Family Time!

 

The day we arrived my nephews, Jack and Zander arrived from Nevada. Jacob had fun playing a very complicated card game with them!

My sister, Ruth, and her boyfriend Tries, arrived the day after us from Nevada. We were happy to be all together!

Cousins!  Jack and Zander, Jonathan and Naomi. Also, a BIG CONGRADULATIONS TO JACK FOR GRADUTING FROM HIGH SCHOOL!

Music buddies and cousin in laws. Rob and Jacob

Jonathan is growing! Almost as tall as his Great Aunt Chris and Great Aunt Trudi!

2nd Cousins - Megan and Carrie, Jonathan and Naomi

Our family hasn't been together in a long time! So good to have Ruthie and the boys with us in MA!

Mommy and Daddy and the tree of us sisters together again!

My mom and her sister, Trudi and brother, David.

All three couples have been together and married for 50 years! Congrats!!

Heading to America!

 

We got a chance to pick up some unique presents for family and friends from the souvenir shop in the Port Moresby airport.

Everyone was excited to be on our way to North America on a big plane!

But the excitement did wear us out a bit as the lack of sleep and time change was crazy!

We had a short layover in Brisbane Australia. When we went home in Dec 2020 we had 11 hours in this transit lounge. In Dec 2020 it looked a lot different! The only place to eat was Subway for 1 hour at mealtimes. The a few of the other stores would open up randomly. We were so thankful to not wear masks and to see the hustle and bustle of Brisbane again!

It was on to North America and we were excited again.

It was a fun adventure fer everyone.

But the excitement wore us out pretty quickly and we started to get pretty tired, or maybe it was crossing the international dateline. :)

And after what started to seem like endless airports, airplane food and sleeping uncomfortably in airplane seats, we finally arrived at grandmas house! Sometimes a trip can be uncomfortable, difficult and long, but if you meet the people who love you at the end, then all the hard things you went through don't seem like a big deal anymore. I guess that is a great reminder that when we finally meet the one who truly loves us, our journey will be so worth it even though it may have been hard.

On our Way to the Capital of PNG...

 

Preparing for our big trip across the world. Naomi had appointments at Boston Childrens hospital and Beth also an appointment at the hospital. It was a long way to go for appointments! But we were happy to see family and friends too!

We started out our trip by having fun as we waited 5 hours for our delayed flight. The baskets they make by hand here in PNG are amazing!

We waited a long time for our delayed flight at the airport. But we had a great view of Goroka and the planes and helicopters going and coming from the windows so that made the wait easier.

The plane finally arrived and we were on our way to the hospital! (and also a some nice visits with friends and family)

We planned on a few days in Moresby so we wouldn't miss our international flight because lately, the Airline in Papua New Guinea has been running out of fuel and the flights have not been very dependable. While an inconvenience, it is also a great excuse to spend a few days in the very hot climate of the capital. Also, since it is so hot, it only make sense to go swimming. So far, our trip to the hospital was going swimmingly. 

New Tribes has a guest house in the capital city (where we have spent time helping out) which we were able to stay at until it was time to hop on a plane again and continue our epic journey to get to Boston for some medical appointments.

Resting and Puzzles

 

We have had a lot of sickness in our family. And so we have needed some low key activities so reading and puzzles have been popular in our family lately.

Guesthouse Ministry and Training

 

It has been a very busy few weeks of Graduation and packing up for many to leave... but now the guesthouse is not so busy and we are in full force training the ladies to take over the guesthouse for 4 weeks while we are in the US!

One of our bunk bed rooms that attaches to a room with a double bed... for a family.

Kiso, our Guesthouse driver, makes runs almost every day to town for shopping or airport runs. And he is also our local mail man, as he checks the NTM mail box once a week too.

Fiona and Georgie, they clean a lot of rooms and make a lot of food! So thankful for them!

Rumbi and Georgie.. Rumbi just started working in the guesthouse again... taking selfies to show them how to use their new phone so they can communicate with me while we are in the US.

Pray for these ladies as they work hard to earn money for their families!

We are so thankful that God provided an opportunity for the guesthouse to buy a used golf cart from another missionary family that is leaving PNG.

It is a HUGE learning curve for these ladies to drive when they have never driven before! But they are excited! We have a 23 acre centre and they have to carry or find rides to haul their clean linens, trash and food supplies around the centre, depending on the houses that we use for guesthouse.

Jacob has done a great job giving the ladies driving lessons!

Fiona has passed her driving test! She can now use the golf cart on her own... she is excited!