Finally got the pictures sorted through and got them uploaded.
So for your viewing pleasure: http://picasaweb.google.com/seeryn/Palawan
No, I took far more then 102 pictures, but I have a limit on their server, so for the rest you'll have to come visit me.
Y'all enjoy
Nathan
Howdy y'all,
I'm more then a bit late getting this out. Got busy talking with the folks.
I landed at DFW on Monday May 5th at 8:20pm. Just 40min over-due. Not too bad considering how far I had to come from Manila.
Save some thunderstorms around Tokyo, the flights were quite smooth.
The flight was delayed for nearly an hr from Tokyo due to an unexplained noise. Finally tracked it down to to the ventilation system for one of the rear toilets.
We were again delayed in Minneapolis due to traffic. I think we were number 14 in line for take off when we pulled away from the gate.
Customs at MSP went fairly smoothly despite a paranoid CBP agent wanting an explanation as to why I would bring native artifacts home. Fortunately, the other officer, who I suspect carried more clout, wasn't the least bit worried and even helped me tape the box back up.
Both of my boxes and even the 4, 6ft poles arrive with me. I was please to not have to deal with lost luggage.
My family was there to meet me when I got off the flight. Stopped by the Grandparents on the way home.
After a bit of sleep, I'm starting to get adjusted to the 13hr time difference.
Now to get all the pictures sorted and online...
Y'all take care and God bless!
Nathan
Howdy everyone!
The title applied to this project is Let There Be Light.
So the first question is, where are we going to find flashlights that fit the requirements (cheap, simple to operate, few parts for the people to take apart, long battery life, durable)?
To answer this question, strap on your time machine and we'll jump back to early February at SWAU where they are packing the Valentine's packages for the SMs. Many goodies were included in these packages, but the item we are looking for is a Pak-Lite. Its a flashlight that was designed and created by a class-mate of my brothers that is quite simply, two LEDs attached to the top of a 9volt battery. Simple, durable, cheap.
Fast forward the three weeks it takes for a small package to arrive via USPS and that flashlight (as well as all the tasty food items) was a hit. Everyone on the project was quite fascinated with the little light. So when David had this idea for the Let There Be Light project, this flashlight was the first thing that popped into his head. On poking around the website for Pak-Lite's <http://www.9voltlight.com> he found the basic model running just shy of $13 each. Multiplying that $13 times the approximately 30 that David feels we need to properly start this project and you come up with a number thats awfully close to $400. Where is $400 going to come from?
On Monday evening of last week, David mentioned this idea to the rest of the team as we were enjoying some yummy food. He mentioned that he wasn't sure where the money was going to come from. As I sat there and listened to his story and the amount needed, I was reminded of an email I'd received the week prior.
Apparently, after I'd already arrive here on Palawan, my church had some additional funds donated towards the fund raising that I was doing to allow me to come over here. The email asked what I wanted to do with this money. I replied that I would ask and see what was needed on the project. I was expecting the George's to come in the following day, but as it turned out, they didn't end up coming back in from the lowlands at all. So I didn't get to ask them. I was intending to reply again with instructions to sit on the money and I'd purchase a few items that I felt were needed when I got home and send them over, but I forgot to send that email three days in a row.
Oh, I guess you're probably wondering about how much money was donated "late". It was $400.
So here we have God answering prayers months prior to the idea even being formed, both in the case of the flashlight itself and the money to make the purchase. Just a little reminder of Isaiah 65:24 "...Before they call, I will answer..." Yup, God is still alive and working for his children, even before we know what He's doing for us!
I'll be leaving the mountains next Sunday (Apr 27). Will arrive in Manila on April 30th where I'll spend a few days then arrive at DFW on the evening of May 5th.
A little good news from home to pass along, my "little" brother found his Miss Right and she's agreed to marry him. If you want all the juicy details, you'll have to talk to him, or even better, talk with her.
A big congrats to Larry and Alex!
Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers!
