Being a bush missionary, you get to do a lot of different things.  So, this day, I was thinking, “I’m a LumberJack, Baby!”

I taught some of our Bible School students how to run the chainsaw.  They just don’t like all the safety equipment.  They prefer to be barefoot and not have to worry about gloves.  I cringe when I find them working that way!!! (Please don’t send me letters about it…I know they need to use safety equipment!)

This picture shows the amount of wood that the mill could cut in a few days.  We had to pull all the logs to the mill, and then carry out all the cut timber.  It took about 20 minutes to get out of the bush from here, so that meant we had to dedicate several days to just carry timber away from the mill.

Cutting wood with the Wood-Mizer LT15

When we moved into Kotidanga, we shared a house with Pastor James Naudi.  At that time, he was married to Rhonda, and she was expecting a little one, who we now know as Caleb.  Becky learned how to cook over the open fire from Rhonda, and they spent hours together every day.  As the time for delivery drew near, I felt the sincere desire to be free of the bush house with a soon-coming crying baby.  You see, our two little ones were past that stage, and I was not thrilled with the idea of putting up with someone else’s baby!  (Babies are fun—for about five minutes, then they can go back to their own parents!)

We had been working on building our house.  We started cutting wood for it in August of 2005, and all the wood was ready by November.  We let it dry, and started building in March 2006.  There were several challenges.  I had never built anything before.  Now, it was time to do my best to get things straight.  God brought us in contact with two carpenters, Bob and Lako, from Charity Baptist Church in Kerema town.  (For those of you familiar with the ministry at Charity, Lako is Ilava’s dad…but that is another story for another day.)

In April 2005, we had finished building the house.  It has taken us since then to finish the inside (and it still isn’t done completely…)  This house sure has made it easier to live in the bush.