God's Grocers - Chapters 1-4

God’s Grocers Chapters 1 to 4 The Story Of The Grocery Stores Operated By The Summer Institute of Linguistics

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By Charles Micheals

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God’s Grocers Chapters 1 - 4

The Story Of The Grocery Stores Operated By The Summer Institute of Linguistics

Winter Park, Florida

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© 2012 Charles J. Micheals Published by the Aiyura Valley Historical Society

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: Pending

First Printing 2012 (Not for Sale) Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.

NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

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Dedication To the men and women who served in the Summer Institute of Linguistics’ grocery stores which supplied the staff working in Bible translation.

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God’s Grocers Chapters 1 - 4

The Story Of The Grocery Stores Operated By The Summer Institute of Linguistics This SIL Mission Store booklet is dedicated to Gware and Arina Nanong for their faithful service to the work of Bible translation in Papua New Guinea and for their service at the mission store at Ukarumpa.

Their service to the Papua New Guinea branch of the Summer Institute of Linguistics will never be forgotten. Their hard work, commitment and efforts for the glory of God are a lasting legacy and example for future citizens of Papua New Guinea of what it means to wholeheartedly serve the Lord Jesus Christ!

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Chapter 1 Prologue Rarely in the annals of missions has a breed of missionaries been more unique and never has a team of missionaries played a more strategic role than in the feeding of a group of missionaries located in and devoted to reaching the most isolated and overlooked peoples of the world, the Bibleless people of the world. The unique men and women noted in this book have become known as ‘God’s Grocers’.

At one time the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) operated a number of small commissaries around the world to support their work in remote jungle locations (Tumi-Chucua - Bolivia, Lomalinda Colombia, Limoncocha - Ecuador, Tamale - Ghana, Ukarumpa - Papua New Guinea, Yarinacocha - Peru and Nasuli - Philippines). Six of these seven stores have closed as SIL’s work in those countries has come to completion, come to nearing completion or turned over to a national organization. However, the commissary or store at Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has continued to grow into the largest and longest running store for SIL. The store has helped over 180 language communities in PNG received God’s Word in their own heart language and has kept another 110+ other active Bible translation projects underway. Much Bible translation work still remains in the country with more than 300 language communities still without a single verse of Scripture in their language.

This book details the efforts previously provided and still currently underway by a small group of men and women from around the world who have devoted themselves to helping the mission personnel of the SIL working in these countries and in the country of Papua New Guinea (PNG) in particular.

These missionaries and national staff used the remote mission centers as bases of support. Over the years, these mission centers grew to accommodate the growing Bible translation work. The Ukarumpa center has grown to be the largest mission center in the world. While the country of PNG has grown from an unknown third world country to becoming a leading independent democratic country in the Pacific, the Aiyura Valley where the Ukarumpa center is located nestled in the Eastern Highlands province still remains an isolated and rarely visited place for most of the world. Thus, the store at 7|Page

Ukarumpa today still plays a vital role in helping SIL PNG achieve its mission to see “Papua New Guinea empowered by the Written Word.”

However, in each country where SIL operated commissaries, these grocers helped keep a team of Bible translators and support personnel doing their work. As a result, in several countries this has meant that God’s Word has come to every language!

While the work of running a small mission store is far from being a highly sought after mission position as the attraction that jungle pilots have received, yet their work has helped the people in the countries where SIL operated stores experience what the prophet Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 15:16, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.”

Although the stores operated by SIL provided the food needs of the SIL mission personnel, the words translated for the Bibleless language communities have given food for men’s souls as John 6:35 states, “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never go hunger, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”” (NIV)

It is unknown at this time how long there will be a need for a mission center like Ukarumpa or how long the store will be needed. On several occasions there have been attempts to privatize the store or to have a local company operate it. However, the fact that Ukarumpa sits on lease land from the government of Papua New Guinea with a specific non-government (NGO), non-profit purpose of academic research, literacy and translation as opposed to a for profit making purpose, have left those attempts unfulfilled.

At some point in the future, maybe not in the too distant future, the store at Ukarumpa may not be needed due to the continued expansion of development in the Aiyura Valley or the nearby town of Kainantu. Perhaps, the store may close due to the rapid competition of the Bible translation work in the country or because of new ways of working. However, this book is written to help the reader understand the efforts that have taken place to keep the human needs of the SIL mission personnel and its national staff fed, clothed and supplied while the real food from God Himself in His Word is being supplied to the Bibleless people of the world.

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Ukarumpa Center – Papua New Guinea (Photo Courtesy of SIL PNG Branch Archives)

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Chapter 2 The Start of the SIL Mission Stores “When you have eaten and are satisfied praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.” Deuteronomy 8:10 (NIV)

SIL Commissary – Tumi-Chucua Bolivia

1965 - SIL Center – Tumi Chucua, Bolivia

1978 - SIL Center – Tumi Chucua, Bolivia

The SIL Bolivia Branch started in 1955 with a few members coming from the SIL Peru Branch.

Because

there was no place to house the 20 adults and 8 children while the jungle site at Tumi Chucua was being cleared Sr. Rene Landivar of Casa Suarez offered free housing for the entire group in the town of Ivon, only a short distance from the new site. Each family moved into a room or a corner and hung curtains for partitions and privacy.

Tumi-Chucua is located on Lake Tumi Chucua in the north east corner of Bolivia, about 12 miles from Riberalta. Tumi-Chucua means Isle of Palms in the Tacana language.

The SIL commissary in Tumi Chucua, Bolivia started in 1955 and initially was located at one end of the main building on the center. The first commissary manager was Bill Richmond. Bill and Delores Richmond and their two kids arrived from the USA in 1955. They soon took residence in the third house

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and Bill took on the commissary manager’s role. The Richmond’s lived on one side of the house and other side housed the commissary which they ran on open house days.

Bill and Marge Key arrived in Bolivia in 1960 on the fifth anniversary of the Bolivian Branch. She worked in the commissary for most of the 23 years the store existed and helped manage it as well. Marge Key eventually also worked in the SIL commissary in Ecuador. Bill was a pilot.

The people who originally arrived in Ivon via the Catalina plane from Peru had brought some supplies from their SIL Commissary at Yarinacocha. They brought with them canned grapefruit juice with each can a different color as the heat had already partly deteriorated them. They also arrived in Ivon with there were some bulged cans of tomato sauce and some bulged cans of Picadillo de Carne (small cans of potted lunch meat) which no one liked. It was put to multiple uses and the new branch members all prayed they would live until morning after they ate it.

Eventually a new commissary was built. Bill Richmond had a small store for the national needs at one end of the building. In the middle of the building there was a little mail room. The rest of the building was commissary for the mission staff where they sold a line of standard grocery goods and some hardware items to fix lamps, stoves, etc. The store also bought eggs from the Bolivian nationals.

During the years Bill managed the store he constructed a drying shed so that the commissary could purchase rice locally as it was harvested, dry it and then hull it. The shed was on rollers so it could be slid under the roof when the rains came and slid out when the sun was shining. To purchase rice, members brought their own empty containers to the commissary, filled them up, weighed it up, and recorded the weights in the store ledger book as the price could not be calculated until later when we received all of the information about the cost of the bulk rice.

Delores Richmond assisted Bill in the commissary as the store bookkeeper and several Bolivian workers, Pepe and Santo, also helped. One of the daily tasks of the center radio operator was a daily radio contact with the translators who worked with the various language communities. They often called in lists of things (foods, belongings, medicines, etc.) which they needed to come to them on the next flight to their village. The store filled those grocery and hardware needs for these flights.

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As with most of the SIL stores, the store in Tumi Chucua had a break in. The store had set up an alarm system and one it went off. As Bill approached the store the thief was taking things out of the commissary. Bill, Cliff Spracklin (managed the maintenance department) and Lloyd Deister (radio department operator) ran across the road and into the bush him to capture him. Lloyd caught up to him and wrestled him down to the ground with both hands on his wrists. However, the thief was very strong and his hands gradually came up to Lloyd’s neck. Just then Bill arrived with his machete, and when the thief saw Bill he immediately gave up! So, while Lloyd caught the thief, Bill saved Lloyd’s life!

SIL Store at Timi-Chucua, Bolivia

Store Manager, Bill Richmond in Front of the Commissary

When available in Riberalta the pilots (including Bill Key) would bring back 50 kilo bags of flour or sugar and Manteca (lard) which was available there via Guayaramarine, Brazil by river. These bags had often been opened with some of the contents stolen and replaced with some cotton cloths and then sewn up again by hand. Most bags were also full of weevils or worms and had to be picked out or strained. Another item bought from the local people in Riberalta and sold in the commissary was fresh baked rolls and bread.

Occasionally when a group of cows were driven in a herd close to the center there was usually a few cows with a broken leg or unable to travel any further. This provided the store with an opportunity to purchase the cows which were then butchered up.

