Final Photos: House C

Some amazing team work came together 

to finish these houses here at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital and Mission Station. 

Thank you also to the Nazarene Hospital Foundation out of Medford, OR, for the shipping of supplies to help furnish the houses.

Here is a look at House C

House C

2nd Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Closet

Bathroom

3rd Bedroom Closet

Dining Room

Kitchen

Kitchen Eating Bar/Dining Room

Laundry Room

Entry 

Living Room

Pantry

Each house is just a little bit different. Watch for the next update on House B, soon to be finished.

New Doctors Housing at Kudjip Nazarene Mission Station

We arrived in PNG mid April to find that Adam’s first big project was to take over the new doctor housing project, which was in mid swing. The hospital was building three new houses to accommodate prospective doctors coming on a more long term basis. We seem to have a real housing crunch here in at Kudjip, for both national staff and missionaries, the new houses are to be a great asset. 

May brought exterior painting and a great
Work & Witness Team to help.

Adam took over the position of supervisor on the
doctor houses as interior painting began.

When Adam took over the project there were about 15 national carpenters busily working on the interior walls. Adam oversaw the project from interior walls to a finished product. He worked with two Work & Witness Teams on the project and really had the opportunity to build his leadership skills as he worked along side the carpenters day in and day out. It was a great learning process and an opportunity to learn how to “build” an american style structure in Papua New Guinea.

In August, finish work started on the exterior.

As we speak, the last house is being cleaned and set up. We have a young doctor and his family moving into House C at the beginning of January and a visiting family staying in House B for Christmas. Though the project was a bit trying at times, it is a blessing to see a finished product and know that as one doctor leaves, perfect timing has played itself out for another doctor to come and have a home for his family.

Adam even got a chance to showcase his artistic metal work skills
with a custom railing on House A and B.

We had a local mission, EBC, come to help finish the kwila
floors, the finished product is really beautiful.

Our prayer is that these houses will be a blessing by providing more housing here at Kudjip. In return, we hope it will bring in missionary doctors to help with the continuous need at the hospital. 

Continue to pray with us as future doctors answer the call to serve at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital and Mission Station in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.

House C

Look for three follow-up blogs highlighting each individual house in it’s finished state.

Hurried Life...

“If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, 

you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction 

and it’s not so bad.” ~ C.S. Lewis

This past month has been one of ups and downs, physically and emotional. I posted on Facebook that out of these trials came an opportunity to draw closer to God, a time to “get my attention” and refocus it back to Him. 

Sometimes it seems that I’m no different than a toddler. I find that once again God is having to repeat Himself to me. I thought we were past this? I thought we had this handled? But no, just like a small child, He has to tell me again, “Slow Down!” Funny how I thought to myself that moving 7,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean would some how slow life down. But, it seems that God is still tending to find me caught up in the to do’s of daily life; where rest only comes at the end of the day, that moment when my head hits the pillow. Too busy for God, but busy raising kids Gods way. Too busy for God, but busy nurturing my marriage. Too busy for God, but busy serving in missions overseas. All great things, but too many excuses, none good enough.

So, through divine inspiration and a friendly conversation, God is now leading me on a journey that my hurried soul needs. I am journeying through the book, One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp. I’m finding it a sometimes painful journey (as my eyes are opened to the truth), but none the less exactly where I need to be in this season. 

As of today, I finished the chapter called, A Sanctuary of Time. Imagine that! I revel in how perfect Gods timing and correction can be. But, as for painful, let me sum it up for you in a quote by Evelyn Underhill, 

“On every level of life, from housework to heights of prayer, in all judgement and efforts to get things done, hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur.” 

Ouch! At times...that is exactly me, an amateur. The hurry to get things done. Amateur; incompetent, inept, unskillful, clumsy. Well, I like to think of myself as the opposite of all of those things; I can cook, cloth diaper, keep house, manage a family, school my children, keep a garden, wash the laundry...and I can do it in record time, always able to squeeze in just one more thing; life as a housewife, I think I’m quite skilled. And, maybe so, but I think I’ve missed the big picture once again. Mark Buchanan in the book, The Rest of God, sums it up, 

“Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I’ve ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands lie in the wake of all the rushing...Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away.”  

