May 2007

Hey, Hi There !

You know what’s really cool? People have actually been e-mailing me saying they LIKE my messages. Yah, can you believe it?! I thought life was boring here! Well anyway, as a result of all these requests I’ve had for updates, (I think there were 2) here goes:

We had been enjoying some real nice weather. The temperatures were cooler and the seas were flat. Knowing raining season was coming where we just want to stay inside and keep dry, we thought we would take advantage of the nice weather and decided to do some diving on the weekends and get Wet. Does that make sense? There are a few reefs in the area we had not explored yet so on weekends we would check them out. The whole family would go. Even our youngest daughter Mieko loves to dive. Joan however isn’t fond of the sport so stays in the boat. We found the reefs to be pristine cause nobody else around here dives and this was our first time on them. Can you imagine seeing a reef no one has ever seen before? Fish and sharks were everywhere. We’ve since located some more and are looking forward to spring to go see them.

During WWII there were some major air battles fought in this area. Some reports say 89 planes were lost in 6 days and those were just the Japanese. So, being we don’t have TV to watch or movie theatres to go to, we do the next best thing…hunt for relics! Although the locals know where these plane wrecks are at, to the rest of the world and the families of the pilots and crew, they are lost. These adventures take us by boat over the oceans, many miles up rivers, sometimes hitching rides with timber company trucks and there is always a hike through the jungle or a dive in the ocean. Our most recent find (this is our 6th) was a Japanese dive bomber code named “VAL” like the ones used to bomb Pearl Harbor. We dug around the wreckage for 4 hours looking for identifying tags or writings. It’s was really fun and the kids get in to it too. We didn’t find any remains though but I’m sure they’re there.

Previously we found a USA P-38 and the name on the bent up nose cone, “Regina Coeli” led us to the whole “story” of how it ended up in the Jungles of Papua New Guinea. You can read it for yourself at: http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/p-38/42-66856.html.

We have even done a bit of work believe it or not and after years of preparation (as it was low priority) we finally got a fellow missionary’s truck painted. This was our son Jared’s first complete paint job after practicing on tire rims and truck beds and not having X-box to distract him. (actually, he does have an X-box now but nobody wants to play) He did an excellent job painting I must say and the owners thought the truck looked, “beautiful.” Sad to say, the locals have already practiced their literacy skills and someone scratched their name in the new paint job. AND later, for family day, we changed the clutch on our truck. Talk about fun!

We hear of missionaries going interior where no Gospel message has gone before and finding Coke cans and Singer sewing machines yet no gospel witness. Last weekend after spending ½ a day just getting close to a plane wreck site, we came to a village in the middle of the jungle. The exciting part of it was that while there, I met a man by the name of Francis and come to find out that he had been saved back in 1990 when a New Tribes Missionary taught in his village. He was now a mature Bible teacher who makes monthly visits to this village to make sure the established Church there is doing well. He was a functioning evangelist and elder as a result of your giving and praying, my delivering the missionary to Francis’ village and Mike teaching him the Bible. Sometimes we wonder if it’s been worth it all but let me encourage you, it IS! And someday, the Lord will show us how all the pieces of the puzzle fitted together so that every tribe and tongue could hear the good news of Jesus Christ. And to top it off, we didn’t see any Coke cans!

So once again, thank you for the part you’ve played in seeing these people come to a saving knowledge of Christ.

Because He said, “Go,”

Mark and Joan Reichman