NTM

We are now in hot Dallas, Texas. We flew here last week to fit in a good 2-week visit with family once we had some dates set for medical procedures in FL.

Early last week, we saw a specialist in Gainesville, FL, who did some more testing on Chad, and as a result we were able to schedule the following dates with him:

We fly back to Orlando on Tuesday (August 4th). Then the next day (5th), we go up to Gainesville for a procedure called a nerve block, involving an injection of steroids into a nerve which may be stuck in a cycle of firing and may be responsible for causing all the pain. If this works, it will bring Chad some temporary relief (anywhere from several hours to several days of relief), and will then tell our doctor that we are on the right track to proceed with a surgery on Aug. 24th. This surgery uses cutting-edge robotic technology, and would microdissect and cauterize a specific nerve or nerves. If all goes well with this surgery and it resolves the pain problem, Chad would need several weeks of recovery. And then in about a month, the doctor could see him again and clear us for return to PNG. This would put our return at around the end of September.

So we would like to both thank you deeply for praying and continue to ask for your prayers in these times.

Also be in prayer for our partners these days. The Williamson family are still ministering in the village alone, and will be looking forward to the return of the Knapps the first week of August. As if that last week before leaving the USA wasn’t hectic enough for us missionaries, the Knapps have had a little extra stress recently, with their youngest son Malachi Knapp (5 yrs old) visiting the ER with a kidney stone! So we know that Malachi and the whole Knapp family could use some extra prayer from us, too.

Still In God’s Loving Hands,

Chad, Janeene, Elijah & Zekey

With most school graduations (at least in the US) still a recent memory, we thought we’d assign grades to the events of the past several weeks, and we came up with nothing but A’s (wait, does that mean everything has been perfect? Read on….)

Here are the straight A’s for you:

ASTHMA—2 days before we left the US, late on a Saturday night, we awoke to hear Elijah coughing and then gasping for air. His face was swollen and he had trouble breathing. So we quickly administered some allergy medicine and when his symptoms did not improve quickly enough, we rushed him to the ER at a nearby hospital. Once there, we were relieved to see that Elijah’s breathing improved and he was no longer in distress. The doctor suspected that our son may have had an asthma attack and gave him a shot to help keep his airways clear, another relief for us given the long air travel ahead. Ever since that night, Elijah has shown absolutely no more problems, and we still wonder—was it an allergic reaction to something specific, or does he suffer from asthma? We are hoping to learn more when we visit our mission’s clinic on Tuesday, just a day before returning to the village.

AIR TRAVEL—Thanks for praying. This was the most challenging trip across we’ve had so far (may be due to having 2 young children instead of only 1 or none on our previous journeys). However, in spite of the combined and largely sleepless 37 hours in airports and airplanes (so far) and in spite of the numerous episodes of Zeke spewing the contents of his bottle on his feeding towels, himself, his clothes, us and our clothes, we were encouraged by the friendliness of our fellow travelers, many of them expressing how good our children were and several who took pity on our family and helped with getting our groggy entourage and copious carryon baggage out of the planes and into the terminals. (Incidentally, it only took the second of poor Zekey’s infant formula eruptions for this thick-witted dad to finally understand the need for all that carryon luggage we wrestled from plane to plane. If I had to do it again, I would seriously entertain the idea of our family just wearing terrycloth bathrobes on the trip).

ARRIVAL in Papua New Guinea—When we made it to our region of PNG, I was tempted to kiss the runway, except that I might have risked burning my lips on hot asphalt. We have been so glad to have the week here to adjust to the time difference, see good friends here, take care of supplies and travel logistics, and reacquaint ourselves with the heat and humidity of coastal PNG, the frequent power outages which make for some dark stretches of night, and ahh yes, that brings me to another A…..

ANTS! They are a fact of life in much of this country, and everyone here battles these little critters, who can find a speck of sugar left on a counter within minutes. However, once we settled into our temporary quarters on the center, it was apparent to us that there was a larger than normal colony of tiny red sugar ants who were not content to search for crumbs of food. Oh, no—they craved intimate acquaintance with every article of clothing we had in the house, and they boldly penetrated every seam and pocket of our luggage by the dozens. Camera, computer, envelopes containing nothing but papers—they were irresistibly drawn by the allure of all things Mankins. Thankfully, after a few days other housing opened up and we gratefully vacated the premises after hours of tediously and methodically extricating the pesky formicidae from our personal belongings. We have now been fully educated on all the nuances of the term ‘antsy’.

