With most school graduations (at least in the US) still a recent memory, we thought we’d assign grades to the events of the past several weeks, and we came up with nothing but A’s (wait, does that mean everything has been perfect? Read on….)
Here are the straight A’s for you:
ASTHMA—2 days before we left the US, late on a Saturday night, we awoke to hear Elijah coughing and then gasping for air. His face was swollen and he had trouble breathing. So we quickly administered some allergy medicine and when his symptoms did not improve quickly enough, we rushed him to the ER at a nearby hospital. Once there, we were relieved to see that Elijah’s breathing improved and he was no longer in distress. The doctor suspected that our son may have had an asthma attack and gave him a shot to help keep his airways clear, another relief for us given the long air travel ahead. Ever since that night, Elijah has shown absolutely no more problems, and we still wonder—was it an allergic reaction to something specific, or does he suffer from asthma? We are hoping to learn more when we visit our mission’s clinic on Tuesday, just a day before returning to the village.
AIR TRAVEL—Thanks for praying. This was the most challenging trip across we’ve had so far (may be due to having 2 young children instead of only 1 or none on our previous journeys). However, in spite of the combined and largely sleepless 37 hours in airports and airplanes (so far) and in spite of the numerous episodes of Zeke spewing the contents of his bottle on his feeding towels, himself, his clothes, us and our clothes, we were encouraged by the friendliness of our fellow travelers, many of them expressing how good our children were and several who took pity on our family and helped with getting our groggy entourage and copious carryon baggage out of the planes and into the terminals. (Incidentally, it only took the second of poor Zekey’s infant formula eruptions for this thick-witted dad to finally understand the need for all that carryon luggage we wrestled from plane to plane. If I had to do it again, I would seriously entertain the idea of our family just wearing terrycloth bathrobes on the trip).
ARRIVAL in Papua New Guinea—When we made it to our region of PNG, I was tempted to kiss the runway, except that I might have risked burning my lips on hot asphalt. We have been so glad to have the week here to adjust to the time difference, see good friends here, take care of supplies and travel logistics, and reacquaint ourselves with the heat and humidity of coastal PNG, the frequent power outages which make for some dark stretches of night, and ahh yes, that brings me to another A…..
ANTS! They are a fact of life in much of this country, and everyone here battles these little critters, who can find a speck of sugar left on a counter within minutes. However, once we settled into our temporary quarters on the center, it was apparent to us that there was a larger than normal colony of tiny red sugar ants who were not content to search for crumbs of food. Oh, no—they craved intimate acquaintance with every article of clothing we had in the house, and they boldly penetrated every seam and pocket of our luggage by the dozens. Camera, computer, envelopes containing nothing but papers—they were irresistibly drawn by the allure of all things Mankins. Thankfully, after a few days other housing opened up and we gratefully vacated the premises after hours of tediously and methodically extricating the pesky formicidae from our personal belongings. We have now been fully educated on all the nuances of the term ‘antsy’.
AMUSING ANTICS—How could a bunch of silly ants dampen your spirits when you have 2 great boys who are highly entertaining and amusing on a daily basis? Elijah has been enjoying the other missionary children out here on the property, tagging along whenever he can, and enthusiastically greeting each passerby in the hopes that they will invite him to do whatever it is that they are enroute to doing. He has been jumping on the trampoline, riding bikes, and playing toys with friends and even keeping his little brother entertained with his unique brand of silly charm. Zeke now has 4 teeth, a penchant for trying out various sound effects, including spraying his brother and parents with “raspberries”, and has recently perfected the art of the "GI Joe crawl". He scootches on his belly across the room and seems very proud of his newfound ambulatory skills. To the delight of his father, his vocabulary still consists entirely of one word—“Dada”. Elijah, on the other hand, has a prolific vocabulary, which he likes to expand by repeating what he hears, including such gems as “exponential”.
ANTICIPATION—After no small effort by our shorthanded but amazing mission aviation program, we were able to book a flight into Toboland on Wednesday morning at the crack of dawn. We along with the Williamsons are all praying that the good weather will hold a little longer and allow us to get back into our village home safe, sound, and stocked up for the approaching rainy season. It will be so good to get back to our home and enjoy the fellowship of partners and friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, black and white. Oh, and did we mention—the only ants we see inside our mountain home are those that hitchhike in on boxes from the coastal areas and we deal with those quite easily. So we are quite spoiled in that regard.
We will be as busy as ants as we resume our village ministry, but what a joy it is to be involved in this task of discipling the Tobo believers and equipping them for their task of discipleship as well—a task which is the heartbeat of God—after all, we and they have been purchased with the blood of His only Son!!
AWESOME—This is who we serve—an AWESOME GOD who is faithful to work in and through our lives as we trust Him to do HIS work among the Tobo people of PNG.
Happy to report straight A’s,
Chad, Janeene, Elijah & Zeke
Animated and Adorable!!!
Thanks for praying for us—here are some specific requests:
APPOINTMENTS—we would appreciate your prayers as we see the doctor and get the boys immunizations. We are also hoping to get some medicine and supplies to be prepared just in case Elijah does have asthma while we are in the bush.
ADJUSTMENTS—the kids have been super, but we can tell that so many changes have taken somewhat of a toll on them (and us as a family). Thanks for praying for us as we return, get our living conditions back in order, brush off the language cobwebs, and deal with the struggles of slower communication with the outside world (radio reception remains horrendous, and there are often delays in sending and receiving emails from our radios in the bush), and also as we get up to speed with Jason and Nisae and all the happenings of the last 8 months, and adjust as a foursome to life in the tribe after our time in America (both places are wonderful, but wow are they vastly different worlds!)
ATTITUDES—along with all the adjustments and all, we are asking prayer that we would have Christlike attitudes through it all and remain dependent on our Lord. This is all about HIM, not us, and we need to be mindful of that when life throws all those other A’s at us—good and bad.
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