We arrived back in Papua New Guinea on May 29th. Looking back on our time, we are thankful for all the opportunities the Lord gave us to share His love and His work during the last year. It was such an encouragement to see God’s people get excited about missions and desire to get more involved by their prayers, gifts, and even by going out on summer mission trips. We were overwhelmed when the Lord provided a new computer through our Sunday school class to be used for translation work. They presented it to us on our last Sunday there. Wow, thank you Lord.
It was a very refreshing year in many ways. We enjoyed participating in worship and Bible study with other believers. We both attended BSF Bible studies. Our three older kids had a very positive public schooling experience and did very well academically and socially. It was so nice for them to be around other kids after several years of being alone in the bush.
Our summer travels to visit friends, family and churches brought us near to many interesting, fun, and historical places all over the country. We also got in some other mini-vacations during the year with David’s family in California. We took every opportunity we could to spend time with our families. We were also able to make it to Florida two times to visit Shari’s family, both times together were very precious.
On the way back to PNG we stopped in Hawaii with David’s parents and sister for five days and visited Volcanoes National Park. It was exciting being able to hike up close to the lava flow. (a 3-mile round trip)
We are writing from the mission school where our two oldest kids will be attending school at the end of July. It has been great getting to know the family they will be living with while they are out here away from us for 8 weeks at a time. Esther and Simon are really looking forward to being here with their friends and being involved in all the fun activities they do at the school. We are thankful that we have about 6 weeks with the kids before they start school. I’m sure we will have some special times together.
Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we will be picked up at 6:45 a.m. and taken to the airport to catch our 30-min. flight to our home in the jungle. This is the final leg of our journey to return to the tribe. We are looking forward to being back and seeing our dear Simbari friends again after a year of home assignment. It will be good to hear how things went while we were gone and what the Lord taught the believers as they studied the book of Mark. We’re not sure what condition we will find our house in, but we are certain it will need a lot of cleaning after a year of being closed up. Hopefully nothing was stolen when a small louver pane was broken on one of our downstairs windows sometime this year. The Christians were kind enough to board it up for us as soon as it was discovered.
Well, I guess that’s all the news for now. We will write more later after we are settled into our home. Thank you so much for your friendship and prayers. It is such an encouragement.
In Christ’s love,
David, Shari, Esther, Simon, Rachel, and Jason