happened that our house had a mans area attached to the round hut. It was a rectangle that 5 men slept "comfortably" if by comfortably you think of basically sleeping touching each other the entire night. What a time of group bonding! Also on the mens side there was no fire place and at the altitude that we were at it gets cold during the night. After the 3 nights of bonding we returned to Eipomek to our regular rooms.
The last chapel that we had students shared about the things that they had learned and it was interesting to listen to the stories of how God was working in their lives.
Experience of a lifetime and I am happy to be home. Thank you God for answering prayers.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Outdoor Education coming...
Outdoor Education is fast approaching which means that I will be flying into the interior of Papua with the entire high school and Janna and the kids will be at home. Please pray for me during this time. It is not an easy thing on our family and on the stress levels here at the school.
Janna started preschool yesterday with 12 students now attending and it went well. Kaya really loves been in school. Jalen also started school again and now is in school the entire day. One of the mothers volunteered to take the afternoons so now 1st grade is going all day. We are glad for this as Jalen now has more time in school. Kaya however misses her big brother around the house to play with. The kids always wake up and play with their "pals" together before they come bounding into our room. Kaya the morning that Jalen went to school really missed that.
The high school is headed into Eipomek this year for outdoor education which is in the highlands. I will be leaving Sunday on a Cessena Caravan and Heading to a village called Bimay for the night with 16 students. Then early the next morning a plane called the Pilatus will take us into Eipomek where we need to kill and butcher our own pigs for food. We will then stay in Eipomek doing work projects for the first 5 or 6 days after which time we will be hiking into a village. There are 8 groups hiking into 8 different villages. We are hiking in the mountains where the trails are a bit crazy. Me and 9 students will then be staying in huts for 3 nights with the people and then hiking back out to Eipomek. We will then stay there for a couple of nights and then catch flights back out to Sentani. We try to serve the people and the missionaries in this area. We hope that we can bring the love of God to the people of Eipomek.
Talk to you again when I get home. Darren From Papua OUT!
Janna started preschool yesterday with 12 students now attending and it went well. Kaya really loves been in school. Jalen also started school again and now is in school the entire day. One of the mothers volunteered to take the afternoons so now 1st grade is going all day. We are glad for this as Jalen now has more time in school. Kaya however misses her big brother around the house to play with. The kids always wake up and play with their "pals" together before they come bounding into our room. Kaya the morning that Jalen went to school really missed that.
The high school is headed into Eipomek this year for outdoor education which is in the highlands. I will be leaving Sunday on a Cessena Caravan and Heading to a village called Bimay for the night with 16 students. Then early the next morning a plane called the Pilatus will take us into Eipomek where we need to kill and butcher our own pigs for food. We will then stay in Eipomek doing work projects for the first 5 or 6 days after which time we will be hiking into a village. There are 8 groups hiking into 8 different villages. We are hiking in the mountains where the trails are a bit crazy. Me and 9 students will then be staying in huts for 3 nights with the people and then hiking back out to Eipomek. We will then stay there for a couple of nights and then catch flights back out to Sentani. We try to serve the people and the missionaries in this area. We hope that we can bring the love of God to the people of Eipomek.
Talk to you again when I get home. Darren From Papua OUT!
Monday, January 14, 2008
Janna feeling better...
Janna is feeling better from her case of dengue fever. Praise the Lord!
Well today was the first day back at school for the teachers. Wow that is a wake up call! I am currently at the school trying to figure everything out for the upcoming semester. Here is how it is shaping up. Joan (the english teacher) and I are trying to plan the 2 week OutDoor Education trip that the high school is doing. I am currently coaching 2 different Basketball teams, one in Indonesian and one in English. I am also still acting as the athletic director and trying to arrange all the games and tournaments. Okay all that to say it is going to be one hectic semester. Please pray that Janna and the kids have patience with the schedule that we are keeping.
Janna is going to continue to teach the preschool which has now ballooned to 12 students. Also working hard at home and helping out with some school things when she can.
Jalen is going to be attending school all day everyday this semester as the school has found another person to look after the 1st graders in the afternoons.
Lord give us energy to not miss the opportunities presented to us even though we are busy in life.