During one of Bill Richmond’s furlough he went to school to learn butchery. That enabled him to provide meat that was properly cut and handled. Eventually a “fruit shed” was built behind the commissary where the full sides of beef were hung up the store.

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Members would go into the “fruit

shed” with their knives and cut off a piece of meat, weigh it and record it in a ledger book to be charged later. Some meat was butchered up and sold in the store.

In the States, there are McDonald Hamburgers but Bill did one better! He made Boa burgers (snake burgers) and one Boa he shot at the center was 23 ft. long. Bill also carried alligator meat and while the tail is very good meat, Bill was very conservative and roasted the rest of the alligator and ground it into a high protein food for the chickens.

Eventually a friend of the Richmond's came down from the States and built a freezer room. The store hired two national workers who then helped butcher and packaged beef and fish. At times, even some meat was ground hamburger mince!

During the same furlough where Bill learned butchery he also managed to purchase and ship to the commissary a soft serve ice cream maker. This was a big treat to nationals and missionaries alike.

The store purchased a wide variety of fruits and vegetables from the local people with cash. This meant that produce such as papaya, bananas, pineapple, yucca, etc. were available for sale in the store. On occasion, pilots would pick up fresh produce in the town of lta when they had a market day.

Occasionally, goods for the store were purchased from the Peru commissary when the Catalina airplane needed to make a trip to Peru. Some items for the store were purchased in Brazil such as oatmeal (not cooked) and evaporated milk. When a case of evaporated milk arrived, many of them had holes punched in them when in transit some of the trucking company workers poked holes in them and drank up the contents. Bill also brought store goods by boat from Ivon and Riberalta to the Beni River and on to Lake Tumi Chucua and then to the store.

There were many people who came to Bolivia and helped at the store. There also were SIL buyers in Cochabamba who helped supply the store over the years. Sometimes, the part time volunteers also helped as a buyer in Cochabamba.

One day, the commissary ordered a number of pounds of "confetti candy” (hard candy for the special festive days). The buyer thought the store wanted “confetti” or multitude pieces of paper which is usually thrown at parades and celebrations and so sent several large gunny sacks of confetti instead!

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For years, the confetti was used to stuff people’s suitcases when they were returning to the States and also for many other tricks. Imagine the surprise when the people opened their suitcases and all the confetti poured out or the suit coats which were rarely used, but had their pockets stuffed with it at graduation times!

When the Keys returned to Bolivia after their first furlough they spent a night at the Peru Group House. It was there that the Keys met Bolivian branch members returning to the States for furlough. They asked the Keys if Marge was going to be the new commissary manager. When she said she was, they informed her that the commissary in Bolivia was $4,000 in the red. When the Keys returned to Tumi-Chucua Marge realized it was caused by not counting the transportation costs when pricing the items for retail!

Bill and Delores worked in the commissary from 1955 until 1977 when they were reassigned. In the early 1980s the Keys returned to the States due to Marge’s parent’s poor health. After their parents passed away, the Keys were assigned to Nigeria. However, after only a short time in Nigeria the Keys moved to Ecuador and for two years Marge worked with Lois Allen in the commissary in Limoncocha, Ecuador.

The commissary in Bolivia closed down in 1982 and the branch members were moved to Cochabamba until the Bolivia Branch closed down in 1985 due to the completion of the Bible translation work in the 14 | P a g e

country. All in all, the store met the practical needs of the branch members and everyone appreciated the hard work of Marge, Bill and the host of others who helped in the store.

SIL Commissary – Lomalinda, Colombia SIL

began its work in Colombia in 1962 in response to an invitation from President Alberto Lleras

Camargo. President Lleras Camargo signed a working agreement with SIL establishing the terms of our working relationship.

Fred Dickerman took over the commissary in Colombia in 1980. At that time the selection was very small. Since Fred had grown up working at the A&P grocery store as a kid in Kalamazoo, Michigan, he was very excited about adding selection and value and giving the missionaries a boost in their morale that he knew they all needed after the death of Chet Bitterman’s in 1981 by the hands of M-19 guerillas.

SIL Center - Lomalinda, Colombia

SIL Commissary – Lomalinda, Colombia

Fred Dickerman – Store Manager – SIL Colombia Store

Inside the SIL Colombia Store

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SIL Colombia Store (Left - Yellow building)

SIL Colombia Store (Top right – Bluish building)

(On a side note, Fred was a paperboy in Kalamazoo, Michigan to the home of Barb Micheals when she was a kid. Barb married Chuck Micheals who is also from Kalamazoo, Michigan and Chuck operated the SIL store at Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea)

One of the best things Fred did in the commissary was to introduce fresh cut meat. Before Fred’s arrival the commissary only had hamburger and chicken once in a while. Fred introduced fresh pork and developed a smoke house to make bacon and hams. However, the first few attempts were not perfect. One day the center residents heard an explosion that shook the windows in the homes nearby. The smoke house blew up! The missionaries all had a few laughs over that.

To supplement the beef project, Fred began raising chickens and eventually Fred’s chicken project included fresh eggs. Fred raised turkeys a couple of years so that the missionaries from the USA and Canada could have a Thanksgiving turkey. Fred even expanded the meat selection and bought fish in the local town and cut it up in manageable pieces (some of the cat fish weighed 100 pounds). Eventually Fred created his own fish farm!

Over the 16 years Fred and Wylene Dickerman and their family worked in Loma Linda, Fred continued to make improvements to the commissary. He purchased a bread oven and taught some of the store staff to bake fresh bread and cinnamon rolls and to compliment that effort, Fred also purchased a peanut butter making machine! To top things off, Fred even made and sold his own brand of sauerkraut!

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Fred and Joy Wilcox

Fred in the Early Days in the Store

Fred had a desire to add a measure of enjoyment to the missionaries and so he made sure the store had a regular supply of ice cream. He also began ordering a large selection of cheese (something the store had never had before). Fred even experimented with making things like corned beef and what the missionaries lovingly called, “burnt sacrifices�. In all the efforts, everyone appreciated the work Fred did in the store and he was so good he managed the commissary for most of the 16 years that his family lived in Colombia.

Many others also worked at the store.

Lynda Shingledecker-Wheeler worked in the Lomalinda

commissary for seven years as an MK and actually ran the commissary as a senior when the Dickermans went on a year furlough. When Lynda returned to Colombia as a missionary after college, she helped out since Fred was still in charge of the commissary until the center was evacuated. During this time Lynda handled many different activities at the store. Among these activities were store advertising, bookkeeping, cashiering, meat cutting, supervising Colombian employees, cleaning, bagging up bulk items, receiving trucks, ordering, and whatever else needed to be done! Lynda’s older sister, Lisa also worked at the commissary, which is how Lynda got her start.

When the Lomalinda center was closed on May 31, 2000 the inventory of the store was packed up and it was sold at the SIL Group House in Bogota until it was all gone.

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SIL Commissary – Limoncocha, Ecuador The commissary at Limoncocha started out in early 1960s as an extra room in Bill and Maxine Eddy's house, which was a thatched-roofed native style building. Maxine opened up when anyone needed any supplies. After the store got started in the Eddy’s house and business increased, it was decided that a

more permanent structure was needed.

Since the sawmill at Limoncocha was operating, a new store was built in 1962 using a clapboard siding and with a metal roof. Mrs. Mart Hawk was the manager and the center residents lovingly called the store, "Mart's Mart". Lois Allen, Marge Key and Lillian Scott were also in charge of the store at various times.

A general stock of staples food supplies was kept in the store, including a good supply of chocolate candy! Goods were purchased from Quito and delivered by SIL’s DC-3 airplanes.

Mart and Gene Hawk

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Mart Hawk and Carrie Lindskoog and kids

Bill Waters striding thru the store in front of Bobbie Borman shopping at the store and Cyril Meyers at the far counter talking to Marge Key

Inside the store

Lois Allen

Brenda Long packing groceries with Bobbie Borman shopping at the and Cyril Meyers at the far counter talking to Marge Key

Marge Key serving a Wycliffe missionary

Bill Waters unloading a store truck

Lillian Scott

The store butchered its own beef from a branch cattle project. When the beef herd was built up sufficiently, a cow was butchered every month or every couple of weeks, as there was need. A basic place to kill the cattle was eventually established out in the pasture and when the beef was quartered they were brought in by the center tractor and the meat was cooled in the outer section of the freezer. Once it was cut up and wrapped it was sold to the missionaries who rented a ‘bin’ in the inner 19 | P a g e

freezer room to store their meat. To store the beef inside the store, the store had two deep freezers where they also sold bread.

At the back of the commissary was the meat cutting room, and behind that a separate cold storage building. The cold storage building started as a volunteer community project for all the center men. However, they eventually they elected Bub Borman to finish the project. (Bub and his wife Bobbie were translators for the Cofan tribe who had a home at Limoncocha. They finished the Cofan New Testament in 1980, with an abridgement or 24% of the Old Testament).

