Reaching New Fields: We're building a house

Hi friends!

Three months have passed quickly, and there’s lots to fill you in about, especially if you haven’t been following us on social media. There will be plenty of smaller details we’ll share but most of it can be boiled down to this: We now have a house in the Finisterre mountains of PNG!

There is still much work to be done on the interior of the house (you know, minor things like beds, shelves, and kitchen counters not to mention plumbing for a kitchen sink), and plenty of finish work to complete before it is move-in ready with a baby. Still, it’s exciting to see what the Lord has allowed us to accomplish these past three months!

BUILD TRIPS 1, 2, 3, & 4 (plus a bonus)

Since the middle of July, I have been moving back and forth between Madang, the town where Autumn and Rowen are staying, and our village in nDo where I'm working on building our house. Typically, I spend 8-12 days in the village, followed by 8-12 days in Madang, before heading back to the village….and repeat. I’ve had two guys going into the village with me for most of our build trips - Johnathan Steiner, a friend from the US who came over for 5-6 months to help complete our house, and Kombuk, a PNG friend and skilled worker who often does maintenance & construction jobs at our mission base. The Lord has been so gracious to allow us to accomplish everything we were aiming for on each of the first 4 build trips, with far fewer complications than we would have anticipated, per what is typical here in PNG.

For those of you who are curious, here’s a quick run-down on what we did each trip.

Build Trip #1
- Cemented all the posts in the ground
- Took inventory and made lists of supplies needed for future build trips
- Started doing necessary demolition in preparation for the next trip (We were starting with a small pre-existing structure, and adding on to it on three sides.)

Build Trip #2
- Spent three days of shuttling most of the construction materials to a point nearer our village via boat and plane, and then into the village via helicopter
- Completed all the framing except for two interior walls
- Put the roof on and built the deck
- Wrapped the outside in tarp to keep rain out

Build Trip #3

- Framed and installed doors and windows
- Finished two interior walls
- Added lots of additional bolts, lag bolts, hurricane clips and nail plates to beef up the structures strength to withstand earthquakes
- Installed solar panels and solar hot water heater

Build Trip #4
- Hung all the plywood on the interior of the walls
- Primed the entire house and painted the rafters and purlins
- Started working on plumbing

"Bonus" work

Johnathan Steiner chose to stay up in the village between the past several build trips, and he’s been working away at additional projects, including a TON of work on our solar system and the electrical control panel and all of the electrical wiring, plus lots of other prep work like painting, sanding, etc. We’re beyond grateful for all of the time he is giving to see our jungle house built!

FAMILY LIFE

Housebuilding brings ongoing changes and the need for lots of flexibility for our family as we adapt to this ever-changing season. We have been praying often for the Lord to help us prioritize rightly, investing in our individual spiritual walks, marriage, and son to make sure our family is strengthened, growing and prepared for more upcoming change.

Rowen is thriving, and it’s a joy watching him develop and learn as he approaches 1 year. He just recently started walking (24 steps is his current record, but 5-10 steps is more typical right now), so that’s a fun, new adventure!

The biggest pumpkin we could find to celebrate the start of Fall.

It’s a very new experience for Autumn & I to spend so many weeks apart, and we are learning how to stay connected, grow as a couple, and communicate well in the midst of my on-going absence.

Lots of video calls these days

Autumn gets to experience “single parenting” for the weeks that I’m gone on build trips, and we are grateful she is living on the mission base with other families who can provide friendship, encouragement and helpful care (One example: While I was gone recently, Rowen had a bad cold and then came down with a stomach flu in the middle of it. After numerous very short nights and then pulling an all-nighter sitting up holding him upright since he couldn’t breathe well laying down, another family here on base brought over a comfy recliner so she could spend the following nights reclined while holding him and still get some rest herself. So grateful for the body of Christ around us!) Although this is an intense season in some ways, we’re finding new rhythms for our family that are working well and we find ourselves so grateful for God’s faithful work in the past that prepared us in so many ways for our current circumstances. As always, we see, experience, and affirm His faithfulness!

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A NOTE ABOUT UPDATES/PICTURES

We mentioned social media earlier, and for those of you wanting to occasionally see more pictures with additional details about each build trip and various events for our family here in PNG, following Autumn on FB or Instagram is the best way to see those. There is a highlight saved on both those platforms with all of the pictures and explanations shared from each build trip so far.

Here are a few photos from the past several months.