Category: Lee News

Third week of teaching at Koropa

Dear all our friends and family

In these first few lessons we are finding our feet. What are the best times to teach when people are there. We are also getting to know who the regulars are. Last week I (David) went up on my own because Heti was involved in the signing over of the old ITF property to the new teacher’s college. It was in a rainy period (this wet season we are getting periods of rain then dry) and the river was flooded so no one from across the river were able to come. The people didn’t come until it was getting dark, which would have been okay because we have a light, but it was starting to rain. They said that we can continue the lesson in the morning. The next morning I taught the lesson on the creation of Adam. Things were a bit wet as it had rained all night. We had more rain that night and no one came. Thursday morning I taught on the placing of Adam in the garden of Eden and the warning about eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Dear friends and family,

Tuesday night we taught lesson 1 about God’s word. I (David) started by going through the chart (picture above) and pointing out the different people whom God used to write His word. One man didn’t just sit down and write it. It covered a long period of time.

Dear all,

This is just a short asking for your prayers. Next Tuesday I will be starting to teach at Koropa village. Heti, a believer from Katagu, will be going with me to help with the teaching.

Hallow everyone and a very happy Christmas to you all as you remember the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ again and why He came to us as a baby. Last year I wrote a Christmas shopping letter, and it will start off that way again this year.

Dear friends and family

We have some sad news and good news at this time. The sad news first. I (David) have been teaching believers at Katagu through Romans since July. After several months of no rain here the people were recently without food. Since they depend on their gardens for their food this is a really big issue for them. I encouraged them to look to the Lord for help rather than the mission or the government. They were reluctant to pray to ask God for rain so I prayed. Two days later it began to rain and they got good soaking rain out of it.

Hallow Everyone,

Wendy here again, finally. I just wanted to write to let you know what a great time we had at our conference again this year. There were quite a lot of us here for it. David and I really enjoyed having some old friends stay here with us. They were working here when we were up here before, so it is always special to catch up with old friends, especially those who live in the bush so we don’t get see them often. All their children have grown up and are back in their parent’s home country, Canada, so are missed a lot by them. But it sure was good to get news of all their kids again.

On the 25th we will be celebrating the anniversary of our return to PNG. It is hard to believe that a whole year has gone by. We are going celebrate by taking a break next week . Our poor little Suzuki is also taking a break. Our last trip to Koropa the fuel tank sprung a leak. We have been patching it for some time now but now it has gone beyond patching. So she is having a break while we wait for a new tank. The problem is, they put river gravel on the road so you bounce over the rocks.

What a wonderful time we had!

We took a group of new missionaries who are looking to the Lord for direction to where He wants them to serve Him to look at the Benabena area. We packed three adults and three boys into our small Suzuki and headed off up the Benabena River. There was Paul Swenson and his three boys in the back seat, Craig Noyes and I (David) in the front. We started from Lapilo, went around to Katagu and saw Buka. We then headed on up to Heti’s place and spent some time with him and Janet. From there we went on up to Koropa where we had lived for 8 years and where the people built us a small house. On the way up Craig asked me, “In your opinion where would be the best place to locate?” I said, “Well, I am biased.” He said, “But you are also experienced.” Then I said that we have established a good relationship with the people at Koropa which will be helpful, but that doesn’t rule out looking at other areas too. I didn’t want to put any pressure on them to locate at Koropa or even in the Benabena area.

Dear family and friends

By now you will be wondering if we are still alive up here in PNG. Well we are alive and well and very busy having several projects on the go at once. David is working on digitalizing our old culture file. Back in 1992 all our culture entries were written by hand so they have to be scanned as images. As you can imagine it is a lot of work. Another project is finishing the translation of Romans. Last Thursday he worked with Heti on the start of chapter 13. It was good to get him involved again. Lately he has not been involved in helping but this time David caught him at a time when he had nothing else to do so he had no excuse! But he didn’t have to twist his arm, he was quite willing to help.

At last we slept in our new house built for us at Koropa.  On Tuesday we packed as much as we could in our Suzuki and headed up to Koropa.  We called in at Goroka and bought a carton of meat and some frozen chickens for a mumu that we had for the Koropa people for building the house for us.  We had difficulty finding space for it in the vehicle.  We arrived up there about 9 AM and started unloading and setting up house.  We had the mumu in the afternoon then that night it was a bit like camping because we couldn’t fit enough in the vehicle to set up the house properly.  In the morning we got up and found the family sitting around a fire frying potato chips for breakfast.  They have been growing potatoes and selling them to the kai bars (small fast food places) in town so they had plenty of potatoes.  In the morning the family worked on the house to make it more livable.

