The sunday before grandma left we went to visit a fairly local village church. To get to it you have to cross a fairly wide river that was almost chest deep with a pretty good current. It was quite the adventure to get there! :) It was a lot of fun though and we didn't lose grandma in the river! :) The fellowship with the national believers was sweet and they were very inviting and gracious. Even though we couldn't understand everything, we knew the message was Christ-centered. It's lovely to hear God's Word in different languages...that's what it's all about right? Reaching every tribe!
June also brought about Tayah's complaints of 2 of her molars giving her pain almost daily. I was giving her pain medication quite often so we were finally able to get an appointment at the nearest dentist here in PNG which is still a 2 hour drive away. The dentist is with another mission organization called SIL. He took a quick look in her mouth and said she needed root canals on both those molars. Ahhhhh! That involves 4-5 trips per tooth which is a lot of driving and very expensive for us. We asked if he couldn't just pull them both out, but as they are molars they would only naturally fall out around age 11 and in the meantime the space would close and not have room for her adult teeth to come in and then she couldn't possibly need braces or surgery. Also if he were to pull them out now, that would involved a fairly difficult surgery. So the only option available to us was the root canals. So we started the first one and it was quite painful for Tayah the first time, but the subsequent treatments on that tooth have been fairly pain free! Praise God! Due to elections happening soon, we will have to postpone the 2nd root canal as the travel will become dangerous for us on the roads due to rioting or protesting. So pray with us that Tayah's 2nd molar won't cause her too much pain in the meantime. We should be able to continue with the 2nd root canal at the end of august.
I mentioned elections. The election process out here is very different from back home. The candidates all do their speeches and rallies, though they also feed the people to gain votes. There is a lot of blackmail and bribing that takes place to ensure votes in their favor. There is a lot of violence between opposing candidates and their followers. There have already been a few election-related deaths in the past few weeks. The candidating seems to go on for a long time. We hear them on the speaker phones driving down the road and talking about their chosen leader's good qualities and what he's promised the country. The people who stand with a certain candidate will spend hours a day singing and campaigning for him. The vote is supposed to take place in early July and there is expected to be a sharp rise in violence and rioting once the ballots have been tallied as many won't be happy about the outcome. Of course the towns are a higher safety issue, though people are targeted on the road as well which is why we are not supposed to travel during this time.
I have also been very busy in the Mission Barrel. The Mission Barrel is a place where missionaries here at Lapilo can drop off items that they no longer need/use and also pick up any items they see there that they would like. It's like a free self-help! :) I am now the Mission Barrel co-ordinator so I've been busy organizing. As the mission barrel co-ordinator I also have a lot more interaction with the national workers here on center. For items that remain in the mission barrel for too long, I pack up and sell to the workers here for a very small fee. The reason we charge anything at all is to keep things fair between the workers so they don't get jealous or fight with each other. We find that charging a small amount and pre-packing the bags takes care of any perceived injustices.
Clinton is still busy in the hangar. The number of pilots and airplane mechanics has been slowly going down as missionaries are going on furlough or leaving the field. Pray with us that the Lord would raise qualified pilots who have a heart to fly in PNG.
This past week a national friend of mine, Jeogina, stopped by for a visit. It was nice to have her over. The kids all love her and love playing with her. I love the opportunity to visit and learn more language and culture issues. It helps me understand the people we're trying to reach. Jeogina actually became a christian at a young age when her mother took her to the village church. Her sunday school teacher told her about Jesus.
Well as I mentioned in the post, there are a few things we'd appreciate prayer for:
- Tayah's root canals: minimal pain, safety traveling to SIL (2 hr drive each way), and finances to cover the cost of the treatments as well as the cost of travel.
- Election time out here in PNG: things can get quite heated, just that we would remain safe
- For my busyness in the Mission Barrel: should slow down in July
- For pilots and the aviation department here in PNG
- For our family: health, patience with raising 3 young kids
We just want to thank you all for praying for us and going the distance with us on this journey. We love you!
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| The village church we visited with Ann |
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| My friend Jeogina over for a visit |
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| Tayah at the dentist at SIL |
