Prayer Letter Archive

April 2003

Hey! We trust all is well in your part of the world. We sure appreciated all the response we got from our PNG2 message. I have an update on that battery that self-destructed on the boat. It got stolen after we got back from our trip on the seas although I did get it back.

This week we had a barge show up! We've been waiting for 10 weeks. I had 38 drums of fuel (gas, diesel and jet engine fuel) to unload. There are no gas stations in town so we get our fuels by drums then pump them out a gallon at a time. Four of my diesel drums were leaking so they off loaded them. Today I learned they may or may not have been leaking but the captain of the ship had them drained into the ship's fuel tank! Now I've got to try and get my fuel back. We'll work something out. Maybe I won't pay for the freight on my next shipment. Also on the barge were crates for a family just returned from furlough...6 of them...and 3 were pretty big! I borrowed a 3-ton flatbed to deliver the crates and Micah drove our little Toyota. Boy it's sure nice that Micah has a driver's license now. We're going to miss him come August when he returns to the States.

As we traveled along the winding timber company road through the dense jungle, occasionally we would pass a hamlet. Sometimes they had piled up stones across the road to slow vehicles down. Before the timber companies came, vehicles were just out in the middle of the jungle by themselves. Now there is a road in front of a grass shack with fast moving trucks carrying logs over 100 feet long. I bet there are times you wish you could pile up some rocks to slow cars down on your street! The gravel roads are pretty good and it's so tempting to push it up to 35mph but you never know what's around the corner. There could be a truck or a speed bump so we hung around 25mph using the granny low a few times.

The jungle is so thick on both sides of the road you can't see very far into it. The ferns for undergrowth, which would cost a small fortune if you had to pay for one at a nursery, mixed with the hanging vines makes for a tiring hike. One would need a machete to cut a path. The jungle looks just like the one we saw at Disney World!

We were following a new road navigating by GPS as the old road had 3 collapsed log bridges. The old road isn't used much any more so the jungle is reclaiming it. As the branches brushed both sides of the truck I'm thinking about the simulated pin striping they're leaving in the paint! The road got real tight and a tree ripped off one of my tie down ropes. We stopped to pick it up but being the road was so narrow, there was no way to turn around so we walked back. Walking on the narrow road with the jungle so close could make one claustrophobic. It does help with privacy, as you are totally alone to relieve yourself (Micah) to the sound of parrots and cockatoos in the background.

Traveling on, as we made our way up a slippery mountain with the trees making a full canopy over us, the truck died. It started but I shuddered with the thought of a possible fuel blockage. My fears were relieved only momentarily as a few minutes later it stopped again and then the third time, it wouldn't start. We were only a block away! We make it a rule not to carry any tools with the thinking that, "If we don't have any tools, we won't have to use them." But, when you break down with only a few tools, I recommend one of them is a pair of vice grips. We needed a funnel too, but improvised by using Micah's ziploc sandwich bag and snipping off one of the corners. He ate the sandwich first.

Not wanting to wear the battery down, Micah dragged the truck on and off for at least 10 miles as we cleared different points along the fuel line. Everywhere we looked it was full of muck. Micah blamed it on the black market fuel and continued to nag me about using it. I was more worried about the sun going down in that lonely, dark jungle. After 3 hours of stopping and starting, we finally found a big "goober" and once we cleared it out, we were on our way.

It was almost dark but as we passed a hamlet, I smelled something like a cleaning liquid, perfume or after-shave...something nice…so we stopped. We roamed the jungle for a good while smelling leaves, flowers, trees and weeds trying to find that smell. We never did find out what it was but I want to look again next time I'm up that way. As we were looking, Micah was again nagging me, "Mom is probably worried about us and here we are smelling flowers." The normally 3 and a half-hour trip took us 9 hours and we only passed 4 vehicles all day. I hate those traffic jams! We again had to heat up our supper but it was a good day. At least we didn't have a flat tire and no jack to fix it. We had that the day before.

That missionary is probably still unpacking those crates while the tribal people stare in amazement at all the junk. Most of what they own, they are wearing. Remember, just because we're missionaries doesn't mean we're not American. We still love our junk! I just said to a mission pilot as we unloaded the plane, "another load of missionary junk." We can't wait for our crate to get here!

Have a good day!

Mark