Elijah’s first question once we arrived was, “Are we going to be staying at the ant house?” Actually, we did end up moving to the other half of the duplex where those pesky ants were during our last visit here. We are happy to report that we’ve seen relatively few of them this time around and so our stay has been less stressful and more “ant-i-climatic” than before!
These few weeks we are between our annual conference and a translation workshop, and so in the meantime we are taking a break and enjoying some good times together as a family. Janeene and Zekey have both been sick and feeling kind of miserable with some sort of cold-type virus, so that hasn’t been too much fun, but otherwise we are doing well and taking the opportunity to get in some fun and fellowship with friends here that we don’t usually see more than twice a year.
Chad has done some shopping in town, swimming and jumping on the trampoline with Elijah (though swimming on the trampoline has been challenging), and trying to play nursemaid and chief cook (poor family!) and bottle washer. But before you feel too sorry for him, he’s planning to go scuba diving among the gorgeous coral reefs offshore this weekend. It’s rough out there, but someone has do it!
Janeene has been resting and trying to kick her illness and has still managed to get in some time internet shopping as she’s been up to it, and some of her friends have had some visits with her as well. It looks like she’s starting to feel a tad better now, but still unable to join Chad on the dive.
Elijah has been eating up every moment out here, tagging along with the older kids, eating ice cream, grabbing frogs and chasing lizards, swimming and running around, riding his little bike with training wheels and yes, would just as soon set up a camp on top of the trampoline to stay there 24-7 if he had his way!! He is just bubbling over with excitement and energy and is never at a loss for words to describe how much fun he is having and wants to keep having.
Zekey has been crawling everywhere for some time now (and that at a very fast pace), but just this last week decided to start pulling himself up to stand propped up by low-lying furniture. This is often punctuated by loud peals of hearty laughter and funny faces, so I guess this makes him a “standup comedian” now. Naptime and bedtime is now preceded by an endless period of popping up and peeking over his crib walls to jabber at his brother or whoever else will lend him an ear. His vocabulary consists of such words as “da-da”, “gecko”, “koko” (the Tobo word for baby), and “ha” (which is supposed to be “hi”). Alas, repeated attempts to coax him into saying the most important word “ma-ma” have continued to fail. Much to Janeene’s chagrin, the little stinker will just smile and say “va-va”, “tha-tha”, and virtually every other consonant found in human language except “m”!
So what’s next for us? On Monday, we meet up with 2 of Chad’s translation helpers, Tingon and Kips. The 6 of us will then fly up to Goroka. Janeene and the boys will stay at our mission center with some friends, while Chad and the guys go attend a two-week epistle translation workshop. Please pray for us during this workshop, especially for Janeene and the boys who will be apart from Chad.
After that workshop, we will get Romans 1-3 checked by a consultant, then all fly back to the village to resume our ministry there of discipleship and translation. It has been a real joy to spend time with our Tobo brothers and sisters, and we look forward to getting back to the village again.
Thanks for your love and prayers and your sacrificial gifts! We could not be here were it not for you, so thanks for your part in God’s great work here!
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