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