'Til All Have Heard

This is where we will live in Goroka while our house is being built.

Yes, we are moving once again. This should be our next-to-last destination, as we wait for a house to be built for us at the To Every Tribe compound just outside of Goroka. Because the nearest village is called Sioke (SEE-oh-kay), we will refer to the compound from now on with the same name. So our final destination will be a house built at Sioke. The house above is right in Goroka, which I found kind of scary, but as you can see, the CRMF people have worked hard to make this a secure dwelling. We met the family who will live on the front side last week and they are really very nice. They are Australian and have 3 daughters (8, 5, and 2), a trampoline, AND a 4-month-old German Shepherd puppy! I’m pretty sure our girls are going to love it there. We expect to be there at least until the end of the year.

Dariaso, our hausmeri, is still coming every week and is already sad about us leaving soon. She and I began talking about the fact that she had never learned to read or write and she asked if I could teach her. Since I didn’t know exactly when we’d be leaving, I took her to meet my friend Petra, who had begun teaching a few Papua New Guineans to read & write. I was privileged to witness Dariaso HOLDING A PENCIL for the very first time in her life! It was so cool! She is a very smart lady and is learning so quickly—I am so proud of her! Her desire to learn has got me thinking about teaching other Papua New Guinean ladies to read and write! I’m not sure how to go about it, yet, but I’m kind of excited about the possibilities and the doors that could be opened through those relationships, especially if I use the BIBLE as their primary reading material.

All 3 girls, as you might imagine, are still growing like weeds! Piper is now 7 months old and is eating like a pro. We took her to the clinic here yesterday to get her next round of vaccs and found out that she weighs 18.5 lbs.! Bradley still has her beat (19 lbs. at 6 months), but she’s trying hard to catch up.

Bradley, Erin, and I are still doing homeschool—I think we’ll be year-round homeschoolers. But don’t mention that to the girls… I haven’t told them, yet. They are both doing great and, even though they SAY they don’t loooove school, they really do… I’m SURE of it. Below you can see pics of them in their brand-new Chinese silk pajamas that my parents got for them during their recent trip to Hong Kong. Erin was just about beside herself when we opened the package!

We’ve been busy lately. Among other things, we’ve sewn some bears & bear dresses, dyed Easter eggs (it’s harder with brown eggs), received some fun-filled packages from Mont Belvieu Baptist Church in Texas (thank you so much!), and set-up a couple of lemonade stands. And Piper has tried to chew her way into a bag of M&Ms, started sitting up in her bathtub, and has followed in the Faulkner baby tradition of being a Mama’s baby. Two friends went with us today to Lae (a coastal city about 3 hours away) to see a dentist (he’s the closest one). We had to take Piper with us and while I was having a filling replaced she was SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS! When I finally came out, there were 4-5 nurses crowded around her trying to help my friend calm her down. I was so embarrassed (but felt so important at the same time since she calmed right down once I took her).

Thank you for your love and your prayers and, well, everything else you do for us. We wish you could come see things for yourselves (that’s an open invitation). But even though you’re not here in body, we know you’re here in spirit and are so much a part of what we hope to do in PNG.

Milestone #1
Piper is now 5 months old and I’ve started feeding her solid foods! It‟s hard to believe she’s old enough for that. It was a rough start (as with most babies), but she gets better and better at it every time. Baby food is quite expensive here, so I’ve been cooking some local veggies for her and mixing them with some of her cereal. One of the cheapest options is called kaukau (cow-cow). It is a staple here in PNG and the orange variety is very much like a sweet potato. I’ve cooked some green beans and will give her a go at those tomorrow, if I can figure out how to put my manual food mill together, that is. And next week… carrots! We can’t wait to stop buying formula!! Folks, Piper is absolutely precious and I just wish each and every one of you could be here to see that for yourselves.

Milestone #2
Erin and I are doing reading lessons and 1st grade math now and she read her first sentence just the other day! She is so excited to be doing “real school” and LOVES her reading time. Each lesson includes several words that she has to sound out and every time Erin reads a new word she leans over and kisses my cheek! And doing 1st grade math at 5 yrs old is nothing to sneeze at. She kept telling me she wanted to do it, so I decided to try it with her and just see how it all went. Erin is the type of little girl who is hard to motivate, so I have to jump on those opportunities when she’s pumped about something. Well, this time it worked! And using Hershey’s Miniatures for counting is also an incentive because we get to eat them after class! BTW, Mark told me that I don’t want to know how much he paid for those little bars of heaven.

