The Big Woods family got to know Craig and Shelly while they were part of our church family and training at New Tribes Jersey Shore. They are currently serving in Sentani, Papua Indonesia.  They have three children, Jade, Kale and Hali. Craig is currently involved in building homes among the Kora people, in the tribe of Nggingginem .  There is much work to be done. Pray for wisdom as the men leave their families for extended periods of time to prepare the way to move into the tribe. Pray for strength and health for Craig as he faces danderous conditions for building and for Shelly and the kids while he is away. Ask God to be preparing the hearts of these tribal people for the good news.

craig_schafer@ntm.org  

Thanksgiving Day 2009

Hey everyone, we are back into civilization! I don’t have a lot of time to write right now but just wanted to let everyone know that we are doing good and are at the guesthouse in Sentani right now. Shelly and the kids did great interior and we had a good time finally being able to live with the people as a family. Matt and Crystal (Shelly’s sister) Kull were also able to come along with us on this trip in and helped out a ton. Matt works with radios and solar stuff for a living and so it was perfect for helping me set up our solar stuff! We were able to get all the basics set up and then hook up our fridge and freezer and a couple of lights!! So now when we go back in we will have a freezer to put meat into! Thanks a ton Matt and Crystal! On top of that we just had a great time hanging out with the people and also with Matt and Crystal. We are now in Sentani for a short break and supply buying before we head back interior for good. Please be praying for us as we go back in and the challenges we will be facing. It is tough enough getting used to a new language and culture, but doing it when you have no beds, chairs, shelves or kitchen table makes it even more of a challenge. On this trip also, Shelly and Jade got lice from the people so that did not help to make things any more encouraging! Please be praying for us and for these next few months as we get adjusted to life in Nggingginem. Thank you all so much for standing behind us and praying for us.

On a Holiday note we just want to say happy thanksgiving to all of you!! Not a whole lot is going on over here for thanksgiving but we still have lots to be thankful for. God has been so good to us and it is good for us at times like these to just reflect on what He has done and focus on those things and not just the hard things. He is so faithful and His grace alone should make us be the most thankful people in the world. Also we are thankful to you for praying for us. God has surrounded us with such a wonderful band of prayer warriors and we want to thank you for that. Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy a good Turkey dinner for us!!

Thankful, even without Turkey and football!!

The Schafer’s
 

End of October 2009

Well, all is well here. Craig left Thursday and we are still alive here without him. It's been a little crazier this time cause I am trying to pack up some stuff to be ready to move when he gets back. Other than that, it’s been a bit uneventful. The Mussers, our coworkers, made it into Wamena this morning. It was great seeing them again! The kids were very excited! So it will be great reconnecting with them again and just hanging out. Pray for them as well, as they are getting settled, with 2 little boys – trying to adjust to a new life, and then starting house building soon.

I don’t have much to say… which I am thankful for, cause nothing too dramatic has happened. The day after Craig left, our fuse box burst into flames – Ok, so that was a little scary for me but a very sweet couple over here came and fixed it all up and we have lights and a non burning fuse. Then the next day our water heater wasn’t working – the same couple helped me with that – and now we have hot water again, so God has once again shown Himself to be a God of love and faithfulness and patience!!! He sure takes care of us when we are here alone! So yes, that is why I can say, there isn’t much to write about – all is well here. We have a great and caring God!

Craig’s doing good. They were able to put the flooring on our coworkers house and even put a door knob on our front door. They set up our system for collecting rain water. That’s another prayer request, we were trying to order piping to pipe water from a distant river, however we got news that it would be at least 1 month or more like 2 before the hosing will be here so that is not very nice news just pray that we will be content with collecting rain water and that our piping will get here as quick as possible!

The kids are doing good… still miss their daddy, but getting excited to move onto the ‘mountain’ . Hali is working on her second tooth and rolling like crazy! She rolls around the room. And today, I heard her crying and went into the living room and couldn’t find her – she had rolled herself all the way under the couch and was stuck so this starts a new and busy stage for me and her.

We love you all, thanks again for your prayers and supporting us while we are over here!

Love, Shelly for all of us

PLEASE PRAY: It's the LAST Trip to build their house!

Well the time has come once again to hit the mountain trail!! That is right, after two short weeks Jeff and I are heading back into the village to finish up some things and make it ready for the families to move in with us! This trip we hope to set up the septic system, do all the plumbing, get interior walls covered with plywood, build and put in all the doors and screen all the windows in. Then on top of that hopefully we will have time to get other misc. things done as well. Unfortunately we could not find the pipe that we needed to get water from a river nearby so we will have to wait to have running water in our house. But other than that everything is on schedule and we should be moving in as a family on the 13th of November! Please keep us in your prayers as we do this final trip and are away from family for two weeks for the last time, Woo hoo!! It is crazy to think that this is our last building trip without the family. Time has gone so fast and God has provided so amazingly for us. Thank you all for your prayers for us and please keep praying as we finish up the house and then get ready to move in.

