Greetings to all our friends, family, and supporters! Our apologies, especially to those of you who only see communication from us via email. Somehow, even though we were posting to instagram and facebook, the remainder of the summer whizzed by without us writing another update to our blog/email! So here are the key points to get you up to speed on what's we've been up to since our last update.
If you remember I (Geoff) had surgery on my ear when we were home. Reflecting on the last few months we're so very thankful for how all that worked out, and for continued healing after the surgery! The doc said that I should expect some weirdness for up to 6 months after the surgery. All signs that healing is still happening. While I've definitely had some weirdness as he foretold, there has been nothing concerning. Mostly just some discomfort here and there, but always improving overall. I'm even starting to notice some of my hearing coming back, and also feeling being restored to my scalp and other parts of my ear which have been numb (and still are a bit) up to this point due to nerves being severed during the procedure!
With the thumbs up from the doc, we returned to PNG as planned in early August. Before our short trip to the US, we were in a mad rush to move houses here in PNG. This meant we only had time to pack and move everything over to the new house, but had no time to unpack or organize before heading stateside. This meant that as soon as we returned we had to hit the ground running with unpacking. Since the house is significantly smaller than our previous house, it was a welcome opportunity to downsize, toward which we eventually had a rather large garage sale! All that is done now and we can say we're mostly settled in our new house… for now.
I recently got my office set up and have begun work in lesson prep and translation again. As I was trying to get my head back into the translation task, I realized I've been working in Revelation on and off for just over 2 years now! Ughh! That's so slow! The first year had good reason for the delays as I also was full-bore into elder training and lesson writing and teaching, as well as teaching a group of leaders how to study a text and write lessons. But since we've moved out of the tribe, we've been faced with 2 moves in less than a year. In this second location I'm finding I have to protect my time with increased vigor as our new location requires so much time driving for everything it seems. There are other tasks too, expected of us in this new location. This move has us scratching our heads a bit, wondering how to deal with this new reality of frequent moves and other expectations that cut into the time we'd rather be prioritizing for Mibu. It's still early on, but we're trying to keep an open mind about how we can make this work over the long haul, or maybe other options for being able to ensure I can continue to devote myself full-time to seeing the bible translation and lessons finished in Mibu.
We're also looking at our schedules and budget to determine when and with what frequency I might be able to get into Mibu to spend time with folks there, work on translation and lesson tasks that can't be done out in town, and to occassionally teach when new lesson material is ready. We thought we might be going as a family during the next school break in a couple weeks, but it was just too last minute to work out the logistics. So back to the drawing board. We may have to wait till March next year before we get another chance to go as a family. That's a bit of a bummer because the kids have been asking and they have friends there excited to see them again. Meanwhile I'll have to plan some trips in there on my own again.
Thank you to all of you who partner with us in this ministry through prayer and giving and all the other areas of support that are so graciously done to help us in the work here! We couldn't do it without you!
Blessings from the Husas in PNG!