Well today was the first day back at school for the teachers. Wow that is a wake up call! I am currently at the school trying to figure everything out for the upcoming semester. Here is how it is shaping up. Joan (the english teacher) and I are trying to plan the 2 week OutDoor Education trip that the high school is doing. I am currently coaching 2 different Basketball teams, one in Indonesian and one in English. I am also still acting as the athletic director and trying to arrange all the games and tournaments. Okay all that to say it is going to be one hectic semester. Please pray that Janna and the kids have patience with the schedule that we are keeping.
Janna is going to continue to teach the preschool which has now ballooned to 12 students. Also working hard at home and helping out with some school things when she can.
Jalen is going to be attending school all day everyday this semester as the school has found another person to look after the 1st graders in the afternoons.
Lord give us energy to not miss the opportunities presented to us even though we are busy in life.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
2008...
2008 has come in like a bang! Bball, school, kids, beach, good times.
I must start off this blog by talking about the sermon that we heard yesterday. It is so interesting that he spoke on something that I have been thinking about lately, and actually talked to my parents on the phone about the other day. The whole concept that God is in control of everything and everything belongs to Him. The pastor talked about how this year we need to continue to go further in FAITH. Whatever happens this year God knows. He talked about giving over everything to Him again. Who do we want standing beside us? Someone who hesitates in battle or someone willing to fight the battle. We all want someone who is willing to die beside us in battle and we must battle against sin and evil like that. Would you rather die sitting around waiting to die or fighting for Christ?
Powerful stuff. The pastor told a story about how his eyesite is failing because of 20 years of malaria medicine. Basically his eyes have been damaged by the medicine. He got it checked and the doctors were amazed that he was still able to see. The specialist told him that he should lose both his eyes completly in the next little while. The pastor said he just sat there saying okay. The specialist repeated himself, you will lose your eyesite! Okay the pastor replied. Until the specialist was mad because of his reaction. The pastor then calmly explained how his body, his possesions, everything belonged to Christ and if Christ wanted to use him without his eyesite so be it. Powerful! He said if he could gauge out one eye to save Papua wouldn't that be a cheap price.
Thinking differently than the "world" thinks, what a concept. Why do we as Christians need constant reminding of this. If all of us were willing to die for Christ and lived each day of our lives with that mindset. All fear would be gone. Fear of meeting someone new, fear of speaking a different language, fear of evangelism, ... (My list goes on for a while). I know that when I step past that fear out here in Papua amazing things happen. Lord take the doubt away.
Wow that was a bit more of an intro than I expected to write in this blog. Christmas was great, we had a bunch of our Indonesian friends over and had a blast. Eating, jumping, playing games,... We continue to look for opportunities that God gives us to serve.
2008 how are we going live???
I must start off this blog by talking about the sermon that we heard yesterday. It is so interesting that he spoke on something that I have been thinking about lately, and actually talked to my parents on the phone about the other day. The whole concept that God is in control of everything and everything belongs to Him. The pastor talked about how this year we need to continue to go further in FAITH. Whatever happens this year God knows. He talked about giving over everything to Him again. Who do we want standing beside us? Someone who hesitates in battle or someone willing to fight the battle. We all want someone who is willing to die beside us in battle and we must battle against sin and evil like that. Would you rather die sitting around waiting to die or fighting for Christ?
Powerful stuff. The pastor told a story about how his eyesite is failing because of 20 years of malaria medicine. Basically his eyes have been damaged by the medicine. He got it checked and the doctors were amazed that he was still able to see. The specialist told him that he should lose both his eyes completly in the next little while. The pastor said he just sat there saying okay. The specialist repeated himself, you will lose your eyesite! Okay the pastor replied. Until the specialist was mad because of his reaction. The pastor then calmly explained how his body, his possesions, everything belonged to Christ and if Christ wanted to use him without his eyesite so be it. Powerful! He said if he could gauge out one eye to save Papua wouldn't that be a cheap price.
Thinking differently than the "world" thinks, what a concept. Why do we as Christians need constant reminding of this. If all of us were willing to die for Christ and lived each day of our lives with that mindset. All fear would be gone. Fear of meeting someone new, fear of speaking a different language, fear of evangelism, ... (My list goes on for a while). I know that when I step past that fear out here in Papua amazing things happen. Lord take the doubt away.
Wow that was a bit more of an intro than I expected to write in this blog. Christmas was great, we had a bunch of our Indonesian friends over and had a blast. Eating, jumping, playing games,... We continue to look for opportunities that God gives us to serve.
2008 how are we going live???
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