Hi!
Life has been packed full. With me at the school from 8:15 to 3:15 most days in Grade 1, and then keeping up with the girls’ schedules, each day is full of activity. But a definitely positive is that I do get more adult conversation now that I am in the classroom.
I was able to attend a weekend Women’s Retreat a couple weeks ago. We had lots of fun and learned lots of new things. The Lord really spoke to me in those sessions and I am always amazed of how God works. Next weekend I was invited to go to a Professional Workers conference, or something like that. It is for the teachers on both campuses so I feel honored to be asked as I am not technically a “teacher”.
Meliah was in softball this term and WOW she has come a long way from last year.
She played first base and between her and the 2nd base girl there was not many hits that got through them! The one down side to playing sports here is that not many games are played since there aren’t a lot of other school’s or teams to compete with. But they make up for it now and then with a few hastily thrown together community teams. And in the two tournaments they had, Meliah’s team won very easily. She enjoys school but is not sure exaclty what she wants to do after she graduates. She is talking military, which for some reason I can’t see her doing this. She does have a passion for writing, she has talked about teaching, she has talked about computer graphics…so who knows. Please be praying as we continue this discussion and start getting more serious about looking into colleges.
Anna has adjusted well to middle school. Praise the Lord!!! She has a good group of girls she hangs out with and between that and her love for horses, she keeps plenty busy. And of course there is her homework, but she seems to handle that well. She was an A/B student for the first term. Can’t ask for anything better than that... (best grades she has gotten in a long time ). She is no longer a “Tweener” (ok by age she is for a few more months, but in everything else she is a Teenager). The teen years will end someday in this household J. Anna is always offering to walk friends’ dogs and take care of them if people are gone. She sure has a way with animals and more than 1 person has said she sure can read a horse well and knows how to handle that giant animal.
Kiery is in grade 2 and loves it, besides math (who can blame her). She is reading way above grade level and one of her favorite activities is to play school and/or library. She has great friends and love to have play overs after school. She has a best friend here named Joda who is a Papua New Guinean. When we first met her last year she was so shy and quite. I think that is why the girls got a long so well right from the beginning. Anyway now she has opened up and her English has improved dramatically. The girls are always scheming on how they can get more play time together.
We have some neighbors that moved in a few months ago. They have 4 girls and they all are our girls’ ages. Our families get along really well. We see this friendship continuing for a very long time with all of us. I do feel bad for Chad and the dad of our neighbors as there are 9 girls and just 2 guys in the corner of center where we live… The guys will run and blow things up as needed to get away from the high levels of estrogen!
Chad is busy with work as usual. But he has not fallen back into his work alcoholism pattern, praise the Lord. He has a good group of guys that keep each other accountable. He is currently working with our Aviation dep’t to sort out all the needs and computer help that they need. It has been band-aid fixed many times over so it is needing a major over haul. Each Sunday evening he facilitates a small group bible study in a nearby village. Some of the guys in this group are former raskels (criminals) but have had a heart change for God. So he comes home weekly telling me of what they talked about etc. The group is growing in the physical sense and the spiritual sense. Chad has also been asked to be the driver’s ed teacher starting semester 2 as the current one is going on furlough. He is looking forward to that, as it will get him out of the office and away from computers. He does such a good job with kids that age. He is a leader of 11th grade boys small group that meets here on Wed. nights. So he does get some boy time J. He goes either on a bike ride or motorcycle ride a couple times a month and that gives him an out also. He is always waiting for the next adventure and people are coming to him now and saying lets go do this or that etc.. He will again do Encounter which is a youth retreat for 4 days with the High School students, the students all call him Captain Awesome :)
A few weeks ago we found out that our 2 year old washer at “home in the states”went out and our 9 year old Heat pump died (during a real bad hot spell). Our poor house sitters. So we worked as quickly as we could to help remedy those problems for them. And then here in PNG, the store in the city of Lae that gives us supplies for our local store burned to the ground. (It was kinda a smaller version of a Costco or Sam’s Club). So we shall see how this affects us in the long term.
Kainantu is the closest town to where we live, we write it K92 for short. The bridge going towards K92 is holding on by a thread, so no more loaded trucks can go over it. The bridge is very hard to cross with a vehicle right now and we are trying to prepare for when the bridge finally gives way (not that we can get supplies anyway, the store burned down :) And then with the internet/email issues that took us off-line for a week, we were all reminded that we do live in a 3rd world country. The leadership here in Ukarumpa are praying and trying to work on alternative solutions for getting supplies and people in and out. The best plan so far seems to build a ford across the river and drive 4 wheel drives over it.
Praying over all that is happening, I was reminded of the following verses and I hope it speaks to you in whatever “trials” are affecting your life.
Matthew 6: 25-34
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ? "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Miss you all and send lots of hugs,
Chad, Ruth and girls
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