Milestone #3
Bradley has lost 3 teeth in less than one week, including one of her top front teeth! After she lost 2, I was calling her “Snag”, but now that she‟s lost 3, I‟m calling her “Jack” (short for Jack o‟ Lantern). And, yes, the Tooth Fairy even works here in PNG. So she’s racked up almost $5 lately in tooth fees! She also got to ride on a HELICOPTER!! A pilot friend of ours was making a run to Goroka and asked Mark if he’d like to ride along. That was a no-brainer! Well, Bradley needed to see an eye doc anyway (she’s been having blurry vision lately, but it turned out to be allergy-related), so she and Mark hopped a short 20-minute flight up there and flew back later that day! She was upset when we told her she was going to see a doctor, but that mood quickly evaporated when she found out her mode of travel!

Last time I promised you a pic of Dariaso, our hausmeri. She still comes every Monday and seems to love us more and more each time. She is so sweet. She has planti hevi (PLON-tee HEV-ee: lots of sad things) in her life and has begun sharing those with me as we sit and talk after lunch each week. One of the things that is weighing most heavily on her mind is that her village haus lotu (church) collapsed because of the heavy rains over the past few weeks. Of course, they don’t have insurance, so the villagers are purchasing the things they need to rebuild the church themselves—starting with the concrete… buying it one bag at a time, as they have money for it. Please keep Dariaso in your prayers. I told her that I had asked my friends in the States to pray for her and she was simply overjoyed.

Well, we may be on the move again before too long! It looks like we may move to Goroka in as little as 2 months. The Sissons would move to the existing house on the Bena compound so that Alex could oversee the building of our houses. And since we don’t want our team split up for that long, we would move to a housing compound right in the middle of Goroka that is run by CRMF (Christian Radio Mission Fellowship). They have decent security, being right in town, and have not had a break-in in a long time.

I’ve made a friend in the Goroka area and she has told me that she’d be happy to show me (and Kelley) the ropes—which stores she feels safe going to alone, safest times for going to town, etc. She also said there is a group of missionary ladies who get together for a bible study once/week and for a kids’ play group once/week. I found that very encouraging because women don‟t get to go out by themselves very much here. It will be a great outlet for me and I’m already looking forward to the time I‟ll have with those women. However, moving away from our friends here at Ukarumpa will be hard. I love being part of an international community! And it will be hard to leave Dariaso—she told me she’s already sad just thinking about us leaving. But we must move on if Mark and Alex are to begin the much-needed work of planting churches. And while they have been patient as we’ve waited for God to work out the housing situation, I know they are ready to get to it!

Thanks so much for your continued prayers and support.

#10 Going outside after dark just seems plain silly.
#9 We now think that Indonesian Oreos & Fijian Americana-brand peanuts taste pretty good.
#8 For everyday wear, I no longer care if the girls’ clothes are wrinkled, non-matching, or stained.
#7 Showering in tan-to-brown river water is fine as long as it’s warm tan-to-brown river water.
#6 We wonder why we ever thought we needed a dryer.
#5 Adding bleach to our dish-washing & veggie-soaking water to kill bacteria & various bugs seems normal.
#4 We automatically separate our garbage into 3 categories: burnable, non-burnable, and food scraps.
#3 Driving on the left side of the road comes naturally.
#2 I was 26-weeks pregnant when we left the States and now we have a 4-month-old!
#1 Walmart now seems like a dream that never really happened.

In some ways seven months seems to have flown by, but then I think about how long it’s been since we’ve seen our family and friends. We miss all of you so much, but we are where we believe we’re supposed to be right now.

On the housing front, we have a new plan! A team from To Every Tribe (TET), including David Sitton (TET Pres) and Rod Conner (TET VP), came to PNG in early February and our search for housing was one thing they wanted to discuss. The houses I mentioned in our January update are STILL not ready for us to move into, nor can we get the owner to return phone calls. We also found out some things that made living there much LESS desirable (i. e. potential landslide under our house!). So David and Rod began discussing the idea of TET building houses for us on the Bena Bena compound in Goroka! Well, THAT would put us right where the action is and would solve the problem of maintaining our housing while on furlough. This could happen in as little as 3 months (NOT!) or as long as one year, so we have been given permission by SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) to live here at Ukarumpa until the houses are complete.

