Trip #2 is on the Calendar

While we were in Australia, some very important logistics were worked out for our trip to the second language group on the table.
Who was taking us?
And when would we go?

Even though the idea was mentioned, there's a number of reasons why going on our lonesome seems like a bad idea.
1. It's a road allocation. Meaning I would have to drive.
a. I don't know how to drive a stick, so that could pose some complications.
b. If something were to happen (flat tire, highway robbery, overheated engine, etc.), what would I do?! I have no idea! I don't have a lot of experience in crisis management in a third world country.
2. It's the first time anyone from PBT has been out to see this people group in a hot minute. They need more of a greeting than two green members.
3. When I'm picking an allocation there are probably a ton of things to consider! Things that you may only realize after the fact. So I wanted someone who had already allocated to help point out things to me.
So I picked three of the best names on the field and said I wanted one of them to accompany us.

William Butler stepped up to the plate.
William is nearly finished with his own translation project, has successful raised a couple of children in the jungle, and is a noted storyteller, frequently requested for The Coffeehouse, PBT's annual night of missionary stories and dessert.

So with this brimming cup of wisdom, we'll be headed out in August, penciled in for the 15th-19th.

Now, just as with the first language group, we need a reason to go. So our mission is to present a change in spelling convention which was decided by the translation team but never before seen in print and see how well this change is received.
For an example that would be applicable in English, a small team of people decided that "c" was a stupid letter, utterly pointless, so they went through every single resourse in the language and tshanged every instanse of the letter of whitsh we speak to a signifikantly more appropriate letter, s or k. But no one, not even the small team of people had gotten a tshanse to see this tshange in print. So we're going to go out and present them with this tshange and see how they like it.
How are we going to do that?!
That's a fantastik kuestion! (q is also stupid)
When we know, I'll write another blog post!

Until then!
Please be in prayer that God would give us wisdom in our desisions about allokation.

Back in Beautiful Madang

The sky is azure.

Or, as they say in Italy, "celeste".

My daughter's namesake.

Before it gently wafts the rich green of coconut palm fronds, dancing in the light and shadows.

On the horizon, rests the sea.

Or, as they say in Spain, "mar"

My daughter's other namesake.

Before it swings my Marissa Celeste, hanging in a bilum. She naps so sweetly in a bilum, with all the comfort of a swaddle and all the breeze of a hammock.

 I'm sitting now at the kitchen peninsula on the new stools the Branch put in our flat to nestle under it perfectly. It's a lovely sea breeze that blows across the veranda, rocking Marissa as if she were her own, sweeping into the house through our wall of windows designed to coax her in, refreshing us all.

A cup of coffee is still warm beside me and it's not the first time, by far, that I've thought about how much I love my life this week.

At least that's how things were when I started typing this. Marissa woke up from her nap. James started screaming. Hungry? Tired? I don't know and neither does he. He tries to be affectionate with Marissa with too much gusto. Now she's screaming and he's mad again for being reprimanded to be gentle. The ants found my coffee cup by route of the counter right in front of my computer. So when my wrists touch the counter, I have to pause to pick ants off of me. Some guy is weed whacking? But he might have literal blades of grass for all the racket it's making. And someone is burning their trash (because the garbage men didn't come again yesterday) so billowing black smoke with odeur de plastic is filling our house. The windows coax smoke in with as little discretion as it does the wind. 

But the thing about love is, it's a choice.

And whether I have the sweet scent of the sea filling my house or stale smoke in a stifling house as I shut the windows against it. Whether I have a weed whacker trying to take out sword grass* to serenade me or tropical birds hosted in the palms, the fronds sounding like a gentle rain when the wind brushes them. Whether I have screaming babies or the symphony of my son's laughter and daughter's giggles.

I choose to love my life.

It just comes a little less naturally at some times…

But it's the racket that makes the silent still moments so sweet.

We're so glad to be home.

Unpacking everything you own is a lot easier when you already know where everything goes. It's certainly a benefit of the Branch's efforts to keep people in the same apartments each time they come into town.

We have just a couple missing boxes but are otherwise unpacked with only a few nooks and crannies that still need a bit of organizing.

We have a lovely evening routine and half a morning routine (when you don't have to be at the office or school at a certain time, things start devolving after a warm cup of coffee meets your grasp.) And we're working on figuring out a mid-day routine, integrating the work of two full-time employees with the daily life of two stay at home parents.

Saturday, we'll start dog-sitting for a month and at some point in the next couple of weeks, our guard puppy will be flown in. So the routine can't get too concrete quite yet…

But life is starting to settle.

For a moment at least.

And we're so glad that it's here and with these amazing people we get to call family. 

Our Guard Puppy

There's something really hard about timing in the Land of the Unexpected.

Is NOW the right time to get a guard dog? Should we wait until we have an allocation?

Will this be a good way to have a toddler let of energy, in puppy cuddles, or is a beast of a dog going to overwhelm my son who still wants to play with the puppy?

So I put it in the hands of the Lord.

I'll ask one church to buy me a guard puppy. A small church. Generous, but without deep pockets.

If the Lord has given them the resources and desire to hook us up, we'll take it as a sign.

When I dropped the figure of $500, there was some hesitation.

But Colonial Heights Church of Christ decided to host a fund raiser, nonetheless, trusting the Lord to provide.

A Cici's Pizza night

Through proceeds from the event, generosity from the owner to give them 10% of all the business that evening, not just those who came for the fund-raiser, "selling" dog biscuits, and additional gifts, Colonial Heights not only raised the $500 but more, leading them to give us an additional check for $100 to help with expenses.

So we'll be receiving our puppy soon!

This is Regina at 3 weeks. She's a Neo-Mastiff Rottweiler mix.

Presently she's 12 weeks old so a lot bigger than this photo shows!

She should be arriving in the next couple of weeks.

Luckily, we'll have a fairly well-trained guard dog on the property for the first couple of weeks she's here, so hopefully she'll pick up some good habits!

Please pray for Regina.

PNG is rough on puppies. We'll keep her on the porch for a while, away from rocks (which they like to eat and then can't pass and then die) and away from cane toads (which they also like to eat, but are poisonous). But there's a number of other ways for a puppy to die.

The Lord used His funds to purchase her and now we need His hand to protect her.

Also, pray that James and Regina bond in a crazy way worthy of writing a work of literature on.

(Probably a sad one as most stories of dogs are, where it ends with Regina dying a hero's death as she intercepts the strike of a Death Adder to save my son's life, killing the snake, but alas, falling victim to its bite of death.)

(Also pray that my children never encounter a death adder…)

(Or any member of our household…)

In conclusion,

Thank you, Colonial Heights, for your faith when it comes to funds and for investing your resources in us and our ministry.