The beginning of the new Classroom floor...

In February, our co-workers parents are coming to visit and to work! Hank, Lesley's dad, is an expert with cement! And our classroom floor is in very bad shape and has been for many years. For the last year, the guys have been planning for this big project. But last week we heard that the only cement factory in the country closed down!! There was no more cement!! We were a bit worried because we needed 150 bags! But thankfully God provided! We got the cement!!!

Christmas decorating!

 Jonny and Diemo decorating our house with lights!

 Jacob and I decorating our tree! Our second Christmas in PNG!

  Julie helping decorate the tree... I think we need a bigger tree... too many ornaments! :)

After decorating we were ready to eat a bit of chili and cornbread, despite the mess!

And we couldn't forget to take our traditional Christmas photo! This was take one... all of us laughing after watching Julie run like crazy up the ladder to jump in the photo!

We had a great time decorating with everyone once again! 

We love our fireplace for those cold evenings, as low as 55 degrees F/ 13 degrees C! :)... and we even have Christmas presents under the tree... Thanks Mom and Dad Devine!

 Now we get to enjoy relaxing by the fire every evening with Christmas ambiance!

Relaxing in Madang!!

 Jonny, Marco, Diemo, Jacob and I were very excited about heading to Madang just after American Thanksgiving! We were ready for some relaxing!

 Jacob, Jonny, Diemo and Marco enjoying fresh fish, the nationals fry it over an open fire and sell it in this market here by the ocean. This is a very cheap lunch, but very tasty! We ate here almost every day!

 Jacob enjoyed a little golf...

 It wasn't the typical golf course because there were random people hanging out, someone digging up the green with a machete and someone using the first hole as a driving range. But Jacob managed to enjoy it!

 Jacob also played a bit of tennis with the guys too, at the Madang Resort.

 We enjoyed the Seafood buffet at the Coastwatchers Restaurant... they even had a chocolate fountain!

So sad, our time in Madang is over... waiting for the plane.

American Thanksgiving in Papua New Guinea!

 Diemo and Marco ready to eat...

We celebrated American Thanksgiving today with 5 Americans (including me), 2 Canadians and 5 Germans. :) It was fun to gather around the table with everyone and eat lots of yummy food!

  Me, Julie, Michaela, Norbert, Marco and Diemo... full of Thanksgiving!

Diemo, Jonny, Madison, Janie, me, Julie... with very full stomachs!.... the only thing missing was family from home and a good football game!

Heti teaching "God's talk"!

 We had the privilege to sit with the Bena as they heard "God's talk" on Wednesday morning.

 We couldn't understand anything but it was so neat to hear the excitement of Heti as he talked in Pidgin after the lesson.

 Kokore and Johnson reading parts of the scriptures in Bena... they do not have the complete Bible in their own language yet.

Pray for these Bena people, some are believers, some are not believers yet... pray they will attend the teaching every time and understand clearly all God has done for them!

Sunday afternoon walk...

 Out for a Sunday afternoon walk...

Met a man along the road carrying a HUGE stalk of bananas!

 We were happy to see that Beth was home... Piku's daughter, named after me.

 Piku's husband just made this oven which sits outside their house... they use it to bake rolls and sell them at a local market.

Piku with her of her children, Beth and Phillipe. Phillipe still haven't gotten used to seeing white people. :)

 When we arrived at the house, it was raining so they invited us inside to visit with them. This is a plant of rice that Piku picked to show me what is looks like after a few months.

These are the rice seeds that the rice came from. I just couldn't picture how rice could grow... it is very interesting! But seems like a lot of work!

Beth working hard... digging up the garden getting it ready to plant. It was fun to see Beth again, we hadn't seen her in a long time. Piku kept telling me that she was very talkative, always telling stories. But she was a little shy around us... just wanted to go out and work. :)

Christmas Bazaar outing...

 On Saturday we headed out for the day to the Wycliffe Center, about a 2 hour drive from Interface. Jacob drove a few of us to check out the Christmas Bazaar happening there. The drive was a bit crazy... with parts of the road missing....

 And parts of the bridge missing...

 But we enjoyed the Bazaar when we arrived! There were lots of homemade goodies to eat!

Lots of crafts and things to buy! And a great atmosphere with a live band playing Christmas music. :) I also saw a family that I knew from Rushford Baptist Church! and a few of the ladies that worked in the kitchen for the Wycliffe Youth Retreat!

Anniversary!

Jacob gave me this beautiful bouquet of flowers for our 2nd Anniversary... from Julie's boutique. :)

Just a few more conferences...

 We hosted the MAF Pilots at the beginning of November as they took part in some workshops. Making a bit of fried rice for lunch. :)

 Our muli (lemon) tree is producing a plethoric amount of lemons so the ladies (Utu, Suzanna, Ninike, Rose and Loli) squeezed the juice and I froze it for later... fresh lemonade is the best!

The charging of a cell phone... not all that complicated, eh? Unless you don't have electricity in your home. A lot of the ladies that work in the kitchen have cell phones but no way to charge them. So when they come to work, they bring their phones to charge.