Exploring Missionary Burnout, Pt. 1

May 15, 2016

According to the Webster’s dictionary, burnout is “exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration”. Burnout among missionaries is real and it is also one reason for why some missionaries leave the field. Sometimes burnout itself is actually the main reason behind why someone leaves the […]

Above & Beyond

September 9, 2014

I want to begin this blog by saying thank you to everyone who has prayed for my trip out to pack up our house and say goodbye to the Tigak church. My trip out there went very well, far better than I could have hoped or imagined. Our prayers were answered, though the trip was […]

Jude & A Tapestry

June 17, 2014

“I don’t live here, I live in PAPUA NEW GUINEA!” is the fact that Jude has been energetically interested in telling countless people ever since our return to the States for Iris’ surgery. It doesn’t matter who they are, if we know them or even if they care, Jude cares and wants everyone to know […]

Bright-Eyed Princess

April 6, 2014

What do all the things in this picture have in common you might ask? Well. They are three of Iris’ favorite things about her eye checkups she has been having for the last 4 months! The fly is usually the image she looks at on a tablet device through 3D glasses as the doctor tells […]

Jeff the Boar

January 15, 2014

It was just over a year ago, last October, that we acquired our baby Wild Boar. I had gotten a fence made in the meantime, as one of the requirements in our village to look after pigs is to have a fence. (Even so, I am pretty sure that we are the only ones who […]

Tigak Island Fun Facts

December 23, 2013

A while back, we shared some fun facts about our tiny island in the south pacific via our twitter account- The Carlton Fam @ThatAllMayKnow, and now we want to share them with you! You can check out our latest tweets by following us on twitter or by taking a glance at the sidebar of our […]

2013 N.I.P. Believers Conference

December 15, 2013

Sitting where I am right now, freezing cold in Michigan with snow falling outside, it is very strange to think about where we were less than a month ago. We were in Papua New Guinea sweating our faces off crammed in to a van along with some of our Tigak brothers and sisters on a […]

A Difficult Trek

October 1, 2013

This is hard. Easily one of the most difficult things I have done in my life. We believe strongly we MUST do it, we are passionate TO do it and we WILL NOT give up, BUT, learning the Tigak language and culture is still very very hard. We were told early on in our language […]

An Underwater Adventure

August 9, 2013

Language & culture study can be a drag sometimes. The daily routine isn’t always exciting and new like it was in the early days when we first began. Its a lot of hard work and takes lots of prayer, dependance on the Lord and personal discipline. On the flip side, the culture aspect of study […]

Sludge & Solar

May 17, 2013

It just couldn’t wait. For about five months our drains were not draining properly, our washer would spin out and water would come pouring off our porch like a waterfall leaving drenched wood and a lake of bubbles under the house, any time any amount of water over half a gallon would try to drain, […]