Christine’s Blog

The Search for a Jolly Old Elf

I really wanted to see Santa Clause. Continental Airlines had already firmly established itself in last place in my mind of the American based airlines—Christine and I have quite a rank list going so far—suffice it to say though, I was awake as our flight passed over the North Pole. My one great nemesis; however, in this endeavor to prove the existence of hardworking elves and the Land of Misfit Toys, was darkness. That dreaded 5 months of continual darkness for those who live way up north. I saw nothing!

The mystery remains.

Perhaps as you read this, you are coming to grips with our east-west centrist view of travel as I did. In my mind, I have always thought that to get to China, you must cross the Pacific. This thinking is incorrect. You must fly north until you turn south and cross the Arctic, and the Russian Federation flag planted firmly in the ice. The only east-west of our entire trip was Columbus to Newark. Other than that, we flew the route of the Reindeer.

This alertness on a plane where we were stowed securely in the middle row, without a window in sight, kept me aft with the stewards and those waiting for the lavatory staring out a tiny window on the escape hatch—the one that turns into a giant slide after you set down gently in the Hudson or some other urban body of water. The sun did rise enough for me to glimpse a very desolate and rocky, snow-covered, Siberia (wouldn’t want to be trapped there), followed by a surprisingly flat (very flat!) Mongolian steppe, and a blizzard rocked northern China. My excitement built as around 3am (Eastern time, on which the plane operated) we neared the Great Wall of China. I don’t think that I moved more than the occasional wipe of the fog caused by my breath on the tiny plastic portal. By 3:30, still nothing, and now the sun had set. I was quite disappointed, but I guess this means that we need to return to China someday.

That’s all for today. Up next: Hong Kong (briefly), Port Moresby (also briefly), and Mount Hagen (yes, I scared off a pick-pocket simply with a stern stare!)

Thank you all for your prayers and support. They are greatly needed and greatly appreciated!
Ryan

Our Home

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Currently we reside in Doctor Guest Flat 1, a beautiful little apartment in the Highlands of PNG.  When you first enter, it really looks like any American apartment.  The main portion is one large room consisting of the living room (where you see Ryan sitting in the first picture) and the kitchen to the left. Beyond this area is the bedroom and bathroom.  So far the only obvious difference is the lack of a TV, which I have to say I actually like.

The kitchen is very much like any other kitchen.  We have a fridge, stove, microwave, and the all important coffee pot.

But, first big difference - the water filter.  The water here is actually rain water and is fairly clean.  Some of the missionaries here drink it straight from the tap.  However, having sterile American digestive tracts, we are choosing to also put everything we drink through the water filter.

The other massive difference in the kitchen, which drives Ryan crazy, is that we have to soak all our fresh fruits and vegetables from the market in bleach before we eat them.  It’s an especially sad thing to do to strawberries….

The next big difference is our hot water.  It is provided via solar power.  So, if it’s too rainy, or we use too much, it disappears.  Thankfully we have an electrical back-up if we’re all out of hot water and really don’t want a cold shower in the morning.  Of course, we can’t be too picky about the shower in general.

Here’s a picture of our shower.  Now that’s not what you normally see in America.

Otherwise, we are really quite pampered here in our little home.  We have a washing machine, and the dryer (which involves wooden clothespins) is actually faster than the dryer I used in my last apartment.  Praise God for the strong sun that comes from altitude and being near the equator!

So, despite all the differences, we are quite enjoying our temporary home and will probably even be sad to leave it when that day comes.  But until then, it’s home sweet home. : )

-Christine

Journey halfway around the world in 60 hours

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Before a week ago, I had never been on a plane for more than probably 8 hours.  In fact, I was antsy trying to sit still flying to Europe a few months ago.  Needless to say, it took more than 8 hours to get to Papua New Guinea.  After a 16 hour flight from Newark we made it to Hong Kong where we had a 24 hour lay over, which was just enough to get out, sleep in a hotel, and see Noah’s Arc.

We stayed in a very nice hotel that oddly had mirrors everywhere and a glass bathroom that provided no privacy.  Strange indeed!  Then we were able to take a double decker tram and a ferry to a separate island where they had a life-sized replica of Noah’s Arc.  Very cool but not nearly as Biblically based as you would think.  The theme was loving life and loving yourself.  The best part of the day was traveling around Hong Kong.  What a strange city so squished and packed with people!

