Land of the Unexpected

Papua New Guinea is described by many as the land of the unexpected. We definitely agree. From the moment we first stepped into the sweltering blanket of PNG humidity a year and a half ago, we have experienced countless revisions to our plans. This month has been  no exception.

Most of you know that we were planning to move into Wabuku on January 16 (with a small work team going in a few days prior to work on our houses). But, we’re still not moved in. The grass airstrip where we fly in to flooded just before we were set to depart, so we couldn’t go. When we finally received the OK to fly, our coworker, Lisa, had to go to Australia for some very important meetings. So, the work team (3 people besides Clint and our coworker Jason) decided to do a quick trip, just to get some work done on our houses. The original 5-day trip was shortened to 4-days after some rescheduling done by our mission pilots. And, last minute, I was asked to go in to help cook for the team. So, our whole family ended up traveling in to Wabuku for 4 days. We loved being there and didn’t want to leave. I guess that’s a good sign since we’re headed back in six days on February 7! Or, some of us are anyways.

Ok, so after our work trip, we anticipated a full week and a half out on the base to pack the rest of our things and get ready for our move. Nope. We got word that our coworkers’ batteries might not have been hooked up correctly to their solar system, and it could potentially destroy the system if left alone. So, Clint and Jason quickly packed and headed back into Wabuku after only spending the weekend on the base. They decided to stay in the tribe since it doesn’t make much sense for them to come back out and go back in only a week later. We got word that the batteries and solar system are totally fine, and the guys are continuing to fix and clean our houses (trust me, they are filthy!). We miss them, but we’re thankful they can get so much done before we head in.

We’d definitely appreciate your prayers as we prepare to move in on the 7^th. We definitely sense that Satan has been attacking our team in various ways. He’s trying hard to discourage and distract us. We know he doesn’t want these people to learn what it means to walk in fellowship with Christ. He has held them in bondage for so long, and he is fighting to hang on to his domain. It’s scary sometimes what he throws at us. But praise God, He is so much stronger than Satan! And He will protect and guide us as we go. Thanks so much for praying for us each step of this crazy journey! And please, don't stop.

A Picture Post

Ok, I know I've slacked off on posting pictures on here. I'd like to say it's because I've been busy, which is true. But I mostly have just forgotten. Oops. So here's a bunch from our past few months here, with some descriptions.


We made it back to PNG in early December. It took almost 40 hours of traveling to get here, but it was so good to finally be home! At least, home on the mission base. :)

It was so fun to decorate for Christmas this year. We feel like PNG is home now, so that made it a lot more special for us. And it was fun to start some of our own family traditions. We put up all our Christmas decorations pretty much right away after getting here. We bought the tree and lights in town (yup, you can find Christmas stuff in town).

These little string bags are called "bilums" here in PNG. Almost everyone carries one around when going places. They act as a purse/wallet and come in all kinds of colors. We made these smaller versions as a fun way for our family to do Christmas stockings.

We had a really fun Christmas celebration with our teammates! The kids' Aunt Lisa spoiled them to death! :) So thankful for missionaries who become like family here to make the holidays special.

December also meant lots of meetings with our teammates to continue talking through our strategy for moving into Wabuku. There's so much to talk through, but we are grateful to be unified as we begin this ministry together. We seriously love these guys so much!

And Kyler loves being back with his little friends! Our teammates, Jason and Laken, have two little boys who are close to Kyler's age. It's going to be so fun for these three growing up in the jungle together!

 

Kyler has done great with all the transition back to PNG! He probably transitioned better here than anywhere for the past five months, so we're so thankful for that.

We feel spoiled living on the mission base because we literally can see the beach from our house. We love going down there every once in a while to swim. It's so beautiful here!

 

After all the New Year's celebrations, we started preparing for moving into Wabuku (since we originally thought we were moving in on January 16... more on that later). Everything we take in has to be weighed and labelled (for the plane flight) and wrapped in black plastic (for the canoe trip).

Here's one of the spots on base where we store our supplies after we get them all packaged up.

And here's our team Wabuku mail box (the box above the sign)! We really love getting mail! :) Side note: Thanks SO much to all those who sent Christmas cards! We so loved getting those!

Amidst all the Wabuku prep, these two kiddos have been so good! They have been growing and changing so much, and are doing awesome with all the change. Kyler's language abilities have exploded, and he has added a bunch of new words to his vocabulary. He even says a few short sentences. He runs everywhere and hardly slows down. He loves anything with wheels. We're also trying to work on potty training him... we'll see how it goes. :) Brooke is a little sweetie. Everyone who meets her falls immediately in love with her cute little face and chunky little thighs. She rolls all over the place and loves playing in her Jolly Jumper. She also passed a milestone this month with starting to eat solids! We gave her some mashed bananas, and she loved them!

Well, there you have it. I could post so many more pictures... but there's only so much space in a blog post without going completely crazy. :) Thanks so much for praying for us during all this transition! It means so much to us!