“Mommy, that for I love you…I love you with a flower.” That is one of my treasured quotes from Nathan this year, with flower in hand. Though my greatest trials and challenges come as I love and train our children each day, so do my greatest blessings! I know it’s been a while since I’ve written an update about what’s happening in our home way over here in Papua New Guinea, so I figured now that school is out for the summer, it’s my turn to write.
For those of you who haven’t been around our children lately, I must say that they are really extremely GIFTED children. Only an extremely gifted child could manage to reach for a cracker on the counter and somehow at the same time flip the whole container of crackers upside down and land on the floor with crackers and crumbs all over the floor. Only an equally extremely gifted little brother could race with lightening speed to the scene of the accident and grab the cracker their brother is reaching for and stuff it in his own mouth before you can blink.
Who else could learn the art of finger painting while potty training? Conduct an accurate across-the-room breathalyzer test on Daddy emerging from the pantry with Reeses-pieces-breath? Call nickels “freckles”… Be so in touch with the Spirit of God to know that “Jesus is happy…He say to me I can have gum”… Who else could wear a muscle shirt on a cold morning “so I can be brave and strong and save lots of people” (what Mom could say no to that?!) God has blessed us indeed with gifted children.
While some things never seem to change here in our little village in the middle of the mountains, we have seen some significant changes in our family this year. We are officially out of diapers after quite a few years…(well almost…just working on the nighttime thing still). Charis, soon to be in 5th grade, can now make cookies completely on her own, for which we are quite thankful! Caleb can READ! It’s been a really long, hard process for him (and me) these last two years, but before the end of 1st grade this year it all finally starting coming together for him. We praise the Lord for helping us through some really tough times this year with Caleb in school. Nathan turned 4 and is finally big enough to be a fun friend for Caleb and the two Markley boys. Zachary is almost 3, and we won’t have a 2 year old in our house anymore! Two years in a row with these tough training years has stretched us in many ways.
Most aspects of our life here hold the same work and stresses that face many of you Moms back home…laundry, interruptions, cooking, cleaning, planning, kids constantly needing something…attention, training, love, help, teaching. There are a few differences, like not being able to go grocery shopping (or go anywhere) for months at a time, ordering supplies through email, getting supplies and mail once every month or two, finding that your see-through flour container has turned into the worm equivalent of an ant farm, having your co-workers be your closest friends too, dealing with all the issues with your own kids as well as all the issues with your co-workers’ kids, getting to have Gary home for three meals a day, being surrounded by “the Ministry” every time you step out the door, the list could go on.
We are so thankful for the faithful work that God is doing in our hearts each day, as we seek Him for grace to walk with Him and have right attitudes and be wise in each of the circumstances that He brings into our lives. That too, is not very different from your lives there in the U.S. It is so exciting to see and hear Gary teaching the literacy classes each morning from 8 to 10 or 11. As he teaches, he is training one of the especially bright students to be his helper and one day be the teacher himself. After teaching in the mornings, he has been working on translating the next three teacher’s manuals for the literacy program and continuing to revise and update the program as he teaches it this trial time. He is close to completing this task and is eagerly looking forward to being able to start translating the Bible lessons soon.
This month has been special as we celebrated our 13th anniversary, are enjoying summer time, and will soon celebrate Charis’ 10th birthday and Zachary’s 3rd birthday. Next week we will also be going somewhere! We plan to fly to the city of Lae for supply buying and a little R and R.
It’s hard to express how much we appreciate your prayers and financial support as we serve the Lord here in Sakam. We feel your support and are so glad to have you on our team as we together work to reach these people for Christ. A relatively young man died suddenly this week and it’s so sad to see how the people deal with death, always blaming someone for it. We long for the day to be able to clearly teach them in their own language the truth from God’s Word. The day is getting closer!
Serving together,
Esther (for us)
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