So, in fact, the very things that I am “skilled” at have made me an amateur at life. Life; the things in front of me today, the things that matter, the moments that make you stop and thank our Creator for His Grace. Amateur, yes, I am an expert at hurry and impatience, but unskilled at relishing life. Why didn’t I see it before? “We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing around ends in nothing.” (Psalm 39:6) Nothing...

So, the question must be asked, “What am I doing about it?”. You can’t have change without action. In the first few chapters of Ann’s book, she talks about being present, thanking God in all things, finding an attitude of gratitude in the seemingly insignificant. One question she asked hit home, “When did I stop thinking life was dessert?” Enjoying every morsel, bite by bite? I must see the seemingly insignificant moments, the every day moments, as dessert. I must stop my hurried pace in those moments and thank God for them, name them, say them, point them out.

This book, this challenge, to live right where you are, indeed a lofty goal. I am taking this moment by moment, for there is much more work for God to do, so many more details to work out. Yet, as I stop to thank God for the little moments, He is certainly showing me how He can multiply my time. He is showing me that in the hurried pace I loose so much, so many “dessert” moments, the little things that will one day be just memories.

Whether a first “meow” for a babbling one year old, a warm gooey chocolate chip cookie in the stillness of the evening, or the simple twinkle of Christmas lights atop a tree, I will stop, slow down, savor, and thank God for the tasty morsels in my life. I’m certainly not all there yet, but I’m consciously working on it...

And yet, there are seven more chapters to go on just this one journey...

Blessings,

Stephanie

“I will not desecrate this moment with ignorant hurry or sordid ingratitude. 

I will be Jacob, and I will name this moment the “house of God” (Genesis 28:19).” 

One Thousand Gifts, pp. 70

Big Boats, Little Boats, Rusty Boats...

Must stem from years working in a boat yard, seems as if everywhere we go Adam is snapping pictures of boats. 

Jerry and Doug, Yaquina Boat, this ones for you!

There's another one...

The back of the "commercial" fishing boat Adam went on in Tonga

Boat pic's taken on Adam's journey to Tonga.

Adam's Trip To Tonga

At the beginning of August Adam got to spend two weeks in Tonga, a small island in the south pacific. He joined up with a Work & Witness team from our home church, NewportNaz, to work on staff housing for the Mango Tree Respite Center.

From a crazy "commercial" fishing trip to amazing Tongan style worship, he had quite the blessed time. They were able to get the building about 60% completed, from concrete slab to rafters. Adam enjoyed being able to visit and catch up with our friends and mentors. They all worked hard and once again made NewportNaz proud, as you can see in the pictures below! 

Adam has been blessed this summer to have one of the MK High Schoolers from here on station, Josiah Radcliffe, as his right hand man on the job site. He was a big help in getting the 3 doctors houses to where they are today. Josiah was able to go to Tonga with Adam. I was very thankful Adam had a travel buddy and I know they both had an amazing experience.  

Adam and Josiah

To read more about NewportNaz in Tonga check out the Asia Pacific Website at: www.asiapacificnazarene.org/news/work-and-witness-team-from-oregon-touches-lives-in-tonga/

“Where have you come from? Where are you going?”

I just spent the last 48 minutes relishing voices from home. Voices of fellow Nazarene Missionaries, serving God in Spain. You see it has been a very rare thing to be able to download sermons from home during our time here in Papua New Guinea and this afternoon I found luck on my side as the power stayed on for six hours in a row in order to download Josh and Shannon Herndon’s sermon from a few weeks ago at NewportNaz. 

My mind has been stewing lately on my ministry here in PNG. Though I love my time with my girls, my heart has been calling me to do something else in addition to caring for them. As I listened to Josh talk of their time in Spain and how God was revealing a new plan for them, I felt God asking me some of the same questions, “Where are you going? Why are you here?” 

My comfort zone, my kitchen!

It can be so comfortable getting caught up in my daily tasks; wash the clothes, feed the kids, hang the laundry, change the baby, read a story, make the bread, wash the dishes, bake dinner, weed the garden, clean the house, sometimes even days go by when I don’t get outside my little haven here in Kudjip...but, I am beginning to notice, that those things, as necessary as they are, are once again keeping me inside my comfort zone. Keeping me from stretching myself, keeping me stagnant, eluding me from spiritual growth. 

