Table Tennis Championship for 2010

Sue says

The Christian Leaders' Training College grand final in table tennis for the year took place today. With papers due and quizzes being given, not too many students came to watch. Several of us enjoyed the diversion anyway.

In the above picture, you see Jeremiah, representing the Solomon Islands, playing the last game against David, representing Samoa. All three games were close, but in the end Jeremiah won.

Above you see our Dean of Studies, left, awarding Jeremiah his prize. Our Public Affairs Officer is on the right. Food is a popular prize. And since no restaurants are nearby, Jeremiah was give rice and mackerel for his wife to make a tasty dinner. His family will feast tonight!

Upgrade of Classroom Building Half-Complete

Jeff and Sue say:
Improvement of half the original classroom building has been going on for two weeks of last term and five weeks of this one. It looks like we will be able to move back in next week. What an improvement has been made!

The original classroom building had four classrooms with a small bookstore in the middle. In the above picture you can see the the old classrooms at the far end along with the old bookstore. The two classrooms on the near end are being refurbished. The new building will be wider than the old one. This additional width will provide space for a larger bookstore located at the near end of the building and two smaller tutorial rooms. To do this, both the interior and exterior of the old building was removed. In addition, most of the interior studs were taken out.  A new larger roof has been installed with ceilings underneath. This will keep the classrooms cooler

This picture is looking at the same side of the building from the old classrooms. You can see the nice new siding and coat of paint on the building, poles and walkway. More lighting has been added along the walkway and inside the classrooms.

This is the opposite side of the building. You can see that the old part of the building, on the left in this picture, is narrower. The wider building will have more spacious classrooms. In addition, we hope to have a computer room capable of supporting 32 computers. So wonderful!

Neither of us will teach this term in a new classroom, but we will be relieved to have the noise of floor sanding and hammering finished for a while. Classes have been meeting in a conference room, the library, on the stage in the auditorium and in another large meeting room.

The other two classrooms and the old bookstore in this building will probably be upgraded next year. We are thankful to volunteers from New Zealand and our own workmen for the fine new rooms that are ready to use.  

Closing Up Events

Sue says:

We're half way through the last term of the year. Graduation will take place in five weeks. Those will speed by full of closing up events.

One of our goals is to have all the students in our cell group over to our house for dinner. These guys on the right are the last group, the single guys. The two on the left plan to graduate. One asks God to use him as an evangelist among the people of PNG. The middle guy leads the youth in his settlement outside Port Moresby. The man on the right is an instructor at our CLTC Moresby center. He is getting more training at our Banz center.

We have an unusually large group of students, about fifty, graduating this year. The above students had just given their testimonies in chapel. At the time I took the picture, the faculty and student body were praying God would use them in His service after graduation.  

We faculty members interview the students in our cell group each term. We pray with them about their needs. The student pictured left had her need for school fees met by a member of one of our supporting churches. She will graduate soon. One of the possibilities she is considering for her future is nursing training.


A fun event that began in the last week is a table tennis tournament. The first round has a number of faculty members pitted against students. Jeff was so determined to take part, that he played left handed (because his right elbow is the one with the wound). He was a good sport even though he was eliminated in the first round (seen below). His wound is healing quite nicely, though.

What about your day jobs?

Jeff writes:

With all the posts dealing with hiking, infected elbows and poisonous snakes some of you may be wondering about whether we are still active in ministry here. We are.

I am currently teaching three courses: cell group leadership, discipleship and Colossians.

My students in the Colossian's class get to write a paper on what the Colossian heresy or syncretism was. We have spent the last week or so learning a lot about first century pagan religious practices and philosophical systems to try to shed some light on what problem Paul was addressing in the church. The study is particularly relevant to my students because they face similar issues in their cultures today. Just like the Colossian believers my students deal with the fearful reality of facing a hostile spirit world. Hopefully, our study will help them to hold fast to Christ to win these kind of battles.

Sue is reprising her History of Missions class. She has but eight weeks to cover the history of Christian missions from 33 AD to the present. She does a remarkable job combining lecture, student presentations, and missionary biographies to teach her course. It has been a stretching experience for her, and she has really grown in the process. Needless to say, I am proud of her.

Both Sue and I are cell group mentors. As such we are members of a student cell group. We participate with them in their meetings, and go out on ministry outreaches with them to a local village church.

My other duties include planning the graduating students' retreat, and I am in the process of ordering graduation regalia for some of the students. I recently became a member of the faculty executive team. As such I get to go to a meeting every other week and discuss and hopefully resolve academic matters.

My boss, who is the Dean of Studies, wants me to go through all of our course offerings to determine whether they are truly written at the college level or not. This last assignment is important because of our recent accreditation. We need to make sure that our courses meet not only our internal standards for excellence but  those of the larger academic community here in Papua New Guinea.

So as you can see we are both busy. Pray that we do all things well and that we do not grow weary in well doing.

Poisonous Snake Second Take

Jeff writes:

Dr. Addy from Rumginae in the Western Province of PNG does not think the snake I photographed on the Kokoda trek was a death adder. She thinks that it was a candoia carinata or Pacific Boa. She sent me this photo to show what a real death adder looks like. Note the triangular shaped head and the very small tail.

Daddio also left a comment to say that he thinks that it is a type of boa as well. He identified as a New Guinean ground boa. He supplied a link to the photo below.

Thanks for your timely responses.

I am inclined to agree. Although when I tell the story to my grandchildren, I will probably refer to the extremely rare maybe poisonous but who knows? New Guinea Pacific ground boa or something like that.

