We’re off on Bush Orientation Monday, January 23. We’ll be 6 weeks in Wusuraambya, a tribe where there’s another missionary family working and an established Church. It’s about a half hour flight from here on one of NTMA’s little planes. We’ll continue our Tok Pisin study while there and also spend time following the missionaries around and learning from them. The house we’ll be staying in is powered by solar panels so we’ll get to see how our family copes with limited power. I’m sure Maggie will be following the kids around turning lights off behind them. If we want hot water, I have to build a fire. Also, the house has a wood stove and we’re told we’ll be wanting to use it. I would never have thought we’d be seeing and using a wood stove in Papua New Guinea. 
This week as we’ve been preparing for Bush Orientation we’ve had the privilege of doing grocery shopping for 6 weeks of food. Word is, the locals will bring us sweet potatoes and greens but otherwise we have to take all our food in with us. So, if our planning is lacking, you know what we’ll be eating the last couple weeks in the bush.
I believe we’ll have some internet access while there, but I’m not entirely certain on that. If you don’t see another blog post until March, well, you’ll know we didn’t have internet access.
In other news, tonight we’ll be hearing about the Gulf, a region southwest of here where leadership would like to see a team of new missionaries go. If that is where God would have us go, pray that it is made clear to us. There are a couple ‘new’ places where leadership would like to send in teams (like the Gulf) and then there’s plenty of places where there are already missionaries but need more help.
Financially we are doing well right now. God has been pouring out His blessing upon us through you. In the four months we’ve been here, we’ve been able to save $8,000 for building our future tribal house. We’ll probably need 30-50 thousand for all the materials, costs, and flights for building our house. After Bush Orientation I’ll be able to share more specifically about our needs regarding that.
Thank you for your prayers and support!