Soon Gerolf and Mailis can move into their home

Look at the view Gerolf and Mailis will have from the front verandah of their home!

Gerolf watches the progress of the work with satisfaction.

The Dom believers are helping also

Philip who has been such a help to Jim over many years has been very involved in the construction.



The Dom men have helped with fencing Gerolf and Mailis's property.



A group of the men have also been digging the pit for the septic.





Some of the ladies came to inspect.

Showcasing some of the building team

I now have more photos which show the men working.  I am especially pleased to be able to show some of the men who have taken time out of their other ministries to provide a home for Gerolf and Mailis.

Chris works in our ICT department as part of the team who take care of the computer, internet and emailing needs of the whole field.  He took 2 two weeks out to work on this building team.  Thank you, Chris.

This is Bill, He is one of our leaders who gives oversight and direction to all our church planting missionaries.  He is also very skilled with his hands.  Thanks, Bill, for your contribution of 3 weeks to this project.

Here's Kevin our HTS co-worker.  Kevin was one of the first on-site.  He accompanied Tim the project co-ordinator and together they carried out the preparatory work and then continued on after the rest of the team arrived.  Bill has gone up to Dom this week to work alongside Kevin in order to see all the electrical work on the house finished.  A special thank you to Kevin.  I hope to have photos of Bill working to add after they return home at the end of this week.

Here I'd like to specially point out Tim up near the ridge.  Tim has given over 3 weeks to head up this project.  He is a skilled and experienced builder.  Not only has he taken time out of his ministry in our resource centre printing materials for our church plating teams but he also also take up has tools again in spite of his back problems.  A VERY BIG thank you to Tim.

In the photo you can also see Kevin and at the bottom Erwin from Germany and a Dom man whom I cannot recognise at this angle.  We have love having Erwin working alongside us for 3 months.

In this shot Kevin is doing one of the primary things we do in our HTS ministry ---- fitting the solar panels which will provide electricity for the home [MOST of the time, we hope].  Gerolf for whom the house is being built is up at the top on the ridge capping.

Fitting the solar charging controls inside the house

Before and After Pictures of Gerolf and Mailis' House

The block of ground with the previous building on it

After the Dom believers had cleared the land ready for the house to be built

The house structure completed but not finished inside

Progress report on Dom house building

Erwin

All of the building team except Erwin returned yesterday.  Erwin, Jim and Gerolf are continuing on and another team will go up later, I believe. 





Here are some pictures showing the progress before they left.

I call this the rainbow house.  They are using plywood from the house of former missionaries which was dismantled.

This view shows the verandah.

 

Pictures of Gimi Trip

Pictures from Gimi

I have received some photos from Gimi now which were taken by Erwin.  Here they are:

Josh and Bill heading across the tarmac with pilot Mike

Flying over Lapilo

On thehelipad

Heading down from the helipad

Here's the house -- 3 years since John and Lynne left

Everyone is so glad to see Lynne

Bring in the cargo

Erwin and Josh enjoy the mumu meal prepared by the believers to welcome Lynne

I wonder if that lady is one I taught to crotchet several years ago when I did a class at Lynne's request

On the way down to the guest house.  Beautiful PNG!

New house under construction

How's that for a ladder?

Someone's working on the roof

It's faithful Soma

The house from below showing the new steps cut by the believers leading down to the guest house where Josh and Fay and family are staying

Boys on the steps with their toy cars made of bush materials

Yes, it is very smart!

Flying over Sobega -- almost home

Approaching Goroka airstrip from the south

 

Lynne and Josh's family all set up in Gimi and Good progress being made on

Gerolf and Mailis' house in Dom

Bill returned safely on Thursday but sad to say with an intestinal wog which is causing diarrhoea, fogginess in the head and general discomfort.  He actually had it all the time he was in Gimi also.  I also am experiencing the same symptoms having started them about 24 hours after Bill did.

We received a request from one member of our prayer team for photos of the work Bill and the other two men did in Gimi with the help of some of the believing men there.  Unfortunately, I did not send our camera in  with Bill .  Erwin flew by fixed wing plane up to Kundiawa so that he can work in the Dom for several weeks on the construction of Gerolf and Mailis' house, immediately after arriving back in Goroka by helicopter.  I have emailed him to try to get pictures from him sent as email attachments from Dom and  also asked Josh if he can send me some as email attachments from Gimi.   When I have received them I will post them also.