Bub constructed the building of solid stacked balsa 2x6 stock with an inner box with an extra 2” of balsa for walls. They building used an old military (Navy) compressor/freezer unit. It had poly sheeting on the inside and tar coating on the outside, which was used for a moisture barrier.

While the compressor unit worked fine, it had to be defrosted every couple of days. Therefore, it was decided the moisture barrier was at fault and the inner lining of poly sheeting was torn out. In its place polyethylene plastic was placed on the outside of the tar coating. Much to everyone’s surprise the unit had to be defrosted every day! That required heating water and pumping it thru the coils to defrost it— an hour chore each day. A positive note to this story was that a Quichua worker found employment and was hired to build the fire and fill the half drum with water.

Bill Waters

Bill Waters in Base Supply which handled hardware for the Commissary

Roy Gleason defrosting Commissary Freezer

When the little freezer became too small for the center needs, funds were raised for a new cold storage/freezer building. The new cold storage unit was about four times as big as the old one. It had 6” Styrofoam walls and an efficient freezer/compressor unit. The commissary still rented out freezer 20 | P a g e

‘bins’, but there was much more empty space. Therefore, several sides of beef could be chilling at once and a side benefit of this larger freezer was that buckets of water frozen supplied ice for home ice cream freezers, etc.!

The center missionaries all appreciated the efforts of the staff who kept the commissary going for many years. The store was eventually closed when Limoncocha was phased out in 1982.

SIL Commissary – Yarinacocha, Peru The Peru Branch started in 1946 and soon the Yarinacocha center was developed.

There were several

years the center did not have a commissary. However, eventually in the mid - 1950s the store at Yarinacocha (Yarina) was started.

In early 1955 one of the Wycliffe USA board members, Earl Miller visited Yarina and met Marge Bancroft. After talking to him, Marge learned he had a wholesale grocery business in Southern California. He offered to ship canned goods to the store at Yarina if the store could supply someone in California to load it into a container and ship to Peru.

After much talk and persuasion Marge presented a plan to the SIL Peru Executive Committee Chairman, Jerry Elder. Jerry approved the idea of using one fourth of the Branch furlough funds to begin this project. Marge assured him that the branch could save hundreds of dollars for their branch members by purchasing groceries direct from the USA. Marge also reminded the director that there would never be more than 25% of the branch membership drawing on those funds in any one year. It wasn't an easy sell since the Executive Committee had to approve the idea, but they did give their blessing.

Therefore, after Earl returned to the States he sent Marge a wholesale catalog of products and the store placed their first order. Ernie Rich, who served in Peru as an Aviation Mechanic was on furlough in the California area and he agreed to pack and ship the items.

This first order worked so well and provided such a savings for the branch members that the commissary continued using this supplier for a number of years. The Government of Peru was also very generous and allowed the store to bring in the goods duty free!

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Even though Marge told the former director, Harold Goodall who assigned Marge to the job as commissary manager, that she had never worked in merchandising in her life and had never sold a thing she was selected as the first manager of the new Yarinacocha commissary. She served in that position for two years from 1955-1957. During this time Marge took great pains to make sure she controlled the inventory so the store would not to lose those precious branch funds. Those efforts by Marge paid great dividends and the store was able to operate during this time on those funds.

Yarinacocha Store – From Yarina Coloring Book

The first store was housed in a small area of the main administration building which later became the Dining Room. There were two other wives who worked with Marge. Produce initially for the center was handled by the dining room manager. The back room of the post office was even used as a meat 22 | P a g e

Original Commissary turned into a Dining Room

butchery area! Eventually the store moved into the old clinic building because they needed more storage room with the US shipments.

In 1960 Bob Wacker took over as the commissary manager and he worked with Betty Nystrom in the store. After Bob left in 1972 Dan Neff, from Pennsylvania and who grew up on his parent's farm and operated a delicatessen, managed the commissary until 1974. Several of the SIL missionary kids (MKs) helped in the commissary during this time. Dave Scott worked as a teenager in the commissary along with one of the Woodward boys and Dan taught these teenagers how to smoke cheese in a used aviation fuel barrel! For three months of this time Dan served as the Lima Buyer at the buyer’s office at 540 Los Brillantes, Lima.

Paul Carlson took over as manager of the commissary from Dan in 1974 and he managed the store until 1989. During the time Paul operated the store he realized he needed a line of credit to purchase items for the store. He opened a bank account with a month's support and left it in the account to gain 23 | P a g e

interest. That allowed him to purchase goods on credit even though the value of the currency went down. When Paul finished his service in Peru the account was closed and although the funds invested didn’t grow and the return on the investment decreased to almost nothing, the investment allowed the store to purchase much needed goods over the years.

After Paul left, Rick Mellen and his wife ran the store for three years. The store was then turned over to Ray Parker who operated the commissary for some years, after which a local business from the neighboring town ran it as a business. Jack (John) Dobie and John Townsend also managed the commissary.

Outside the SIL Store at Yarinacocha, Peru

Inside the SIL Store at Yarinacocha, Peru

Many missionary kids (MKs) worked in the commissary over the years. Joey Walter, Sam Gesch, Angela Dobie, Ben Hocking, Jason Howlett and Kate Howlett were some of the MKs that worked in the commissary. They normally worked Saturday morning running the cashier, sorting and weighing 24 | P a g e

produce, repackaging flour, sugar and noodles and helped out in the snack bar. The snack bar was connected to the commissary and was a gathering place for center residents and was appreciated by all.

During the time the store at Yarina was in existence, it not only received goods from the USA for many years, but the store was supplied by a buyer in Lima, Peru who filled orders for the store that they could not fill locally. Goods from Lima were often shipped on muddy roads on Mercedes trucks owned by Moises and Javier Espinoza. These trucks were often delayed due to poor road conditions. When the roads became impassable, Catalina airplanes were used to haul cargo for the store from Tingo Maria.

Inside the SIL Store at Yarinacocha, Peru

Amy Dobie, one of many Missionary Kids (MKs) who worked at the commissary on Saturday mornings

The store carried vegetables which were purchased on buying trips to Pucallpa, a town near Yarina. The commissary had a small meat department and brought halves of beef which were brought in by canoe and then carried up to the commissary.

The commissary had a large walk-in freezer in which to store perishables. The meat cutter Jorge would then cut up the halves of beef and package them for sale. The commissary also purchased alligator tails at the nearby town of Pucallpa. On one occasion several Peruvian men brought the whole alligator and Jack Dobie told them he only wanted to purchase the tail. They asked Jack for a knife and then proceeded to skin the alligator on the spot and sell Jack the tail meat.

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Carrying in halves of beef

Carlos Huanio checking out some veggies

Snack bar on the Yarinacocha Center

Jack Dobie and Carlos Huanio driving to Pucallpa to purchase goods

Shipibo women in front of the commissary selling fruits & vegies

Yarina Center

A video of the Yarina, including the commissary, taken by Dan Velie in 1991 is available on the Internet You Tube’s web site at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk0Bp26Af_I.

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SIL Commissary – Nasuli, Philippines

Commissary Manager - Fred Moriga

In its heyday, the commissary in Nasuli was doing about $ 10,000 a month in sales.

Fred Moriga was the

manager most of the time although there were a number of others. Debbie Geer, Rex Burgett, Elsie Ehara, Joanne Cochran and Carene Jacobson all managed the store at various time for a year or more. Filipino managers were hired from time to time, but family pressures caused them to give away store items to family members in need, who then did not pay the store back.

The SIL commissary was located on the lower level of house pictured below. The upper floor had two apartments there where various branch members lived.

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SIL Store at Nasuli, Philippines

Suzanne Hirschelman Shopping

Coca Cola is Everywhere!

The commissary supplied a large number of translation team scattered all around the southern part of the country. The Nasuli center was comprised of translation teams and support people. In all, there were about 50 homes on the center.

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Not all the staff shopped at the commissary at the Nasuli center because there was a nearby town with a few stores. However, the commissary was a huge boost for morale and was convenient and save families time and money. The commissary was a favorite hangout for the kids to get a soft drink, some Chippies (a salted snack with a consistency of cardboard - ).

SIL Commissary – Tamale, Ghana SIL’s work in Ghana, West Africa started in 1962 in the city of Tamale.

Tamale is the capital city of the

Northern region of Ghana mostly inhabited by the Mole-Dagomba linguistic group. The city is home to about 350,000 people.

GILLBT grew out of work started in Ghana in 1962 as a branch of SIL International. It was set up to provide alphabets, grammars and reading materials in Ghanaian languages and promote mother tongue literacy in language communities.

In 1980, GILLBT came under Ghanaian leadership and is now a Member Organisation of Wycliffe Bible Translators International (WBTI). This means that, as well as being active in

Ghanaian

language

programmes,

they

have

a

responsibility to recruit qualified Ghanaians who will serve in other African countries in translation and other related activities. It also seeks to partner with Ghanaian Churches to pray and raise financial assistance for the workers who will serve in other countries as well as Ghana.

