New Staff!!

 The Peachey Family - Mike & Cherie, with their children, Ashlyn, Savannah, Hannah and Jack. Cherie will be replacing me in the kitchen when we are home for 9 months. Their oldest daughter Ashyln has graduated from high school and gets to help her mom in the kitchen. Mike will be taking on many of Jacob's roles around campus, fixing and building, etc.

(And we just found out that Anna, a single gal, has applied and been accepted to come as in Interface Student and stay on as a volunteer for 6 months, to help in the kitchen too!) 

The Ray family - Travis & Nikki and their two daughters Sierra and Brooke. Travis will also be taking on various aspects of Jacob's ministry around campus. Nikki will be helping out in the office!

Bobbi Scholl with the new addition to their family, Levi! They all arrived back this month!

Janie Miles also arrives back this month as well as Jack and Janie Housley!

Back in the Kitchen again...

 We started the new year off right with new Kitchen uniforms! They love their new outfits! 

And I got one too. :)

Top row: Sone, Linet, Suzanna, Loli

Middle row: Rose, Beth, Julie

Bottom row: Efeke, Ninike, Piku

 The Ladies also wanted a group picture on our new stairs.... we used to just have a ladder to climb up into the loft area where we store our totes. So they were so excited when the guys built this for us!

 Deep cleaning of the kitchen... scrubbing the floor!

 This is Sone and Suzanna sporting the other version of our new uniforms! :)

 Sunday we hosted a Transitions Workshop. The High School Juniors and Seniors came out for a workshop to learn how to enter back into their home countries after growing up here in PNG for so long.... it is a tough time for many missionary kids as they head home.

 It was just a one day, one meal affair so Julie, Jacob and I and a couple of the national ladies helped.

Since our classroom has been torn apart, half of the dining hall was turned into a classroom for their sessions. This is also where we meet every Sunday for our Staff church service.

Digging in to get the job done!

 Hank Demark, Lesley Doerksen's dad, and Pete Doerksen. Hank is here for 6 weeks to head up the new Classroom floor project!

 What a mess!!

 Buka and Morobe

 Jacob, Marco, Brent, Jonny, Morobe, Heti, Pete, Diemo, Buka, Samson, Hank, Moyolopi

 The national workers were interested in the map of the world that is posted in the classroom.

The work continues...

 Jonny, Jacob, Marco and Buka working on the floor... out with the old and in with the new (in a month or so).

Generator is fixed!

 Pete and Jacob just fixed the front seal on the generator after waiting 3 weeks to receive the part needed. The generator is fixed so they are happy! Jacob continues to use his four-wheeler every day... it is his portable shop. :)

The Classroom Floor project begins!

 Jason teaching in the classroom this past summer...

 Our students taking in all that Jason was teaching...

And here is our classroom today! A big mess... with lots of work yet to do. The guys have just started pulling up the floor. But it is a HUGE process because we don't have a jack hammer. Instead the guys are using a concrete saw, sledge hammers, pick axes and a hammer drill. And of course lots of shovels and wheelbarrows to get the old concrete out of the building. Please pray for them to be able to finish this part of the project in time. Hank, the concrete expert, is coming Feb 17th to head up the project of pouring the new classroom floor!

 Without a jack hammer, this is a great learning process for the guys!

 Jacob says, "Not bad for 1/2 hours worth of work!" :) --- It actually took three guys three days to do this much work. :)---

Village court at Interface...

Recently we had a theft at Interface... but then last week all our Bena neighbors worked together to catch the guys that did it. And one morning they all came to have a village court in our property. They forced the thieves to return everything they had so almost everything was returned. It is a very different type of "court" because there is no judge but rather some prominent village men who try to guide the proceedings. And as issues come up, everyone elects a person to deal with them yet sometimes there seems to be no one in charge. Everyone gathers around and random people say what they think. Some people listen and some people don't seem to be paying attention at all because they are just talking with each other. We aren't quite sure how they come to a decision on what needs to be done. :)

  But in the end we brought the two guys to jail and Jacob gave a speech to everyone. He let them know how thankful we were that they supported us and helped us. This was very encouraging to see our Bena friends helping us. The whole community really came together and said this behavior has to stop.  It was encouraging to see how they really worked together and supported us.