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
# posted by Dave Troolin @ 2:43 PM 
