Now the project booklet  goes for approval and funding.  This project will be an exciting challenge to work and see through to completion.  Mike has had our son, Joseph Chapman, Bill Wright, and Canadian Hydro Components as consultants throughout the design.  He has put together 11 sections starting at the headwaters going to the hydro plant, timelines, cost estimates, drawings, etc.

Wheel Barrow Races – a first for most.

Not sure about this!!!

Paul and pikinni

Hold ON!!!

Relays

Come on Dad lets go!

Get Ready to goPastor Frank and pikinini on the way!Shall we dance?Kumi and Little John on the run!John Kua and pikinni

The hospital is coming along well.  Pushing to get cabinets done in OPD, punch list items, landscaping, electrical, autoclaves for a few.

front right corner looking left

side view water tank, storage room, left side of house from the front

Looking from parking lot to Out Patient Department on left and Pharmacy on right

Front gate entering the hospital.

At this time we have trusses on the Emergency bldg, Maternity bldg and the Pediatric ward. They are preparing the Surgical ward today for trusses tomorrow. We also received more materials last evening from Lae and we are getting the chicken wire cut for on top of the purlins. Back fill in front of the OPD building started today on the first fill for compaction. The last of the block work is going up on the OPD building also. This was kept until last because of the upper roof design is more complicated than the other buildings.

As we look forward the project is going to change here quickly with more of the roofs going on and fill around the buildings, underground electrical and plumbing to be placed for back fill over the top.

Work & Witness Construction
This week I am looking to start the foundation for the new volunteer house. The lead in design and engineering for the volunteer house has been Dr. John Brothwell. Thanks to Dr. Brothwell for his commitment in volunteering not only his professional services at the hospital but taking on the task of helping with the support buildings here in Kudjip.

While Diane and myself are here we have about 15 support buildings to get built while here at the station in the next 3 years. We would like to encourage you to put work and witness teams together for coming to Kudjip. These support buildings are a vital part of the

hospital and need to be constructed as soon as possible for the assisting in the opening of the new hospital. These are going to be housing for much needed staff that are actually needed at this time.

We have 3 other teams coming right after Dr. Brothwell’s team. This will give us a start but will need more to help complete the tasks before us. Please keep us in your prayers for the construction. We are hoping to have more plans on the Work & Witness blog this week for you to look at. If you have not looked at the site lately you should to see the information that helps with questions. You can find it at www.wwpngnhm.com

Prayer Requests:

1. Sewer treatment, We are still waiting for the design from Heduru Contractors at this time. We need to see the design options so we can make a decision on installing a mechanical plant or a pond system. We are wanting the work to be done for as low maintenance cost as possible. Also Dr. Bill McCoy is working hard to come up the about 1.4 million dollars (estimated at this time) for paying for the system. We also are getting close on starting construction so we can open the new hospital upon completion.
2. For the workers on site hearing the word of God during devotion each day.
3. That the work & witness teams coming will have a safe and productive, fun time while in Kudjip.
4. Dr. Bill & Marsha McCoy as they leave this coming weekend for the states for deputation. That it will be some what relaxing, safe and that God will be before them every where they go.

Well enough for this report I am trying to keep them some what short for reading. The first photo is of the construction between the buildings from front to back. Second is of the all the workers on site after the operating theater gave the devotion on site. I will be taking another panoramic picture in the next couple of days and will send it out for you to see.

Michael

Well it has been a wonderful week with the construction sites here in Kudjip!

We are real excited with the progress this week with the materials arriving, meetings with the contractor and support staff. Progress at this point, we finished pouring the last of the slabs on the floors yesterday! Yea, all of the flat work is complete.

At this time we are excited that most all of the walls on the buildings are complete 6 course’s high. The one exception is the Maternity ward this was the last slab and so Monday we will finish the block to the 6 courses. Three buildings are 80% complete on the core fill. We will be completing these buildings with core fill Monday or Tuesday. We will also be core filling one of the wards which we have built scaffolding getting ready for the next 6 courses of block.

The exciting news is Monday we will be starting a 10 minute devotion on site! Praise the Lord. Baru Dyire the NHM Secretary and I had been talking earlier in the week about that we need to start a bible study or devotion on site earlier in the week. On Thursday I was headed home for lunch and so I thought I would just stop by the project to see what was going on. It was an easy day in the job because of materials coming and not being on site yet. As I was let in the locked entrance gate I saw some men sitting around talking as usual over on the lumber. Some men were working scattered through the project. Then one of the men came up to me and asked that I would sit down and learn some Tok Pisen with them. You see they know I am learning and they like to help. Or at least that is what I think; maybe they like to laugh at me. Well I have not had much conversation with this man and so my first thought was no I think I am hungry. But at that time a second man arrived asking for me to come. Well maybe for a minute I said.

