CALLED to Papua New Guinea

Teambuilding… Sunday afternoon was designated as a Missions Teambuilding/Low-Ropes Course time! All the missionaries gathered hesitantly in the Haus Win, waiting to see what sort of tortures awaited us. Typically, teambuilding activities require being put into awkward positions out of your comfort zone…and the undertakings we completed did not disappoint! Morgan Stephenson, who is a teambuilding/low-ropes expert, was the mastermind behind the afternoon’s activities. He broke us in slowly with a game of “alien tag.” One person is “it,” and then slowly builds onto themselves as they catch people…growing into a longer and larger version of “it.” My 6th grade student Lainie was the last survivor!  Run from Uncle Bill!! Morgan & Uncle Bill explaining the importance of working together! The winner! Wind in the Willows… Danielle Stephenson led us all in a trust-fall activity. We formed a small circle around the person in the middle and they fell forward, ba...

Since getting settled in here at Kudjip Station, I have expanded my leisure time hobbies (which initially was mostly yard beautification) to also include some time in the Field Maintenance workshop. Sometime in November, our neighbor, Adam Peterson (Missionary Jack of all Trades), had given us a beautifully crafted Adirondack porch chair, and challenged me to make a second just like it. Once the front path was completed, I decided it was time to take on Adam's challenge. The shop is just down the road from our house, and whenever I could find the door open, or get a hold of Adam's keys, I starting putting in regular time exercising my interest in wood craftsmanship. In my first few trips to the shop, like a kid in a candy store, I enthusiastically experimented with all the power tools, as well as the table saw, drop saws, and air compressor nail gun. With the measurements of Adam's porch chair in hand, I cut the necessary boards from the same scrap flooring Adam had us...

Shoulder to shoulder in our small two-prop plane, we watched the ordered fields of the Waghi Valley below slowly melt into untamed jungle mountains, which climbed to meet us in the clouds. I was one of six Kudjip Station men heading to the mountain retreat of Dusin for a week of rest, fellowship, and whatever adventures God might provide. The vista of green mountains ahead was not unfamiliar to me, as Rachel and I had retreated to Dusin during our first week in Papua New Guinea for cultural immersion. Now equipped with language fluency, entirely comfortable with Papuan cultural norms, and with an appetite for adventure, my heart soared to see the tiny green Dusin airstrip again. Our plane banked, and the airstrip rapidly filled our view as we bounced into the hillside landing. My companions for this trip were Adam Peterson, Jordan Thompson, Earl Hartwig, Morgan Stephenson, and Randy Goosens – all accomplished foremen in maintenance/construction, and without whom Kudjip Station co...