We moved out of the house we'd been renting since arriving in August because the owners have returned from furlough. We had three more weeks before leaving so moved into a visitors center that Wycliffe Associates built and manages.
We're in a one bedroom apartment on the second floor. It's a very nice place despite the small kitchen that is poorly equipped. There are a few relatively small annoyances and one bigger one. Our windows face the road down which many vehicles and tons of foot traffic travel. Besides the noise of diesel engines and the chatter of both adults and children, we have a bunch of dogs who like barking and howling to each other at pretty odd hours. Of course there are several kakaruk (roosters) who cock-a-doddle-doo every 10 seconds throughout the night sometimes. The biggest on is the center's backup generator starting right outside our bedroom window many times a day (and night).
We're down to less than a week in Ukarumpa and have the challenges to finish our work, figuratively pack 10 lbs into 5 lb bags (SIL charges us by weight to fly to Port Moresby and Qantas will charge us by the number of bags and weight), and leave the apartment empty when we leave.
So, we're into a series of "lasts". We've had our time with our Bible study, probably our last time seeing Darasi (the Agarabi translator), our last time in any village or town (other than the airport in Port Moresby). Sunday will be our last time worshipping here. We made our last loaf of homemade bread and last batch of mayonaisse.
We're even down to building a list of what foods we have and how we''ll balance starving (not buying more food) with eating up what we've already got on hand. We're down to counting slices of bread, servings of Cheerios, scoops of powdered milk. How many more raw eggs will we need and, if we hard boil the rest, will we have enough for lunch-time egg salad sandwiches (90% of the time the menu for noon)?
Julie's been feeling the normal effects of pending separation. Everyone goes through that when a special period of one's life comes to an end. In PNG, those who leave without plans to return are described as going "finish". It sounds so final, doesn't it? We're going "finish" next Wednesday.
Fortunately, God is never "finished".
As Christians, we are a new creation. God is not finished with us yet. We don't have plans to return to PNG but God may. We will see our PNG friends in the future. Perhaps they'll pass through JAARS. Perhaps God will call us back to PNG. Ultimately, we'll join the friends we made here before the throne of God in heaven. We'll also join with people of every tongue, tribe and nation after the last judgment and sing praises to our everlasting God... forever.
Amen.
We're in a one bedroom apartment on the second floor. It's a very nice place despite the small kitchen that is poorly equipped. There are a few relatively small annoyances and one bigger one. Our windows face the road down which many vehicles and tons of foot traffic travel. Besides the noise of diesel engines and the chatter of both adults and children, we have a bunch of dogs who like barking and howling to each other at pretty odd hours. Of course there are several kakaruk (roosters) who cock-a-doddle-doo every 10 seconds throughout the night sometimes. The biggest on is the center's backup generator starting right outside our bedroom window many times a day (and night).
We're down to less than a week in Ukarumpa and have the challenges to finish our work, figuratively pack 10 lbs into 5 lb bags (SIL charges us by weight to fly to Port Moresby and Qantas will charge us by the number of bags and weight), and leave the apartment empty when we leave.
So, we're into a series of "lasts". We've had our time with our Bible study, probably our last time seeing Darasi (the Agarabi translator), our last time in any village or town (other than the airport in Port Moresby). Sunday will be our last time worshipping here. We made our last loaf of homemade bread and last batch of mayonaisse.
We're even down to building a list of what foods we have and how we''ll balance starving (not buying more food) with eating up what we've already got on hand. We're down to counting slices of bread, servings of Cheerios, scoops of powdered milk. How many more raw eggs will we need and, if we hard boil the rest, will we have enough for lunch-time egg salad sandwiches (90% of the time the menu for noon)?
Julie's been feeling the normal effects of pending separation. Everyone goes through that when a special period of one's life comes to an end. In PNG, those who leave without plans to return are described as going "finish". It sounds so final, doesn't it? We're going "finish" next Wednesday.
Fortunately, God is never "finished".
As Christians, we are a new creation. God is not finished with us yet. We don't have plans to return to PNG but God may. We will see our PNG friends in the future. Perhaps they'll pass through JAARS. Perhaps God will call us back to PNG. Ultimately, we'll join the friends we made here before the throne of God in heaven. We'll also join with people of every tongue, tribe and nation after the last judgment and sing praises to our everlasting God... forever.
Amen.
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