On another note, our partners the Mussers have just gotten back from their furlough and are going to be arriving back into Wamena later this month. Matt will be coming in with us when the families come in and will be helping on our houses during that time. Then the beginning of December we hope to begin building their house and have them in the village as a family sometime at the beginning of January! Please keep that all in your prayers as well.

Pressing on,

The Schafers
 

October 2009

Hey everyone, I am back!! Yesterday we had gotten all we wanted to get done plus a lot more and so we asked the Helicopter pilot if he could come in and get us out a day early to surprise the girls!! It is so nice to be back after being away for two weeks again. Thank you all so much for your prayers for us as we have been in this house building phase. It was so fun to finally be working on our own house and see it all come together after many hours of talking over house plans and reworking things again and again!! Everything went amazingly smooth again on this trip and we once again had an overwhelming amount of help from the people! We were able to finish everything we could do on our house in about 9 days and then after that we worked on our partners house some more, and also dug out both ours and our partners septic holes!! Actually I would be lying to say that we dug because as soon as we started, the people grabbed the shovels and did not quit until they had two holes dug in the rocky ground that were both about 6 x 6 x 6 feet!! All that took them about 5 hours to do!! It was amazing to see how hard they worked once they got their mind set on it! On this trip I did not really know how things would go because there were just two of us instead of 3 this time but we got everything done that we wanted to! We were able to build our house up to where we had the floor on, the roof on and all the outside walls sided as well and also with a front door and steps! Then after that we leveled our partners floor to get it ready for plywood, redid some plastic and screens up in the gable ends of their house, and put gutters on their house as well!! God has just continued to bless us like crazy on these trips and continues to get the Kora people excited about us coming in there. Thanks again for all your prayers and support of us over these times when we are weeks apart. God has kept us all safe, healthy and sane!!

Oh yeah, thanks also for your prayers for the wood cutters. We worked everything out with them, (Bribed them with a bonus if they stayed!!) and they ended up staying! Over the last two weeks they got a ton of wood cut so that was really exciting to see. We all still have had to go with mixing round pole construction with cut lumber, (we had to go with round poles out of the jungle for our rafters) but as it looks right now we should be setting fine. So when we left yesterday we brought the wood cutters out with us and so that is all behind us now. Thanks again for the prayers in that area as it is really nice to have them done now and that drama to be over with!! We now have only one more trip interior before we move in as a family!! In two weeks Jeff and I will be heading back in to work on getting running water into the house, plumbing, and anything else that we can get done to make it a little more comfortable for our families. Then on November 13th our family is moving in!! We will be in for about a week and a half with Shelly’s sister and brother in law coming in to help us and then we will all be going down to Sentani for a little break and supply trip before going back in the beginning of December. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as this is an exciting, scary, nerve racking time for us!!! We love you all and will keep you up to date.

For His Glory,

The Schafers
 

September 2009

Well, our first trip is officially behind us!! It was definitely a long time to be away from family but once again God was so good to us in sustaining us and keeping us all healthy and encouraged through the whole thing. It was really amazing to see how excited the people are in Nggingginem to have us come in there and it was evidenced by the way that they really rallied around us and helped us build. During most of the trip at any one time there might have been 15 to 20 people standing around waiting to be told to do something! There were even little kids around that would pick up your pencil or anything else that would drop and give it back to you!! Yeah even though that could be helpful at times it could also be a little claustrophobic!! Some of the scariest times were when some of the guys were helping hold some wood while we cut it and would have never moved their hands if we had not told them too!! They had no fear at all of the saw and so at times would try to catch the saw dust coming out by putting their hands almost in the saw blade to catch it!! Well despite all that, God brought us through it all with no limbs or fingers cut off and everyone still healthy!! Thanks so much for your prayers in all of it.

Well now about the progress! It was really exciting to see how much the Lord allowed us to get done over the last two weeks. Before we started I had no idea of how long things would take but even what I thought would be the best case scenario was surpassed by what actually got done! When it was all said and done we were able to get the roof on the Palmers house and all the siding on as well with just the floor yet to put on! (If it sounds weird that we put the floor on last it is because the wood here shrinks quite a bit and so the floor is put on last so that when the wood shrinks it can be pulled up and slid tight again since the interior walls are not sitting on top of it) So yeah I was thinking we would have been doing really good if we would be able to get the roof on and that is it but we were able to get that done with 3 days yet to spare!! So once again thanks for your prayers for us over these last two weeks. We will have about a 2 and a half week break here and then will be going back in to start our house!!

Please be praying for us as we have a difficult situation with the guy that is cutting our wood interior. He has gotten enough done for one house but is starting to think he cannot cut for us much longer. He has been cutting wood all over Papua for the last 25 years and he said that were we live is the most difficult spot ever! Right now he is cutting the closest wood to our village which is about a mile or so away from our house sites! The guys we had in there to carry the wood to our house sites just could not hack it and so had to go out. SO right now the people of Nggingginem are carrying it which is not easy task. So anyway please just pray that he will not bail on us because if he does we don’t know what we will do to get the wood we need to build. Also just keep us in your prayers over the next few months as this can be a stressful expensive time for us! Thanks again for sticking with us and keeping us in your prayers. Love you all.

For the Glory of God among the Kora,

Craig