The work on Gerolf and Mailis' house is going ahead by leaps and bounds.  You will remember that I told you in our New Year letter that the work would be starting as soon as possible.  Tim who used to be our builder and Kevin actually went up and started on the posts for the house on Friday 27th January.   Kevin has been sending photos using his smart phone of the progress on the work there.  

 

 This photo shows the work done by Tim and Kevin done before a larger team came and joined them at the beginning of this week. 

This photo was taken on day 3 and shows all the busy bees working away -- both missionary and Dom men.
 

 The house on the left is the Burdetts.  Praise the Lord, Gerolf and Mailis were able to get the piece of land right beside it.

A point of interest in this photo is that you can see garden beds belonging to one of the local villagers on the hillside behind the houses, on the opposite side of the valley.

This shows the progress by the end of day 4.
 

On the fifth day of construction [Thursday] it rained and so the team were unable to make further progress.
 

Gerolf has made several trips up in a large truck carrying building supplies and their personal belongings.  The most recent was on Friday and when we received word of their safe arrival after travelling over muddy, slick mountain roads, Mailis wrote, "The men worked without a lunchbreak until 3pm and got the corrugated roofing iron on! They are amazing! After they were done it started to rain, but now the rain won't stop them working since they can work under the roof."

Here is a picture showing the progress after the work which was done on Saturday.

 

Thank you all so much for your prayerful interest in what God is doing among the Highland people groups of PNG.

This was written on Wednesday evening  1st February.

Gimi jobs finished.  Bill and Erwin ready to return

Thank you so much for praying!  Thank you to those who sent a note also in response to my bulletin last night.

By lunch sched today the jobs in Gimi were finished.  Bill had found some scraps of lighting wire around and had been able to piece them together to rewire the guest house.  Tomorrow morning I have to send in a shower bucket and 4 fluorescent tubes from Josh to fit.

Unfortunately Josh and Lynne haven't quite mastered how to send and receive email using the modem and the radio yet.  Tonight Josh was going to go a bit higher up the ridge to the site of Soma's old house where Soma manages to connect to the Digicel network so that he could ring Chris Walker and get some more help.  Please pray about this so that they can have contact with the outside world via email.

An exciting piece of news is that Siri'o and Gibsen feel ready to believe the Lord that He will enable them to translate the Melanesian Pidgin  lessons for 2 Corinthians into the East Gimi language.  I have just now printed out 2 copies of the set of lessons and those will be going in tomorrow also for them to start working.

This report was written on Tuesday 31st January, but I haven't been able to post it until now.

Excellent progress getting Lynne White resettled in the Gimi

Bill, Erwin, Josh and Lynne flew by helicopter this morning to the village where John and Lynne lived in the Gimi. Lynne has returned on her own following John’s death from cancer six months ago. The Lord gave good weather and so they were able to get there by about 10 a.m.

They got the radio antenna up during the morning and so I was able to talk to Bill on the 12:45p.m. radio sched. I have now talked with both Bill and Lynne on this evening’s sched and learned they have made tremendous progress.

The water tanks for both Lynne’s house and the little guest house where Josh and his family will be living for the next six weeks had been disconnected. In fact the pipe to the main house had been snapped off right at the tank. The guys have replaced the pipes and so Lord willing water will collect from rain tonight. Water is leaking from the bottom of the tank and so it appears a hole has developed. The men have put a mixture of cement and ash into the tank which hopefully will seal up the leak.

The kerosene fridge in the guest house and the 12volt fridge in the main house are up and running.

Sad to say someone has ripped out all the electrical wiring and lights in the guest house. Thus I have to get together wire and send it in on the helicopter when it goes on Thursday to take Josh’s little family in and bring Bill and Erwin out. The bucket shower has also been stolen from that house and so I have to get a spare one from our workshop and send it in also.

Please pray for safety as they work on four major jobs tomorrow including refitting the solar panels.

The believers in the village cooked a mumu meal and served it at about 2 p.m. They will be overjoyed that Lynne has returned. She will not live full-time in the tribe. She’ll come out again after the six weeks and be at Sobega where she has been for almost two months thus far. However, she hopes to make more trips into the tribe in the future.