Sam and Carrie's Graduation Party

Today I was not feeling well, with a sore throat and jet lag and trying to get over a stomach bug, so I did

spend several hours just working in the office instead of outdoors or heavier work.

While sorting through hundreds of office papers that have piled up on Jonathan's desks, I kept uploading photos to my blog.

I'm taking a little break from writing about PNG to post a few pictures about

Monday night when we had a picnic graduation party for Carrie and Sam's high school graduation.

We'd have liked to have it earlier, in May, but so  much was going on and we were getting ready to leave for PNG and the children wanted to wait till their cousin Candace could be in on it,  so we put it off till the end of June. 

We had it at Fox Run Park, where there are two picnic pavilions and lots of room.

When we went shopping for graduation decor, the stores were sold out, so we decided on a last-minute

western theme.

One bale of straw, stump, flower basket and wheel were for Sam's side, and one for Carrie's.

The rustic plaque woodburned by Rose says, "A trophy is something you earn, not get."

Carrie made the cupcakes, and all the big girls helped ice and decorate them. We thought the cherries on top were so cute. 

Timmy had wood burned this plaque which we thought was especially appropriate for a dessert table:

"Keep calm and reload."

Candace made that cute burlap bow. 

We had to change plans more than once with this party, including what about the table cloths!

First I had bought a couple party tablecloths with balloons on them, but then when we decided western style,

Candace suggested red checked.

Jonathan got 3 red and one blue, and that wasn't nearly enough to cover all the tables, so you see quite an assortment of both tablecloths and decorations.

It was hopelessly assorted and either matched or mismatched!!!!

Typical and hopeless Lucas style where nothing exactly matches and we have to make do the best we can.

So every table was different.

Probably around 50 or 60 people attended, including Aunt Irina who brought these charming little "boats"!

Sam cooks the wieners, and with the grill having fallen apart a bit, burned the hotdogs rather badly.

Typical Lucas style--burnt hot dogs, spilled juice and nothing matching. 

All taken in stride with lots of laughs.

Hannah and Danny raced up and down the sidewalk on scooters and nearly made our hearts stop. 

I tried and tried to get them to slow down, esp. Hannah.

Thankfully she stayed upright and in one piece. 

It was a miracle.

Some gracious soul brought loads of strawberries, cherries, and grapes.

If Grandpa Lucas hadn't asked about pictures, I don't know if I could have persuaded Sam to get his picture taken. But since we only asked for a couple pictures, he cooperated.

Way to go, Sam and Carrie!

Sam didn't like to hold roses, so that was okay. I did!

I think one of the bouquets was actually for the teacher, anyway, but there was nothing formal, and Sam would have preferred to not even have any celebration at all.

He would rather four-wheel up in the mountains sometime.

Somebody got the clever idea to stick the cards under the twine in these hay bales.

I loved it!

These are Sam's.

And these are Carrie's.

Lots and lots of children played games together or played at the playground while the adults visited and enjoyed the balmy evening.

Thank You, Lord, for lovely weather and for our dear children's milestones, and for

all our friends!

How God Healed a PNG Sewing Machine

While the men were building the sink cabinet, pantry, bookshelf, and bedframe for the new mission house and doing everything from welding to plumbing to shopping for materials they could not find and making do with what they could find

or asking their wives for help--

such as what do you do for knee pads for tiling work when you can't find knee pads anywhere?

That's what wives are along for!

I suggested several ideas, from flip-flops to foam sheets that I had along for Sunday School teachers.

Sunday School foam sheets won Jonathan's heart, and that is what he taped over his jeans with lots of electrical tape!

It worked!

Meanwhile, we ladies were shopping for fabric for making curtains for the new house's windows.

Sharonna is not hard to please and did not take a lot of time to decide.

She chose the lovely green fabric with hibiscus flowers all over it.

Then, I had to pat my own back that I discovered a purple fabric that matched the same pattern of flowers, after Sharonna said she wanted purple for the bedroom. 

Yeah for us wondrous ladies!

My, what would Sharonna have done without a couple extra ladies along to make it all come out right?

:)   :)

She calls this Big Lots store her Walmart.

Here is the counter full of huge spools of thread.

This is how we went shopping--or at least I. 

I couldn't bear the sun beating down on me, so I took an umbrella.

At home, we started cutting out fabric.

We ladies determined that we were going to sew curtains for dear Sharonna even if we had to do it by hand--

and that is exactly what we started to do because the sewing machine had refused to work both times that either Randy or I tried to use it.

(Randy is the one who operates sewing machines in their home!)

Sis. Linda started hemming one curtain by hand while I was cutting.

Saturday evening Randy and Bro. Wilmer and I had all three worked and worked with the sewing machine Randy had gotten off the 6-year-old container, shipped from America.

I was afraid someone had a sewing machine that didn't work, so they sent it to the missionaries, sort of like the people who sent their used tea bags, you know.

First there had been something not wired right in the sewing machine pedal, so Randy and Wilmer hot wired it and it ran like a house afire when we tried to sew.

So the men got whatever was needed and fixed the pedal Monday night.

But that didn't fix the way the thread kept bunching up under the seam.

Randy and I had worked till we were blue in the face and gave up.

But this morning when we were sewing curtains by hand, I decided to try one more time, because who knows how long it was going to take us to hand sew all these curtains.

And then Louise, who didn't know how to sew, knew how to pray. 

She laid her hand on that sewing machine and unashamedly called out to the Lord to heal this machine!

And God did!!!!!!

I kid you not, within minutes, that sewing machine started behaving itself! Little by little, the stitching evened out and the thread quit bunching up underneath. After a while the stitching was perfect!