Yes, to everything there is a time and place under heaven. I have excepted that this season of my life is serving in my home, but I believe as Josh said, “God is faithful to those he calls.” 

So, now I sit here and except that my “grace period” is over...it’s time to serve God’s people in Papua New Guinea and find a creative way to do it within this season of my life. 

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone" 

Galatians 6:9-10

"Summer" in PNG: Part 1

This month presented itself with a few challenges, plenty of fun, and some learning.

At the beginning of June, Adam took over the role of supervisor on the job site (the three new doctors houses).  The girls and I finished school about the third week of June and enjoyed some much needed “American” fun in the sun! This last week, after hiring some wonderful local men to clean out the garden space, the girls and I got busy planting. We have some cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, asparagus and zucchini already sprouting!

Our small garden area BEFORE

Adam busy in the new Field Shop

Small garden area AFTER

We currently have a Work & Witness Team here from Arizona. They are busy working on the decks and cabinets in the houses. Adam is proving a great “boss man” and has spent the last month proving to the local workers that he knows a thing or two about “American” style carpentry. It’s been a challenge for him as he learns the language and tries to communicate to them how he wants something done. He has created his own tok ples (language of the village), he thinks just adding “pela” to the end of everything is going to get him by. His workers are finding his humor quite funny and I think he is really enjoying his job. But, at some point he is going to need to buckle down and do some serious studying of the language.

This past week, the girls and I got to be apart of VBS (put on by the W&W Team) at the Nangbe Care Center. Sister Ruth and her husband house/care for about 40-50 orphans as well as provide the community with HIV counseling and care giver training. It was an amazing opportunity to be a part of the work being done there!

Adam is getting ready to go to Tonga at the end of July, meeting up with our home church. I am disappointed that I cannot go this time, but am excited that Josiah Radcliffe (a MK student here and Adam’s summer help on the job site) gets to go with him.

We had about a week this past month that the hospital was closed due to a situation involving the work being done on the hydro electric plant. There are few paying jobs here in Papua New Guinea (about 85% of the population is unemployed) and it proves difficult to please everyone. For the moment everything is back to “normal” and the hospital is busy saving and changing lives. When I start to wonder, “What good we are doing here? I’m not out preaching or saving lives in the hospital.” God has to stop me and remind me that the body has many parts for a reason (Romans 12:3-8) and it takes the work of many to accomplish God’s will. I think I can speak for our whole family when I say that we are so thankful for all of our past experiences. We can see that God is using gifts/talents, which we did not know we had gained or maybe thought unnecessary, to simply share the love of Christ in Papua New Guinea.

Adam holding a cuscus

The local people here are very gracious. Just like in the States, at times you have to be cautious, but there are saints here that have truly blessed us already. I have a gaden meri, named Betty, who I am very thankful for. She has been helping me with my tok pisin. Today she showed up with four other women to work on the ditch and hibiscus hedge which was over grown with weeds just outside our house. My immediate reaction was, “Great, I can’t afford to pay all of them!” Well, with help from my neighbor Gail and further probing, we discovered that just as we are missionaries to them, they want to be missionaries to us. So they started working around the station (back breaking labor, after fasting for a day) to bless us as they serve Papa God. Boy, did I have to go to prayer on that one! But in all honesty, I am so grateful to the people here for showing me service like I’ve never seen before.

Well on another note, we are still having problems with the internet and discovered this past week that our modem had been hacked. Thus the reason we were going through so many units so quickly. Hopefully once the Goossen Family returns in August we will be able to get station internet back on our end of the mission station, which will help a bit.

One more thing, we got a copy of Kenny and Kari Dodd’s home movies from their time here in PNG from 1965-67. (Thank you to all involved in the sending of that!) The Dodd’s were short term missionaries from our home church. We had seen the video footage before, but it was really exciting to see the Radcliffe’s house, the Knox’s church, the chapel, old hospital and many other buildings that are still here and being used on station! 

Thank you so much for all your love and support from home. We are feeling the prayers, so keep em’ coming! 

Blessings,
Stephanie