From there we flew on to Papua New Guinea, which was another 7 hours of flying time.  Port Moresby was our entry point where I had my first breath of warm tropical air, and what proved to be a very interesting 6 hour lay over.  Port Moresby is the largest city in Papua New Guinea and the biggest airport in the country.  That being said, it was so small it made the Columbus airport seem as massive as O’Hare in comparison.  We went “downtown” for lunch at one of the nicer hotels then spent the rest of the afternoon at the “café” in the Port Moresby airport, which was of course the only place to eat or drink anything there.  Yes, everything in quotations because it isn’t what you would think of for a downtown or a cafe, but I just don’t know how to describe the place.  However, they are a country full of amazing coffee and tea and that was our first day to experience it.  Cheap airport coffee at the run down cafe - amazing!

Until this point everything had been moving smoothly.  We missed the crazy guy who shut down Newark airport by 2 hours and all our flights had surprisingly been on time.  That was, until we tried to leave Port Moresby.  I’m not sure how to describe this airport. After going through security a couple times, we found ourselves in a large room full of people in chairs.   At the end of the room were a few doors.  One by one a flight would be called and the people would line up in front of one of the doors.  When it came time for our flight, though, no one called for it.  And we continued to wait.  No one said the flight was delayed.  No one said it was cancelled.  No one told us anything.  Finally, about an hour later, lo and behold, they called our flight number and off we went.  Still no explanation.  When we landed in Mt Hagen, we all went into a room together and our bags were brought to us by forklift in two big piles.  Really it was a bit of a free-for-all in there.  But guess what, all of our bags made it on all four flights! We didn’t lose anything! (For anyone who doesn’t know our previous adventures, yes, this is big news.)

The last part of our trip was a short 45 minute drive with Jeff to Kudjip.  Driving through the Highlands of Papua New Guinea was such an amazing contrast to Hong Kong.  Yes, there were people everywhere walking down the road.  But the people weren’t packed together.  They had space to breath.  And the buildings were few and far between.  I felt like I could breath again too.  And that is how we made it to Kudjip Nazarene Hospital about 60 hours after leaving Columbus, Ohio.  : )

Please pray for the patients, doctors, and staff at Kujip Nazarene Hospital.  Pray for health for Ryan and I.  At the moment I can’t stop sneezing of all things.  And pray that we would be able to learn the lessons God has for us here and be able to participate in God’s work and be useful to the people here.  Thank you all so much and stay tuned for Ryan’s random thoughts on Papua New Guinea…

Christine

P.S.  Our connection here is quite slow, as is blogger. Catch the rest of our pictures on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=183717&id=677876100&l=15ec33feca). We will be adding more as we go.   Thanks and God bless.

Preparing for Papua New Guinea

It is our pleasure to share with you the exciting work God has planned for Ryan and I this January and February! He has opened the way for us to spend six weeks in Papua New Guinea ministering to the people there.

I will be working with the doctors at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital. Amazingly this will count as part of my medical school education! Kudjip is a 100 bed hospital run by four family practice doctors, a pediatrician, and a surgeon. I will be working with them seeing patients in the hospital and the emergency room, assisting in surgery, and delivering babies in the maternity ward. Much care is also provided at this hospital for patients with HIV and AIDS including a program to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child. This is such an opportunity for me to learn more about practicing medicine in the setting of a mission hospital as well as learning about a new culture and people group whom I have never interacted with before.

Ryan will also have many opportunities to work with the in house missionaries and the local population in multiple capacities. He will be helping with IT support, construction projects, and with the Community Based Health Care program, which is involved in training and assisting local populations to improve the health of the community, medically, spiritually and economically. However, most of all, he is excited to get to know the people in the surrounding villages and work with them to establish and promote small business and entrepreneurial development.

While God has opened the door to us for this amazing opportunity, we need your support in order to walk through that door and do the work we feel God has called us to do. There are two crucial ways in which we hope to have your support. First of all, this trip will cost about $8,500 for the two of us including continuing to pay rent on our apartment in Columbus while we are gone. The bulk of that amount is to pay for the plane tickets, which are $5,300. We will be taking many flights before ending up in Mt Hagen, Papua New Guinea after about 62 hours of travel! Due to the enormous generosity of our friends and family during our wedding and a scholarship from Ohio State University, we have raised $6,100 so far leaving us with $2,400 left to raise. Whether or not you feel you can provide monetary support, your prayers, beginning today, are vitally important. Through prayer, God will not only provide materially for our trip, but He will strengthen us spiritually so that we can truly let His light shine!

Thank you so much for following our adventure through our blog! Keep checking back over the next months for updates and please contact us if you are interesting in supporting us in this journey.

Christine