Living in Goroka (for a week anyway)...

....(Lapilo base) doesn't feel like I am living in PNG it is not until I look outside the gate that I realize that I am in Papua New Guinea.

On a side note how is our crate going. At the moment we are living out of one suitcase as some of our luggage is in cairns still as the family we flew with had a lot of things. I don't know if people know how important it is that we get our crate here. The longer it takes the longer we go without our things and the more money we have to pay in renting things of the mission. This is something we don't want to have to do for very long.

Our digital camera's LCD screen seems to be effected by the humidity we have had it for 2 years and have used it a lot. It may be on its way out. We are going to put it into a hot box but we may have to get a new one. So that is Prayer Request. We will let you know what happens.

Anything that anyone wants to send to us as in larger items than what can be sent in the post have them put it into the crate as we are not charged GST on anything in the crate the first time it is shipped anything after that (if we were to send another crate) we would be charged Tax.

I will write again soon after we have been in Hoskins for a few days. I am sure I will have a lot more to write then.

We love you all and miss you I feel like I am at home here. It is wonderful. We have TV here in Goroka which is a luxury. PNG TV is very interesting and funny.

Love Johnathan Candy and Malachi

Buying Veggies on our Wedding Anniversary

Today the 11th of January we celebrate our 2nd Wedding Anniversary. We are heading off to Sebago today to the mission base there it is a small base which is about 10 min away. Then tomorrow we are off to ITF which is Interface. Friday we fly to Hoskins.

Yesterday in the morning about 6:30am Estelle and I headed down to the front gate to buy veggies. We brought tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, spring onions. That was interesting buying them I just held the bag Estelle did all the talking.

January 6 - 10 - Training and Orientation

January 6th-8th we were involved in a safety seminar. It was excellent and we learnt a lot of valuable information.

January 9th after the FSA training we started some orientation here in Goroka. It saved us a plane trip back to Goroka later as we were here for a week anyway. Well our first day of orientation was visiting the different ministries here. When we got to the guest house there was a national man outside working in the garden he stopped and came over to us. Dave Pierce was the guy who was showing us around. Anyway this national guy had very good English and he hugged Dave twice, which is fine he shook Johnathan's hand and then hugged me. I was taken by surprise as this is not cultural. In PNG women are not aloud to wave, look or even hug a man. So I was a bit surprised.I haven't asked yet what it was all about.

It has been good to meet everyone and see the role that they play in running Lapilo base. I wish you could all come and see what everyone does here.

Malachi is doing really well but yesterday was a bit distressed when we left the house in the afternoon. He was missing us.

Leaving Australia

Hello from Papua New Guinea!

We had a wonderful time in Cairns, relaxing, swimming, and some shopping. Malachi started crawling and now is moving around all the time following us from room to room.We left Australia on January 5th early in the morning. We drove with the pilot Dave Douglas to the plane and dropped him off and then we were driven around to International airport. We waited on the other side of customs for our pilot Dave.Here comes the fun part. I (candy) got to sit next to the pilot. (I felt like a kid in a candy store). I asked a lot of questions and the scenery was excellent. I fell asleep and woke up just before we started to descend into Port Moresby. We went into the back way to customs it was deserted. We just walked into the customs area with our passports and paperwork and we left all our bags on the plane.

Soon we were off again. It was 1 1/2 hrs to Goroka. I fell asleepmagain on the plane and Dave and the others thought I had passed out. I don't remember falling asleep but I woke up when Johnathan poked me. Lucky I wasn't flying the plane! We landed and we had to wait at the hanger for someone to pick us up. We traveled to Lapilo base which is 10 min from the airport. There were people everywhere it is a lot like the Philippines but it is not westernised. I noticed how slowly paced it is here compared to back home.

We got to the base and settled into our house that we were staying in for the next week. After putting all our stuff into the house walking past the window was the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life. It is big. Oh it lives outside and eats all the bugs. A national walked past and was telling us about it (not that I could understand). He said that he had been bitten numerous times and it felt like a crab bite. I wasn't going to get close to find out. He offered to take it away but Trevor said oh no just leave it there. So now I have to share the house with a big spider. I didn't scream but nearly burst into tears over the size of the thing.

