Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Email update: 17 June 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
Dave made it back from the village on Saturday the 14th of June. The drive down and back was uneventful, but unfortunately the PURPOSE of the trip wasn't totally successful. He went with a friend to take the kit house up to the village, but a combination of a bad road, lots of rain beforehand, and a helpful bulldozer that turned the marginal road into a quagmire made it too difficult. The truck was stuck in the muck three times, and they didn't even get half way up to the village. Because the road wasn't going to be any better further up and they were running out of daylight hours, they decided to take the kit house from the beach where the barge was moored to a Sam speaking village on the main road. They worked through the night, stopping with the last load at 4:30 am. Now the kit house is in that village, some under a big tarp and some under a house (that is about 8 feet off the ground on posts). The main road has some serious mud problems further north because of all the rain we've been having, so he and his friend and another friend they picked up along the way decided to go back on the barge. They drove the truck and our hilux onto the barge and were in Madang by 11 am. They drove up to Ukarumpa that same day.
We have decided to go down tomorrow, Wednesday. We'll go to Madang first and then out to the village the next day. Our hilux can haul the cement bags and metal posts for the foundation a bit at a time. It takes approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes to drive between our village and the village where the house pieces are. We are working on a way to get the larger pieces up to the village also, so please keep praying that something would work out.
Please pray also for good weather the next few weeks, safe travel and working, and all the planning for tools, personnel, and materials. Finally, we really want to glorify God in all this, so please pray for good attitudes and a spirit of patience, endurance and servanthood.
We'll be greeting the team from Minnesota on June 29th, and then coming up to Ukarumpa on July 11th. The team will leave July 14th.
Love,
Dave and Sarah, and Joanna, Samuel, Matthew and Rebekah
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Email update: 1 June 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
In a nutshell, we are entering "Crunch Month." All of the last few months has been preparation, getting things ready for the village house, getting prepared for working on translation (by trnaslation training here at Ukarumpa), and the other bits and pieces we have to do.
A) On the house front, we have preparations ready to get the house to Madang by truck, then across the bay by barge, and then up the little road by truck. We hope we won't have to use the helicopter, because it isn't going to be available until July, which means we would have to leave the kit house pieces down on the coast, at the house of a respected church leader, until the helicopter could help us.
Please pray:1) that the kit house company will transport the kit house to Madang THIS WEEK (before we need to load up the barge),2) that Dave will have a safe trip down to Madang and to the village later this week to check out the road situation, and2) that the village people will get excited and successfully fix the road up to the village so a truck can drive up to the village with the kit house.
B) On the translation training front, we have completed the five weeks of training, and the men have learned a lot and are more eager to work together and get going on translating more of the Scriptures! We have translated Genesis 22:1-19 as our training exercise, which is about Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. We enjoyed finding Sam words for key terms like angel, altar, and sacrifice! The men have arrived back at their villages now.
Please pray:1) that the men will work out a good working schedule so they can translate without taking time away from their gardening or community work, and2) that community will start to recognize the good work the Sam translators are doing and will start to support them in practical ways, like helping them with gardening work.
C) In terms of all the bits and pieces of our lives, we feel like we have been able to get some of those extra things done during the translation training course, but we still have some to finish. We would like to be able to complete a lot of those other things before our whole family goes to the village on June 18th.
Thank you for your prayers!
Love,
Dave and Sarah
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Checking Genesis 22:1-19!
Dear Friends,
The latest is that today the five Sam men and I checked our translation of Genesis 22:1-19! We had a great SIL consultant, and it was very interesting to go through the whole process! I felt glad that I could understand some of what the Sam men said to each other in their language while discussing the various questions that the consultant put forth!
Better go, but just wanted to give a brief update.
Take care,
Dave
Better go, but just wanted to give a brief update.
Take care,
Dave
Monday, May 05, 2008
Email update: 5 May 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
We are in the middle of an exciting and also tiring time. We are very glad to see that five Sam men have been interested enough to come to a translation training course in Ukarumpa! These five men come from two villages and are the core of the translation team. This course lasts for five weeks and we are very impressed with the training they are receiving here: from how to translate the Scriptures to typing to how to use a study Bible. They have devotions everyday, and they are surrounded by godly staff and students. Today we start the third week of this five week course. Komo, one of the Sam men, said to us recently that after coming to this course he feels more committed to the Sam translation program! Praise the Lord!
However, this is also a stressful time, as we prepare for building a house in the village. There are many details that haven't been decided yet, and the most important ones have to do with transport - this decision is difficult when we don't know if the road will be repaired by the time we will need to take food, people, and the house into the village! As of yesterday, no work has been done on the Raicoast highway, which is the road we need to take to get the kit house to the little road that goes up to the village (which also has problems, but if we can get it that far we can helicopter it in the last 4 miles or so). At this point we are hoping the main road will be fixed in time (about June 10th, when Dave wants to take the kit house (prefabricated sections) into the village). The little road from the main road to our village is probably not going to be useable for the big truck, so we will have to transport the house in by helicopter. Please pray that all these details will come together and we will have a house in the village for a team from Minnesota to work on! :)
We feel very blessed to be here in PNG, doing this work. Thank you for partnering with us!
God bless,
Dave and Sarah, and Joanna, Samuel, Matthew, and Rebekah
Monday, March 03, 2008
Email update: 3 March 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
We are almost ready to leave for the village. Tomorrow we will fly to Madang by plane, then on Thursday we'll fly to Buan by helicopter. We will return to Ukarumpa on April 16th.
We have a few things to pray about and some praises:
Please pray:
- that we would be able to hold a literacy class, with ladies from Buan, to trial a Pre-Reading Primer that Sarah compiled.
