Wano Trip

At the end of July I(Dylan) and 3 others took a trip into the mountains to visit the Wano tribe where missionaries Mike and Libby Wild and their 4 boys serve.  The goal was to help them build their new house. 

First we took a 1.5hr airplane ride to an airstrip at the foothills of the mountain.  

The first thing I saw after landing was a man with a machine gun. I thought well if everyone is happy and smiling, including him, then we're ok.

From there we rode the helicopter up the mountain to the Wano tribe.  They are around 7000ft above sea level.

Below is a picture of the airstrip that the Wano are currently building.  Once the airstrip is complete, the Wilds will be able to get supplies much easier and cheaper.

The Wano people came out to welcome us to their village.   

Home sweet home! Well maybe not. This is where we stayed for the week.  The house was about waist high and when all 4 of us lay down we were like sardines.  One night I woke up with someone's feet in my face. It was actually not that bad because they kept me warm. I wont say whose they were. They were Jared's. Ok.

The temperature would drop to around 50 at night so that explains why we have a fire in the middle of our house.  The only problem with that is the smoke that fills the house which
makes it difficult to breathe.

Here are some of the Wano believers.

Here is the Wild's temporary living quarters.  This will later become their office.  There were 6 of them in that little place.

Off to work. When we got to the house site we thought that there would be wood waiting for us to start building with.  We were wrong. It was being cut a half a mile away and we had to go fetch it.

 Here we go. Through the trees, balancing on logs, through the mud, and up a very long hill to eventually arrive at the house site half dead.

The boards were all uneven so we had to custom shape each board with hand tools. That's right, I said hand tools.  We had no power tools.

Here is Logan Teall using the hand planer.  

We were able to sit in on a Wano church service.  It was cool to see and fellowship with believers in such a remote part of the world.  The Wilds are currently discipling believers and training elders.

A couple days after we got there, 4 men, from a neighboring tribe called the Dem, came to visit.  They have been asking for many years for missionaries to come and live with them.  No one has ever answered their request.                               

A while ago there was some tension between the tribes and the Dem destroyed the bridge that leads over the river into their territory.  When they heard we were coming, they rebuilt the bridge in order to meet us.  

     They had hiked 2 days to get to us. They told us they had come to shoot us(figuratively speaking, thankfully) and take us back to their village.  They did not want to go home empty handed.

They began to tell us that they feel like the forgotten people.  All the tribes around them have had missionaries translate the bible into their language.

They said they know that when Jesus comes back they are going to die.  They are in darkness. They said some of these things with tears in their eyes.

We asked them that if we come and live with them, were they going to expect us to give them money.  They replied that they are not interested in things for their skin but for their spirit.

I couldn't take any more and told them if it was up to us we would grab our bags right now and come to their village to live with them. But we have to return to the city to finish our tasks there and to consult our leaders as well as talk to our families before we could come.



Near the end of our time in Wano land, Angie's leg was worsening so the airplane was going to come and pick me and 2 of the other guys up from a nearby airstrip a 3 hrs hike away. So, early in the morning while it was still dark we began the hike.

We had to hike down the mountain, across the river, and then back up and around the mountain.  

Everything was so muddy and slippery, we were falling all over the place.  Our tribal guide even fell a couple times which made me feel better about myself.  Although he was around twice my age.

At one point when we were hiking around the steep part of the mountain, the trail gave way and Logan almost said his final goodbyes.  He managed to catch himself on a root to prevent himself from sliding down the mountain.

About an hour and a half later we came across a bridge, or should I say, a log. 

Near the end of the hike we could see the airplane coming down to land.  At that moment we realized we were still very far away from the airstrip.  We knew the pilot was in a hurry so we picked up the pace.  I began to run ahead with the guide.  After 15 min of running with a heavy backpack and falling around(I fell on the guide once), I finally came out onto the airstrip.  I thought I was going to have a heart attack from the running.

Later the pilot told me they had already started the engines and were about to leave when they saw me coming out onto the runway.  Praise the Lord!