It is estimated that 60 different languages are spoken in Ghana. GILLBT has been involved in 34 language projects located in six regions of Ghana. Of these 34 projects, 25 have a complete New Testament with five of these language communities also having the whole Bible.

Currently, GILLBT is involved in four New Testament and ten Old Testament projects. There is a Bible translation need for about six more Ghanaian language communities.

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In March 1976 Ruud and Lies Bakker and their two children, Svend and Roy arrived in Tamale (Ghana) to take on the task of the manager of the SIL Guest House in Tamale after attending the Africa Orientation Course (AOC) in Cameroon. However, at this same time the economic situation in Ghana was deteriorating and so from time to time a few SIL women would travel to the nearest town and purchased various food items in bulk when they were available from these local food stores. As these food stocks were brought back to the SIL center in Tamale the soon grew into a small commissary.

As these stocks grew, it soon became evident that someone would be needed to manage the growing stock and sales and so after just a few week of the Bakker’s arrival, there Bakker’s were asked to manage the commissary. Soon, one of the SIL Guest House rooms was transformed into a storage room for the store.

As with all of the SIL commissaries around the world, the SIL store in Tamale battled bugs. At various times the commissary in Tamale had issues with cockroaches.

After the Bakker’s returned from a furlough one year, Ruud found a large number of Corn Flakes cereal packages that had been in the store for quite some time. He wondered what he should do. However, one evening the solution came to him!

On this evening Ruud entered the store to do some late work, but when he turned on the lights he saw the cockroaches crawling in and out of the Corn Flake boxes. He then understood why the Corn Flakes hadn’t sold. However, the problem still existed with what to do with the boxes! He had to get rid of these packages! So, without asking the SIL members needing supplies for their remote locations, Ruud over the new few weeks put in every order he received a package of Corn Flakes. What people did with them is not known, but the commissary got rid of the Corn Flakes!

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As a result of stories like this, the commissary soon began to store some flour, sugar and rice and other foods in metal drums to ensure their longevity in a challenging climate.

Building Relationships Is Important The distribution of goods in Tamale was done by the government’s Regional Office. When Ruud first arrived he thought he would wait his turn in line, but I quickly learned the importance of going directly into the office of the person who had to distribute the goods. Soon Ruud had developed a friendly relationship with the various government officers. One such office was the Customs Office, where all goods arriving from other countries had to be declared and taxes paid. Ruud also quickly adapted to all the details related to the clearing of good through customs and too developed many close friends.

One day these friends would provide much needed help to Ruud and the supplies for the commissary. Ruud heard that some bags of flour had arrived in town and so off he went off to the Regional Office. On his arrival, he discovered that there were more market women in the office than available bags of flour for distribution. Soon he heard that everyone had to leave and wait until another shipment arrived. That’s when the Lord gave Ruud a great idea!

Ruud suggest that everyone in the office waiting for the flour all line up. Quickly a neat queue or line was formed, with everyone in line according to their time of arrival. However, even though Ruud was at the back of the line, the orderly disposal of the four allowed him to head back to the commissary with 31 | P a g e

two bags of 50 kg bags of flour. To this day, it is not known how Ruud came away with these two bags.

Perhaps it was out of gratitude for organizing the queue and solving the official’s

problem. However, whatever the reason, the Lord supplied their needs because. Normally, they would have missed out, but the Lord knew that the GILLBT members baked their own bread, cakes and cookies and so He provided again for the staff and work!

As in all jobs, but especially in difficult circumstances it was very important to build personal contacts first and not begin the conversations talking about the things the commissary needed. A friendly time of social interaction before the transaction was always necessary and important and God gifted the commissary managers in all the stores with the abilities and skills needed.

Thanks to the good contacts with the local population and the different organisations, Ruud and other store managers were able to assist the mission staff and help GILLBT achieve its Bible translation goals. As these dedicated commissary workers, including Jane Horneman were able to provide support to the translation teams, literacy workers and support staff, the work of Bible translation in Ghana advanced.

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The Store Building In 1985 the commissary started to develop problems with the building. The walls began to crack, a part of the foundation had to be renewed, buttress supports for the walls were needed and a new entrance area added. Repairs were made for all of these needs, but it made for a very busy few years for the Bakkers.

Finances Because the official exchange rate of Dollar to Cedi (Ghana’s currency) did not go up with the true value of the Cedi, the prices the commissary had to pay for their goods where very high. Due to the high cost of products which made goods scarce in Ghana, it was often cheaper to buy goods in Burkina Faso or Togo where they were available. This meant that trips over the border were necessary to save money and purchase needed supplies.

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On one occasion Ruud ordered 2000 kg of rice from the Netherlands. On his request the rice was shipped in a second hand stainless steel milk tank with empty bags store above the rice. On arrival in Tamale, the store staff put the rice back in the bags. This allowed the commissary to sell rice for quite some time at a much lower cost than buying the rice in Ghana.

When the commissary began making trips to Burkina Faso for store goods, Ruud bought Travellers Cheques at the bank in Tamale. One time the bank in Tamale only had Travellers Cheques of $ 20.00 or $ 50.00 dollar amounts. After arriving in Ouagadougou after a drive of more than four and on half hours, he immediately went to the bank to cash the cheques for francs (the local currency). After signing all of the 96 Travellers Cheques, the bank employee said that there were differences between Ruud’s signatures! So, he had to sign the back of all the Travellers Cheques and then again the bank employee said they were still not the same! Eventually Ruud got the needed cash, but the point was made. It was time to open an account in Burkina Faso.

With the help from RenĂŠ Vallet from SIL Burkina Faso sometime later, the commissary opened up their own bank account in Burkina Faso. After thinking back over the years, Ruud reflected about how he walked around with bags of cash in the local currency with a bag under his arm in order to pay for the goods in cash. He was thankful for all the ways the Lord had protected him and for the wisdom the Lord gave him to finally set up a bank account!

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From left to right: Paul Opokuh Mensah (he lived about four years with Bakkers and was the Director of GILLBT), Roy Bakker, Lies Bakker, Marilou Bakker, Dinah Wobil (who lived with the Bakkers for about a year), Natascha and Ruud Bakker.

Purchasing and Transportation As the economic situation in Ghana continued to deteriorate, it became necessary for Ruud to begin making regular trips to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso to purchase supplies. This was a five hour drive from Tamale. Trips to Ouagadougou were made about every six weeks. At first, these trips were made with the store pickup truck and later with a three ton truck. If Ruud was too busy to make these trips a Ghanaian man would make the drive.

One particular challenging trucking experience was when Ruud made a three day round trip five weeks in a row in the commissary pickup truck. The trips took him to Accra to collect paper for the printing press of GILLBT. The paper could not stay too long in Accra after it arrived in port because it was stored near the sea. The humidity was too high there, which was bad for the paper. Because of all this travelling Ruud was given the nicknames ‘The Flying Dutchman’ and ‘King of the Road’!

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The Flying Dutchman

Eventually, even the three ton truck was too small and so in May 1983 it was replaced with a seven ton truck purchased in LomĂŠ, Togo. However, this truck was involved in a tragic accident on October 9, 1984 where the driver Abu Yahaya and the Tamale business manager Samuel Lukey of the Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT) who accompanied him on this trip were killed in a frontal collision after overtaking another truck.

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Commissary Pickup Truck

Commissary Seven Ton Truck

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Commissary Three Ton Truck

Unloading Grocery Items

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A New Truck Is Purchased The old damaged truck was eventually replaced by a 28 ton truck which Ruud purchased while on furlough in the Netherlands in 1985. The $ 50,000 needed for this purchase was acquired through gifts from Christians in Ghana and abroad and Wycliffe Associates who had made the funding of the truck into a project.

This 28 ton truck was multi-functional because in addition to handling boxes, it also had to handle a stainless steel milk tank which was purchased and placed from time to time in a container frame on the truck. This was necessary because of problems with the water treatment pumps in the city.

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The water treatment plant in Tamale used a series of pumps to keep the water pipes in the city on pressure. However, the pumps were sometimes out of service for weeks at a time due to lack of fuel and spare parts. When the pumps started working, the commissary staff put the tank on the truck and drove to the water treatment plant and filled up the tank for use at the various mission offices and homes. Neighbors nearby would often come running to the truck with buckets and head pans for some water.

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A new, much sturdier truck was also necessary due to the poor conditions of the roads. However, the roads were so bad at times that it wasn’t good for the new sturdy truck to go empty to Accra and collect a container or cargo. Therefore, depending on the season Ruud would take locally grown bags of rice and corn along to Accra so that the truck suffered less from the bad roads.

