growth

I have completed my training as the medical clinic receptionist, and am now checked off to work by myself. I ask the nurses and doctors a lot of questions, but they are so gracious to answer and help me understand the decisions that we have to make. They and the many things they face here constantly amaze me. I don’t do the actual medical stuff, but I get to learn quite a bit just by being there. I love being able to put a face with a tribal missionaries’ name, and to really see the people we came here to serve. In a way, it feels like the front lines of support missions.

The beautiful young women in my cabin! I was so blessed by them and can't wait to continue doing life with them!

This weekend I had the opportunity to serve as Counselor for a 4 day spiritual emphasis week with the high school, led by a group from Hume Lake. I had 8 girls in my cabin, and it was a fun and amazing to see them grow over those four days. There were tears and laughter, mountaintop highs and valley-deep lows. It is very similar to the RYM camp I used to be a counselor at in Florida, and just like I did every year back then, I think I learned and grew as much as they did. Some of it I expected, like the realization (again!) that I am chosen, loved, freed, and worthy of Him; and other things I did not expect to learn. Such as: it is common knowledge to all missionary girls to wear headbands at night so the cockroaches don't crawl in your ears while you sleep. 

I think that coming to the mission field makes you hungry – the kind of hungry that comes when you are used to a certain spiritual diet – with this kind of teaching, worship, and community – and then it changes. There are new teachers, new worship styles, new people, and new community. They are not bad, just different and unfamiliar. And for a time, you are left spiritually starving, the kind of soul hungry that you don’t notice right away. Going to camp with the girls this past weekend made me realize just how inadequately I have been feeding myself spiritually since we arrived.

Tomorrow the Civil Aviation Authority will begin their 3-day audit of our flight program. If all goes well, we will be allowed to put our Kodiak into service!

But the big news for this week is that the Kodiak is nearly ready to start flying! Two weeks ago now we had Ace from the NTMA training center in Arizona come to PNG to help the team here prepare for the Kodiak inspection; and with his help, the guys finished in just 2 days! This week, the aviation reps will come to our hangar and do their audit/inspection, and then the plane can really begin doing the work it came here to do! This is an exciting (and stressful) time in the hangar as we grow as a program and add a new airplane, but knowing that the end result is serving the people and missionaries of PNG is worth it. Please pray for the guys in the hangar as they prepare for the aviation authorities to come and inspect/audit them and then hopefully give them the green light to begin flying the Kodiak!

The other good news for those of you who have been faithfully praying for rain - we've been getting rain almost every day this month; it's not yet enough to banish the drought, but each drop is still a tremendous blessing, causing all kinds of growth! My garden has sprouted all kinds of new weeds in just a few days! Thank you for praying!