We then were sitting on the lumber and they began to ask of the American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. I told them a little of what I know, then they asked about the twin towers that were destroyed in New York. "Were they being built again?" From what I knew they were not going to build the same buildings but some new ones would be built. Then they got onto the terrorists’ that blow people up and asked what I knew. Well about all I said was that they need God.

From there we started talking about the men on site and what was there relationship with God? Why is it that we sometimes have to deal with sin and why we do not show God in all our lives at all times? Well talking in and out of Tok Pisen I ask them if we show Christ in our lives every minute of the day? Then one of the tribe’s men talked of how America was the world super power and they have "One Nation under God" on the coins in America. I then used that quickly to give the illustration that when we come together as Christians that we become one voice and a voice we need to use to show and tell all people the love of God and help our brother. Asking them, when was it you last helped another tribe? If we are brothers then why do you not help him? Or do you? Then went on to illustrate that Diane and I came here to help our fellow brother, then pointed at all of them. You our brothers is Christ that is why we come here working for no pay, but to do Gods work. This Hospital is a place that we help people to find Christ and save their souls for God.

Well I could keep going but I will stop there. At the end of the conversation I noticed 2 hours had passed and that the 25 to 30 that were there became 50 to 60. Realizing that I did not see them come and where from, but they were there when I looked around. This was all God this day I did not plan or want to when asked too. But I thank God for the opportunity to talk to the men and witness to them. I then asked if they would like a short devotional before work in the mornings. The response was overwhelming and with a good voice of "Yes" they then asked why does the Hospital do it and we do not? Well I had no good answer. Well we will start Monday I told them and they were real happy to hear me say that. So pray for God’s word to be heard and souls be saved.

Thanks again for your support and prayers,

Michael

Warm Greetings from PNG!

Well sorry that I have not been able to get the email out sooner. There has been a lot going on. The Hospital did open last Thursday after some apologies and other things lined up for it to happen. Workers seem to be happy at the moment after todays meetings with the tribal line today. We seem to be on track again at a great pace again. Worked on site started a little last Friday and has been going full speed since yesterday.

25 meters of concrete is being poured by hand everyday. Today 2 semi trucks of CMU blocks arrived with 2 more due tomorrow. Block layers are returning to work. PNG power “Elcom” even arrived on Sunday and removed some of the power poles. Now the South East foundation of the maternity ward can be poured. We did have some issues with some power line fuses today that left some buildings in the dark but seem to have it straightened out that situation. The hydro is down at this moment with the shaft being machined and reworked from bearing wear on the shaft. Ray Comstock is here and is dealing with that situation. Him and his wife Karen will be leaving in a couple of months and are going to be greatly missed.

I took some pictures yesterday and put them together to give a panoramic view. It is a big file so I will put it on our blog on the internet under construction. www.chapmanconnection.com You can click on it to enlarge it. I am attaching one that will give you a peak of lots of guys working on site.

Well enough for this update! Thank you for your prayers all of us here appreciate it very much.

Michael Chapman

Full View

Well earlier this week we experienced our first situation with an unhappy birth line from one of the local tribes. They seem to get jealous and mad at each other for what ever reason at different times.

When I arrived in Kudjip the Hospital was closed because of a birth line stopping concrete trucks from coming on the project to pour concrete. Dr. Bill has to use the closing of the hospital to get their attention and calm things down with that line. During this closer we heard that 2 people had died that needed medical attention. (this is not good) The Dr’s here do this as a very, very last resort. after 4 days the elders put enough pressure on the line soon the line came to apologize to Dr. Bill for the problems they have caused. (this is a shame society so the line was embarrassed) Dr. Bill opened the hospital and tensions calm down. All of this was because they wanted a subcontract for mixing concrete that he was told he could not have.

There really is no court system here so people settle it on the own with the elders taking charge and settling the dispute or incident. In fact last night our missionary bible study Dr. Bill said the Dr. Mimi and Dr. Jim Radcliffe today are to trying and repair both hands of a man that had the chopped with a machete. It was a family argument and he may loose use of both hands or have limited use.

How you prayer worriers came into play is this, Dennis shared the prayer request that I had asked for.

It started Tuesday!