Isn't God amazing?

Later I figured out that the machine works fine when the bobbin isn't too full, But if the bobbin is rather full, that seems to affect the tension and it doesn't work right. 

Apparently when we had used up enough thread from experimenting, it started working right. 

Still, God gets the glory, because it was only after we prayed that it started working and I was able to figure out how to get it to work. 

In that picture up there, the precious young man named Kevin, whom Randy wants to send to Bible College, is at our house after having escorted Sharonna and Louise to go shopping.

Randy doesn't like the ladies going alone, and Kevin is wise to the ways of what is going on around, noticing that a couple men were following the ladies that day. It was good he was along.

He has a wonderful spirit, and our church had taken offerings to cover his Bible College expenses for a year.

Pray for Kevin!

He asked Louise for a bush knife while they were shopping, and she ended up buying him two, and after we returned to the States, Sharonna wrote that he had used his bush knife to cut down trees or bushes to construct a shelter for the Sunday outreach!

The man Kevin lives with allows the Dimmetts to use his land for the Sunday meeting, but the man sometimes is either drunk or on drugs and comes home and beats Kevin, and Kevin has to stay away till he calms down.

Kevin is homeless sometimes, going at night to a mechanics shop he knows of to find a vehicle unlocked where he might be able to crawl in to sleep for the night.

Sometimes he has no food for days at a time. He has come to Dimmetts saying he needs help, and when they ask him what he needs, he admits, "Well, I am hungry." And they find he hasn't eaten in a couple of days.
I felt so terribly sorry for this precious young man. He has always been honest as he works for Aunty Rosa or the Dimmetts.

Sharonna is packing Sunday School and craft materials we ladies had brought over for the orphans or Sunday School children.

Monday I spent about 6 1/2 hours cutting out and sewing curtains while Linda helped pin and iron, and Louise also ironed and helped so much with the cooking, shopping, and other work so we others could do the curtains, etc.

Unforgettable Visit to Pabarabuk Mission Station, PNG

Thursday our team made a quick trip of 45 minutes or so to the famed mission station of Pabarabuk, PNG.

Aunty Rosa's husband Jiwa wove our vehicle around potholes and over 2 miles of terribly bumpy road after this sign for the Bible College.

I loved this beautiful garden landscaped into the shape of the cross in the center.

Here Wilmer and Linda Paulus are viewing the sad remnants of the little house they had lived in while they taught at this mission years ago.

It had burnt down back in late winter due to an accident with a candle.
It was difficult for the people there to accept this loss of one of the original buildings on the mission station.
But perhaps God wants to do a new thing--raise up this mission station again,
so that people can rejoice in a resurrection rather than a relic!

Sis. Paulus making her way around and telling us what all the buildings were and who used to live where, when all the missionaries were here 20 to 40 years ago.

We felt like we were walking on holy ground.

This is the home that used to be Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Pelfrey's, with whom we worked in Ukraine 22 years ago, and who are remembered with much respect everywhere they worked,

from PNG to Ukraine (where Roman, whom Bro. Pelfrey mentored, is still serving God in a conservative way) to Belize.

At least some of this former mission station has been turned over for government schools.

Here to the right is the girls' dorm for high school students.

;

They were very excited to have a picture of some of them taken with Jonathan and me!

PNG people LOVE having their picture taken!

I believe there are over 1000 students here at this school now.

We discovered that this young man is the brother of Simon, a student at Penn View who loves to tease Crystal during choir tour!

Meanwhile, Wilmer and Linda Paulus meet the dear old pastor of the PNG Bible Church on the grounds who was pastor clear back when they were serving here, and who is still pastoring faithfully!!

Wilmer was crying, and then the rest of us starting crying, and then you should have heard the girls start to cry!

And PNG people don't just cry, they wail! They are easily touched and it is different how they express their emotions.

Here is the huge sanctuary on the grounds.

The beautiful display of flowers in the front of the sanctuary.

Then we headed toward the enormous open-air tabernacle that shelters the annual campmeeting of around 10,000 people.

This is where James Plank and many others have been privileged to speak in recent years.

The PNG Bible Church is alive and thriving!

Praise God!

What a witness to the faithful labors of missionaries--

and the precious open hearts of the dear PNG people!

The first floor of this building is called John Wesley Library.

 A crowd has begun to gather around Wilmer Paulus.

Jonathan and I pause before entering this enormous edifice.

The floor is covered with dry grass, and I assume people sit on the ground when they come, unless a few benches are brought in at the time of camp meeting.

Jonathan takes off his hat, as it seems that as we enter, we are aware of a 

Presence,

and that we are standing on holy ground.

Jonathan notices the rain water cisterns that collect water from this huge roof.

Turning to go back out, we see people flocking toward the tabernacle around the Americans.

I watched a big boy reach out to shake Sam's hand,

which resulted in a lot of laughter and cheering that we didn't understand at first.

Then Aunty Rosa explained that the young people are shy about shaking hands with a white boy, but when that young man did it, the others thought it was great!

So here she is exhorting the young people not to be shy but to be friendly and reach out to the white people!

We sang a couple choruses together, with Wilmer leading the second fun chorus first in English then in Pidgin.

Linda Paulus told us that these Royal Palms were planted by Bro. Glenn Pelfrey.
What an outstanding monument to this great but humble man!

The Pauluses heard that one of the pastor's wives had been ill and with a pained back, but that God was healing her. We all went to her house and Pauluses prayed with her.

Here the pastor and his wife are saying goodbye to us.

I hope to post about the next leg of our trip, the Kauapena station, later.