When we flew out of Amdu a few weeks ago to take a little break at one of our NTM centers, it was amazing to look back and see our house, the village and the airstrip slowly be swallowed up by the surrounding mountains and disappear from sight. In a similar way, when we returned to Amdu a few days ago, it was so neat to be flying over mountains, ravines, dense jungle and mountain rivers and then all of a sudden see “home” come into view! 
Anytime a plane lands, it’s a community event. Lots of people line the airstrip and then crowd around the plane once it lands. Our teammates had been telling people that we were returning that day so it was fun to see our friends and neighbors again as they came out to greet us. The big news was that Micah has two teeth now. The news traveled and soon different groups of ladies and girls were coming over to see him and check out his teeth. As we’ve shared before, they all love the white baby!
Bush houses are notorious for needing a really good cleaning after they’ve been empty even for a short time. At first, it seemed like the biggest thing we would have to deal with was the dust. But then we discovered that some type of mouse or rat had been helping itself to some of our things – juice boxes, the labels on our oil bottles, potholders, kid’s toys and some other food items that we thought had been stored well. They even climbed into a drawer and chewed up our Pampered Chef rubber scrapers/spatulas! Unfortunately, I don’t think the Pampered Chef warranty covers damage from jungle rodents. After getting settled in a little, we enjoyed dinner with our teammates at one of their houses. Without thinking, we left a few things out on the counter when we left. We returned to find that our not-so-welcome guests had chewed into our fresh-from-town pineapple and bananas! Now we were on the warpath! Later that night we discovered that although Amdu mice and rats don’t seem to like peanut butter, they can’t stay away from garbage scraps. We trapped a small mouse in our slop bucket and wondered if he was the only one or if there were others lurking around. Stay tuned for our next post and the conclusion of that story!!
On a more serious note, while we were gone, two people died – an old man in a nearby village and a young mother right here in our village. These events were sobering reminders for us of the urgency of the task for which we have come. Even though many here are “religious”, these people are living in darkness. There is talk of trying to figure out who worked magic to cause these deaths. We are just beginning on this road to understanding the Amdu language and culture. Please pray for diligence and comprehension as we learn. Please also pray for physical life for our friends until we can share The Way, The Truth and The Life with them! 