Bouncing Around PNG!

PNG is a breathtakingly beautiful country! We have just come back “home” to Lae after traveling through some of the coast and mountains of this amazing country. We first went to Madang, a small coastal town – we had to go over a mountain to get there, what a ride! The road was steep, windy, sections of the road were washed away from landslides and full of huge potholes – we bounced around a lot but 5 hours later got there safe and sound! It was like a jigsaw puzzle to get us all in the vehicle together… we barely fit! But the drive was definitely worth it – what a beautiful place! We stayed in little cabins right by the Pacific Ocean, with a close little beach, the kids had a great time playing in the sand and water for 3 days!

Here are some Nationals bringing bananas from their garden to the village, this was the view from our little beach area.
Tim, Ian, Jono and Noah went for a boat ride to a nearby island where they played on the beach and the guys did some snorkeling there, the reefs were breathtaking!

Lucas playing on our bed in the cabin... he is so smiley!

From there we drove back through the mountain, then through a river (yes, literally – the bridge was out), and up another mountain to Ukarumpa. Ukarumpa is the SIL and Wycliffe Missionary Base up in the Highlands of PNG and is another amazing place to visit! The weather is wonderful, very cool – we even wore sweaters at night! We visited with some of Ian & Nadia’s friends, and really enjoyed meeting these families! On Saturday we went for a day trip to Yonki, a lake where a wonderful family is starting an orphanage… we also had a “moomoo” (festive meal) with some nationals in Yonki.

View of Yonki from the mountain road, was beautiful!

Back to life in Lae here, and back to the heat, humidity and rain! As I sit here typing, Tim is busy cutting Ian’s hair (much to Nadia’s apprehension), but it looks good from my angle! He has also planted a vegetable garden here, and is working on a shade cover for the sandbox. I am planning to go to a literacy course tomorrow morning with some of the women in the church, and am working on setting up some more health sessions for next week. The kids are still doing really well; we are realizing that it will be hard for the cousins to be apart when we leave. If we reflect on the past 5 weeks, we realize how much we have learned and experienced already, how much Pidgin we have “picked up”, how many people we have met, the sights we have seen, and we are learning so much about the power of God at work in PNG… we look forward to treasuring the next two weeks here with family.