Our team!!! Praising the Lord for the Hernandez family, and waiting on Him for one more family to join us.
A Year in Papua New Guinea
Currently I’m looking out my window and Wyck is running around in the rain, with his arms outstretched to the side, pretending that he’s flying, yelling, “Rain! Rain!” A year ago, when we came to PNG, he couldn’t walk or talk, and here he is, turning into a little boy right before our eyes.
This month marks our one-year anniversary of being in PNG. When we came, we couldn’t talk either—at least not in Pidgin, and now we have tested out in it. We were just learning how to “walk” here—how to interact with people, how to behave, how to handle bugs and heat, how to manage our time, how to cook using ingredients here… I remember wandering the aisles of the grocery store, thinking, “How can I put these things together to make stuff?” I remember putting the boys to bed and immediately collapsing into bed myself. Now we more or less have figured out how to schedule our time, make food, have friendships. Slowly, right before our eyes, PNG is becoming a little bit more like our home.
Thank you for praying for us. We have seen God’s faithfulness again and again. He has brought us through the hard things and given us little joys along the way. Recently He has given us a huge answer to prayer—a family to partner with! They are a family from Mexico who have a boy Ty’s age, and a one-year old girl. They are kind and fun and love the Lord, and we think we will be a great fit to work together. So, now we are just waiting for one more family to join us before we can move into a tribe.
Meanwhile, Karissa continues to fill a need at the school for missionary kids by teaching 7th and 8th grade English for a semester. So, in the morning she does planning and grading for her class, in the afternoon she teaches, and in the evening we meet with the Hernandez family to work on our “team strategy statement,” which is basically our plan for how we will go about doing ministry in the tribe. So, Matt is doing a lot more taking care of the boys, making lunches, and continuing to do airport runs. Our new schedule has definitely been busy and an adjustment, but overall we are really enjoying it. Karissa is happy to get to serve doing something that she loves—teaching, and the boys get some more special time with Daddy.
Matt also went on a survey recently, which is basically hiking around from village to village in a new area to determine if it is a place that New Tribes should send missionaries to. They do things like get word lists to see if the language is related to another language and if they really need their own translation. They ask questions to try to figure out what people already know about Jesus. They find out if people want missionaries. Matt was utterly exhausted when he got back, but he was very happy he could help with this and also experience more of PNG.
Thank you for faithfully praying for us and supporting us over our first year in PNG!
People in one of the villages that Matt surveyed. There are so many people who still need to hear the Good News of Christ. Pray for more laborers!
Matt went on his first survey trip.
Praise God!:
– That we are teamed up with the Hernandez family
– That Matt had a good survey trip
– That Karissa is enjoying teaching
Please Pray:
– For a great third family to join us
– That Karissa can do a good job teaching
– For wisdom in how to balance our time