So we are wrapping up our time here in Mad ang!! Cannot believe how fast it has flown by. We have just now started to feel a little at home here and made good friends and now its time to leave again. I guess that is the life of a missionary. Goodbyes have been difficult but we are excited about the Hello’s that await us.
Next we will be moving to Gor oka, which is in the Highlands region of PNG. We will stay there for about 2 weeks and then go to what is called “Bush Orientation.” To explain, this is a chance for us to spend about a month living in a tribe that has a church plant already and learn from the missionaries who live there and from the tribal believers. It also will be an opportunity to learn the Highlands culture. This will be helpful, because as of now we are seriously looking into and praying about going to a group of people in the Highlands of PNG.
After Bush Orientation we will be moving back to Gor oka and will be living there for about 4-6 months. During this time Jeremy and our co-workers BJ and Jack will be going into the tribe that we are praying about and surveying the area to figure out what village will be the most strategic for us to allocate to. They also would like to visit places that have church plants already in neighboring language groups to the tribe that we are looking at to get a feel what the churches look like and to hopefully involve them in the church plant we will be doing. Also during this time we will be getting supplies ready for house building and waiting on our coworkers, the Crabtrees, while they are going through orientation and learning Pidgin English. So that is a brief synopsis of what lies ahead.
A couple of days ago we had a big get together with all of our friends here to thank them for loving us and helping us learn there language. One of the guys stood up and said we were now their family and anytime we come back to Mad ang we better come see them. It is so crazy that the people here feel that way about us. It was so sweet to meet together with them. We made pizza and they brought some food too.
God has been so faithful to us during this time of transion from America to PNG. Even though there has been difficulty with homesickness, culture shock, and just getting use to how life works here and how our family functions in PNG, we have looked back on our time and the Lord has given us friendships that will last for a lifetime. Thank you guys for your love and prayers for us and for making all of this possible. Below are some pics of our gathering.