Mark and Alex Sisson will make regular trips to check on the progress of the houses and to begin working with the Bena Bena in further developing their plan to plant churches in unreached areas. We had the privilege of having Rod and David with us during their visit. Tommi Sitton, David’s wife, was also here (staying with the Sissons) for a visit. It has been SO GREAT to have them here – we really love them like family.

We now have a haus meri—a cleaning lady—who comes a 1/2 day each week. Now SOME of you, I’m sure, are thinking, “A MISSIONARY has a CLEANING LADY??? What’s up with THAT??? ” But hold on, let me explain. ☺ When we moved in here, it was not very clean, so I asked around to see if there was anyone who could give our old linoleum-tile floors a good scrubbing. A friend said that she had a haus meri who might be willing to do it. She came to talk to me and before I knew it (and I’m not quite sure how it happened) she was going to start coming for a few hours every Monday morning! The government sets the wages here, so the max we’re allowed to pay her is 4 kina/hr (that’s like US$1.60/hr), which is so little and she needs the money so badly. I think she doesn’t have much to eat at home, so she eats breakfast & lunch with us, and we always send her home with a bag or 2 of rice. I thought that God might be providing me with an opportunity to witness to someone, but BOY was I wrong! She is a strong believer and is always trying to strongim ME! To “strongim” someone means to encourage them in their Walk. This woman has NOTHING and SHE is encouraging ME in MY Walk?? What a blessing she has been. She doesn’t speak English, so we must use our Tok Pisin when talking to her and that has really given us a lot of good practice (and a tutor would cost a lot more than a buck-sixty/hr!). Her name is Dariaso. She is in her 50s and is all alone except for her grown son who lives far away. I’ll send a pic of her next time.

Since we will be here at Ukarumpa a while longer, we are joining in with the community and serving where we can. Mark is still on the Quick Response Team (QRT), helping with security around the center. And he’s the nighttime van driver for the clinic this week—when the clinic gets an after-hours call, the van driver has to pick up one of the nurses at home and drive her to the clinic and act as security for her as she works. I like helping out around center when I can and even had the opportunity to decorate a wedding cake last weekend for a PNG couple! Whoever thought those skills would come in handy HERE?! ☺

PIPER is growing so fast! Dariaso tells me every week how much Piper has changed. She is laughing now and is ticklish and gurgles and coos and is just a sweetheart. She is still sleeping 10-12 hours every night and takes 2 good naps every day! What a good baby she is!!

ERIN is 5 years old now and is as funny and random as ever! Today she asked what a journal is. I told her it was for people to write down their thoughts. She said, “I have thoughts, so I can write in journal!” We had a birthday party for her in mid-January and she had so much fun with a few friends, a few balloons, some games, and a BIG chocolate cake! When we surprised her with Winnie-the-Pooh sheets for her birthday she said, “It’s what I’ve always wanted!” She’s easy to please, that one!

BRADLEY is now 7 years old!! She wanted a special trip with her daddy for her birthday present, so Mark took her to Lae (a coastal city about 3.5 hours away) for a couple of nights. They had to take malaria meds before, during, and after the trip since it’s a high-risk area, but they had a wonderful time. They watched some of Mark’s “Three Stooges” movies and Mark said that she was laughing so hard that her side was hurting! Well, she’ll have to watch THAT stuff with her dad! I’m convinced that only men and kids under the age of 8 like the Three Stooges! She is doing so well in school and especially likes math (just like her mom).

And here are the pictures:

Hello from the Highlands of Papua New Guinea! We’ve been at an SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) Mission Center called Ukarumpa for 2 weeks now. When our housing plans for Goroka didn’t work out exactly the way we had planned, we asked SIL about staying here for a while. It is a HUGE mission center, with over 400 dwellings including private homes that can be purchased by SIL missionaries, translator lodges (for Wycliffe translators to use when they are not in their assigned villages), guesthouses, youth homes (for the kids of translators who are out in the field), and homes that have been purchased by PNG nationals who work “on center”.