AMUSING ANTICS—How could a bunch of silly ants dampen your spirits when you have 2 great boys who are highly entertaining and amusing on a daily basis? Elijah has been enjoying the other missionary children out here on the property, tagging along whenever he can, and enthusiastically greeting each passerby in the hopes that they will invite him to do whatever it is that they are enroute to doing. He has been jumping on the trampoline, riding bikes, and playing toys with friends and even keeping his little brother entertained with his unique brand of silly charm. Zeke now has 4 teeth, a penchant for trying out various sound effects, including spraying his brother and parents with “raspberries”, and has recently perfected the art of the "GI Joe crawl". He scootches on his belly across the room and seems very proud of his newfound ambulatory skills. To the delight of his father, his vocabulary still consists entirely of one word—“Dada”. Elijah, on the other hand, has a prolific vocabulary, which he likes to expand by repeating what he hears, including such gems as “exponential”.

ANTICIPATION—After no small effort by our shorthanded but amazing mission aviation program, we were able to book a flight into Toboland on Wednesday morning at the crack of dawn. We along with the Williamsons are all praying that the good weather will hold a little longer and allow us to get back into our village home safe, sound, and stocked up for the approaching rainy season. It will be so good to get back to our home and enjoy the fellowship of partners and friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, black and white. Oh, and did we mention—the only ants we see inside our mountain home are those that hitchhike in on boxes from the coastal areas and we deal with those quite easily. So we are quite spoiled in that regard.

We will be as busy as ants as we resume our village ministry, but what a joy it is to be involved in this task of discipling the Tobo believers and equipping them for their task of discipleship as well—a task which is the heartbeat of God—after all, we and they have been purchased with the blood of His only Son!!

AWESOME—This is who we serve—an AWESOME GOD who is faithful to work in and through our lives as we trust Him to do HIS work among the Tobo people of PNG.

Happy to report straight A’s,

Chad, Janeene, Elijah & Zeke

Animated and Adorable!!!

Thanks for praying for us—here are some specific requests:

APPOINTMENTS—we would appreciate your prayers as we see the doctor and get the boys immunizations. We are also hoping to get some medicine and supplies to be prepared just in case Elijah does have asthma while we are in the bush.

ADJUSTMENTS—the kids have been super, but we can tell that so many changes have taken somewhat of a toll on them (and us as a family). Thanks for praying for us as we return, get our living conditions back in order, brush off the language cobwebs, and deal with the struggles of slower communication with the outside world (radio reception remains horrendous, and there are often delays in sending and receiving emails from our radios in the bush), and also as we get up to speed with Jason and Nisae and all the happenings of the last 8 months, and adjust as a foursome to life in the tribe after our time in America (both places are wonderful, but wow are they vastly different worlds!)

ATTITUDES—along with all the adjustments and all, we are asking prayer that we would have Christlike attitudes through it all and remain dependent on our Lord. This is all about HIM, not us, and we need to be mindful of that when life throws all those other A’s at us—good and bad.

Well, here’s some good news—the visas have now made it to the USA! Now we wait for the good folks of the Papua New Guinea Embassy in Washington, DC to process the visas, put them into the passports, and send the passports back to us.

A grateful Chad, a lovely Janeene, an energetic Elijah & a one-toothed Zeke

Prayer Points:

Praise God, He has been encouraging Williamsons as they labor alone in the village. We believe that God is answering our prayers in this. Also be in prayer as they are in need of a new computer as theirs is on the way out but they are facing tight times financially.

Praise God as the Knapps are able to get some help medically while in the US. Jason will be officiating at his brother’s upcoming wedding, but will be undergoing surgery to correct a heart defect this coming Wednesday. Kellie had some skin cancer which was removed, but the doctors will remove more tissue from her arm the following Wednesday to make sure they get all of it and then will undergo a colonoscopy several days later, so please keep the Knapps and their health in your prayers.

