Dear family and friends

Well, so much has happened up at Koropa in the last couple of weeks. Tuesday the 11th I took two of the workers from Sobega up to Koropa to cut down a tree that was leaning over our house. I wasn’t too worried about it while it was alive but someone went and ringbarked it so it died☹.

It had a long limb sticking out to the left  which was likely to hit our house if it fell anywhere near the house. We didn’t have anyone who was able to climb up and cut it off so we tied a light rope to a heavy one and loosely attached it to a bamboo pole then put it through a high fork in the tree with the bamboo pole. We then pulled the heavy rope through and tied it. We were hoping to pull the tree over at least into the tree on the right of the picture but when it was cut down it glanced off it and just missed the house.

Unfortunately the long limb caught the house and did some damage. We were able to repair the damage the next week. There was also a very tall straight tree that was rotting at the base. We were afraid that a wind might blow it over and who knows which way it would go? It could fall on our house or any of the village houses so we decided to cut it down too. But a wind started blowing in the afternoon so it would have been a bit risky to cut it. So, we went back up the next day and cut it down. But it fell into the fork of a large tree and we had no choice but to cut it down as well. The two trees together did some damage to coffee trees.

Needless to say I didn’t teach that week.

Last Wednesday it rained at night and our house leaked where it was damaged but it stopped by the time I went to bed so I was able to put the mattress back on the bed. Only Sevis and his wife, Misisi, came for the lesson that night. Misisi hasn’t been to many of the lessons and usually doesn’t say anything during the lesson but this time she surprised me by being alert and giving right answers to questions. When I asked them how we become people without sin in God’s eyes she said, “Jesus paid the price of our sin when He died on the cross.” Pray for her that it won’t be just a head knowledge but that it will be what she believes in her heart. On Thursday I spent the day working on the house with the help of a couple of the men. We put a post in the middle of the house to straighten the ridge pole (the poor house looked like its back was broken) ☹. That night everyone came except Sevis and Misisi as they had gone to town to market their produce and didn’t get back until late. Some of them hadn’t been to the last two lessons so I went back a couple of lessons and retaught them.

With love from

David and Wendy