Elbow Update

Jeff writes:

Last Friday afternoon I was the happy beneficiary of much pain as Dr. Becky at Kudjip Nazarene hospital removed a bunch of green gunk from my infected elbow.

She took out a chunk of what she called necrotic (dead) tissue about 1.5 cm by 1 cm across and a full 1 cm deep. My once healthy flesh had been destroyed by the infection. By Sunday night the redness surrounding my elbow had subsided, and for the most part it appears that the infection is nearly gone. There is still some puss in the wound, but I am hoping and praying that I have turned the corner.

Right now I am taking a combination of 24 anti-biotic pills round the clock. In addition to the flu cloxicillin I had been given, Dr. B is having me take chloramphenciol. Lord willing with Dr. B's fine work, these drugs, and your prayers the elbow will heal.

A good friend of mine Dan, who is a veteran missionary in PNG, tells me that I am now officially a member of  "I have a hole in my body caused by a tropical infection missionary club."

Isn't God good?

PS The picture shows a cotton ball that we stuffed into the hole after being saturated with hydrogen peroxide and iodine. For those with stronger constitutions I can send you a photo of the hole without the cotton.

Prayer for Healing of Jeff's Arm

Jeff writes:

I fell hard on my right elbow during the Kokoda trek and basically shook it off and kept going.

However, for the last five days or so an infection has set in. I may have ground some dirt under the skin or something like that. (I don't think that I broke my elbow.)

Currently, I am being treated with a powerful antibiotic, one used to heal staph infections that cause boils. I am now into my third day of taking it, and the arm is still painful, achy, and swollen.

A veteran missionary tells me that these infections are not uncommon here and that they are curable. This was good news because early on as the swelling spread and the pain got worse I had visions of losing my arm.

Having said the above please pray that the infection will be eliminated so that I can return to full functionality. So far I have not had to miss teaching any classes, for which I am grateful.

Ministry Weekend

Jeff writes:

Last weekend our cell group went to a local church in a nearby village to minister. The students put on a wonderful program.

After being introduced by a church elder, they ran the service. We have a particularly talented cell group this year. The music was led by four members of the CLTC music ministry, all talented musicians. We taught the congregation a new song.

This was followed by a short drama about the "Good Samaritan." Guess who got to play the donkey? (Please no jokes about that role being perfect for me!)

Ezekiel (pictured above) preached on this story and emphasized the need to serve our neighbor, who in this story is actually one's sworn enemy. As a Papua New Guinean he could and did say things that a missionary would not be able to speak about. It was a powerful sermon, and he received many loud responses and an ovation at the end.

We left feeling that the Lord had been honored.

On to another matter ... the answer to our snake question is it appears we may have been right. It was a death adder. Our area leader Tom concurred with our identification. He said, "Glad you didn’t step on it. 2 or 3 a year die at Suabi (where he used to live) from death adder bites."

Frangipani in Bloom

Sue says:

Despite the drought, the frangipani trees are in bloom. There's a pink-blossomed one in our yard.

The flowers have a delicious, sweet smell. I wish I could include it as a "scratch and sniff." You can see the cow pasture behind our house and the pineapple plants in our garden are brown from lack of rain.

We did have a glorious downpour of rain almost all of last night. Our drinking water tank is full, for which we thank the Lord.  There are still a lot of clouds in the sky today. We ask the Lord to send more rain from them.

Where's a Herpetologist When You Need One?

Jeff writes:

We encountered three poisonous snakes on our Kokoda trek.

I was able to photograph this one. It does not look in good shape as I think part of its body has been smashed by a rock. Nevertheless, it should be pretty easy for some budding herpetologist (someone who studies reptiles and amphibians) to identify. If you think you know what it is, I would like to know because Sue and I have looked on the web and our best guess is some species of death adder.

Oh yes, there is a prize for the one who identifies the snake. The prize is you will get your first name published on our blog!

Kokoda Completed

Jeff writes:

Courage, Endurance, Mateship, Sacrifice ...

These four words are engraved on black granite stones at the Isurava Battlefield. They exemplify the spirit of the Australian soldiers who resisted a determined Japanese advance along the Kokoda Track during the second world war.

We, who completed the 96 km trek, were able to understand first hand what these words must have meant to those who fought along this precipitous jungle trail 68 years ago.

For me "Mateship" (or friendship) was at the center of our effort as we became for eight short days a family with a brief though intensely shared history. We endured difficult muddy root-choked ascents and descents, thunderstorms, and poisonous snakes. We enjoyed jungle flowers, sweeping vistas, clear mountain streams, the sounds of jungle birds, the sights of brilliantly colored butterflies, and the sweet harmonies of morning and evening worship songs sung by our porters. Most of all we experienced the joy of good humor, camaraderie, and fun as we ate, hiked, and camped together. These Aussies were a delightful bunch, and they all made me feel right at home.

All told there were seventeen of us who paid to walk the trek. We were supported by around 23 Melanesians, who served as guides, food porters, and as personal porters. Without them we would not have made it. My porter Bartz saved my bacon more than once. The photo below shows Bartz and me at the end of the trail.

It was a wonderful experience. There is too much to share on this blog, but when we meet again, I will be happy to bend your ear for a couple of hours ... that is if you are interested.

Thanks for all of you who prayed. Apart from some bruises and a pair of swollen feet I came through relatively unscathed. In fact no one in our party was seriously injured. We all made the hike from the youngest, who was eleven, to the oldest, me. God is good.