Well, we have one week before we leave for Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea! We've had a number of unexpected "things" come up that have kept us from making the progress we would have "liked" to have made up to this point.
Saying goodbye has been tough and has taken an emotional toll. We know that the plan as it sits right now is to be gone only a year, but it's still heart wrenching. It's been important for us to take extra time to connect with certain people and those times have been very precious to us.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
VBS Week at Edwall
This last week we were honored to play a small part in the Vacation Bible School at our home town of Edwall.
The VBS mission fund for this year was to the Education Gift Fund for the O'umpa school in PNG! This fund is used to help pay for the PNG national children to attend school, which isn't free.
Each day of the week, our family presented to the kids a little something about; Papua New Guinea, the importance of people learning about Jesus and having God's Word in their heart language, and what our role will be while we live in Ukarumpa working with SIL and Wycliffe.
The VBS mission fund for this year was to the Education Gift Fund for the O'umpa school in PNG! This fund is used to help pay for the PNG national children to attend school, which isn't free.
Each day of the week, our family presented to the kids a little something about; Papua New Guinea, the importance of people learning about Jesus and having God's Word in their heart language, and what our role will be while we live in Ukarumpa working with SIL and Wycliffe.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
We have our Itinerary!
The flights are all booked and stop-over arrangements have been made! We are leaving on July 7th and will arrive in Ukarumpa on the 11th. Check out this short movie that I did in Google Earth that shows our flights and waypoints during the journey. If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, you can load this kmz file to watch the animation in high def. Otherwise, here is a low quality version:
If your interested in how I got the lines to draw, you can download the kml file here.
If your interested in how I got the lines to draw, you can download the kml file here.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
We got our Visas!
It's been a whirlwind couple of days. We got our Visa's on Tuesday, last day of school on Friday, Ruth and my anniversary on Saturday, and in the midst of all that, we've kicked into high gear booking our tickets for PNG, getting international medical and emergency evacuation insurance, and working towards getting all our other affairs in order before our trip.
Now that we officially have our visas, we have essentially completed the last major step of the process and there really isn't much left that would prevent us from being able to serve in PNG with Wycliffe. Consequently, we hadn't purchased plane tickets, switched medical insurance, purchased malaria and typhoid pills, and a handful of other necessary costly tasks until we knew we were fully authorized to leave. So that's made the last week a flurry of decision making!
Now that we officially have our visas, we have essentially completed the last major step of the process and there really isn't much left that would prevent us from being able to serve in PNG with Wycliffe. Consequently, we hadn't purchased plane tickets, switched medical insurance, purchased malaria and typhoid pills, and a handful of other necessary costly tasks until we knew we were fully authorized to leave. So that's made the last week a flurry of decision making!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
A send off party from our friends at CHS
We had a great time this evening at a potluck send-off hosted by our dear friends at Christian Heritage School! There was great food and all my favorite desserts. We had great connections with lots of friends that Ruth and I have made over the years here.
Plus, there was also a special one-time performance of a special song by the teachers of the school! We've posted it on our blog for your entertainment. What a blessing to have such encouraging friends!
Plus, there was also a special one-time performance of a special song by the teachers of the school! We've posted it on our blog for your entertainment. What a blessing to have such encouraging friends!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Ruth's List of FAQ's
Ruth has been collecting a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that I thought would make a nice blog post. These questions touch on some of the challenges we’ve faced in the process of preparing for our time in PNG with Wycliffe, and also just answer general questions that have come up along the way. So for posterity and for the curios:
Q: Will you be able to drive?
A: Yes, we think so. I’ve heard that you can rent a van or vehicle of some sort. You can drive to Kainantu which is on the order of a half hour away and has some shops and I even heard a rumor there is a cafe or something there that you can go to for Sunday lunch. The coastal cities of Lae and Madang are like 3 and 5 hours away respectively.
Q: What kind of training or preparation will you get before you are stationed at your job?
A: There is a training course called POC (Pacific Orientation Course, formerly called Jungle Camp)
Ruth’s Frequently Asked Questions
about Papua New Guinea
(note: answers reflect what we “think” we know and may turn out to be wrong J)
Q: Will you be able to drive?
A: Yes, we think so. I’ve heard that you can rent a van or vehicle of some sort. You can drive to Kainantu which is on the order of a half hour away and has some shops and I even heard a rumor there is a cafe or something there that you can go to for Sunday lunch. The coastal cities of Lae and Madang are like 3 and 5 hours away respectively.
Q: What kind of training or preparation will you get before you are stationed at your job?
A: There is a training course called POC (Pacific Orientation Course, formerly called Jungle Camp)
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