An Update

Johnathan is close to completing his check 1 for pigeon. He is in the mid to high range for completing check 1. I will not be doing my check one until March 20th. We are busy getting ready for conference which is held from March 11th - 15th. I (candy) am in charge of 2 groups the babies and the preschoolers. So I am busy preparing for that. We have Fiona Cousins staying with us until she leaves for Australia on March 10th. It's great having her here and to be able to spend some time with her before she leaves. We have another house guest coming on March 7th and she will be with us until around the 16th of March. After conference Malachi celebrates his 1st Birthday on March 18th and Johnathan starts in his ministry. He will be helping out with Generator Maintenance. And we are still doing pigeon study amongst all of that.

Some photos from the Last couple of months

Flying into PNG

Arrival

Nick and Malachi

Local Flowers

Our house is up the top

Malachi with a locla bubba

Another arrival pic

Look out below!

At the Interface Property

Malachi standing up!

Rain, Planes and Earthquakes

Rhino Beetle

Well it has been a while since we have had an entry!
It has been raining non-stop here you almost need a boat to go outside. The thunderstorms are around all the time. Sunday the sun broke through the clouds so Johnathan and his dad made the most of the sunshine and went with a couple of other guys to the other side of the airport to have a look for old war planes. They came back after fighting off all the mozzies and having found the right wing to a plane. They were happy with there findings. There are a lot of old war planes and things left over from the war, when Japan attacked Papua New Guinea.

Searching for War Relics

We have started into full-time pigeon study. We will be full-time from now until we have our conference in March. Then we may go part-time and start in some kind of ministry.

Shoulder Ride!

Yesterday we felt our first earthquake. Johnathan was helping his dad in the Tribal Resource Centre, Malachi was in bed and I was at the computer when all of a sudden everything began to shake. At first I though it was heavy machinery, but nope it was the earth shaking. Johnathan said "because it had been raining so much that the earth was cold so it was shivering". I thought it was funny.

A Note From Amanda

Hi, it's Amanda here, Johnathan's sister. Just thought you'd like to know that their email has been down for a while, hence the reason there have been no entries here. There will be one soon though so keep on checking in!

Rain, Rain, go aw.....No Stay!!

Kimbe Town

We are settling in well here. The rainy season has hit with rain all the time. It is nice as it makes the humidity bearable. We are well into orientation getting through the various ministries. After this week we will be starting pigeon study, which we are both looking forward to. It will be nice to be able to communicate with the national people a little better than we do now. We have been to Kimbe a couple of times and visited a local village. We are starting to make some good friends.

Sunday

Well I have been known to be accident prone. Tonight I thought I would go outside and enjoy the rain as it was hot inside and it was pelting down outside. So I went out and went to the end of the store and enjoyed the rain as I turned around and walked back I slipped on the concrete and fell on my right side. Oh but I was ok. Just a few bruises and sore right side. As I laid on the ground I looked up to find a very dark face looking at me, the guard who is usually at the front gate, which isn't very far from where I was, standing over me. He reached out and pulled my arm. I guess he wanted to see if it was broken. I told him I was ok and went back up to the house!

(pic: Johnathan and a guard)

Kimbe

Kimbe Town Centre

We ventured into Kimbe the local town about 30 min drive from Hoskins base with Rory and Mary Fuller. They are the people who will be taking us through Orientation. We only got 15 min down the road and had to turn back as we did not have any petrol. In town we visited the local markets and bought veggies. There were lots of people and a lady even grabbed my hand and said something to me but I could not understand her. We then made our way into Kimbe town.

We first went to a store called, as we would know it, Kmart well they call it the same thing but it is Kimbe Mart. We picked up a few groceries and then headed to the local resort by the water called Liamo's for Lunch. It was nice to sit by the water and have a nice lunch. After lunch we walked around the resort and had a look at all the animals. There were Eagles, lots of other birds a tree kangaroo which looked like a dog and lots of mozzies which loved my ankles. We then headed back into town and headed to Papindos and looked for Curtin material.

I caught someone shoplifting I guess it is my retail background I am always on the eye out for suspicious people. He put the item down his pants right in front of me. I don't know what he was thinking. I think he must have thought I was invisible. We told a guy who works in the store and they went after him. We bought some nice material. Johnathan went to get his license with Rory but the line was really long and there was only one guy working and they were really busy so they left. In the store next to Papindos they had really slippery slate and Malachi and I nearly went for a sixer on the floor. I now know why people here in Kimbe scuff there feet on the ground.

Living in Hoskins

We are getting settled in here as well as we can with two suitcases. We look forward to when our crate arrives. The house that we are currently in is above the Supply store and can be rather noisy (not the best house to have a baby in). We will move in June into Fiona's house (a friend who lives on the same base) which is really nice. Fiona is going home in March as she is engaged.

They have a few house hold things that they want to get rid of and it will be good to as we will buy them and we won't have to move them. It is a nice house I will have to post some photos when I get some. Wooden Floors.

The Humidity is something to get used to having two cold showers a day. The sweat just drips off you. Yesterday I met a few local PNG'ers and we had tea with one family who comes from the ATA tribe which is a long way from here up a mountain. They catch a PMV (People Moving Vehicle) and then it is a 9 hour hike up a mountain to their village in all it takes them about 6 hours to get here to Hoskins base. They are lovely family they have two kids. Kaiko is the main Bible teacher there. Paul and Linda McIwain were the missionaries there and they left a while ago as they have a fully functioning church. They are now reaching out to 9 neighboring villages. I also met another guy who Johnathan knew his name is Nick (picture to the left with his wife Bridgitte) and he teaches (God's word) 7 days a week. (pic below is Mum and Dad - Trevor and Estelle Burns with Kaiko and his wife Palava)

I am slowly getting used to all the bites over me. They like me. I was bitten by a fire ant yesterday and they are painful. We are waiting for a couple who are coming from the states who will be doing the orientation with us. I have picked up a few words of pidgin and Johnathan has picked up the language really well at least he can carry a conversation.

Today Malachi is 10 months old, weighs 10kg and has been on 10 plane flights since he was born. He doesn't like the food here so please pray that he will get used to it soon. It will be nice when he gets some teeth and can chew more food. He is now crawling and getting around very fast. He has started pulling himself up on furniture. He wants to walk but doesn't have the balance down yet. He loves the national kids here, the adults he is a little wary of though. I used the twin tub washing machine the day before yesterday to wash our clothes first I had to get direction on how to use it and then it nearly shredded my clothes so now I am going to use Estelle's automatic.

I have managed to buy a few veggies and fruit from the ladies under the mango tree. We don't need to buy bananas and Pineapples as they grow them here on base.

Well that is all for now.
Candy

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.