First Week In
Thank you for your prayers. We were able to arrive on Sept. 1st. The airstrip was in great shape, and we could see that the community has taken it as a great accomplishment! Praise the Lord. They built a huge field parallel to it for their sports. There are gardens on both sides of it where they introduced planting sweet potatoes, and now they have them in abundance! Eight years ago, there were only one or two people who had some sweet potatoes. Now, almost everyone has them.
The bridge and the road up to our house were broken and overgrown, but our property was well taken care of, and the house was in good shape. I told them I would go up but really couldn’t come down without a bridge. After two days of men working, we got a new bridge made with a handrail, too! Oh, how they know me. They also cut all the grass along the “road” up to my house!
As we arrived and the plane touched down, I could see ladies dancing and crying! They were so excited that we had returned!
I’m always greeted by everyone with the news of deaths first. I know, morbid as that is, but that is something I pray for the whole time I’m on furlough—that the Lord would not allow a ton of deaths.
Two boys Elijah’s age died (he knew them both). One died, I believe, from appendicitis, and the other from a snake bite. The brother of the one with the snake bite was named Joseph (I named him in 2020). He was only five, and a mango tree branch fell on him, and he died. The uncle to those two boys died as well, but I’m still not sure of what. An older lady who was about 60 died of COPD. She would never quit smoking, so this was expected.
That’s five deaths in a population of 300 in 11 months.
The day we landed, two of the main people in the village, Hansen and Garo, came to me saying their one son, around 24–25 years old, was bones and was on death’s door. After two days of cleaning and getting the house in order, I went to the house to see him. It was a very sad sight to see. He was just bones and was in the death rattle. I cried with them, knowing he knew nothing of Jesus.
Garo has already lost two kids, and I was so sorry for her as a mom to lose another. He died a few hours later.
Everything is so raw here—so in your face and not sugar-coated! Please pray for Garo and Hansen to be saved!
On a much happier note, there have been 10 babies born while we were gone, as well as 7–8 marriages of all young people (17–21). We have been here eight years, and normally they weren’t getting married until 25, but honestly, a lot of fornication was going on, so I think the community was like, “You’re all getting married.” That’s my thought, since it didn’t follow the normal pattern of how things are done.
We started 11th and 9th grade with the kids. I can’t believe that we are at this point. God has brought us so far!
We will start our routine Monday. Getting settled back in, cleaning the house of mold, and just remembering how village life works takes some getting used to again.
The first Lord’s Day back was a good one! We had a great turnout. Caleb preached from Mark 6, and it seemed well received. It was a very hot day, so we chose to have coffee a little later than normal. We normally have it at 4 p.m., but did it at 5. Lots of people came, and we were sure many wouldn’t because it was so hot.
Please pray for rain! All of Papua New Guinea is in a drought, and it’s pretty bad! We are starting to ration our water in the tank and take on some of their spring water for washing and flushing the toilet!