Nathan
04-06-08 Howdy folks, Things have been staying fairly busy here in Kementian. Not nearly to the point where we are swamped, but enough to keep me mostly out of trouble. The number of people on the project has been varying with supervisors coming, families coming in, people going on vacation, obligations out of the mountains etc. I've been doing more computer work. Never exactly what one expects to find in the mountains, but necessary none the less. Audio recording/editing has eaten most of my time with a few other things thrown in for good measure The dry season has pretty well set in full force and as a result the water to turn the hydro is nearly gone. Which leaves us relying on solar power. Thursday saw a reprieve of this as it rained for about 4hrs straight then off and on for the rest of the day. Allowed us to get full power out of the hydro again which was much needed to get those batteries back up to par. Our demoniac friend hasn't caused any more trouble that I've heard of. The couple times I've seen him he hasn't changed since he left here. He acts as though he's mentally not as old as he is physically. His mannerism are that of a young child. I hear that he's still prone to anger out bursts and this leads me to continue in the belief that he wasn't free of the spirit when he left here nor is he now. Where God is going with this I don't have a clue, but I do know that all things work together for good, so we need to sit back and trust him will continuing to pray. Course, thats what we need to do for every situation isn't it? In trying to track down the package that contains, among other things, and upgraded alternator for the hydro, I found that it *should* be delivered within the next week or so. Seeing as its taken nearly three months to this point, I'm not going to hold my breath. It would be very nice to see that package prior to my departure. Speaking of departure, I received my tickets for the return trip on Thursday. I've just 22 days till I leave the project and 10 more till I land in at DFW on the evening of May 5th. Am I looking forward to leaving? Yes, but not cause I dislike this place. I've had a great experience here, though a challenge at times, and don't for a second regret coming out. I do miss my family a lot and am very much looking forward to seeing them again. Ok, thats enough rambling from me. Thanks for y'alls prayers, they are much appreciated. Nathan
Howdy folks!
Thank you so very much for your prayers regarding Turni and the demon possession. There was marked improvement of his condition as last week continued on.
On Thursday around noon, Turni and his father went back to their village. We don't feel that Turni is free of the demon, but he had made up his mind that he was better and wanted to go home. His dad was in agreement that he was better and was ready to go home as well. As it was, we were amazed that he had stayed around as long as he had. He'd been talking about going home almost since he got here.
We are continuing to pray for him and how this will be to God's glory.
There is much opportunity to witness through this experience as Turni's father, Mami (pronounced Mommy) is one of the head men of this part of the mountain. He's also one of the biggest witch doctors. The change that has happened in Mami over the duration of this project has been amazing. I'm told that when the George's arrived, Mami was one of the most adamant that the Palawano's should stay away from the clinic, and the school, and everything that had to do with the George's and this project.
A few months ago Mami asked that someone come up to his village to give Bible studies and then when his son became possessed with a demon, he specifically asked for Pastor George to come and help.
Its clear that the Holy Spirit is working on Mami's heart and that is beginning to bear fruits.
Please keep Turni, Mami, and the people of Nerahungan in your prayers. The devil doesn't want to let go of that village nor its people.
As for me, things have been going good. A mix of staying busy and having nothing to do. There's several projects that need to be finished before I leave in just over six weeks, but they aren't quite ready to be started just yet.
Still waiting on the box that the folks sent back in January to arrive. I'm told that its supposed to arrive sometime around the 25th of March. I know that box is loaded up with goodies, so I guess we'll be living pretty high on the hog for the three weeks or so that I'll have left when it arrives.
Also in the box is an HF antenna so generously donated by my friends on Two Wheeled Texans <http://www.twtex.com> and a high-amp alternator to nearly triple the power output of our hydro generator. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get both of those up and fully functional before I leave.
If any of you were planning on sending me anything, you best send it quick as it takes a long time to arrive. (no, thats not a hint for y'all to send me anything, just a statement if you were planning on it)
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!
God bless and y'all take care
Nathan
Howdy everybody,
This email is specifically a request for prayer.
