Celebrating my Birthday with my PNG Family

My new "family": Jonny, Tobi, Andy and Nicky @ the birthday party.

Blowing out our birthday candles. My co-worker, Danny Mixter, and I celebrate our birthdays. I'd take an apple pie any day over a cake!

Off to the Village for some chats with the people...

Andy, Fred and I taking a stroll down the PNG road to the village.

Piku, little Beth and I

Lina and baby Jaden

Nicky and I are carrying our bilems on our heads like the PNG ladies.

Goroka Show

Every year, Papua New Guinea celebrates its independence from Australia in the middle of September with a Show. Many tribal groups come from all over PNG to dance in their tribal feathers, skirts, necklaces and head dresses. It is an amazing sight!

Good times before my good friends left...

This is Rich and Chris's last camp fire with us before heading back to Germany. Now my "family" from last year as gone back home. It will be fun to see what God has for them all next! Stay posted so you can meet my new "family". :)

Last visit to the village, eating kaukau and pumkin from a mumu as we (Rich, Andy, me, Chris and Nicky) walk home.

Elissa's last night in PNG... we all went out to the Mandarin for some Chinese food. And we didn't have to cook it!!

Chris, Nate, Rich and Andy

A final Settler's game before Nate headed back to the states.

What A Mess!!

It was very exciting to move back home to Interface but I was not looking forward to dealing with the HUGE mess that the kitchen was becoming as more and more truck loads of stuff went back to Interface. We just recieved a food container just a few days before the Interface team left so there were piles and piles of canned items and dry items plus all the stuff we had brought out to use in our new kitchen at the NTM base. Here are two before pictures and an after picture. I had never seen such a cluttered kitchen in all my life. It is wonderful to have everything put in its places again!

The Tribal fighting is over!

Fred, Rich, Chris, Elissa, Andy and I are ready to go back to Interface!

This is our entire kitchen moved out into the dining hall. We are packed and ready to head back to Interface!!

The July/August Interface team arrived on July 5th...

Little did they know that they were in for a huge change in plans as we had just moved Interface to our NTM Base. It was so amazing to watch God work in the lives of the students as God challenged them for missions and in their walk with Him!

Hospitality team for the July/August Interface team - Back: Fred, Joerg, Nate, Chris, Rich Front: Mary, Becca, Beth, Elissa

Me, Nate and Elissa - I'm so thankful for their expert help in the kitchen! I'm so glad God brought the right people here to help at exactly the right time!

Our new kitchen at our NTM Base - only 4 Fridges, 1 deep freeze and a lot less space in walk around. But God made it work!! We had to move from our Interface Campus to the NTM Base about 1/2 hour drive away because of some tribal unrest nearby. It was a crazy insane move... the tribal fighting started 2 days before the students arrived so we had only 2 days to move the entire Kitchen plus the entire Interface program! We saw God work in amazing ways! God gave us all wisdom step by step as we made the huge adjustments to running a program in a new location.

We moved out our own convection oven so we could cook for 50-60 people.

We also moved out our own brand new commercial mixer which was a HUGE help!

Rich, Joerg and I make double knot dinner rolls.

A very full fridge!! We had four of them, usually, and we learned how to juggle food into and out of fridges. And we learned that we need extra time to hunt for food.

Nate and Becca prepping green beans for dinner.

Monas and Mowana washing dishes for us. A Huge Help!!

Mary and Chris making peanut butter cookies.

Fred enjoyed licking the cookie batter completely off the mixer paddle. :)

Steamed Kumu (Greens) on the tiny grill in our new kitchen.

Becca and I peeling potatoes.

Hungry Students!

Elissa, Becca and Mary rolling out Stromboli. One of the favorite meals!

The crazy sack lunch sandwich makers - Nate and Rich!

The Students headed to town for some PNG Shopping...

The Students went on many Hikes...

Hike to Kae Falls - Beautiful!!

May/June Interface Team!

Our May/June Interface team arrived on May 25th! It was a privilege to have them here for 5 weeks and see God work in their hearts bring them closer to Him. Sometimes I can't believe how amazing God is to use a simple ordinary person like me to be a part of their lives by just cooking as they learn and grow in their walk with God. I am continually amazed at our awesome God!

Our Hospitality team for the May/June Interface team - Back: Rich, Nate, Chris, Mike
Front: Hannah, Beth, Elissa, Hannah, Mary
We had some fun times together cooking up all the yummy food for everyone!

Rich, Chris, Mike, Elissa and I - "My family" for the last year - They are all headed home soon... I will miss them!!

We love to have camp fires with the students! It is a very encouraging time to get together and share all that God is doing in our lives. It is amazing to hear the many ways God is revealing Himself to the students more and more through Missions.