Deconstruction Trip: Our House

Cassidy • March 20, 2023

Yesterday the guys returned from the third trip into the village since the earthquake. While the last trip was gutting our home, this trip was taking the structure down and beginning the footings for the office. Here are some pictures (with a little more "how was the trip?" at the end):

Ryan, Lington, Kombuk, and Zach. Kombuk and Lington are trained carpenters who live in Madang. We hired them for these last two trips and have been really thankful for their skill, help, and for the relationships they build with our friends in the village.

Step one: removing the roofing iron.

There was a pretty significant earthquake on the day when they were removing the roof, but no one was on the roof at the time and the house didn't sustain any more damage - for that we were thankful!

Step two: Removing the walls.

Look at our floor!

Taking down the last few walls.

Step three: removing the floor.

Removing the floor trusses.

All that is left for now is our water tank and the concrete footings.

While all the pieces were coming down, we needed to hire other men to remove nails.

Early in the week, Ryan oversaw the construction of this shed to house all the wood.

Organizing the wood by size.

Securing building materials inside.

Ryan worked hard also in marking, digging, and pouring cement for the office footers.

All ten footers done.

We hired several men from the village each day to help.

And many of our close friends came each day to help for free.

The guys spent a full seven days working hard.


You might expect that a trip like this would be difficult. Let me tell you, it WAS difficult. Physically, it was hard. Ryan suffered much with an injured knee and back. Zach and Ryan both had trouble breathing (and therefore sleeping) each night in a smokey hut. And waking each morning with sore muscles to remove nails and haul wood again was tiring. Yes, it was physically difficult.


But let me tell you: emotionally it was more difficult. As an example, removing our boys' green walls: walls that were installed at the cost of lots of time away from wives and kids. Walls that we painted army green for Jude and Oliver in the early years of Mawerero ministry. Walls that saw those little boys do so much growing up. Walls that still had various artwork and nicknacks tacked to them. Those walls had to be ripped out and new ones will have to be rebuilt again some day. Yes, it was emotionally difficult.


Yet Ephesians 5:20, Paul tells the Ephesians that they are to give thanks always and for everything. Not just to always find some reason to give thanks, but to actually give.thanks.FOR.everything. Because of God's promises to us in the gospel, Zach (and I from afar) can give thanks to God for the very removing of our walls since in His wisdom God is doing all things for our good and the good of all those around us who know Him.


We are so very thankful that they finished all they set out to accomplish on this trip. Even more than they expected. And we are thankful to be back together!


The Brutally Brief Biography of Eneas Sage

By Zach Cann • March 4, 2026
I was reading a biography recently. It was a relatively short biography of John MacDonald, which takes up a single chapter in Iain Murray's book A Scottish Christian Heritage . And in that chapter there is an introductory paragraph about a man who was a missionary pioneer in northern Highlands of Scotland. His name was Eneas Sage, and his whole life fit quite neatly on the first half of page 130. Evidently, Sage moved into the town of Lochcarron in 1726 and ministered there till he died in 1774. Murray provides Sage's own testimony that he went to this dark and cold place "merely to pave the way, if it were practicable, for settling the bounds with a gospel ministry, though it should be at the peril of my life." And peril he faced. His house was burned down and at least three attempts were made on his life. After six years of work, there was one family coming to hear him preach in a tiny thatched church. After 20 years of laboring, he was still treated as an outsider and had to evade yet another assassination attempt. But at the end of nearly 50 years of toil, there were some who "were themselves the primitive fathers of the spiritual generations that followed them." And with that line, the story of Eneas Sage came to an end, and the story moved on to recount the accomplishments of others. A whole ministry boiled down into a paragraph. 50 hard and lonely years, summarized in just a few sentences. A whole life that serves as an introduction to the next. Yet I cannot help but admire how the Lord Jesus used Eneas Sage. Someone had to go and start tilling that soil. And that is exactly what Sage did. He paved the way—just like he intended to do. And while he is literally what we might call a footnote on the pages of history, his toil mattered to his Master. And who cares what history records, so long as at the end of our labors we get to hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master" (Matthew 25:23).

Equipping Hour on Mark 6

By Cassidy • March 4, 2026
Zach recently recorded a Sunday school hour for our local church. The first ten minutes are few videos with the kids of some new things on our ridge. The rest of the video is about the challenge of determining story breaks in Mark. Specifically, he discussed Mark 6 and the connection between the sending out of the disciples and Herod's beheading of John. See below if you are interested!