First the Project Manager for the general contractor “Heduru Contractors” was chased on site Tuesday morning by a man. He did not catch Peter Numa but soon left so he would not be caught. Peter then came to my office and told me a man had chased him wanting an electrical contract to install the switches and plugs in the new hospital. After some investigation by myself and Sailas Wuksik head of hospital security we found that the person that is the go between for the contractor and the tribes took a bribe under the table for 350 kina (about 115.00). Well the line was told that they would get the contract. Well that is why they chased Peter because as far as they were concerned that contract was theirs.

Well this is the situation, a tender (bid) process was let out by the contractor and the Australian government sees the tender and approves the monies for a fair process. The line was 3rd in the bid process but because they gave money under the table and told Heduru they would lower their price to the lowest they are to get the contract. Well this will just not work because of the rules set forth by the Aussie government. Also not fair to the other bidders. Well Wednesday and Thursday we had 4 meetings. If you can imagine they do not use watches so the meeting starts when all the people are there. Lots of time go’s by waiting. Well I arranged the meetings and had a local pastor come to the meetings that is well respected and was PNG’s first District Superintendent Pastor Tiame. We would open with prayer and then discuss the situation. Some of the meetings were tense a little but most of the time it was calm. They are very respectful and did not talk over each other. I would run the meetings and because I represented NHM (Nazarene Hospital Ministries) the give me a lot of respect. Also being a white skin missionary they will listen to what you have to say very intently. (This is a huge responsibility) then I would ask someone to speak then the next one to speak. We seemed to be at an impasse when I sent out the email to my construction email list for prayer. This is the email Dennis brought to you.

Next meeting Friday, (your a day behind)
We met with the line and they where very agitated they are now very insistent that the work is theirs and they want it! We keep explaining and talking and they do not seem to get it. Partly because of language between them selves and understanding the rules. Rules they have never followed. This time we brought a man by the name of Nick from Heduru’s work force to come with us to help talk to them. We then decided that the strategy was to tell them Heduru will throw out the bids and do the work them selves. This did not sit well! We then asked them to come along side and work with the contractor. This did not sit well! Then Nick had a great idea he would offer them work besides helping with the electrical. He offered them the mixing of cement to fill the block walls. Well this did not sit well! They wanted a contract! Well we asked them to go think about what was offered and we would meet at 1:30 pm. After the meeting I got myself, Sailas, pastor Tiame together in the NHM conference room to pray and ask Dr. Bill to come to learn of events at this time. We explained that the line is very agitated and we may be looking at hard times ahead if they do not come to reason.

Well Praise God!
We finally met at 2:15/2:30 pm and they where calm apologized then explained that they wanted the new Hospital to go forward and be a success and were willing to accept the terms but first had some questions. They wanted fair wages for doing electrical for the experienced men. We can do that! this was a 1 hour meeting that lifted the weights right off the shoulders.

The amazing thing is this and I have heard of this but never part of it. When we went in to the meeting at 2:15 Thursday it was 7:15 pm Wednesday in Anchorage!!! You were praying during the meeting! Thank the Lord for your prayers!

We would just like to say thank you for partnering with us with prayer. Our God is good and can do anything in his will. Remember as you grow older and become responsible adult that this story was created because of men doing this unjustly. The bribe under the table to get work. Men not talking and listening to each other. Study Eph: 5 and learn to be an upright Christian. You only get two things in this life first of all God and second Dad and Mom. First your name and second your reputation. Cherish it and do not tarnish it because you will not ever get it back from you fellow man.

You were part of this story in a bid way!
Love to all in Christ
Michael Chapman

I am pleased to tell you that Our God is a big God and can do anything. We have finished our 4th set of meetings in three days this afternoon and the line has agreed to come along side Heduru Contractors to accomplish the electrical work with no angriness or argument.

Thanks to the team, Michael, Sialas, and Nick with Heduru came together to see what we could put together to offer them that would work for both the PNGIF grants and give the line some work. They have agreed to work with Heduru!

At this point Heduru will hire them as employee’s and give them some cement work filling the block walls. Then they will work with some Heduru employee’s from Port Moresby to accomplish the electrical work.

I feel that Nick with Heduru came up with a great idea giving them the extra work doing the cement work.

I do not even want to think of the things that would have happened if we would not have come to an agreement. All we can say is the God was in it and gave the wisdom to accomplish his work not only for the project but for the hospital and every individual that comes for services.

When listening to them talk and as they talked I could hear their frustration that no one would listen to them and let them ask for jobs. After hearing this and told them that they should come to the NHM project manager of management team to discuss important subjects not to let frustration build.

Thank you for your prayers from all of you! YOUR PRAYERS WORKED!

Michael