We have just been saddened by the death of one of the early believers in the Benabena but rejoice that he has been promoted to glory. Kokere has been a faithful believer since we first presented the gospel in 2006. Recently he started coming to us with two other believers for teaching but became ill and wasn’t able to come. His health deteriorated until he was taken to hospital.

We pray that had an enjoyable Christmas as you remember the birth of our saviour. But don’t forget the rest of the story. He came to give His life for us.

Hallow everyone,

We do hope you all have a wonderful Christmas as you remember the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and why He came to us as a baby, with us once more.

Dear family and friends

Our family at Koropa where we lived before wanted to build us a small house so that we could stay overnight there sometimes. They seem to be very keen to have us up there again and they are really going ahead with it. Today we went up to help with putting the roof on.

Hallow everyone,

The Lord continues to move things along for us here. Life continues to increase in pace as He adds to our daily work. It is good.
This week we were able to go up to the Upper Bena again, on Thursday, to show a young friend the area pretty well from top to bottom. It was good. I am being reminded that I’m not as young as I used to be as folk now call me Mama who don’t know me real well. They do enjoy seeing us both together again, and not just David as it has been mostly since we got up here.

Dear family and friends

Heti, Buka and Kokele came this morning for teaching on Romans. They will continue coming here to our house Wednesday mornings for these teaching sessions. This morning we did an introduction to Romans and just got started into the book. It was a good time and I (David) was encouraged by the feedback I got from them as we went through the lesson. Afterwards they checked a first draft of Romans chapter 9. They all chipped in to help the talk “cry good” (sound good to their ears).

Hallo everyone,

It is wonderful to be writing to you all at last. First of all I want to thank you for praying about our connection from Moresby to Goroka. It was so good. I did have a little running around to pay for our excess weight, but even with that we were still able to sit for 10 mins waiting for the boarding call. It was fun to chat with the two ladies sitting near us. Our plane arrived on time in Goroka, surprising the folk who were picking us up. They were still on the way when it came in. As you can see it’s quite unusual to be on time.

First trip to the Village

I went out in the afternoon about 2.30 PM. The people were glad to see me back. I saw Janet then Mena and Kokere came out of their place and greeted me. I spent over an hour with them. Kokere showed me the translations that he had and said that they would like to have teaching in their language again. He said that they don’t meet as a group anymore. Mena told me that she reads now. While I was with them Jonson came and talked for a while.

It has been a long journey for us but at last our flight right through to Goroka in PNG has been booked and confirmed. There has been a mountain of paperwork to get through and things to get done but at last we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Dear friends and family,

We just received the news that our work permit applications have been granted by the PNG government. So now we are in the process of applying for visas (or entry permits as it is officially called).

On Wednesday we travelled to Rockhampton and stayed with friends then Wendy had her first eye operation. It was successful and on the 26th we have to make another trip out to have her other eye done. It looks like by the time she gets her eyes done and a month’s wait for new glasses we may have our visas for PNG and just need to book our flight!

Dear friends and family

There has not been any progress in getting our work permit exemptions. It seems that no one at the Dept. of Labour wants to sign them. The mission has been advised to go back and try applying for work permits for us, as they were going to do before all this!

Dear friends and family

We finally have a date for Wendy’s eye specialist appointment. It is Saturday the 16th (two weeks from today) in Rockhampton. At this appointment it will be decided if she needs an operation on one or both of her eyes and a date will be set for that. Please pray that the Lord will give the specialist wisdom to know the best procedure. No word yet from PNG.

Dear friends and family

This morning we went to an early morning service at the botanical gardens at Emerald. It was a challenging time as we heard about the true meaning of Easter. Easter is not about eggs and bunnies but about the Son of God who sacrificed His life for us sinners. Without the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ there could never be forgiveness for our sins. This is not something we just think about once a year but it affects our everyday lives. It is the basis of Christian living. Afterwards, we had a wonderful time of fellowship with Christian friends as we had breakfast together.

Dear friends and family

Our latest news is that Wendy has been having some trouble with her right eye and we went to an optometrist yesterday. The outcome is that she has to see an eye specialist to determine if she will need an operation on it. This means that it will be two or three months before we can consider going to PNG. It seems that the Lord is telling us that this is why He has been delaying our departure. We need to get this dealt with first.

Dear friends and family

Well, this game has as many twists and turns as some of our TV contests. After all the drama of looking for our missionary training diplomas, having to go with photo copies of them, sending them off with work permit applications and other paperwork to our government representatives in Port Moresby then waiting for the PNG government to reopen after the Christmas break we were told that we don’t need work permits!