Hi friends,
We have now been living amongst the Mengen people for 1 month and our first stage of work is completed, although there is still much finishing work to be done on the house. We are a week into language study. Annika is doing about 20hrs per week just now in language and Simon is aiming at 50hrs. This will change as we adjust to life in the village and assess our family’s needs. Nya and Noah are loving life here and the freedom that goes with it; they love playing with the Laureti kids and with Amy, one of the kids from the Wright family. Nya is great friends with Liam who is just six months younger than her. They get up to so much mischief together – recently we found them completely grey from head to toe covered in the contents of half a cement bag. They love going to pig kills and eating all the village food, they find it all very interesting. Nya and Noah love coming with us to the village to visit all our friends, they receive lots of attention and chase the dogs and pigs endlessly! So many of you have been asking what our house looks like and we hope to get some pictures to you soon. Living in the jungle presents some communication challenges and so we can’t send photo’s by email but we will send them out on a CD by plane, but that’s only once per month or so. Our house has the outer shell complete and is 36ft by 24ft and one level. The kids room is 8ft x 8ft as is the bathroom and larder/pantry. The rest of the house is open plan. The bathroom and pantry have stud walls but are not completely closed in, so going to the toilet is a public affair just now – makes for a close family! 🙂 Annika is being so good and patient as she doesn’t have cupboards or completed work tops for her kitchen and she is very inventive when finding places to store pots and pans etc. We have hot water in our shower and kitchen sink which we didn’t think we would have right away but God is good and helped us to get that completed and yes Mom, we have an indoor toilet! We are having trouble with driving rain flooding our house from time to time and have to make a plan to get that closed in with shutters or extend our roofs overhang. We have been having lots of earthquakes, around 20 or so in the last month we have been here, and we have duly noted that our house being up on 8ft posts needs some bracing to stop the sway that knocks things off our shelves. On a similar note the volcano has quieted down and is no longer spitting out tons of smoke and has been moved from a stage two alert back to normal. However the last time it erupted it did so when we were having these type of earthquakes. We will keep you posted; apparently it’s very pretty to see but it can also interrupt our supply lines as the plane can’t fly. Just some news on the church… in these weeks we are going through Acts and have been presenting God’s commands for the believers to be baptized. We have arranged a baptismal service for the end of August. Please pray that the believers would take their stand and be prepared to make a public declaration of their faith in Christ. Those who will be baptized will be persecuted and marginalized by the community. Many who worship the ancestors and follow the cults/old ways are saying that baptism will make their children sick and they will die so there is a lot of fear because of that. Please pray that God will help us to know how to disciple them through this.
Pray:
– Wisdom for Simon and Annika in learning language and developing friendships – to manage their time well between language and family.
– For our young believers as they take these steps in baptism and stand out in the community.
– That we will stay healthy and the kids will not be as sick as they have been recently.
– The Lord would continue to provide for the house so we can make it more livable!
– For Laureti’s as they plan for their furlough this year.
– Pray for us to work well as a team.
– Pray the Lord would make it possible for both of our sets of parents to be able to come out to visit us in the next year or so. We miss them a lot and they are making a huge sacrifice in not seeing their grandkids grow up. Pray that they might be able to make a trip out to see us! Praise:
– We are now in our house and have our own place.
– The kids are getting settled and in a routine which is making life easier for all of us!
– That we have started language and are building friendships!
– Nya and Noah are starting to get better from this cold/chest infection they have had for nearly a month.
– God’s provision in allowing us to move in and build a home.
– For each of you that are enabling us to be here and do what we are doing!
Because of Him,
Simon, Annika, Nya and Noah 🙂