Starting last Sunday we've been hearing many reports of demon possession and demonic disturbances from several villages in the surrounding area.
Thursday afternoon we were requested to go up to a village to help with Turni, one of the students from our school, who was demon possessed. David. Dwayne, and Rinal went up there that evening.
Friday morning we flew him down here to Kementian to get him into an environment where God was primary focus.
Its now Sunday and the improvement in Turni has been dramatic. He's not free of the demon just yet, and for this I request your prayers.
I also want to praise God for the protection that He has laid out on us. Satan has incredible powers, but none of them have been able to harm us because we are God's children.
I'm sure some will be asking "can't you cast a demon out instantly?" because I asked the same question.
Had that happened in this case, there's several lessons that we would not have learned. Again, another instance where we can't trust in our own thoughts and feelings but rely only on God's wisdom and timing.
I ask that you will continue to pray for this project and add a special prayer for protection from satan and his angels.
Thank you for your prayers!
Take care and God bless
Nathan
Howdy everybody!
Several months ago, the generator literally shook it self apart and in the process of taking it apart to tighten it all back up, the armature took a fair bit of abuse. When going back together with it, we found that the coil had been cracked in the process as well. We finally got a replacement coil and found that the generator doesn't work. Runs fine, but doesn't generate anything but noise (the muffler is long gone).
Worked on the Sthil 070 chain saw and narrowed it down to a bad spark plug. This chain saw is quite large, in fact it has a compression release so that you can even crank it over. I was unaware of this compression release and proceeded to yank quite hard on the rope. What I did was pick the saw up. As soon as I realized what was happening I stopped pulling which allowed my other hand, pressing down on the grab handle, to force the saw into the 2nd toe on my left foot. This resulted in a pretty fair bit of damage to the top of the distal knuckle and cracked my toenail all the way across from left to right. After a day or two it started turning pretty colors. Fortunately the chainsaw was not running or I'd be quite a few toes down from whats supposed to be on my left foot. For once, I'm thankful the beast didn't start on the first pull.
And yes, I did take pictures of it. Don't expect to see them prior to my return though.
After getting the toe taken care of, I went back down and was able to get the chainsaw running. Found it was missing a vent hose and couldn't use it. Got the vent hose and found that the spark plug failed when under load due to a cracked insulator. So now we're waiting on a replacement to be sent in.
After that much fun, I started working on editing sermons that we've recorded since October of last year to be placed on some media players for the local people to listen to.
Sadly the computer I'm working on is, well, we'll just say its seen its better days. It runs poorly even after a fresh install.
The audio software I'm using to do the editing (Audacity, for anyone that cares) is great for its price (Free!) but its nothing like some of the commercial software thats available. This is resulting in some of the sermons being unusable due to the inability to remove background noise, white noise, and other things we don't want there.
Ideally, I'd love to see a new computer and nice software to produce good quality audio for the people to listen to. Sadly the budget just doesn't allow for this right now.
Received word from home that someone was kind enough to "borrow" a wheel and tire off of my 4Runner thats sitting at my parents. While its really of no importance in the grand scheme of things, its annoying that someone would do that. Fortunately, the wheel itself was just what was available so nothing special. The tire on the other hand was pretty nice and had at least 90% of its tread-life remaining.
Oh well, I hope the person that borrowed it is blessed by the tire.
On a lighter note, I experience God's amazing workings just recently. When I left I called Verizon and had my service suspended till I returned. Unfortunately, something got mixed up and they reactivated my service back in December. This of course resulted in a bill which I wasn't expecting as I thought it was suspended. Since I was in Manila at the time I found this, I called Verizon and tried to straighten it out. At some point in the last 5yrs of service I've had with them I added a verbal password to my account and then promptly forgot it. So when I called I wasn't able to get around this password. This was the first time that I'd had that happen as on prior calls I'd been able to answer a series of questions and bypass the security question. This time that didn't happen. As a result I wasn't able to get anything done. I sent mom and email asking her to call from my phone (left in the states) and see if she could get anywhere. Nothing else I could do, so I prayed about it and let it be.
about a week later I receive an email from mom thanking me for adding her to the account and enabling her to get things worked out. Since I wasn't able to get past the security question, I wasn't able to do anything of the sort.