The truck costs were covered by local Tamale merchants who needed to deliver their rice or corn to Accra. The freight price received from these local merchants helped to keep the costs for maintenance of the truck very low. However, even though Ruud asked the truck company in Netherlands to make an extra sturdy cargo bed for the truck, after about only four months and less than 17,000 kilometers the welding of the cargo bed began to tear.

New truck needing repairs!

New truck unloading an empty container to be used as a storage shed in a remote village

Repairs were made by going to a local junkyard, buying U bolts from an old Russian truck and creating a flexible attachment for the cargo bed on the chassis. From another organization Ruud purchased angle iron of 100 x 100 x 10 mm in order to strengthen the supports of the cargo bed. Not only was the commissary manager a buyer and shop keeper, but an auto mechanic!

Purchasing Store Goods The commissary carried a wide range of products including both grocery items and even things like spare parts for cars and trucks. A typical load included foods goods such as flour, sugar, tins of powdered milk, jam, tinned fish, corned beef, tomato paste, cooking oil, margarine, cheese, minced meat, fresh vegetables and fruit. Loads of goods often also included soap, dishwashing soap and soap for washing clothes.

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The truck did not normally haul items such as soft drinks. Only on special occasions such as branch conferences or special meetings would the commissary stock soft drinks such as Coke. That made these special events even more special.

Many of the items sold in the commissary were essential to the operations of the center. Spare parts for cars, Honda trail motorbikes and bicycles were well sought after because of the bad roads which caused many vehicle breakdowns. The vehicles needed to be in top running order since many were used for literacy workers. These literacy workers also depended on the store supplying them with kerosene and kerosene lamps for their literacy classes.

One noteworthy story about the essential nature of the commissary was the day a literacy team came to Tamale with a Honda 50 motorbike. This bike had been used in the bush for some time for literacy work and was having problems with the inner tube. In the bush the tube had come to point that it was beyond repair. Ruud was amazed when the tyre came off the motorbike to discover that the tyre had been completely filled it up with dried grass! What a resourceful literacy worker and what a happy worker he was when the commissary was able to supply him with a new and spare tube to keep his bike going! The work must go on!

Over the years, Ruud developed good relationships with the various, mostly Lebanese, shopkeepers.

This allowed Ruud to purchase spare parts on his buying trips and if they weren’t correct return them on his next trip. While it was not always possible on his buying trips to bring the broken spare part with him on the 1500 km round trip, Ruud was thankful the Lord supplied him with many local friends over the years.

One wholesale store in Ouagadougou, named the ‘Self Service’ store was owned by a Lebanese family. It was a well-known store for anyone coming from Ghana to purchase supplies. Since this store carried many items that required refrigeration, each buying trip meant that five large king sized cooler/cool boxes would come along on the trip to bring back these goods.

Each time the truck would come to the ‘Self Service’ store, an order was placed for 60 to 80 kilos (150 – 175 lbs) of hamburger or minced meat. The store put them up into 2 kilo packages which they froze. On 43 | P a g e

the last day of the buying trip, the commissary truck would pick up the packages at 8:00 am and pack them in the large cooler boxes for the trip back to Ghana. The cooler boxes where one of the last things to go on to the truck. On top of the cooler boxes were placed the different fresh vegetables, fruit and bags of onions which were bought from the women on the street in front of the ‘Self Service’ store. Everything was then covered by heavy tarpaulin with the covered firmly tightened down. After a five to six hour drive, the goods arrived at the commissary and were unpacked!

Most of the Lebanese shopkeepers in Ouagadougou could speak English, but there were many times when language help was needed. To meet that need, the commissary always hired four young Ghanaian men who were living in Ouagadougou to help.

Help was needed not only for the language, as Ruud did not speak French, but they were also needed as guards. Two men would guard the goods purchased during the day and loaded on the open flat bed truck, easy accessible for thieves. The other two men helped translation and helping load the goods on to the truck. The same four men were hired as often as possible and at the end of their time they were always paid very well.

This system worked very well. Over the many years of buying goods in Ouagadougou nothing was ever stolen. While other companies purchasing goods and had to often deals with people stealing goods, the Lord provided the security needed through the help of these four men.

During one of Ruud’s last buying trips to Ouagadougou he went along with a few Ghanaian colleagues to give them to give advice on buying goods. In the future they would need to take over Ruud’s responsibilities from time to time.

As Ruud introduced them to the different shopkeepers, the Ghanaian colleagues did not think it was necessary to hire the four young local men who always helped Ruud. They felt they could guard the goods on the truck themselves. However, the Ghanaian colleagues were quickly distracted by a few other Ghanaians who started talking with them and before they knew it, on the other side of the truck two newly purchased truck tyres were stolen. This was sadly discovered only at the end of the day. It was quickly agreed that doing this themselves was much more expensive than hiring four young men! It was a lesson quickly learned and not quickly forgotten.

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Crossing the Border Since GILLBT was affiliated to the University in Legon (Ghana), the commissary did not have to pay import duty on imported goods. That saved the staff thousands of dollars each year and was another sign of how the Lord was caring for his people and the work.

With every trip across the border Ruud had to make out a detailed list of the items purchased that were being transported on the truck. Custom officers on the border to Ghana always required a detail packing list and as the truck loads got bigger so did the lists! The longer the lists, the more likely the truck load was likely to be inspected. This made the trip much more work as on several occasions the entire truck had to be unloaded at the border, especially when the entire truck had to be unloaded by Ruud!

It was at times like these that the calling the Bakkers received from the Lord to serve Christ by becoming become involved in Bible translation carried them along. Not only were muscles sore from having the load the seven ton truck that morning and then having to unload and reload the truck again, but minds also needed to be alert. There were times when those nearby were ready to snatch a box of two of goods when customs officials or Ruud was not watching. While some boxes may have been stolen in times like these, few items ever turned up missing. Again, the Lord was watching over His work.

On one occasion in the early 1980s when the Bakkers were getting ready to go on furlough Ruud began to train someone else to handle the buying trips. Upon arrival at the border on one of these trips Ruud asked his colleague to take the Customs papers into the Customs office and handle the work while he stayed in the truck. When the colleague didn’t come out after a reasonable time, closed the windows and locked the door.

After returning to the truck about ten minutes later Ruud realised that he had left the keys in the truck and the truck was still running. Soon a large group of people came by the truck to see what trick Ruud could come up with to unlock this truck. After a long search for a thin metal wire, one was found and soon Ruud was on display showing everyone how to get into a locked vehicle! When they finally succeeded the people cheered for the feat that had accomplished. However, Ruud never could stop

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wondering what kind of person was watching and what would they do with this great feat that a missionary had trained them in!

On another occasion, SIL had four colleagues who decided to travel to Europe through the Sahara after ending their term of service in Ghana. Sometime after waving goodbye to them, Ruud received a message that they had gone through a deep hole in the road caused by road construction in Mali. They didn’t consider it safe to continue the journey so they drove back to Ouagadougou and left the car behind and took the plane to Europe.

Ruud was asked to collect the car and bring it back to Tamale to have it repaired and sold. While that wasn’t a problem the missing papers were! When the car entered Burkina Faso the four colleagues received a Laissé passé and when leaving the country and crossing the border you had to hand in the pass. Ruud’s problem was that the Laissé passé was missing. However, since Ruud had often crossed the border and had a good relationship with the officials, he was allowed to cross the border. Again, the Lord had gone before the team. God’s work continued to advance!

Fuel Storage Born out of necessity due to problems of inadequate fuel in the country, the commissary was also used as a fuel depot. This grew from the early days of stocking of a few jerry cans of petrol and diesel to the mid-1980s with a number of large petrol tanks. The following tanks were developed to stock needed fuel:

1) A 500 gallon kerosene surface tank 2) Two 500 gallon diesel surface tanks 3) A 1500 gallon underground gasoline tank

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One 500 gallon diesel fuel tank

Through close contact with the owner and contractor of a local road and building company who had a fuel truck, Ruud was able to arrange the transport of the fuel for GILLBT. In exchange for helping the mission staff, the commissary helped the contractor friend by helping purchase items that were not available in Ghana but could be bought in Burkina Faso.

While the mission community had fuel because of the efforts of the commissary staff, sometimes the Ghanaian army would be without fuel. In these cases, the soldiers who were encamped in Tamale would sometimes be sent to the commissary to get fuel. This helped improve relationships with the military the side benefit of improved security in the area.

The fuel tanks were supervised by Ruud and a Ghanaian office member of GILLBT. The fuel was held on the same site as the GILLBT office.

Over time however, problems occurred with petrol

disappearing. Whether the missing fuel was due to leaks, evaporation or theft was never known, but it did add at times to the frustration of operating the commissary.

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In addition to the challenge of supplying fuel for the mission vehicles, there were also challenges with supplying the center with need LP gas. Ruud took many trips over the years with sometimes 100 empty LP gas bottles on the truck from Tamale to Accra to get them filled. While the approximate 1500 km round trip was mostly on paved roads they were often filled with many potholes. There were many anxious days spent on the road as full LP gas bottles were brought back to the center!

