As of Dec 12, 2012 at just around 12 o’clock (that has to be significant) Amdu has been our official family home. It was a monumental moment for our family; one that we have been gearing up for, for a long time. It was great to watch the families spilling out of the packed mission plane. A number of the village ladies were prepared for their arrival with a traditional welcome including flowers, gifts and dancing to their traditional, kundu drum. There was a lot of excitement mixed with uncertainty in the village. The people here have never had a white family living with them. White ladies and kids are especially new and unknown. It was very encouraging when, one day, a group of leading men in our community got with us and our wives to ask how they can best respect our families and make us comfortable here. This was unexpected but very welcome. Our wives have been overwhelmed with the friendliness of the people and how much attention they have received from the ladies. It really encourages our hearts as we think forward to language and culture learning. It seems to us that the people will be eager to teach and instruct us in all things Amdu! We are building our homes close to the grass airstrip that the village is built around. The kids are out there playing with the Amdu kids every day. We’re praising God for how seamlessly they have made the transition to life in the tribe! What a huge answer to prayer – thank you for praying! Over the next four weeks we will continue to build our bush houses. The Hatton house is 80% complete. The Parry house is 80% complete and we have just started to work on the Allen house. Please pray that we can complete these houses quickly and safely and within budget. During this building phase, pray that we can make progress both with the houses, but more importantly with our relationships with the people. These early days are especially important. We won’t get these days back again – we desperately want to win the hearts and minds of these people for Christ; and it all began on December 12th. There is so much more to share, but we will cut it off here. Thank you so much for all that you do to allow us to be out here in Amdu. Pray, pray, pray for their hearts, that they will respond to God’s work through our lives, through our words (when we can speak them) and to the Gospel when it is finally presented.