“Dorm Raid!”
We took Esther and Simon out to school last week and they are all settled into the dorm. School started on Wednesday last week and they have been doing great. Here is part of an e-mail we just got from Esther. “Today we raided the Ryder dorm. Uncle Stu yelled out, “dorm raid!!!” and we all went over to the Ryder’s. They were off at the Bird (..of Paradise Hotel) swimming, so we had a couple of hours to do it.” It is tradition for the dorms to play practical jokes on each other. They don’t do any damage but do things like hide clothes and take off with the coffee and toilet paper leaving ransom notes. It’s a lot of fun for the kids. The kids were excited about their classes too. Simon said he thinks his Bible class will be his favorite. They’re both adjusting to the homework load again and to dorm life in general. Thanks for praying for them.
Needs At Mission School
We are thankful for all those who have left their homes to come and serve the Lord at Numonohi Christian Academy where our kids attend school. Our kids dorm parents are great and so are the rest of the teachers and staff at NCA. But due to staff shortages approx. 10 missionary children had to be turned down for school this year. We aren’t sure what will happen next year when both sets of dorm parents are scheduled to go on home assignment. The mission does not allow just anybody in these positions. Sometimes qualified families have to be taken out of other key ministries to temporarily fill the need for dorm parents. There are also needs for teachers for the upcoming year. Many teaching slots are filled by short-term teachers who come for 1-2 years. So these teachers are constantly needing replaced. The school can only operate when people like you and I offer ourselves to be used of God to fill these important needs. Please pray for God to raise up laborers to meet these needs at the school.
Weather Tree
We continue to have bad weather but we have had a few breaks in the clouds just long enough for us to get out to Goroka (where it is sunny most of the time) and back on the airplane. Yesterday it rained all day and night and totalled about 2 inches. The Simbaris describe this weather as the time of the Mundunga tree. The Mundunga tree blooms during this gloomy weather and the people said this year it bloomed twice, indicating to them the weather would be especially bad this year. We were thinking it would be handy to plant one of those trees nearby and when we see it start to bloom we can hurry up and leave on a long vacation to somewhere sunny! 🙂
Supplies
Since we can only carry a small amount in our suitcases we had to ship supplies that we purchased in America via container. NTM sponsors about 2 containers a year from Calif. to PNG and so our supplies are on one of them that has just arrived in the country. We heard they will be doing a routine customs inspection. Our stuff was the last stuff to be loaded on the container so it will be the first stuff they go through when they open the container. Please pray nothing will be stolen or damaged and that there will be no complications getting the container out of customs.
Thanks for praying,
David & Shari Ogg
(Esther, Simon, Rachel & Jason too)