In all, Ruud Bakker managed the commissary for 12 years. In 1988, he gave up the commissary work and turned the reigns over to John and Shevawn Ramsey. The Bakkers then went on to help build more group houses for GILLBT.

By late 1990 and early 1991 the commissary operation was slowly phased out due to basic food items becoming more available in the country. While the store was no longer needed, it served a useful purpose for many years.

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The photo below shows Ruud and Lies Bakker in 2010 along with some of the GILLBT group housing in Accra, Ghana.

Accra Guest House

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Ruud and Lie Bakker - 2010

Chapter 3 A Growing Ukarumpa, PNG Community The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue. It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner.” William Cameron Townsend (Founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics)

AIYURA VALLEY AND UKARUMPA SHORT HISTORY The Highlands of New Guinea was little noted before World War I.

However, the world took real notice

of the Highlands when the Leahy brothers in 1933 explored the Wahgi valley in the Western Highlands and discovered more than a million people living without any knowledge of the outside world. Until that time, the rest of the world thought the Highlands of the country was uninhabited.

Around this same time in the early 1930s the world was also beginning to learn about the Upper Ramu portion of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea where the Aiyura Valley and Ukarumpa is located. There, in 1936, the Australian government started the “Highlands Agricultural Experiment Station” (today known as the Aiyura Agricultural Research Station), headed up by Mr. Bill Brechin, an Australian agriculturist, who pioneered trials of tree crops for suitability for Highlands plantings at Aiyura.

In May of 1936, Mr. Brechin walked the fertile land in the Upper Ramu area near the Yonki Valley (where the current water catchment area is for the Yonki Hydro Dam) and the adjacent Norikori Valley. He eventually chose the Aiyura valley area to settle and to establish a research station. In the same year, he planted Cinchona and tea. The tea grown could not stand the climate and withered away. However, the Cinchona plantings did grow well to warrant a planting of more than 10,000 seedlings. In August 1936, coffee was planted. He found immediately that the coffee plantings did very

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well. From such innocent beginnings the coffee industry has burgeoned into the multi-million kina industry it is now.

In April 1937, Mr. Brechin started clearing the site at Aiyura for an airstrip and also cleared more land for coffee plantings and Cinchona seedlings to be ready for the September rains. In April 1938, he employed 18 laborers from the Markham valley and 20 casual laborers from Bena Bena with additional casual help being sought from the local villages and 12 men from Akuna, in the Aiyura area. In July 1938, he further employed 10 men from Markham, 43 casual workers from Bena Bena, a further 50 from Ramu in the Madang Province and thus a first “plantation” was established in the Highlands of PNG.

When World War II broke out, General Douglas MacArthur continued the experimenting at the agricultural station with the growing of the Cinchona tree for the ultimate production of the raw material from which Quinine is derived.

“Highlands Agricultural Experiment Station” located at the left and right side of the Aiyura Airstrip with Professor Schindler's School in the foreground.

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When the Japanese invaded the Australian territories of Papua and New Guinea they too took notice of the Aiyura Valley. They bombed the Australian troops stationed in the valley in June 1943 and came within a two hours’ march of the research facility. Had the Japanese fully known that the Aiyura Agricultural station was the only station producing Quinine for Australia and its territories and continued their trek, the outcome of World War II may have been significantly altered.

In the early 1950s, the Australian Trust Territory of New Guinea government took to the task of pacifying the Highlands and sent many Patrol Officers into the area. Once the Patrol Officers brought a measure of peace in the Highlands, the Australian government opened the Highlands to development and missionary work in 1956.

That year, Wycliffe Bible Translators took notice of the area and two Wycliffe men representing the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), Dr. James (Jim) C. Dean from Canada and Dr. Richard (Dick) Pittman from the United States visited the Aiyura Valley in the Eastern Highlands looking for a location to build a Bible translation center.

Aiyura Valley had been the location the Peacock Plantation, a failed commercial coffee venture. Before that, however, it was a plot of land disputed and fought over by surrounding language communities (and traditional enemies), the Gadsup and Tairora. Because the Australian government wanted to separate the two warring sides they saw it as an ideal place for SIL's work. A 99-year lease for the 600 acres at Ukarumpa was signed by Dr. Pittman and witnessed by the first SIL Papua and New Guinea Branch Director, Dr. Jim Dean on 4 October, 1956.

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Jim Dean and his wife Gladys first worked in Mexico for six months among the Aztec Indians and then they lived among the Bilaan of the Philippines for 2 ½ years before coming to New Guinea. Jim was also Principal of the SIL linguistic school in Melbourne, Australia in 1955.

First House at Ukarumpa 1956 – Home of James and Gladys Dean

The first home built on the center was the home of Jim and Gladys Dean. Jim and Gladys took up residence at Ukarumpa in late October 1956 along with their four children, Sharon, Timothy, Roseann and David. The house was built from bush material and was called the "Philippine House" because of the Dean’s previous work in the Philippines and because the house was built on stilts like in the Philippines. The Dean’s eventually had a fifth child, Jonathan, who was born in the Australian Trust Territory of New Guinea. Jim remained the director of the branch until he was asked to open up Wycliffe’s work in India in the mid-1960s.

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Dr. Jim and Gladys Dean

Early Leaders – Dr. Jim Dean, Dr. Richard Pittman, and Bill Oates

Originally Ukarumpa, situated in Aiyura Valley, was an open field with kunai, a waist-high grass with sharp-edged leaves. It lies at an altitude of approximately 1,500 meters (4,900 ft). The climate is Equatorial Highland; there are cool days and nights, with daily afternoon rains between November and March.

There were only a few trees and there was no development, although the valley had fertile ground for gardens. The Bae River runs alongside the Ukarumpa center, forming one of the boundary lines. It originates upstream from Ukarumpa and runs past the Gadsup village on to Kainantu.

Once the lease was secured, the center began to develop. The SIL missionaries soon built homes at Ukarumpa and planted hundreds of Rainbow Gum (Eucalyptus deglupta) trees to soak up the swampy area of the valley. They also planted a variety of Pine and Casuarina trees and other shrubs which have attract a wide variety of flora and fauna.

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Chapter 4 The Ukarumpa SIL Store Begins Operation “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.� William Carey (the father of modern missions)

History of the First Store at Ukarumpa The first "store" was a bag of rice and a case of mackerel pike (tinned fish) under Cedric Grace's bed.

In front of the old Jim Dean house, (house to the left) where the Grace's lived when the store was started in Cedric and Margaret's spare room. The girl in the back of the wagon is Maree Lowe, in the middle is Jocelyn Grace and in front is Steven Grace

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When the PNG branch began its work at Ukarumpa in 1956 there was immediately a need for food and other supplies. In the early years supplies were brought in as needed. However, after just a few years, starting in 1958, food and supply orders were given to a branch member once a week would then drive a jeep to the Burns Philp grocery wholesale and retail store in Kainantu to collect goods. Soon it became apparent that due to the growing size of the population at Ukarumpa that another solution needed to be found.

1976 Photo - Burns Philp (New Guinea) Kainantu Operated from 1950 to 1984

Early 1960 Margaret Grace collected orders for groceries and had Queensland Farmer’s Supplies (QFS) Brisbane, Australia ship them to Lae. Margaret made up the orders and handled left over from case-lots she stored in their house and subsequently sold to members.

Building materials for specific jobs were also ordered through QFS. An initial store was set up in 1961 in the “old� meeting house located near the sawmill.

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Branch Meeting Calls For New Store To Be Built In early 1961, the Executive Committee began to discuss the possibility of setting up a more permanent store while a few hardware items were stocked in one end of the radio shack. A temporary building supply store was set up in early 1961 in the old meeting house near the sawmill. In late 1961, at the Branch Conference, discussion was held on whether the branch should set up a SIL store. Here are the notes of those meetings. Š PNG Branch Collection, 1961

MINUTES OF NEW GUINEA BRANCH BUSINESS MEETINGS (Branch conference) December 18, 1961

Meeting was called to order by the Chairman at 9:40 a. m. Walt Steinkraus opened in prayer.

1. The minutes were accepted as read on a motion made by Dick Lloyd seconded by Joy McCarthy. Carried.

2. Dick Loving moved that we accept the proposed agenda, seconded by Don Davis. Carried.

3. The Store Report was given by Ken Lowe. Ray Brown moved that we accept the report with many thanks to Ken for his work, seconded by Jim Baptista. Carried.

Ellis Deibler moved 'that from now on all members ordering building supplies to be delivered try Ukarumpa, order them through the Store Manager’. Ray Brown seconded.

Chet Frantz moved that we refer this problem to the Committee of 4 (J. Baptista, K. Lowe, D. Cummings, J. Dodson) as appointed by the Chairman and they are to bring back a report to the floor. Jim Dean seconded. Carried.

