What's the Plan?

We have found more meat for our bare bones of a plan! Originally it was: We're going to raise money, go to Papua New Guinea some time in 2015, go to POC (How to live in the Jungle 101), and go from there. Lots of motion.

Now! The plan is:

• Our personal profiles will soon be submitted to the PNG branch. If they decide they want us (and we anticipate no problems there), they will send us our Letter of Assignment. (We want you to come and do A, B, and C, during your first term.) 
• Then! We will begin filing for our visas. (And getting new passports)
• We will do partnership development (raising money) 
• We need $5000/mth
• We need $44,000 in start-up expenses (relocation expenses, POC, solar panels, Toyota Hilux)
• We are praying to be fully funded by Oct 3rd (Jacob's Birthday). Just a couple of weeks before our son is due. We really really don't want to worry about fund-raising and infant-raising. We hope you will join us in these prayers. 
• We will leave for the Pacific Orientation Course in May 2015. The enrollment process for May POC has already begun. 
• We will spend approximately 4 months in POC learning everything from how to bake bread over an open fire to how to speak Tok Pisin. The course in completed after spending a few weeks living in a village setting. If you're still alive at the end of the time period, you pass. (Just kidding! The death toll of POC is quite low.)
• We will spend however long it takes researching and doing survey work to figure out where we're going to live and work full time. 
• This will probably be in or near the Lower Ramu River Valley, which happens to have a road that connects it to Madang. This means we won't have to spend $3000 on a helicopter every time we want to arrive or leave the village. Instead, we can buy a Toyota Hilux for an up-front cost of $35,000 and save a lot of money in the long run. 
• We will load up our child and cargo in our Hilux and go out to the village to live in a small bush house for the remainder of our term. 
• We will begin language learning. 
• If we decide that is the right location for us to be long-term, we will start figuring out how much it will be to get a house there. 
• We will go on home assignment, visit all of you, and raise money for our Americanized house, and start planning for our second term in approximately 2019. 

Bam! 4 years in 10 bullet points! That's what we call an overview!

(Please remember that there are two constants in the life of a missionary: miscommunication and change. Please don't feel lead astray if there's a change in this plan. We have to roll with the punches...)