Since they are currently not at full-capacity here at Ukarumpa, they were kind enough to rent us one of their translator lodges. The rent is very reasonable and, al-though we were told it was small, it’s more room than we’ve had since we left Birmingham! I can’t even touch the kitchen sink with my hand and our dining room table with my foot at the same time (like I could in Texas), so it’s plenty of room! We have a FREEZER so we can have as much ICE as we want, anytime we want it! After 6 weeks at POC, we have come to appreciate ice access more than ever. ) We also have several families we met at POC here with us, so we have our own little community already set up. The only thing we’re missing, though, is the Sissons. ( We have hardly been apart from them in the last 3 years, so we are looking forward to them moving in next-door to us once they finish their 5 weeks of village living in late November.

We had planned to head to Kudjip (where Piper will make her entrance… or exit, as it were) on October 25th, but the doctor here on center says that I am a high risk because of my age (who knew 39 would be considered geriatric?) and the fact that I MUST have a c-section. Even though the pregnancy is going perfectly, otherwise, if I happen to go into labor here, they would not be able to perform the c-section, and that’s a bad thing. So she strongly encouraged us to leave earlier, as in a.s.a.p. So Mark will drive up to Kudjip on Monday and the girls and I will fly up on Tuesday. The road is extremely bad in parts and Mark didn’t want the horrible potholes to throw me into labor!: o) Unless I go into labor sooner, though, the baby will still be born either on 11/5 or 11/8, depending on the hospital’s schedule.

Also, we have been unable to find a nurse who is willing and able to go with us to Kudjip to take care of me in a private room. THIS means that I will have to be in an open ward during my hospital stay. It’s not the best scenario for recovering from major surgery, but maybe it will present me/us with opportunities to share the gospel (well, maybe not while I’m on the morphine pump). Oh, if you didn’t notice it, the checker-board header is in honor of the fact that we’re almost to the finish line of this pregnancy—I’m 36 weeks along today!

The girls and I started home-school 2 weeks ago (yes, even Erin!) and they are doing SO well! Bradley is reading more and more proficiently everyday and she is great at math! Erin is learning to write her lower-case letters and using her school toys to make and follow various types of pat-terns (and it helps her to learn to follow instructions, too). They are having a great time here on center, playing with the other kids on the playground, and eating Mommy’s and Daddy’s cooking again. They’re pretty easy to please.

With us kind of being on stand-by right now, Mark needed something to DO. To help with security on center, there is a Quick Response Team (QRT) made up of residents who are called on day or night when there’s a problem. The dedicated phone has not rung, yet, so that’s good. But the staff appreciated the fact that he wants to help. Also, women are not supposed to be out alone after dark, so he is the transportation for our female friends who need an escort after dark.

OH! I forgot to mention that we have a truck now! That is a big answer to prayer! It’s a good truck, but… it’s BRIGHT YELLOW! It very nearly screams! But it’s the envy of every teenage boy on center. ) It’s also the same color as government vehicles in PNG, although we haven’t decided if that’s a good thing or not. ) And, in that truck, Mark made a day-trip to Goroka this week to see some of the Bena Bena pastors. They were so glad for him to visit that they went in search of a pig so they could roast it PNG-style (a mumu)! But since he was only there for the day, he convinced them to wait on the mumu for the next visit.

So we are doing great here in Ukarumpa and are just waiting on Piper to get here. Thank you all so much for all that you do for us! As we say every time in our newsletters, we could not be here without you. Enjoy the pics below!

Hi again!
Well, we got back from village living today and I’m not really sure where to start. First of all, Bradley spent Tuesday night throwing up, so we ended up not leaving until Thursday morning, which means that we were only in the village for 4 nights. It was HOT and HUMID with almost zero breeze, so it was not exactly comfortable, but then we never expected it to be, did we?: o) But our wasfamili was so kind and helpful and thoughtful that we were somewhat overwhelmed.

Two examples of this: Within 2 hours of our arrival they’d built a hauswas (a shower stall, basically) and a potty chair (complete with rounded sides on the seat) for the liklik haus! It was a 5 minute walk down to the river where they bathe and they didn’t want me to have to make that trek every-day. They made the frame with bamboo, then used tarps from our wasmama’s chicken house for the walls, then later added many huge coconut tree branches for extra privacy. They also toted 3 buckets of water each day for me to wash myself and the girls with. The fact that the water smelled really fishy didn’t take away from the enjoyment of rinsing off the sweat and feeling momentarily cool. ) They said that they like to take care of people who are in need.

