-Elna

We are in Madang! It still seems a bit surreal. But the Lehmans, Canns, Mitchells and Amelia are finally all together as a team in Madang. We have spent the last few days in sweet fellowship, getting to know each other better. 

Madang is hot – well, honestly it is not that hot. It is really the humidity that makes it feel warmer… we are permanently sweaty but nothing evaporates so we just stay sticky. Pretty picture, right? It is also noisy – we have a couple of roosters as neighbours that might end up on the dinner table if they keep up their early morning (like 2am!) crowing. And whenever I wake at night, I mistake the fruit bats for birds and think it is already morning. The people of Madang are so friendly – we love walking around, greeting people and we are excited that we will soon be able to engage them in conversations! We enjoyed a quick visit to the market and stores and we look forward to settling in over the next while and getting better oriented. We’ve only eaten one completely new-to-us veggie, called Okra – similar to green beans, and so tasty! But the granadillas and cucumbers here look and taste slightly different…

Granadilla, Calista’s new favourite

In her happy place!

We live in the top of the SIL guesthouse

Cucumber!

The next two or three months will be spent here in town, learning Tok Pisin and getting a grip on PNG culture. After that, the plan is to fly out to Mawerero. We can hardly wait! But there is a lot of work to do while we are here. As we prepare, we take heart knowing that the Lord is our keeper. He prepared a work for us in eternity past, and He will be with us always.

Psalm 121:8

The Lord will guard your going out and coming in from this time forth and forever.

You can pray for:

• Grace, patience, and energy as we adapt to a new culture, climate, schedule…
• Pray for our kids that God would draw them to Himself and be a rock and comfort for them.
• Pray for our marriage, that we will be strengthened and grow in selfless love for one another.
• Pray that we will be diligent and have clear minds as we start language learning. We need to understand Pidgin pretty well before heading to Mawerero as it will serve as a bridging language when we start learning the tribal language, nDo.
• Pray for our teammates – Amelia is working hard, she wants to attempt her fourth and final Pidgin test before she moves up to Mawerero with the Canns in two weeks’ time. Pray for a refreshing time for the Canns as they are on break. Pray for the Lehmans as they continue to serve us all, driving us around, helping us, hosting and feeding us.