- that we would be able to also hold an English refresher class to prepare the translators to attend a training course in Ukarumpa in April-May.
- that our children will have a fun time in the village and make many new friends. They are feeling a little apprehensive about making friends and feeling comfortable with the other children.
- that we would receive the updated kit house plans soon (then we need to review and approve them, send them back, and get the quote - all this before they actually start making the house, which we hoped would be started before now).
- that our village house would be in good enough shape for us to live in for the five weeks we plan to be out there.
- that our truck, which is currently in a village near where we live, would be protected and in the next few weeks we would be able to take it to Madang for safe-keeping.
- that two stressful situations here at Ukarumpa would be resolved peacefully: illegal stopping of water to the SIL Center and severe damage to one of the bridges between the outside world and the SIL Center.
Additional explanation on the previous point:
1) One of the bridges connecting the SIL Center (and other organizations in the area such as a high school and national agricultural institute) to other cities has been damaged by continual heavy rains and flooding. Currently no heavy trucks can use the bridge and that is how Ukarumpa obtains food, gas/petrol, and other things we require. We are praying that the bridge will be repaired soon.
2) There is a land dispute issue that is pending court action involving the water catchment area of Ukarumpa's non-potable town water. A local man has dismantled the water system. Most people still have rain water tanks providing them with water but, despite the heavy rains of recent weeks, some people are short of rain water. As well as the inconvenience of a lack of water there are other complications causing a tense situation in this area. Please pray for a peaceful resolution to this situation.
2) There is a land dispute issue that is pending court action involving the water catchment area of Ukarumpa's non-potable town water. A local man has dismantled the water system. Most people still have rain water tanks providing them with water but, despite the heavy rains of recent weeks, some people are short of rain water. As well as the inconvenience of a lack of water there are other complications causing a tense situation in this area. Please pray for a peaceful resolution to this situation.
We can rejoice together:
- that we have been able to complete updates to our website (http://troozshoes.netfirms.com and http://www.fbccamb.org/Page.aspx?id=191151)!
- that we have been accepted to participate in the Translators' Training Course.
- that the men's group had a really good time of fellowship at the last men's prayer breakfast last week (held in Ukarumpa once a month)!
- that we have the materials all ready for our language work out in the village.
Thank you for standing with us in prayer!
Your friends,
Dave and Sarah Troolin
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Email update: 7 February 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
Here's an update of things that have been happening here during the last few weeks.
Dave went to the village to find out who wants to attend the translation training course held in April and May. He was gone for a week. He was able to drive to one of the Sam speaking villages, which was the one closest to the road and NOT the one in which we live. He then hiked up to Buan, and saw firsthand how the river has flooded and destroyed the road. After collecting the application forms and references for three Buan men, he then hiked back to the first village and gathered the applications and references from two men there.
The night before Dave was to drive back to Ukarumpa it rained very hard. The rivers between the village and Madang all flooded. One man said that the flooding only gets this high once every rainy season and it was right when Dave wanted to drive out! After checking the water level throughout the day, he decided not to chance it. The next day, he saw an amazing attempt by the Sam men that came with him, as they forded the river about 800 feet upstream where the river spread out wider, made a new road down a stream and up another stream, up a steep 8 foot high (45 degree slope) bank (an awesome display of manpower, as they pushed and the truck spun it's way up the hill), only to find that the next big river was even worse than the first. Dave left the truck at the house of the Lutheran district president, and came to Madang by dinghy, and then up to Ukarumpa by public transport.
Two days later, we went to the city of Lae to talk to the house building folks about our kit house plans. They are now working up adjusted plans for approval. Then they will start working on the house to get it ready to deliver to Madang in June!
When we returned to Ukarumpa, we worked with our regional area directors to finalize plans for what we hope to accomplish for 2008. We were encouraged to see how the things we accomplished in 2007 feed into the overall plan for the language program!
We are currently planning for our next village stay, March 4 April 15. We would appreciate your prayers for us as we work on getting ready. Please also pray for the village stay, that we would see good progress in our spoken language abilities and that the two workshops we hope to run (an English refresher course for the translators and a trial literacy course to test out some literacy primers) would be well-received. Please also pray starting now for the good group of people coming in June to build our village house!
God bless you,
Dave and Sarah, and Joanna, Samuel, Matthew and Rebekah
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Email Update: 12 December 2007
Dear Friends,
Wonderful news! The visas have come for Samuel, Matthew and Rebekah! They arrived just as Dave was trying to book tickets to come back to be with us in Cairns. Instead he changed it all around and now Sarah and the children are booked to fly up to Port Moresby and then Ukarumpa on Friday December 14.
Thanks for all of your prayers about this! It has been a hard six weeks for our family as we've waited in different countries. We had no idea it would take this long and at times it's been difficult to be patient and praise God along the way. But we know that he is in control and has a good plan for us, and we are grateful that it was his plan to send the visas along now!
Love,
Dave, Sarah, Joanna, Samuel, Matthew and Rebekah
Wonderful news! The visas have come for Samuel, Matthew and Rebekah! They arrived just as Dave was trying to book tickets to come back to be with us in Cairns. Instead he changed it all around and now Sarah and the children are booked to fly up to Port Moresby and then Ukarumpa on Friday December 14.
Thanks for all of your prayers about this! It has been a hard six weeks for our family as we've waited in different countries. We had no idea it would take this long and at times it's been difficult to be patient and praise God along the way. But we know that he is in control and has a good plan for us, and we are grateful that it was his plan to send the visas along now!
Love,
Dave, Sarah, Joanna, Samuel, Matthew and Rebekah
