Getting to Know Different Groups

Sue writes:

These first few weeks of a new college year, besides preparing our lectures, we lecturers spend time getting to know small groups of students. There are ten men in our cell group, which meets weekly. This group will go out for ministry at a village church next week-end. In this week's meeting the students will be deciding what each person should prepare for the Saturday and Sunday outreach.

Also, Jeff and I are each getting to know three fifth-year students so we can mentor them in the process of writing their theses. They will work all year on this 10,000-word paper on a theological topic they consider important to their local church or denomination. Since this is our fourth year here, we already have some acquaintance with these scholars. That helps us get down to work with a little more understanding of their capabilities. We pray these papers really will bring biblical insight which will help the churches of Melanesian become even more relevant to their communities.
The cows in the background here are a group I like to watch in my spare time. They are pastured just over our back fence from time to time.

The group of flowers shown is blooming in our yard now. They remind me of a similar flower that grew in California. Those were all pink and called something like naked ladies. They had a stem about three feet long and reddish pink, without any leaves on it. Thus their name. Instead of all pink, these are white with a red stripe. I wanted to look the flower up on the internet, but our blocker of objectionable sites didn't think that was a good idea.

Jubilation!

Sue writes:

Good news has arrived! My visa and work permit were granted without any delay. This is a notable improvement over other times. We thank our team for praying, and our God for smoothing the way this time.

What do you-all think of the new look on our blog? Jeff updated our photo and added a feature for subscribing to our blog. It is my understanding that you would be notified of new posts on our blog.

The panorama you now see is the view from Vision Hill above our house at CLTC. The buildings left-center are the hatchery, college buildings and student housing. Just peeking out from the brow of the hill are several staff/faculty houses. To the right are the slaughter house and poultry buildings. It's lovely here with the mountains all around us!

Commencement Service

Jeff writes:

Last Sunday our principal Ezekiel Ivihi decided to open the new school year with a special commencement service. In the past years we did start the year with such a service, but in reality it was not truly different from any other church service with the exception that the principal delivered the message.
This year we had a full choir (with special shirts/blouses sewn for the occasion by several CLTC ladies), a sermon and the principal's message. It was a real event, and since Melanesians are more event-oriented than time-oriented (like most Europeans and their descendants), it was very meaningful. Each group involved knew its role, and things ran like clockwork.

We heard a powerful message from Romans 2 by Dr. Kofi Annan. He and his wife Faustina are here as guest lecturers from Ghana. Kofi is also director for Pioneer's Africa. There was much joyful singing, a couple of choir numbers, dedicatory prayer for all aspects of the college work, and followed by the principal's message. Afterwards the new students and the staff enjoyed light refreshments together.
For those of you wondering, the service started at 10:00 a.m (However, everyone was supposed to be there by 9:30.) It ended around 1:00 p.m. Now that is an EVENT!
God was certainly glorified, and we were charged up as well. It was a wonderful way to start the new school year. I hope this becomes a tradition.

Busyweek!

Sue says:

With the beginning of classes, changes of schedules, students still arriving, faculty meetings, everything changing, we may not post for a couple days. A further complication is the effects of the huge power surge have not yet been overcome with our computers, printers, surge protectors,... Jeff is getting lots of people in his office wanting him to fix things for them though he is no longer the IT guy. Please pray for us to respond to our situations in godly ways.

New Student Hospitality Night

Sue says:

It was fun to welcome six new students and their families to our home last night.

Our hospitality night was just to relax together a bit. We started with a mixer of the kind that gets each person asking the others questions about themselves. We found out one student can speak some Motu (a coastal language in PNG) and another has been to the US.In the picture above, we were enjoying a game of spoons together. The family sitting from the top to the right is from the Solomon Islands. The family at the bottom is from the Southern Highlands. The guy sitting in front of me is from Sepik province, and the one in the chair near him is from the Lae area. (You'll notice the people from the coast are feeling cold in the highlands. They still have their jackets on.) It's nice to have a group from a variety of locations like we did.

As with every social night at CLTC, we closed in prayer. The students were thankful that God helped them arrive at the college, and they were asking God to help them to adjust to their new surroundings and to understand English well enough to follow their lecturers and reading assignments. Classes start Monday!

New Student Orientation Begins

This week, the new students to CLTC have been learning the ins and outs of life at this college. Faculty members led devotions on 1 John. Today was Jeff's turn to do so.

Senior students moderated small-group discussions on the message John put in this epistle. Faculty members interviewed these students to find out if they have gotten settled well and to be sure they understand the way of salvation in Christ.


A visiting couple from Ghana has joined us for four weeks of guest lecturing. Kofi, the husband, will teach advanced students the book of Romans. Faustina, the wife, will instruct student wives in English. They are back by popular acclaim.

Tonight we will host our small group of new students and their families for a game night. It means a lot to those settling in to have a feeling of belonging in their new place. We hope to make them feel welcome tonight.

It just struck me that the new students we had over to our house the first year we were here are now the senior students who are showing others around. Time does indeed fly!

Beware of this Vegetable!

Some of you may have seen tapiok or cassava in an international grocery store.

We have enjoyed eating grated tapiok that other people have mixed with grated coconut and baked as a "cake" over hot stones. But some internet research taught me that cassava can be dangerous. The cyanide in its leaves, skin and tuber can cause paralysis.

As you can see in the top picture, cassava is a long, narrow tuber. The bushy leaves with red stems grow above the ground to a height of six feet. The tuber must be dug up.

In the next picture, you see how to skin the tuber. The skin comes off easily in one piece. After it is cooked, it has the consistency of a potato and a similar taste. Traditionally, it is eaten plain. We thought it tasted good with tomato sauce and other vegetables.

In PNG folks say about tapiok, "Em i swit ya!" (It tastes good.) Tapiok is good when prepared properly. For uninitiated people, it may be one vegetable just to look at and not eat without proper instruction.