Papua New Guinea – mitchellsmilesaway

Posted on May 26, 2019 by mitchellsmilesaway

Calista turns 11!

It is hard to believe, but our firstborn is eleven!

Calista is a sweet, sensitive little girl. Her understanding of, and love for God and His Word is growing… She adores animals – big and small. Her little village friends all know this, and bring around all kinds of critters for her to see. Right now, her favorite book is Beezus and Ramona, and her favorite activity is still drawing and painting. A close second is watching a movie (about animals)!

Please join us in thanking the Lord for blessing us with this beautiful, hilarious, quirky girl!

We celebrated with Calista’s favorite meal – salad bar
(everybody builds their own salad so everybody’s happy!)

Posted on April 12, 2019May 11, 2019 by mitchellsmilesaway

Why?

-Elna-

In three short days, we plan to move to Mawerero. It is quiet, my family are all still asleep. I sat down with my Bible this morning, resolved to make sure that my heart and mind is still focussed on my Saviour. Because in the excitement and craziness of moving, it would be easy to forget why we are moving. Why would we uproot our family, come to the other side of the planet, and move to a remote village? Why go live there? Why put ourselves and our friends and family through this trial of being apart? Why would we take the time, and do the hard work of learning the local language and culture? Why translate Scripture? Why pick the ‘hard way’? Why not just come for a little while, use a translator, and add another story to their story-telling culture?

I started jotting down some notes, and I am more convinced than ever that we need to keep moving forward…

Posted on April 12, 2019May 11, 2019 by mitchellsmilesaway

One month of village life

-Elna-

We’ve been living in Mawerero for a month. During the first two weeks, we focussed on getting our home ready for ‘normal’ life here – building new stairs, building desks, organising things inside the house… The plan was to start language learning (completing our Tok Pisin learning) after that.

Posted on January 15, 2019May 11, 2019 by mitchellsmilesaway

Know Things, New Things

culture shock

– noun

the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone when they are suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.

We were warned that we’d experience some degree of culture shock during our first weeks here in PNG. Thankfully, God blessed us with wonderful team mates who have made the transition so much easier! They often explain ‘little things’ that are helpful to know – like ‘a carton of eggs’ is a box with 9 dozen eggs, not one dozen! We often think of how much harder it must have been when the three families from GBC arrived…

Posted on November 23, 2018May 11, 2019 by mitchellsmilesaway

Going out and coming in…

-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.

Posted on November 23, 2018May 11, 2019 by mitchellsmilesaway

Leaving on a jet plane…

-Elna

God is so good. We left my parents’ house around 9am on Sunday morning. We arrived at the Lehmans’ house around 10.30am on Tuesday morning… Altogether almost 40hours spent travelling. And though we were all in serious need of a shower, we could still smile at the end of it.

Posted on September 24, 2018May 11, 2019 by mitchellsmilesaway

One year

Elna

Our original plan was to arrive in PNG on 24 September 2017. It is now one year later.

We could speculate about all the reasons God had for not allowing us to be there yet. And I do often make a list in my mind of all the many blessings that have come from spending this year in South Africa instead. But in the end, it comes down to this…

Posted on September 24, 2018May 11, 2019 by mitchellsmilesaway

Seven!

Elna

Our baby is officially seven. Crazy. He responded to a writing prompt just before his birthday: “If I was a punctuation mark, I would be… an exclamation mark! I would be loud! I would be tall! And be strong! And rule them all!”

Posted on June 6, 2018May 11, 2019 by mitchellsmilesaway

HBC Missions Conference

We cherish any opportunity to spend time with our supporting churches. It is always such a joy to get to know our rope-holders. Add to that the chance to be encouraged by other speakers, and have some family time at the beach, and you end up with a pretty perfect weekend!

Posted on May 28, 2018May 11, 2019 by mitchellsmilesaway

Square One

Elna

Our first applications for work permits to enter PNG, were submitted in March 2017. In August 2017, we were told that these applications were lost somewhere at the Department of Labour. We had a second application ready in country, so we sent these to our agent for resubmission. The last 8 months we have waited eagerly for news, but none has come. We have placed increasing pressure on our agent in PNG for feedback with the result that he was forced to admit that he never submitted our applications. We are back to step 1 in the work permit application process, but with reliable agents this time.