They also completely moved out of their new house, back into their old one (they’re about to tear it down), so we could have their new house to ourselves. So we had a room and the girls had a room to sleep in—very small rooms, but certainly adequate for us. The first 2 days were extremely looooooooooong because we were so hot, sweating constantly, and the heat just zapped us. Plus, when the wasfamili was away, it was kind of boring, so time passed by pretty slowly. But when they were around, we got to talk a lot, ask questions, etc. It was a great learning time for us.

Mark had to go into town on Friday to talk to a guy about a car and my wonderful husband packed ice and 2 Cokes inside his CamelBak and surprised me with them!! It was the best Coke of my entire life!!!! Things picked up some on Saturday when Mark went to work in the garden with our waspapa, Santoi, and I got to show several of the village ladies how to make brownies. That was a lot of fun because they don’t cook sweets in PNG, generally speaking. But they must LIKE sweet stuff because THOSE babies were GONE! The next day I got to show them how to make bread and had enough dough to make a few cinnamon rolls, as well. Those were also a hit. We left our drum oven and one of my brownie pans with our wasmama, so she would be able to bake in her hauskuk. She seemed very pleased to get it.

We went to church with them on Sunday morning to a very energetic service! It was great! They sang the songs with such enthusiasm! And I was right in there with ‘em when I could understand the words. They also have a small church in their village, so they asked Mark to be prepared to preach on Sunday night… in Tok Pisin! Well, we all went in (about 12 of us) and sang songs and prayed and listened to Mark’s message, all by the light of one lantern. I was humbled to see them worshipping so fully in a church with no light of its own, rustic wooden benches, and a dirt floor. And Mark did a great job!

So it was a hard few days in many ways, but the girls had a blast just about the whole time! There were several older girls there and 3 boys who were just a little older than Bradley. They had piggy-back races (yeah, they carried Erin while running!), they took them down to the river to play, they made them little things out of coconut leaves. The first night they brought Bradley and Erin a baby rat (its eyes weren’t even open yet) to play with, then later, they brought a small dead fish they’d just caught in the river. Bradley taught them to play Crazy 8’s. Santoi made some stilts for the kids to play with. And then yesterday, they showed Bradley how to climb a buai palm tree! It was about 30’ tall and she went all the way to the top! Mark got a video of it and is trying to figure out the best way to get it out to you guys. ) We’re hoping Grandmother won’t be too upset when she sees it!: o)

Nighttime was difficult because it was just so darned hot and the house is totally closed-in, PNG-style, so no breeze at ALL. So between the heat, the watch dogs sending messages to each other from village to village, the roosters crowing ALL NIGHT LONG (whoever said that roosters crow only at dawn did NOT know what they were talking about!), and the rat I heard scratching and chewing in the girls room one night, Mark and I didn’t get much sleep. Now the GIRLS, however, slept just fine, they were so worn out every night from all the fun and the heat. Well, except for the second night… Bradley, after projectile vomiting all over me and her, threw up 3 more times during the night while sleeping in our bed. Thankfully we were able to catch it those 3 times in a small bucket! The next day she slept a good bit and drank a lot of kulau (fresh coconut juice, which acts like Gatorade) and felt like playing by late afternoon. She was a real trouper! Erin was fine except for the heat rash that now covers a large portion of her head and neck—we’re working on getting rid of it, but it’s hard to do when one is always sweating, right? She captured the hearts of our wasmama and other village ladies and sealed the deal when she sang a couple of the songs she knows in Tok Pisin.

So even though it was so hot, we were never totally clean, Bradley got sick, Erin got prickly heat on her noggin, and we didn’t sleep much, we could not have asked for a better village living experience. And that’s all because of our wonderful wasfamili—the love and concern they showed for us and their faith in God blessed us beyond words. Oh, and by the way, after 3.5 weeks of moderate to severe pain, my back was totally fine by the time we made it down there! So thank you all for the many prayers lifted up on my behalf!

