THE YEAR IN REVIEW

The year in review (part 1)

Burning the hair off of the pigs before chopping them up!

January:
Nathan took on the role of regional finance bookkeeper and travelled to our previous town to get training for a week. This ministry is a LOT of tedious work each month but Nathan is great at it.

Above:
-Officially “Durian” season! The famous stinky fruit that Indonesians LOVE. Well, Nathan LOVES it too! It has grown on me but definitely not my favorite. 
-Nathan bought a pet kuskus from some kids. 

Right:
​-Always an adventure to go to the market. I found my new favorite place to shop - the used market! Stuff like clothes and bedding gets sent from Korea and sometimes America and is resold here. I have found a lot of nice quality items here! Whenever I bring the kids they get a lot of attention.

Below: I found the freshest pork in town! Fresh hunks of pig meat for about $5 a pound. Yummy! 














Right: A very sick woman from one of the villages we support was flown to town for medical care. Nathan helped her get attention at the hospital but after a few days she ended up passing away.  Praise the Lord she knew Him as her savior.
-Another woman was medi-vac'd to our town with pregnancy complications. She was very sick but ended up being able to return to her village and give birth. Sadly the baby died a few days later.

Shem is sick again. All of our first year in Nabire was full of sickness. Exhausting!

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The garbage "spot" at the market.

Fresh ocean crabs

Shem getting a cuddle at the Market

This is the pork after its chopped up. Who is hungry?

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February:

Noah started preschool at a local Indonesian school. I went with him each day as he adjusted. (He attended for about a month and then we took him out since it wasn't working with our schedules and going every school day was too much. We hope to start him again a few days a week soon!)

SUPPLY! Our house doubles as a supply room for all the orders we get from our missionary teams interior! This is a small load compared to most! Nathan is always busy with supply.

I was blessed to attend a THRIVE women’s retreat in Malaysia with my friend Kari! It was a wonderful break from the ordinary and exciting to be in a big city with modern luxuries like subway and Ikea!!! Fellowshipping with other women in ministry was very encouraging. 

Going to the wedding of a business owner and friend's daughter.  The only time the boys have worn long sleeves and pants here, EVER! The wedding was in the evening but we still sweated our faces off. At least they looked cute!

Nathan’s second trip was to another island for a networking conference where he connected with many churches and other missions organizations in this country. He was only gone 4 days this time!

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March:

Nathan started teaching a young adults group the Chronological Bible Lessons each week along with our coworker Andersen and a family from MAF. The picture only shows a few of those who attended.

April:

HAPPY EASTER!

Lots of neighborhood walks where we buy interesting food and fruit! We always create some sort of "parade" with all the kids following us. 

I often buy my veggies from this veggie cart. She brings fresh produce right to my street daily and reminds me of Java with her accent.

A prominent man in the community offered to give us a huge piece of land for our new mission base! This was a surprising and incredible blessing. Mr. Yap desires to see the people of Papua progress in education and in the Lord.

View from the land

Mr. Yap is in the blue

May:

Flew to the mountains to visit the Moi, one of the main villages we support from town, Daboto. We brought some local pastors with us who baptized believers and recognized elders under their denomination. Had an amazing time fellowshipping with the church there and hanging out with our coworkers the Crocketts. What a special time to see the believers standing strong there! Many who we tend to in town are from this village so it was fun to see some familiar faces.

We travelled to another city to attend our regional missions conference! Right on cue, Shem got hand foot and mouth virus and had to be kept out of child care. It made an exhausting few days of trying to enjoy conference but also care for a sick boy. We did really enjoy our time and were encouraged at the end. It was great seeing old friends and coworkers and Noah loved being in the kids program and playing with his buddy Leo. I got to catch up with my good friend Delvin!

I attended a one day medical workshop where I learned some medical basics like how to suture and put in an IV.

TO BE CONTINUED!