Thanks to everyone who has been praying! My flight itinerary had me arriving in Goroka after 41 hrs of travel. However, due to a cancellation, and an overnight in Brisbane, and then another in Port Moresby I didn’t actually make it there till after 75 hrs! While that sounds exhausting, having two nights to sleep in a proper bed breaks things up nicely, and I was able to arrive at my final destination fairly well rested.
I spent the first day primarily focused on purchasing supplies needed to go into Mibu; food, toiletries, and whatever else I could think of that I might need. It’s always hard to tell when you’ve been away so long just what is needed. So in many ways you just go in prepared to deal with the realization that you didn’t bring many needed things. Now that I’m actually in Mibu I can say that’s a good number of things that I missed. Haha.
But whatever… I’m glad to finally be in Mibu! I arrived on Thurs morning and was greeted by a huge crowd on the airstrip! Wow! So happy to see my friends and brothers and sisters here after so long being away! The rest of the day was going back and forth between trying to get systems up and running (as much as I can in a reasonable amount of time) and just hanging out with my friends here, and hearing about all they have to fill me in on!
Then this morning we started work on some comprehension checking on translation. Spent 10 hrs pushing through that and still weren’t able to finish before the guys’ minds just pooped out. So we’re going to try to finish the last chapter tomorrow morning when I hike down to Beng for the Saturday morning church team meeting. Hoping to grab some time either before the meeting or right after to wrap up that task.
Then Sunday I’m planning to hike down to Mibu for the Sunday morning service, and then likely spend the afternoon hanging out with friends, eating food together before heading back up to Tibu where our house is.
Speaking of our house, that’s always interesting. I find every time I come in now gets harder as I experience a weird, kind of sad, heavy nostalgic feeling the first day back. Just seeing the house empty, my mind is filled with many many memories of our family here, raising our kids, hanging out together, telling stories, and all the laughs, hurts, excitement, and everything we had here. As happy as those memories are, it’s sad as each visit marks further and further we are away from that.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to have any gas for cooking, hot water, etc. So I came prepared with a mini kerosene cooker so I could at least heat up food. However I was thankful to find a half full bottle of gas that I could hook up under our house for those basics! Our fridge also no longer works, so I have to switch ice packs in and out of our freezer every day to keep food cool. I was planning on using our generator as needed (and I need it now because weather has been cloudy since I got here. Need to top up my solar system) but someone snagged the plug for inputting the generator to the system. I could fix it easy enough except the police stole my map gas torch so I have no way to solder a new plug/cord onto the cable. Oh well. Our washing machine also no longer works. Bummer because I don’t plan on buying another one at this point. So I will either be using our co-worker’s little machine at their house or just hand wash my clothes. The problem is that everything is soooo moldy smelling so I really have to wash a fair bit when I first get here as I’m concerned about all that mold.
Things to be praying about…
- Continued inactivity by the gang which is still around, but have just been quiet the last few months.
- For my knee which just underwent surgery about 8 weeks ago. It’s about to undergo some abuse. It’s healed, but still not 100%
- For my short time here in Mibu (just 6 days) that it would be super fruitful, and that I could get everything I’d planned finished.
- For my family back home as Shannon is holding down the fort on her own.
