Aloha!\u00a0 No, that would be Hawaiian!\u00a0 We made it to Papua New Guinea!\u00a0 It\u2019s great to finally be here.\u00a0 For all of you who have been with us 5 years ago, you know it\u2019s been a long time waiting!\u00a0 It is absolutely beautiful here!\u00a0 Everything is green, except the flowers!\u00a0 There are fruit trees all over the place!\u00a0 We have a papaya tree in our yard.\u00a0 We picked our first one off yesterday, but it needs to ripen a little!\u00a0 Whatever tree you have in your yard is game to eat.\u00a0 If you want something from someone else\u2019s yard, you just have to ask!\u00a0 The other trees at our friends are banana, mango, and coconut!\u00a0 It\u2019s totally a different world here!<\/p>\n
If you see the picture of our house, you might think that we are on vacation!\u00a0 I told you it was beautiful, but we are far from vacation!\u00a0 Here is a list of things that I have had to adjust to:<\/p>\n
-time difference: We are 16 hours ahead (always wanted to go to the future!), and our kids were waking up in the middle of the night.\u00a0 This morning they finally slept until it was \u201clight outside\u201d<\/p>\n
-\u201clight outside\u201d: We always tell our kids they can get up when it\u2019s light outside\u2026it gets light at 5:45am!!\u00a0 In America, that meant about 7!<\/p>\n
-We (BJ and I) have been going to bed at 8:30pm!\u00a0 We are completely exhausted!\u00a0 But if you do the math, we get about 9 hours!\u00a0 That will probably change!<\/p>\n
-Internet: it’s crazy expensive! \u00a0We bought some data and it was all used up after one facetime! \u00a0We are in the process of figuring out how much to buy, etc. \u00a0So for now, we have to limit facetime and uploading pictures.<\/p>\n
-Shopping: I have lost my rights to go shopping by myself!\u00a0 It\u2019s just not a good idea!\u00a0 So BJ went to the markets without me with my list.\u00a0 I had no idea what they had there and he stuck to my list! \u00a0So we didn\u2019t get much!\u00a0 I will get to go next week with him and the kids and our leaders here.<\/p>\n
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-Food: We eat really healthy!\u00a0 We get everything from the farmer\u2019s market mimi! They have a lot of fruit and vegetables that you can buy very cheap!\u00a0 The milk is shelf stable=not good, so we found a powdered coconut milk that we all enjoy!\u00a0 Our snacks consist of \u201cbush biscuits\u201d with peanut butter and bananas!\u00a0 My proudest food item so far is yogurt!\u00a0 We have a yogurt maker where we mix water and a powder mix and let it sit for 12+ hours.\u00a0 It is amazing!!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
-Cooking: My first meal was a beef and rice meal that I made for the Hambrices\u2026yuck!\u00a0 The meat was terrible and chewy!\u00a0\u00a0 We decided that we\u2019d have to be vegetarians!\u00a0 I then found out that they bought us the cheapest budget meat, so it gets better from there!\u00a0 Last night, I made chicken, carrots, and potatoes in the pressure cooker and I have to say, we might be eating that every night!\u00a0 Yum!<\/p>\n
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-Sunscreen and Bug spray: Every time we go outside, we have to put sunscreen and bugs spray on all 5 of us!\u00a0 I hate it, but it\u2019s part of our life now!<\/p>\n
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-Ants:\u00a0 Sadly, we just let them roam around now.\u00a0 If you leave a crumb on the cabinet, they will be there.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t\u2019 notice a smidgen of peanut butter on the jar, they will notice!\u00a0 Ants everywhere!\u00a0 I\u2019m not quite over them, but getting there!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
-Cleaning: so you can imagine, we have to clean after every meal or snack.\u00a0 Hand wash dishes, sweep, wipe the table, etc.\u00a0 Call it genius, but I started training my girls to help out with this\u2026they love it!!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
-It\u2019s hot: It\u2019s constantly like Oklahoma in the summer\u2026without air conditioners!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
-Language barrier: BJ went out to a village yesterday with a leader, and didn\u2019t understand anything!\u00a0 We will be working very hard over the next few months to learn this language!\u00a0 And that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
**All of these things have been very hard; all of these transitions and being away from friends and family\u2026but all of this is just a small sacrifice to be doing what the Lord has been preparing us to do.\u00a0 Thank you for all of your emails of encouragement so far\u2026keep them coming!\u00a0 Thank you for praying, we need it!\u00a0 And thank you for financing us to be here\u2026to one day, bring the Gospel to a people group!\u00a0 We love ya\u2019ll!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aloha!\u00a0 No, that would be Hawaiian!\u00a0 We made it to Papua New Guinea!\u00a0 It\u2019s great to finally be here.\u00a0 For all of you who have been with us 5 years ago, you know it\u2019s been a long time waiting!\u00a0 It is absolutely beautiful here!\u00a0 Everything is green, except the flowers!\u00a0 There are fruit trees all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":956,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/bj-sanders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/bj-sanders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/bj-sanders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/bj-sanders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/956"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/bj-sanders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/bj-sanders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/bj-sanders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/bj-sanders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/bj-sanders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}