A discussion was held as to the location of the store. A vote revealed that many people would be in favour of having the store in the area of the meeting house (bulk and retail store being

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together) if no drums were sitting around making the place untidy. This will be discussed further in the Executive Committee.

Meeting adjourned for the day at 11:30 a.m.

December 19, 1961

Meeting was called to order by the Chairman at 10:15. Dick Loving led in prayer.

1. Dick Lloyd moved that the Base Store Report be added to the agenda. Seconded by Joy McCarthy. Carried.

Ken Lowe brought forth the recommendations from the Base Committee. [He was] appointed to look into the problem of orders from overseas, etc. and orders to Lae. His recommendations were as follows: 1) All QFS orders and all overseas shipments other than parcel post orders that are to be channeled through Lae be channeled through the Store and all documents facilitating clearance of goods rust be channeled through the Store Manager. A duplicate copy of any other order sent through any other port should be sent to the Store Manager.

2 ) All orders from Base to representatives in has must be made out on special forms placed in either the post office or store. One form will be for transmission by radio, and one form will be for transmission by airmail.

3) All orders to our representatives in Lae sent from a tribal allocation must be sent out on special forms.

4) Any order to suppliers in various centres in New Guinea which might involve the Base or Lae representative, copies must be sent to the Base Store Manager and Lae representative.

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Gwen Gibson moved that this list of recommendations be accepted. Seconded by Lorna Luff.

Carried.

Location of Store: The following motion was presented from the Executive Committee concerning the location of the Base Store.

‘Moved that investigation be made of the area where the Post Office and Print Shop is located, with the thought of having the front of the retail store on the road and the bulk store at the rear with a lower access road.’ This motion was acceptable to Conference members.

December 20th 1961

Meeting was called to order by the Chairman at 9:35 a.m. Jack Bass led in prayer

1. Store. The suggestion was brought forth and discussed re having a native market on Base.

Ray Nicholson moved 'that a weekly native market be set up here on Base within the next two weeks’. Ray Brown seconded. Carried.

A discussion was also held as to whether garden produce should be sold in the Base store. A straw vote showed that everyone was against this.

FOURTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE NEW GUINEA BRANCH, SIL

DECEMBER 11-21, 1961

Business and Main Motions from Conference

D. BASE STORE – Moved and carried that the following recommendations for ordering be accepted.

1) All QFS orders and all overseas shipments (other than personal post orders) that are

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to be channeled through Lae be channeled through the Store and all documents facilitating clearance of goods must be channeled through the Store Manager. A duplicate copy of any other order sent through any other port should be sent to the Store Manager.

2) All orders from Base to representatives in Lae must be made out on special forms placed in either the Post Office or Store. One form will be for transmission by radio, and one will be for transmission by airmail.

3) All orders to our representatives in Lae sent from tribal allocations must be sent out on special forms.

4) Copies of any order to suppliers in various centres in New Guinea which might involve the Base or Lae representative must be sent to the Base Store Manager and Lae representative.

Location of Store – Moved and carried ‘that investigation be made of the area where the Post Office and Print Shop is located, with the thought of having the front of the retail store on the road and the bulk store at the rear with a lower access road.’

It was suggested that there be a native market on Base. Moved and carried that George Wilson and Cedric Grace be appointed to inquire into refrigeration of bulk meat for supply at Base.

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In 1962 the first store was built near the Meeting House. It was a two-story building. Ken Lowe started the first official store with around $ 3,000 worth of stock. It was timber framed with a corrugated iron roof and plaited bamboo sheets on three walls. The front wall was fibro sheet as a concession to appearance. The roof was corrugated steel with some corrugated fiberglass roofing sheets to allow sunlight in.

The store was actually a combination Store, Post office and Radio Shack. A second floor was incorporated to house the new Radio Shack which Phil Mathieson staffed allowing Ken Lowe to concentrate on developing the store program.

Having the Store and Radio Shack together was logical, as orders radioed in from workers in tribal locations could be coordinated directly with the store staff. A plastic pipe between upstairs and downstairs was used to transmit voice messages. This new store provided a constant supply of groceries, basic household goods, kerosene and building supplies.

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Cedric Grace came as a builder, but soon was put in charge of the store. The store was mainly operated

by Cedric’s wife Margaret and sold basic foodstuffs such as soap, fish and bread in addition to handling the case orders. Meat for the store was also cut on the second floor. Ken Lowe kept a small supply of common items in part of the Radio Shack.

By 1967 the open side door in the photo above was permanently closed and customers used the door in the front which in this picture has no steps.

Meeting House

1st Store

Meeting House

Post Office

High School

1st Store

st

1962, Meeting House and 1 Store

(Retouched Photo Courtesy of Gail May)

The size of the Old Store building was maybe 100 square meters. It was located approximately 10 or 15 meters southwest of the Meeting House.

To enter the grocery section of the store, customers walked up several wooden steps onto a 4’ x 4’ wooden porch. Opening the front door brought of the store them immediately into the grocery area, which was maybe 12’ X 15’. After customers finished picking out their groceries, they walked down a couple of steps to the checkout area, which was approximately 8’ wide by 12’ long. The exit door was just past the checkout counter.

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The receiving and bulk storage area was just behind the wall of the checkout room and measured around 12’X15’ with a 7’ ceiling. The storage area also shared space for the weighing and packing of rice, sugar, powdered milk, corn meal, eggs and many other bulk products. This limited storage was the only warehouse for all overstock grocery items, including dozens of cases of food items arriving by ship once a month from Australia.

In the back corner behind the grocery section was an area set aside for the Aviation bus driver to prepare orders for tribal teams. The store manager called each translation/literacy team by short-wave radio a few days prior to any scheduled flight to their airstrip. As they talked over the radio, he made a list of all supplies they wanted him to gather for their up-coming flight. Items requested not only included things from the store, but also included things from their Ukarumpa house or storage shed, print shop, and other department on the center. The store manager then pulled, invoiced, packaged, addressed and weighed their groceries, hardware, building supplies, kerosene and all other items they had requested, plus retrieved their mail from the Post Office and coordinated the delivery of all their packages to the SIL hanger at Aiyura, in time for the scheduled flight to their village airstrip.

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In pre SIL aviation days the bread and meat came in from Burns Philp in Lae to the Aiyura airstrip by "Otter," a Qantas Air Service aircraft contracted by the Australian territory government for the weekly mail run from Lae to Goroka. Cost was seven pence per pound. Later, when SIL started an aviation program they handled this job and the "freezer flight" had a certain prestige and priority. Eventually bread was flown in from Morobe Bakery in Lae once a week and sometimes twice a week on Wednesday and Friday. Imagine, Qantas airlines stopping at Ukarumpa!!!

Cedric Grace

Coby Groot

Coby Groot and Jean Goddard (Agarabi Translator)

Qantas Airlines delivering Supplies at Aiyura Airstrip

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Jean Smith, Coby Groot, Leslie Lowe, Cedric Grace

Groceries, building supplies and hardware items were readily available in the store for member to purchase as they needed them. However, meat and other perishables required special handling since the store initially had no refrigeration to stock such items. Meat was shipped in from Lae twice a week on SIL planes. So while members shopped for their regular groceries, they filled out an order form listing each cut of meat they wanted and the quantity desired. The store meat buyer gathered all members’ meat orders, added up the total combined weight for each cut of meat and sent the bulk order to the SIL office in Lae. A Lae staff member delivered the order to the Lae butcher shop and over the next few days the butcher shop prepared everything in bulk with total weights for each cut of meat written on the outside of the boxes.

Meat shipments were scheduled for a designated day and time, with the Lae staff acting as coordinators to determine the exact time the meat needed to be delivered to the Lae hanger in time for the scheduled Qantas flight or the SIL flight back to Aiyura. Upon arrival at the Aiyura airstrip, meat boxes were quickly loaded onto the Aviation bus and shuttled to the store. Each heavy box was carried up a

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long flight of stairs at the back of the grocery store to a room where the meat was portioned out. In this room were tables, butcher knives, scales, white butcher paper, packaging tape and marking pens.

Since each cut of meat was received in bulk form, several members were specifically assigned the job of cutting up the meat into the portion sizes each member had ordered. After cutting the meat, it was weighed, invoiced, wrapped and marked with the name of the family who had ordering it. The finished packages were then moved to a small room next to the meat cut-up area. This distribution room had glossy white wooden shelves divided into compartments without doors (similar to the mail boxes at the Ukarumpa post office), but larger. This storage area was not refrigerated, so members tried to arrive about the time the meat cutters were scheduled to be finished, to pick up their meat orders.

Of course there were many problems with this system, such as the failure of the butcher to have the meat ready in time for the scheduled flight. Weather delaying the SIL plane from arriving in Lae on time or storms between Lae and Aiyura also caused problems.