We will be headed to Ukurumpa (the mission station up in the Highlands) on Wednesday where we’ll begin the next stage of our lives. Piper is, as always, moving constantly! I will see an OB once we get to Ukurumpa, just for a check-up and then we’ll head to Kudjip on Oct. 25th and, Lord willing, have the baby on Nov. 5th or 8th. I know this has been a longer-than-usual update, but I didn’t want to leave out too much. Thank you for your prayers and for your love for us! We couldn’t do this without your support!  fine by the time we made it down there! So thank you all for the many prayers lifted up on my behalf! We will be headed to Ukurumpa (the mission station up in the Highlands) on Wednesday where we’ll begin the next stage of our lives. Piper is, as always, moving constantly! I will see an OB once we get to Ukurumpa, just for a check-up and then we’ll head to Kudjip on Oct. 25th and, Lord willing, have the baby on Nov. 5th or 8th. I know this has been a longer-than-usual update, but I didn’t want to leave out too much. Thank you for your prayers and for your love for us! We couldn’t do this without your support!

Hi everybody! A lot has happened since our last update, so I’ll see what all I can fit in this time. We have had 3 “haus kuk weekends”, which means that the last 3 Saturdays and Sundays we have been totally responsible for feeding ourselves in the outdoor kitchen we built. We were given a Primus kerosene burner, a piece of flat metal & 4 tin cans & a metal grate (for building a fire), and dishes, pots/pans, etc.

Our first weekend we did pretty well, but ate a lot of crackers w/ PB&J. But we’ve gotten more brave each week—we even had the 2 POC directors, the kitchen manager, and a visiting SIL staff member over for dinner last Saturday, serving them satay chicken with peanut sauce, and brownies for dessert! It was a proud moment. ) You may be wondering how on earth we made brownies in this type of setting. Well, each family was given the opportunity to build a drum oven to use on the camp fire, so Mark made one! And then we were also given the chance to make metal baking pans, so I made 2 brownie pans!: o) We really have had some fun times at POC and are so glad that we came here. And we’ve learned a lot to boot!

We’ve also had 3 visits with our wasfamili (our PNG host family), once here at POC and twice in their home. We will go to their home on Wednesday (tomorrow!) and stay with them until Monday morning. Yes, FIVE WHOLE DAYS & NIGHTS in the village with them, in their tiny house (it’s about 12′ x 15′ total), using their squatty-potty (liklik haus), cooking outside on a fire, spending the day with them. I’m here to tell ya right NOW, though, that I’m NOT making the trek to the liklik haus during the night – not only do I NOT want to fall IN, I also do not want to inadvertently step on a snake of any kind in the dark. SO, we will be taking a bucket with us and I don’t care who knows it!: o)

We’re a little nervous about the village stay, just because my back has been such an issue the last 3-4 weeks. But I really want to at least TRY to do the village living portion of POC. Oh, and did I mention that our wasfamili, while they speak fairly good English, are not allowed to speak to us in English? So each visit, including the upcoming 5 days/nights, are 100% in Tok Pisin? It’ll be good for us, but keep us in your prayers, ok? We‟ll need ‘em!

The kids are still thriving here! We didn’t think they were learning all that much Tok Pisin (Pidgin) in their classrooms, but yesterday we found out otherwise. We were just about to say the blessing at lunch and Erin asked if we knew how to pray in Tok Pisin. We told her we could if we thought about it and she said that SHE could. So she proceeded to sing a blessing song in Tok Pisin! And she knew other songs, too! And then Bradley joined in with her! How cool is THAT?: o)

And speaking of our kids, I am officially 32.5 weeks along now. Just 6 weeks from Friday, Lord willing, Mark will be able to hold Piper! I’ve been holding her long enough—I’m ready for her daddy to have a turn. I’m still feeling good, pregnancy-wise, and now we’re in the home stretch. OK, OK, I’ll finish this up and give you some pics to look at!

Hi from the top of Nobnob in Madang, PNG!

Nobnob is the local name of the group of hills where POC is stationed. The road up to here is 4 km (about 2.5 miles) up a steep series of sharp curves. Some of those driving go slowly and gently on the bumps, others… not so much. The staff usually asks me to sit up front in whatever vehicle we’re on for that particular trip, but I have been unfortunate enough to have to sit in the back with everybody else. The ride is enough to make anyone question their reason for being here, but then we get to the top and we see the magnificent view (the ocean, a volcano, islands, the sky) and we’re suddenly fine.