The Millers Have Landed

By Cassidy • January 22, 2026
Please join us in welcoming our new teammates: Josh and Autumn Miller! We got to know the Millers about 3.5 years ago. We were living in Madang following the earthquake that knocked down our home in Mawerero. And the Millers' were in Madang to bring a season of ministry to a close. And so, as the Lord would have it, we were neighbors for about 6 months. We got to spend lots of time together and fellowship with them was so sweet as we both dealt with trials. Soon after, the president of FinisTerre starting discussions with both of us about the possibility of the Millers joining our team in Mawerero. Fast forward through more transition for them, a new baby, raising support, and house building... and yesterday they landed on our ridge and moved into their new home and new ministry!

Married 15 years

By Zach Cann • January 22, 2026
15 years, 7 homes, 4 kids, 2 continents later...

Oliver Turns 12 + Christmas

By Cassidy • January 17, 2026
Oliver turned 12 last week! This guy brings joy to us. He is able to laugh at himself, he loves snuggling his sisters, and he is funny. He is also creative - he loves to draw maps and write stories. He loves Dungeons and Dragons and made up a game with D&D figurines that he likes to play. He LOVES board games and card games. He put together a schedule by the hour of how we would celebrate. :) We had a fun lunch of pizza pockets, followed by pazookie, and party games.

Literacy Graduation for Class 5

By Cassidy • December 18, 2025
The day we returned from Madang we found out that the literacy class had finished their last class a few days earlier and just wanted to wait for us to arrive before doing the graduation ceremony! I am so proud of these teachers and these students. They worked hard and have now learned how to read and write all the sounds in the Do language. The ceremony was completely planned out by the students, using the pattern of the previous classes. The singing was accompanied by the ladies who are in the reading class, which was so sweet to see.

Madang and Time with the Yates

By Cassidy • December 18, 2025
We just returned from a great time in Madang. We got to spend lots of time with the FIVE other missionary families currently living there, and we also welcomed our pastor, Smedly, and his wife, Janet, for a visit. It was a full and fun and encouraging time with so many brothers and sisters in Christ. We feel refreshed and ready for another stint in the village! Here is a highlight reel in pictures:

Annie is Four

By Cassidy • November 25, 2025
Our Annie Rose turned four today. We are thankful for her! She is our little go-getter. She likes being a part of all the action and is tough enough to handle it. Going to someone's garden, playing games outside, going on a hike, helping out when we are working on a project together... Annie wants to be involved. She also really loves helping. She begs to help me cook and has become actually quite helpful! Shredding cheese, sifting bugs out of flour, cracking eggs... she is a hard worker. Because her birthday fell during a break to town, she got to have two celebrations. The first was in the village with us, our new teammate, Josh, and his house building buddy, Johnathan. The second was today and included all five families that are in Madang right now! Here are some pics and her birthday interview:

Juli's Funeral

By Cassidy • October 31, 2025
Juli died yesterday. The news came to us through Bangena and her young daughter on our steps. “Juli died and her brothers are trying to hurt her husband. They are hiding him there in the Counsel’s house," they said, pointing to our next-door neighbor’s hut. So many people were shocked. “How could she be dead? She wasn’t sick. I saw her just a couple days ago…!” Eventually we learned that Juli had hemorrhaged all night and had died in the morning. A brand new baby, miscarried, and they could not stop the bleeding. Juli has seven children close in age (the youngest was still nursing). Her parents knew that children so close together can cause complications, so a while back they told Samuel to stop getting his wife pregnant. Samuel agreed and promised his wife she wouldn't have any more kids, but it was a promise he couldn't keep.

Millers' House Build

By Cassidy • October 30, 2025
As you may have read in email updates and other posts, we have new teammates - Josh and Autumn Miller! We are so thankful to the Lord for giving this sweet couple a desire to serve the Lord here among the Do people. They have been working since July to turn our previous office into their new home! Josh and Kombuk (our Madang carpenter friend) have flown in every couple weeks to work. A close family friend Johnathan is also here helping with the build. He flew out from the states in August and is staying here in PNG until the house is done! Johnathan has stayed in the village even between trips to keep working, which has been sweet for our family as we have been able to get to know him.