We arrived in Nabire full of mud and exhausted.  We were so dirty that one of the people who worked at the airport took us to their house so that we could wash up. God truly took care of us every step of the way. We serve an amazing God who constantly reveals His grace to us!

Cutie pies and Papeda

Our church had shirts made for all the kids as it was promotion Sunday the other week.

Aren't they cute?:)

 Yesterday I attended the ladies meeting for our church and had my first experience with papeda.  I somehow have been able to avoid it until now, but yesterday I tried it.  Wow, um, well.

The papeda is the gelatinous blob of goo sitting to the left of the rice.  It is a staple food here and is made from the sago tree.  They say it has a glue-like texture, but I would have to say it has a phlegm-like texture.  You're supposed to just suck it down your throat, no chewing.  You know when you have a really bad cold and, all of a sudden, the back of your throat fills up with mucus and you are no where near any place you could spit it out so you do what you gotta do? yeah, it's like that.

This is my plate, and I was only able to eat maybe half of it.

 This is how much everyone else takes!

 Just to give you an example of what it looks like while you're eating. Yum Yum:)

The people are, thankfully, very understanding that papeda is not our first choice when selecting our food.  I was able to just finish up my rice and green beans mixed with papaya leaves (extremely bitter) and call it a day:)

Kendra and I were thinking that there have to be things we eat in the States that would be a gross texture to those not used to it.  We couldn't think of any, can you?

My leg (here you go Laura:)

These are the few pictures that I took while Dylan was gone.  There aren't many since I wasn't walking much, in fact I took all these pictures from the couch.  I'm putting up these first and then pics of my leg, so if you're squeamish, don't scroll down too much- that's your warning:)

Here is Kendra at around midnight waiting for the rat that we kept seeing running from a hole in the window screen to the kitchen and back.  The plan was for Bri to hit it with the broom enough to stun it and then Kendra would kill it with a shovel they found.  I was going to be the photographer of this event, but eventually we gave up waiting and went to bed.  

 The kids painted beautiful masterpieces. (I lied.  I didn't even take this picture, Kendra did:)

Gideon got to watch Cars a lot while I was lying around. Jericho and Roman are just two months apart and it's very fun to watch them crawl around and try to eat each other.

 Gideon was soooo happy to see his daddy after a week.   So was I!!!!!:)

Ok here they come...

This first picture was taken on Tuesday which is when I started taking an antibiotic.  It had started out as just a mosquito bite that I scratched open.  I had been cleaning it and trying to keep it covered, but it got infected and it was starting to be very painful to put any pressure on that leg. 

In spite of an additional antibiotic and bed rest, 3 days later it looked like this. 

And it just kept getting worse until Monday when I went to have a debridement

 (that means cutting out the bad stuff:). 

Pretty gross huh? 

   

 And now it's all pretty and healing with no infection!  Praise the Lord!!!!
 The white stuff on the edges is cream that was on the gauze so it doesn't stick.

And this is what happened after a week of taking mega doses of antibiotics.  Hives!

Thankfully they only lasted a couple days, and were just itchy, not painful:)

What a mighty God we serve!  He showed himself in so many ways-  Dylan was able to make it home the day of the 'surgery' and for the 5 days that I was on bed rest there were many wonderful people (some who I'd never met before) around me who took care of my kids, got water for me to soak my leg 3 times a day, drove me to the doctor, cooked for us etc. etc.  It was a difficult week, but God's faithfulness was evident and I was so blessed by the service of other believers.  Thank you to everyone who was praying for me!

Dylan is back from his trip now, but these are from the day he left.  I'm a little behind:)

I had Roman in the front carrier so we borrowed a leash for Gideon.  He was not a huge fan, but settled down for a little bit after a while.

 However, the departure time continued to get pushed back and he really wasn't happy and my leg hurt (more on that later:), so I took him to the car to wait with him strapped into a carseat and me enjoying the AC.  Hence this picture of everyone minus me, Gideon and Roman.

 Dylan, Logan, Jay and Jared

 Ready for take off!

They flew on this plane for about an hour and a half and then took a helicopter to the tribe.