Last Day In Australia

Today is our last day in Australia. We are all packed and ready to head to the airport tomorrow morning and be there by about 7:10am. I have no idea when we are actually leaving but sometime after we get there. Have filled in all the customs forms. We had to unload one of our suitcases and it was the one with all our clothes in it so we have a backpack to live out of until the end of the month. We went swimming today with malachi he loves the water. I (candy) am so excited about going to PNG tomorrow. It's a whole new adventure.

A Day Sightseeing

We decided to venture out yesterday. We left in the morning and travelled south of cairns. We first visited Barron Falls it was a walk down to the fall but a very pretty one. The train line run down beside the waterfalls. There weren’t oversized or anything, but they were big enough. On the track we found a huge ants nest built into the tree it was very fascinating i have never seen anything like it we took a photo. Some one had dropped their camera over the boardwalk and it was a fare distance down lying among the rocks and there were a couple of guys heading down the embankment to rescue this camera which had fallen amongst rocks. They were very lucky that it didn’t smash when hitting the rocks. We made it back to the car and headed on our way. The town where the waterfalls are is a tourist town but they have a big ship and to see it from behind you think it might be a house but looking at it from the front it is a shop. Very well done.


Our next stop was Coffee Works in Mareeba we were all excited to stop for a coffee. It was a nice shop and there were lots of things to buy but we were hungry and coffee just wasn’t going to do it for us. So we headed into the town of Mareeba and had some lunch.


We then headed back to Cairns and on the way we stopped at Yungaburra where the Curtin Fig Tree is. You walk out on a board walk and there is this huge tree well actually it is a vine that takes over a tree it is very fascinating it see how this vine worked. We headed back along a very windy road and it seemed to go for ever. We stopped into the supermarket to pick up a few groceries and headed home for tea.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year Everyone. May this year be a year that the Lord teaches us more about himself. Today marked a special day for us as Malachi stood alone with support from a table.
Only 3 more days and we are off to Papua New Guinea. We are getting excited. We are enjoying our break here in cairns. Love to you all.

Melbourne to Cairns

Well, we left Melbourne on Monday morning early. The East Timor team was there as well so we were able to say goodbye to them as well. Saying goodbye to Amanda was hard, I will miss her. Our plane was boarding as we arrived at the gate and they hadn't issued Malachi a ticket so we had to go back to the ticket counter which was next to the gate and get a ticket for Malachi. We had two seats on the plane so we held Malachi the whole time. He flew really well. Our last plane trip he had trouble landing as the plane descended very quickly. This flight he slept but as soon as the plane stopped in Brisbane he was awake. We got off the plane to realise that we were going to get back on teh same plane to go to Cairns. The weather outside is hot. We arrived in Cairns and Malachi was asleep again but he didn't wake up this time whent he plane stopped, he decided to wake up in the terminal. We collected our luggage and waited for a taxi. Teh taxi driver told us when we go to Tree Tops that we broke the record for the most weight. We got settled into our room and were tired.
In the afternoon it really hit me how hard it is to leave family and friends and move to anohter country. I was sad and I know that this will not be the last time it happens, but I know that this is the journey that God has for us at the moment.
We are enjoying the relaxing time and I am now relaxed. we are venturing into town this afternoon to pick up groceries. Johnathan's parents get here tonight and we are very much looking forward to them coming.

How Cute

Here is Malachi in my Grandma's garden on Christmas eve.

O Come All Ye Faithfull

Last night I picked up a book called O come all ye Faithfull. It is a book that tells you the history of a couple of Christmas carols. Coming to the first song in the book "O Come all ye faithful I was reading and singing along to the song. When I came to the second verse of this song which is:

God of God, Light of Light;

lo, he abhors not the vigins womb:

very God, begotten, not created;

Then it goes on with the chorus and follows on with the 3rd and 4th verses. It suprised me that this verse is left out when we hear it sung whether it is in a church or Christmas caroling. It represents that Christ did not mearly appear or was created but that he went through the human way and was born. Take a look the next ime you have the Christmas Carol in front of you.

Busy Busy Busy

Wow the past few days have been busy. Catching up with friends over the past few days has been really good. It's been great to sit down with each of them and have a good chat and have either coffee hot chocolate juice or iced chocolate. Last night we went out with a couple of friends Scotty and Lauren and had a great time down at barwon heads.
We are now all packed I think we just have a few more thing to pack when we get home. we are at my Grandma's for Christmas. We arrived this morning. I am not well at the moment and it feels like the flu so I am praying that it is only a 24hr thing.
We are having Christmas with nearly all our family just one Aunty will be missing. I am looking forward to it. We go back Sunday night. Get up early on mOnday and go to the airport.

