It was four weeks ago, today, that we arrived in Papua New Guinea. We are so thankful for the grace of God shown to us in many ways this past month. As you have prayed for us the Lord has encouraged and challenged our hearts and continues to stretch our faith in Him.
November is always an exciting month for our family with three birthdays to celebrate and Thanksgiving to look forward to. We have celebrated two of our three November birthdays so far. Benjamin and Silas both enjoyed simple yet special birthdays. In fact, it has been refreshing to be forced to think simply and practically when it comes to birthday gifts and treats. Our Thanksgiving celebration will also be a more simplified version of what we are used to. There are no turkeys in our part of the country, but there is plenty of pumpkin and sweet potato!
Language Learning
We have two weeks of official culture and language study under out belts, but we are still feeling our way along in this process. Our language learning is centered around culture events. So we have to get out into the community and participate in life as it is happening in order to get a good grasp of how people communicate here.
This is a difficult strategy to follow as a family, and requires a lot of planning and flexibility. This is the part that has been the most demanding for us so far. Once we are out and participating in community life we find it easy to learn and the PNG people eager to teach. You can pray that we’ll continue to work out the kinks in our routine to accommodate this culture and language learning strategy.
Culture Events
In the past two weeks we have managed to get to the local market with our neighbor, Elizabeth. She sat with Missy afterward and helped her to compile the information that she had gathered. Elizabeth is a natural teacher and seems to be willing to do this more with Missy! Praise the Lord! We also made it down to the place in town where we buy our bread and spent time with the people there in that community. Missy was, again, able to get some good language exposure. Benjamin attended a graduation that was held just across the street from us. He volunteered to take pictures of the ceremony as a favor to our new friends there. There were 10 speeches and he was gone for nearly five hours that day! Talk about language and culture learning.
We’ve also attended one of the local churches here in our neighborhood, and have made some good contacts there. One of the ladies is going to be spending time with Missy this week in language study. The next culture event plan is to visit a community close by where traditional basket weaving is done. The more we can get out into the community the better. But we really need wisdom to know how much is too much, and what is not enough! Praise the Lord for experienced consultants to give us input. Pray that we would have the tenacity that it takes to absorb and learn from this new culture.
All the Rest
When we are not in language learning mode, we are in homeschooling mode. Each week has been a little different and mixed with challenges and success. Pray that we would be realistic with our expectations, and yet consistent and productive. So far Missy and the kids have done exceptionally well. When we are eventually in relax mode we have the beach to enjoy, and great co-workers to spend time with. We have also really enjoyed getting to know the different church planting teams who have been out in town with us on break. It is so exciting to hear what the Lord is doing in these previously unreached areas.
We have so much to be thankful for. We are so thankful for each of you praying for us, giving sacrificially to us and loving us over this great distance. We are so thankful for the unchanging Word of God that we posses in our own language. What an encouragement the Word has been to our hearts these days. We are so thankful for our heavenly Father who continues to meet our needs and the Spirit of God who has comforted our hearts. We are so thankful for the Lord Jesus who is with us, behind us, before us and bearing us up each and every day. What would we do without Him?
Benjamin and Missy