To top it off, the late fees, and many of the other fees were able to be removed from the bill thus reducing it immensely.
Again, God steps in and intervenes in the lives of His children. And to think that I have the audacity to doubt Him!
Somethings come up dealing with this project and I ask that you keep it in prayer. I feel its best to not expound upon the details at this time, I will say that it is at its base a differing of opinions and prayer is the only solution. If you could please keep it in prayer, I'd be very thankful.
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support, its much appreciated.
Take care and God bless y'all!
Nathan
02-14-08
Howdy everybody!
So what have I been up to? Vacation.
It was one of those whirl-wind vacations that you need a vacation from
when you are done.
I had a lot of fun even though it was really busy.
The vacation got started on January 30 when we were able to catch a
ride out in the helicopter as Dwayne was picking up plywood. Sure
beats hiking!
Jan 31 we caught the 4am shuttle to Puerto Princessa where we were to
catch a 245pm flight to El Nido.
long story short, I wound up missing my flight due to a traffic ticket
I received and took the 7am bus to El Nido the following morning. Not
exactly how I'd had it planned to go, but I still got to El Nido and
saw some pretty country side during the 9hr bus ride.
El Nido is really impossible to describe. The sheer beauty of
everything out there is just amazing. Exempting the town, everywhere
you looked was just amazing. I tried to take pictures, but beauty just
doesn't fit inside a picture, it has to be seen with one's own eyes.
On February 4th we caught the 6am bus from El Nido to Puerto to meet
Brandon's family. I also managed to finish getting the traffic ticket
finished that didn't happen before.
Went and saw Honda Bay and the Subterranean river there near Puerto.
Both are nice, but don't even remotely compare to El Nido.
Flew to Cebu on Thursday Feb 7th where we did nothing that after noon
and then took the ferry to Bohol on the morning of the 8th.
Upon arriving in Bohol we dropped our stuff at the hotel and took off
on a countryside tour.
Saw the chocolate hills, the Tarsier (sp?) monkeys and had lunch on a
floating restaurant.
Brandon's aunt's classmate is the wife of the mayor Tagbilaran (sp?)
the capitol of Bohol, so we had the pleasure of being the mayors
guests for duration of our stay. As a result of this we were invited
to the grand opening of a new resort and then a birthday party for the
mayor the following evening.
I skipped the grand opening as I didn't bring any dress clothes with me.
The birthday party was quite nice, but I'm not used to being at a
party where you've got millionaires (in USD not PHP), movie stars,
famous singers, etc. Especially when there's only 150 people there.
Sunday morning we took off early and went dolphin watching, then some
more snorkeling. The dolphin watching itself wasn't that great, but I
did see a nice sunrise from the boat.
Monday morning we flew to Manila where I had to stop doing the
vacation thing and get back to work.
Running several errands there takes a lot of time and again reminds me
why I don't like big cities.
I actually made my flight from Manila to Puerto yesterday. Picked up
some groceries and caught the 1pm shuttle down to Brooke's point.
And so concludes a whirl-wind vacation trip.
I have received all the emails y'all have sent me, I just haven't had
time to reply to them. Don't worry I'm not ignoring you, just gimme a
bit and I'll email you backpacking
Happy Valentines everybody!
Take care and God bless
Nathan
01-13-08
Howdy folks!
Things are continuing to continue on out here. The weather can't really decide if its rainy season or dry season, stuff keeps needing fixed, the clinic coming along, and is being held up by a lack of materials. Yup, pretty much the normal around here.
I am quite happy to say that my relations with my supervisor have improved dramatically. I ask that you continue to keep this specific issue in prayer as I know that its only through everyone's prayers that it is working out.
