School Break

This school break we were blessed with hammocks and snacks from Uncle Nate!

We were very excited to get our snack package!!

We also went swimming at a pool in town at a local restaurant/hotel

It is always a highlight of our school breaks, a swim trip to town!

 

Birthday presents for Jacob (early) and Jonathan... matching jerseys for playing hockey!

Celebrating birthdays!

Naomi went on a trip to the river with friends.

Watching butterflies grow!

And a Tang Soo Do belt test!

They started as brown belts.

Jacob and Jonathan graduated to brown belt white stripe. Naomi graduated from orange belt to green belt! Congratulations!

Jacob and I had a date while our good friends and neighbors watched our kids.

Our cat keeps vigil over our front door but mostly he just falls asleep when the sunbeams hit his mat. We are very thankful he has his own mat, because before that he would lay right in front of the door and get upset when we tried to push him out of the way when he wouldn't move to let us in or out of our house!

Back at Tang Soo Do

 

We had a long break over Christmas from Tang Soo Do. Here on this side of the world, it is actually their summer school break. So Jacob and the kids went back to Tang Soo Do at the end of January. And they are happy to back into it!

Visiting with friends

 

We walked over to Joyce's house. She works for the guesthouse 2 days a week. She goes to the Produce Market in town for us once a week and cleans the flower gardens the other day of the week.

Joyce, at her place... it was fun to see where she lives and see just how fast that river goes. Some of the guesthouse ladies cross the river every day to get to work, using a tube.

They had lots of dogs and a cat which the kids loved!

 Julie and I and our families invited Obet and Opiati and family over for a lunch. Obet and Opiadi washed dishes at Interface when Julie and I first came to PNG. We worked with him and his wife Opiadi. We invited them for lunch as we hadn't seen them in many years! And watched an old video about Interface and looked at some photos together.

It was cool to hear how God continues to use them in many people's lives in their village.

Guesthouse Ministry

 We are extremely thankful for the privilege of serving in the Guesthouse for the last years! And we are also so thankful that God has provided two families (each taking a part of the year) to replace us while we are away for our one-year home assignment. We will be sad to leave in June but so excited to welcome our replacements in May and teach them about the Guesthouse ministry. And after one year visiting family, supporters and churches, we will be excited to return to our ministry here!

Notice the Wall of Praise above the chairs.

Here is our breakfast bar area, where Jonathan sometimes comes to do his Math class online. Please pray for more teachers to come to our school!!

Jacob has been working in the Guesthouse workshop area more now to finish up projects that he has needed to do for a few years now. He is enjoying this time of woodworking work!

We are thankful for our guesthouse team! Including Simau, a new employee, and Rumbi, who has worked for NTM for over 30 years!

Fiona is also a faithful guesthouse worker on our team, working here for about 15 years!

Georgie has also worked at the guesthouse for about 15 years! We are thankful to have her on our team!

The ladies are drying corn and seeds while they work, so they can go plant them in their gardens.

Rumbi, me, Georgie, Simau and Fiona - our full time Hospitality workers!

Making sandwiches for a Daddy Daughter Valentine's Tea

Drawing a new Welcome Sign for the Guesthouse

Renovations on a guesthouse apartment kitchen. Painting and then new cupboards!

The cupboards are going in

Ready for guests to come... cupboard doors, next step.

Just learned how to use the bread maker!

Excited for a second computer so the ladies can have more time to learn more computer skills as they input guesthouse bookings and print the menus.

Just outside our house and the guesthouse, we have the best climbing tree, a mango tree.

And just next to the mango tree we have a campfire every Saturday for guests and neighbors and friends to join... bringing dinner to cook over the fire or just coming to hang out.