Our Beautiful Boy is 9 Months Old. Malachi's Dedication and Our Commissioning

Yesterday our Son Malachi was 9 months old. He is starting to crawl. He has the motion and the stance but flops to his tummy. He is practicing all the time though. We had a dedication service at church for Malachi where we promised before the church to raise him in the eyes of Christ and the church also promised to help along the way. I had to wake him up for the occasion as he fell asleep.
We had our commissioning service as well. It went really well. It was nice that so many prayed for us and we really feel that our church is behind us and encouraging us. It was my last Sunday at South Valley after 25 years. It is an end to one thing and the beginning of a new adventure that God has before us. It really hasn't sunk in that I am leaving but U am excited that we are going to Carins next week for a relaxing break.
We had lunch with some friends of ours and had a great time together. In the evening Johnathan and I headed upto Melbourne to visit with my best friendand her husband. We had a whale of a time looking at a video we made more than 7 years ago. It was a riot. It was a long time coming to watch it.

TIFFANY

We knew the day was coming but didn't think it would be this soon. We have had tiffany 12 years and she has been a faithful compainion one of the family. We have shared good times together. She was always there to lend an ear to listen and she wouldn't answer back. I remember when we first got her and the previous owners hadn't looked after her and I cried I thought she was the ugliest dog I had ever seen and I was the first one she took to. She was a faithful friend. Over the past couple of day she has been getting sicker and sicker. She was wobbly on her feet. She could hardly hold her balance, she went off her food having not wanted to eaat in the past 3 days. She was only going to get worse so we had to make the hard decision to put her to sleep today. Mum did the horrible walk to the vet, holding her in her arms all the way. Mum is going to miss her. Mum took her everywhere with her.

Our Boy is so Cute

Today is was a hot day and we gave our son Malachi an Icypole. He loved it and is quite talented to hold an icypole by him self at 9 months. He had it everywhere but had a ball getting sticky.

2 Weeks to go...

Only 2 weeks left. This time in 2 weeks we will be in carins having a well deserved break before we fly to PNG. I have completed all the Christmas shopping and I thought I would bake a bag of cookies for everyone at church. So I have that to do this week. Our friend Simon is coming to visit today as he is on his way back to Perth to live.

INJECTIONS

Today was the day we went for our injections. After a 1/2 hour wait in the chemist and then an 1 and a half wait in the doctors we were in getting our injections. This is one of the last things that we have to do before we head to PNG. I (Candy) am not a fan of them and tried to put it off for as long as possible. I was thinking in the doctors if I wasn't going then I wouldn't have to have these injections and thought this is only the beginning of things that I will have to overcome, and I know that I can face and then overcome them in the Lords strength. We have nearly finished all our packing everything that is staying here in Australia is packed and is now living at a friends house who has let us store our things there. Packing seems to an endless event you can always find something else that you think you may need It's hard to beleive that we have 2 weeks left here in Geelong and then we leave.

A New Journey

Time is flying by so fast my husband, son and I are heading overseas to Papua New Guinea in 3 weeks. We are going to be missionaries and eventually go into a tribal location and translate the word of God into their heart language. But there is alot happening before that stage. We leave for Cairns on December 26th and have a week and a half in Cairns for a break before we fly out to PNG on January 5th. We are looking forward to it as this is something that we both have wanted to do in aa very long time. Apon arrival to PNG we will be in an intense contigency conference where we are taught how to prepare ourselves if we are ever taken hostage. This will take place on the main Island of PNG in a place called Goroka. Then on January 13th we Fly to New Britian and we will mmake our home for the next two year at Hoskins. For the first 10 months we will be doing language and culture learning. For the remailing 14 months we will assist in minisrty where the Lord will have us help out. During this time also we will be seeking where the Lord will have us go in regards to a tribal location. We are very excited about our new journey and if you would like to be kept informed of what we are doing please post me a note and we will add you to our mailing list. (Photo - Johnathan in PNG a few years ago)

A New Beginings

Ok this is the very first entry for the burnsabroad clan. We look forward to posting and letting you know what's happening.