Had communion at church yesterday. Its a fair bit different here then back in the States.
For the foot washing service we used whatever buckets, pans, pots, etc that we could find.
The unleavened bread looked like a pancake (about 3" dia) and tasted like fried flour. Quite tough, but entirely edible.
The 'wine' was coconut milk. Again, different, but worked quite well.
Like everywhere else, the kids had a hard time waiting to eat the bread and drink the juice when it was already in their hands. Even saw a few adults 'sampling' before it was time.
With communion, church ran nearly an hour over. This wouldn't be a problem except we were hiking out to Bingbilang and Malis. We finally got on the trail for that just after 1400, and made it out in about 1.5hrs. Told our stories and sang our songs at Bingbilang then loaded up to head over to Malis.
I don't know if I've explained this before, but Bingbilang is basically at the trail head. Malis is about a 20min drive away. All, and yes, I do mean ALL, the kids from Bingbilang just love to climb in the back of the Hilux pickup for the ride to Malis. Yesterday the bed was so full that they all had to stand, no sitting cause there wasn't room. To top this off, there were six of us in the cab where there's only supposed to be five. Just wait, it gets better. At Malis we sang our songs and told our stories, then it was time to find the patient that needed to be taken care of. We were thrilled to find out that the individual was actually at Malis so we wouldn't have to go chasing all over the place to find him. So we loaded up the patient and his three family members (family is required at the hospital as the hospital provides no services besides medical and thats after we bring the meds to them from the pharmacy). Course the sick people go inside the cab so now there's 7 people where there's only supposed to be 5 and now we have three people hanging onto the window frames and standing on the running boards. I wish I'd been able to get a picture of everyone on the truck at once. But I was basically unable to move.
We needed to call back into Kementian to see what we were to do with the patient, so we drove out to the National Highway where the radio would reach into the mountains. While they were talking on the radio all the kids and those of us not involved in the radio conversation stood around and goofed off. Took a few pictures, which prompts everyone else to want a picture of them too. Showed them some juggling, got a picture of me juggling in the middle of the National Highway. And watched a tricycle (its a ~150cc motorcycle with a homemade-sidecar-type-thing attached go by with a carabow in it. Now a carabow is a domesticated water buffalo. These are quite large, about the size of your average cow back home. I'm really not sure how to explain how this thing fit in the tricycle cause it just doesn't seem possible. I don't fit in a tricycle very well, let alone something that big!
I wish I'd had the good sense to take a picture of it. I think I was too busy staring and trying to contemplate how in the world that could actually happen to snap a pic with the camera that was in my hand. Oh well, such is life.
Speaking of pictures, I've been able to get the first couple months worth of pictures sent home. Now if we can persuade my family to quit looking at them long enough to put them online (amidst all the other things they have to do) I'll be able to give y'all a link to them. Don't hold your breath till it happens as my family is pretty swamped. It'll happen, I just don't want to get your hopes up too high.
A wee tidbit of news that has nothing to do with my being here, but something I'm kinda excited about:
I received an email last week telling me that my attempt at completing over 1000miles in less then 24hrs on a motorcycle has been accepted by the Iron Butt Association ( www.ironbutt.org) and I've been admitted into their ranks. Most of you think this is nuts I'm sure, and I would have to agree. Its and idea I'd been toying with for awhile and then the opportunity was forced on me when I needed to get to AFM's training (1200mi from home) and only had a day to do it in. So yeah, I can now say I've done it and I get a few nick nacks to prove it. Now I think I'll pass on doing anything like it again for quite some time.
If any of you are bored enough to go look at the trip report, you can go to http://1talltxn.blogspot.com and look it up there. You'll have to dig past all the Kementian News to find it. Should be under the month of July '07.
Ok, enough rambling from me.
I thank you all for your continued prayers and support. I can't express how much they mean to me.
I pray that this note finds each and every one of you happy and well.
May God bless y'all
Nathan
