Hi from PNG

I made it safely to the Tigak tribe in the New Ireland province of PNG. It's been a really neat day so far. I got a tour around the village and got to see the ocean in the daytime (we boated out to the island in the dark last night), which was really pretty! It's raining right now, so I'm happy to be inside, listening to the rain pounding on the tin roof. It's a really comforting sound.

Travelling here was good, but I'm very glad it's over! I had 6 flights and 1 boat ride to get here (not to mention the boat engine stalled on our way out to the island), but it's been really cool to see God's hand through it all. He showed me how much He cares for me and is protecting me, even in things like getting a good amount of sleep on the 14 hr flight over and allowing us to sit in first class on the flight from Salt Lake City to LA (we got to sit there since it was the airline's fault that we missed our flight from Cincinnati to LA). :)

Thank you all for praying! It's a huge blessing to me!

Flight Fun...

So our flight out of Kansas City was delayed a bit due to weather, so we missed our connecting flight to Cincinnati by 4 minutes (go figure). It's so funny how Satan really tries to distract and discourage us from doing God's work, and yet God is so incredibly faithful beyond our wildest expectations. There was a flight leaving for Salt Lake City (and then on to LA) in 20 minutes, so the agents were able to book us on the flight and we were able to make it on! Praise God! So now we're in the Salt Lake City airport about to board our flight to LA.

Thanks to all who are praying! We appreciate it more than you know!

Flying over the Rockies (see the snow?)

Heading to PNG!

So for those who don't know, I'm flying today to Papua New Guinea for a 5-week trip to get more familiar with the country and people there. I'll be traveling with Josiah and his girlfriend, Rachel, though I'll be headed to a few different locations during my time there. I'm very excited about this trip! My first flight leaves in about half an hour and I'll have one more flight in the US before I get on the 14 hour flight to Australia. From there, I'll catch another flight to the capitol of Papua New Guinea, and then one more flight to a town called Kavieng. From there, I'll be picked up by boat to spend a week with some missionaries on an island called Tigak. It will be an incredible time of getting to know the missionaries and see how they live life there.

I'll try to keep you guys updated fairly regularly (and post pictures!), but I can't promise I'll have consistent internet. If you'd like to contact me while I'm gone, the best e-mail address to use will probably be ashlyn_farrell@ntm.org.

Thanks in advance for all your prayers for my time in PNG! I'm very excited to see what God will teach me while I'm there.

Last Day of Class

It's incredible to think that today is our last day of class for this semester. Time has flown by! It seems like I just started my first semester, and now I'm finishing up my second. I only have one more semester before I graduate!

Here's a picture of our class. It's so exciting to see so many individuals united together with the purpose of reaching the world with the Gospel!

A Fellow

Many of you receive my newsletter so you've already heard about Clint, but I also wanted to post about him on here as well and post a few more pictures from our time in Georgia.

God has brought an incredible guy into my life, Clint. He is in his third semester of studies here at MTC, so he's graduating this May. He was in Papua New Guinea for a year helping with various construction projects, and he really would like to go back there. Right now, he's planning to return to MTC in August so that we can continue building our friendship while I finish my final semester.

I'm blown away by God's goodness and faithfulness! 

TPR, Pig's Feet, and Cowboys

TPR
No, TPR doesn't stand for Toilet Paper Racing.

TPR is a part of our CLA (Culture and Language Acquisition) Class this semester. It stands for Total Physical Response, and it's a really cool way to learn a new language. Our class is divided into small groups, and each group is learning a different language. I'm learning German, and it's been really fun! Basically, we have several objects in front of us. For each object, we listen to a real person who speaks the language. We don't try to repeat the phrase because that can get confusing. We just try to recognize each object when we hear it. Then, we point to the object, so that our brain connects the visual representation with the sound that we're hearing. We've already learned a lot of objects, and, while I probably can't repeat them at this time, I can recognize them! Later on, we can try pronouncing, but it's often so hard to learn vocabulary and pronunciation at the same time. This kind of approach is similar to programs like Rosetta Stone.

It's been really fun so far!

German meal (wiener schnitzel) we made! YUM!

Learning objects with a native German speaker

More TPR

Pig's Feet (or Suturing)
Another fun thing I did last night was suturing! We learned how to suture using pig's feet, which was quite interesting. They have really tough skin (for all who were wondering). Here are some pics:

Suturing

Sutured pig's foot

Cowboys (and a few Indians)
This last Saturday, we had a campus-wide Western Party, which was a lot of fun! We played games, had a chili cookoff and pie contest, a cake eating contest, learned how to line dance (SUPER fun!!!), and I even learned how to rope like a real cowgirl (not that I was any good at it, but it was still fun!)

Learning to rope

So all in all, I'd say it's been a very diverse and fun week!

My trip home was such a blessing. It was great to get to spend time with family and friends and be encouraged with what God is doing in my life and the lives of others.

I've been going through the Psalms recently and listing characteristics of God. It's incredible to see who God is. I feel like in the past month and a half, He's been revealing more of Himself to me and more of how much He loves and cares about me. It's pretty insane.

And yet life isn't without its trials. At times, especially in the past day, I've been wondering why God allows pain and suffering in this life. Why does He choose to use heartache to grow us? It hurts. It's not fun.

But am I still willing to trust?

Our Biblical Peacemaking class has made me think about that some. Dealing with conflict between people is one of the most difficult things in the Christian life. It's so hard to admit your faults, to begin with yourself. To trust the results to God. And yet, God uses conflict in our lives to strengthen us and make us depend more on Him.

Crazy.