Since the store had no refrigeration at the Lae hanger, if the flight had to be canceled or delayed for several hours, the meat needed to be taken back to the butcher shop or left in the Lae heat until the plane arrived. In addition some members forgot to pick up their meat orders from the distribution room at the top of the store and the whole post office room stunk. So the following mornings after each distribution, we walked up stairs and checked to see if anyone had failed to pick up their order from the previous afternoon. Any uncollected packages were taken down stairs and an attempt was made to find enough space in the one and only tiny kerosene freezer or in the very small kerosene refrigerator; these being the store’s only perishable storage.

Some items were purchased wholesale when possible from stores in Kainantu. This included the Burns Philp (New Guinea) Ltd which started in Kainantu in 1950, but closed in 1984. JASCA (division of Collins and Leahy) which later became KKB (Kainantu Komuniti Bisnis, Ltd) also occasionally provided the store goods at wholesale prices. However, by the 1980s this was phased out as KKB and other wholesalers closed their doors due to crime and uncertain economic conditions.

Because of high shipping costs between Australia and PNG, it was cheaper to import building materials from Belgium and Japan. This included cement, roofing iron, fibro cement sheets and glass.

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st

Heather Woods and Mac Lowcock in 1 Store with Electrolux Kerosene Refrigerator in Background

1964, Margaret Grace at the store checkout

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Food was set out on self-serve shelves and was sourced mainly from QFS from Brisbane, Australia although large quantity items such as sugar, rice, tinned meat and fish were bought in ton lots from importers in Lae and could have come from Japan and Asia.

The Lutheran Mission at Madang imported food from USA and the store in turn bought from them to supplement the Australian brands to the joy of the American members. Americans firmly believed their Crisco cooking oil was superior to the Australia Oleo, but little did they realize that on presenting their empty Crisco containers for refill that they in fact went home with Oleo bought in bulk from Australia!

Local villagers bought from the store, so rice, canned fish and some basic clothing was also stocked.

Spades and axes were popular items. Local villagers brought in potatoes and sweet potatoes to sell to the store. They were carried in woven baskets by women on their heads, sometimes for ten miles or so. With the cash they earned they bought spades, axes, clothes and food.

Tom Asia, a young PNG man with primary school education, was employed and became a valuable, trusted and loved member of the staff. He even sometimes supervised the store.

As the goods offered in the store increased, eventually the store needed to expand.

A separate

building housed hardware and building supplies. It was located just across the road at the back of the grocery and bulk storage area. The hardware department sold hand tools, nails, screws, bolts, rolls of black plastic pipe, lengths of galvanized pipe & fittings, galvanized steel and fiberglass corrugated roofing, gutters and downspouts, cement fiberboard siding, sheets plywood, rolls of tar paper, chicken and barb wire fencing, axes, shovels, bags of cement and kerosene for lamps and refrigerators. Kerosene was dispensed through a 6’ tall antique hand cranked gas station type pump with a glass compartment at the top, which measured out the kerosene by the liter.

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Front Entrance to the store

Tom Aisa Weighing In KauKau (Sweet Potato)

Cedric Grace at the Checkout Lane

Ken Lowe Supervising the Work

1964, Store, with Pick-up backed up to Hardware Section, 1966, Store Receiving Cargo with the Grocery Section and JAARS Radio upstairs to the right

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Cedric and Margaret Grace and Tom Aisa

1964, Tom Aisa dispensing Kerosene with help from Warwick Grace and Tom's son Beret

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Jessie, Store worker

There are many amusing and interesting occurrences that happened during the time Cedric Grace and Ken Lowe worked at the store. All of these were great years with plenty of stress and strain, but lots of fun and laughter and mixed with good memories and companionship. These were all part of how God molded and matured these men maturing in their Christian walk.

Among these times was when Ken Lowe was siphoning methylated spirits (Rubbing Alcohol) out of a 55 gallon drum to fill a smaller one and he forgot about it. About 45 minutes later he ran to stop it, but by then the ground under the store was well saturated! Thank the Lord there were no smokers at Ukarumpa!!!

Another amusing time was when customers would bring in their empty L.P. gas bottles to the store for return to Lae and re-filling. Cedric used to hold these bottles under the vertical tube that ran between Store on the ground floor and the JAARS Radio department on the second floor (normally used to rely messages) and release the gas up to the men upstairs, to their consternation!

Some situations, however, were serious such as when Cedric needed to move a number of drums of kerosene to another area. He loaded the 55 gallon drums into a large tip truck SIL had bought on a tender sale and took off with four store workers in the back of the truck. Cedric soon heard the noise of crashing and yelling and when he looked back he saw all of the drums rolling around and store workers scattered amounts them. What Cedric failed to discover was that the old truck often released the hydraulic lever and raised the tipper on its own. By God’s grace, no one was injured.

When Ken and Lesley Lowe went on furlough in 1964 Cedric Grace (Australia) took over all management of the Store.

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New Store Assistant Manager Arrives Darrell Lancaster and his family arrived in Ukarumpa in early January 1967 to assist in running the store when Cedric Grace was the store manager. The day Darrell arrived on the centre, he quickly helped his family get settled into his rented house at Ukarumpa and soon was off to see the old Ukarumpa store he was assigned to work in.

With great expectation Darrell walked into the old store building and introduced himself to Cedric. Cedric greeted Darrell with a big smile and friendly enthusiasm. They began talking and one of the first things he asked Darrell was, “What have you been assigned to do?” Darrell quickly responded, “I’ll be your assistant!” A shocked look on Cedric’s face greeted Darrell because until Darrell walked into the store that day, he had never heard of Darrell’s name or been told that someone was being assigned to the store.

1966 (L-R) Alda, Joy, Pamela, Daniel, David, Darrell Lancaster

Surprisingly enough, the Lancasters had been corresponding with the PNG Branch for six month prior to their leaving on a 21,000 kilometer trek to begin duty in the store. Initially Cedric was dumbfounded, but at the same time was very happy to have an added set of hands to help in the store. Cedric quickly worked out all the details with the directors and Darrell enjoyed the next 2 years working with Cedric.

While having Darrell come to help with the store was a huge blessing, the small store didn't last long because demand continued to increase rapidly. Toward the end of the 1960s the branch decided to build a new store. The first store was kept until the new store was built in 1969, but was torn down as

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soon as the new store was occupied. In 1969 the store had 19 staff working in the Store, with a good balance of SIL members and PNG staff from a number of language groups.

After the old store was torn down, a brand new clinic building was erected near the location of the old store in late 1969. The new clinic eventually became the Technical Studies office or today the LCORE office.

To read ‘God’s Grocers’ Chapters 5 – 8 please go to this link: http://issuu.com/cbmicheals/docs/godsgrocers_chapters5-8

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About The Author

Charles

Micheals is a native of Michigan and lived the first thirty years of his life there, eventually

working in the grocery industry. In 1985 his wife Barbara and their four small children joined Wycliffe Bible Translators and moved to the country of Papua New Guinea (PNG) where they worked with the internationally known non-profit linguistic organization, SIL International (formerly the Summer Institute of Linguistics). Charles served in a variety of administrative roles in PNG, including several years as the Chairman of the SIL PNG Job Evaluation and Wage Review Committee and on the SIL PNG Executive Committee.

During their 15 years of service in PNG, Bible translation work was completed in 67 languages and over 100 additional Bible translation projects were started. Today, almost 180 language communities, representing 1.8 million people in PNG have access to the Scriptures in their own languages.

In 2000, Charles and Barbara moved back to the USA and Charles served for several years as the Regional Director for Recruitment for Wycliffe, living in the Chicago, Illinois area. In 2004 they moved to Orlando, Florida where Charles served for six and one half years as the Vice President for Recruitment Ministries for Wycliffe. He currently heads up Wycliffe’s Management Recruitment Department and speaks at various mission conferences and colleges each year. Barbara coordinates several Wycliffe short term mission trips each year.

Charles holds a BS degree in Food Distribution from Western Michigan University and a MA degree in Organization Management from Dallas Baptist University. He served on the Board of Directors for The Finishers Project, a non-profit mission dedicated to helping people in the second half of life find places to serve in missions. He has also been involved in helping create and develop Mission Teach, a ministry dedicated to helping place teachers in MK (Missionary Kid) mission schools around the world and 74 | P a g e

Military Believer, a growing ministry dedicated to helping military personnel who are leaving the military, find opportunities for service in global missions.

Charles has also authored a number of articles about the work of SIL in PNG and other historical articles about life in the Aiyura Valley in PNG. (http://issuu.com/cbmicheals/docs)

Both Charles and Barbara are members of Saint Andrew’s church in Sanford, FL and are involved in a variety of church activities there. Charles serves as an elder at the church.

However, they are still

members of Second Christian Reformed Church, in Kalamazoo, Michigan which is the church that commissioned them for their work with Wycliffe.

All four of their children are actively supporting

missions and church ministry work. Three of their four children are serving with Wycliffe around the world.

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