Our days are quite full, with lots of things on the schedule, but we are enjoying everything so far. As Mark mentioned in our recent blog update, we all had to build our haus kuks (outdoor kitchens last weekend) out of bamboo, a tarp, plastic twine, and long skinny sticks (those were for the table and countertop). I’m still having a tough time with my back, but I was able to help Mark with tying the twine and I made our tabletop. Mark pretty much did everything else, though, and he did a great job on it. Some of the students went all out on their haus kuk, but we decided to go for a more utilitarian feel.

Bradley is LOVING her school here and comes home each day with all sorts of art and new information! Her teachers, Heidi and Dena, have said that she is very attentive and a great student. Erin still enjoys being the oldest in her class, but she’s not quite as motivated each morning as Bradley is. But I taught her to tell someone her name and age last night in Tok Pisin (Pidgin) and she did very well. Piper is doing well, if her constant motion is any indication. Some of have been concerned that I haven’t seen a doctor since we left the States. But as long as she’s growing (and, believe me, she IS) and moving, I feel confident that she’s fine. I plan to see an OB in Ukurumpa once we complete the POC course. Pregnancy-wise, I’m feeling fine and, lo and behold, my feet and ankles have shown no sign of swelling! Based on the last 2 pregnancies, that’s a minor miracle.

Well, enough WORDS about us, right? What you really want is pictures! So below are just a few that we’ve taken recently.

Today marks the first full week of POC.  In that time we have had 3 tok Pisin (Melanesian pidgin) classes, 2 hikes around 2 miles each, (Bradley did these too) a mile swim, last week and 2 miles this week, and several other classes to help us better understand Melanesian culture.

Mark and Bradley ready to go hiking

The task of learning a new language is still a little daunting but we are encouraged by what we have learned.  Today was our first opportunity to memorize a dialogue and use it in front of others.  We have also begun to look at how we will survive in village living without refrigeration.  (yikes!!)  That is probably the scariest part of the whole thing for me.  I love my cold cokes, and cheese, and fresh meats.

This weekend we will build our haus kuks.  (Outdoor kitchens) and next week we will be responsible for feeding ourselves for the weekend.  We will cook on wood fires and a Coleman type stove.  We will also have the opportunity to build a drum oven and learn to bake bread in it.  It is all very exciting and fun for me and the girls.  Belinda is doing very well but probably not having the fun that I am.

We will go to the market next Thursday and shop for our weekend meals.  We will do this every weekend until we actually go to the village for the 5 night visit.  On our second weekend we will entertain our “wasfamili” our village host family here at POC.  We will cook for them in our haus kuk and presumably be able to carry on a little conversation since they have little or no English.

I believe that we will require future team members to attend this course at it is proving to be an invaluable resource for us.  We are learning things that we would possibly never have learned without being here.  Obviously our primary reason for coming was to get a jumpstart on the language, and I believe we will, but the culture and practical aspect of the program will be a great boost to our adapting to living in PNG.  There is little free time and we have responsibilities like helping in the kitchen or dining room and lighting the fire to have hot water for bucket showers.  It is a bit like being at summer camp which is still fun for me.  We are thankful that the Sissons are here with us.  It’s like having extra family and it definitely helps with the separation.

Martha the water heater

God has been amazingly gracious to us.  We are all healthy and the mosquitoes have not been too bad.  We have made many contacts through this course that will be extremely helpful in the future.  In short, we want you to feel encouraged because we are.  Here are a few prayer requests:

1. That God would continue to help Belinda and me to be Godly parents.
2. That He would help me to be a Godly husband to Belinda.
3. That Belinda’s back would heal so that she can enjoy more of this course.
4. That God will provide adequate transportation for us.
5. That we would be a blessing to those around us.  They have truly been a blessing to us.

Thank you for praying for us.

I’m adding more pictures below.  I’ll start a gallery soon, but in the meantime, enjoy.

Our home at POC

Our bedroom

The Girls' Room

Kids' Play Area at POC

Our Hot Water Bucket Shower

Mark and Bradley love to hike!

Bradley almost scores