Praise God for the visas’ arrival in Washington, DC! Please pray for us as we set our dates and for the logistics involved in our return to the village (at least 7 flights over several days, with lots of work to get set up for a new little family member in our house as well as tasks like post repairs).

Thanks so much for praying for us and our paperwork delays. Apparently God has decided to answer our prayers with another “not yet”.

Here’s a quick summary of our paperwork process: We have been thankful that He has allowed Zeke’s lightning-fast adoption and all the other stages of our paperwork to be ready for us even ahead of the normal timetables (that is, Zeke’s birth certificate, SSN and passport all came through more quickly than expected). So as soon as we were able to send in for the last paperwork needed (visas to get into PNG) at the beginning of April, we were very optimistic that we would have everything in order in time for our original departure date of May 1st (The timeframe is typically 2-3 weeks). Problem is, this has been nothing close to typical, as we are now over a month longer than expected. To be honest with you, we really thought that we would get the paperwork in time for our first delayed departure date of the 19th.

Our mission’s government reps continue to check daily on the status of our paperwork, but word is that there is a “mountain of paperwork” for the government to sort through and process. So our people in PNG are working hard on our behalf, but they are as powerless and unable to predict the future as we are.

With no way to predict the future, we are trying to walk the tightrope between being wise with our time and money (every change costs more money, yet it would be a shame to delay our departure too much longer than when our paperwork actually comes through). So we are looking at changing our tickets once again. We will likely try to reschedule for another 2- 2 1/2 weeks from the 19th, depending on the lowest fare available in that timeframe so that we will only pay the change fees again rather than tacking on the difference in higher fares.

Of course, for us this is yet another disappointment, as we are ready to return to our village home, to join our newest partners the Williamsons, and to get back into the ministry on-site. However, we firmly believe that God has other plans for us at this time. These include further bonus time with family here, opportunities to help them out with more home projects, more chances to connect with friends from church, and finally, some extra time to work on preliminary stages of more Romans translation which should give us a little head start once we get back and settled again in PNG.

Thanks again for praying with us! Below we have some requests to help you to pray more specifically.

Chad, Janeene, Elijah & Zeke

Prayer Requests:

Pray for the Tobo church, that the small group will continue to meet faithfully and grow in grace and in their understanding of (and hunger for) God and His Word. Pray for their testimony in the midst of strong opposition from the majority of the community. Pray also for our faithful brothers Welsen, Kips, Zanggo, and Tingon, who are leading the first Tobo outreach in the village and team-teaching a review of the evangelistic Bible lessons (Phase 1) on a weekly basis. Pray for the salvation of those unbelievers who come to hear their teaching.

Pray for our partners the Williamsons as they are facing some unanticipated extra time alone in the village. Pray for strength, peace, and encouragement for them in these days as they press on with language and culture study and building relationships with the people.

Pray for our partners the Knapps as they have recently returned to the US for their home assignment (aka furlough). Pray for a good time of needed rest as well as traveling safety, stamina and good opportunties to fellowship and share with their family, friends, and supporters about the exciting things God has been doing among the Tobo.

Pray for us as we wait on the Lord for the paperwork to go through, that we would continue to make the most of the extra time God has given us here in the US. Pray also for our health, as Chad has been down and out the last several days with allergies piggybacking on a nasty cold, and Janeene continues to suffer a long-lasting cough probably brought on or at least aggravated by allergies. (Praise God, the boys seem to be doing much better and are over their sickness).

Our paperwork has not yet gone anywhere, and so neither have we. Just the day before we were to depart, we learned that the approval for Janeene’s and Zeke’s visas had still not been processed in PNG. At that time, it was recommended to us that when we change our tickets, we wait at least 2 weeks. So we will now plan on departing the USA on May 19th.

While we are somewhat disappointed by this turn of events, we can see some real benefits. One is that Janeene’s health is now on the mend and it should be much easier for us to travel with her back up to full strength. Another plus is that we will get some extra time here in Dallas with Janeene’s family, who really haven’t had all that much time with us during our stay here in the US.

So we are confident that God has a reason for keeping us here for the extra weeks, and we will rest in Him and enjoy the ride, even if it’s not yet in the air!

Thanks for praying,

Chad, Janeene, Elijah, & Zeke