As a family we collectively exhale. Home. After half a year away, we made it back, and are more in love than ever with this land God has chosen for our family to be planted in for this season.

This furlough was a whirlwind for us, full of wonderful things and lovely people, but so fast it took our breath away! As our time in the states whizzed by, if we didn’t communicate it well with you while we were there, let us say this now... Thank you so much for loving us and supporting us! Thank you for letting us jump back into your lives, your homes, your family time, even your pools! Thank you for laughing with us, listening to us, and enjoying our children! It was fast but wonderful. Thank you for giving us something to miss, and for being people we can trust to help us as we start bringing our kids back to you to stay in these years to come. We miss you all already!

We are thankful for all of the memories we made with you that will now fill up our digital photo frame in our living room. We are also thankful that all our travels went smoothly… no one was sick, we made all of our connections, and all of our bags made it safe and sound with us. God was gracious and faithful! We had the added blessing of a layover in New Zealand on the way. We are also thankful to have had someone living in our home in PNG while we were gone. They not only looked out for the house but loved on our sweet pets in our absence!

I am so thankful to say we have finally unpacked all of the bags and bins, finished scrubbing the (moldy) walls and cupboards, tackled all the sorting ,and started restocking supplies too. The kids are also enjoying a much needed school break till the end of July. Most days are spent outside with their friends. John has joyfully jumped back into work with both feet. He said for every thing he marks of his to-do list he adds three more tasks. I’ve started setting up my room and lesson plan for the new year to come and it feels good to get everything sorted for my new students. Having a rhythm and flow to your day and to your week is a blessing! We are happily settling into our new normal here and its been good. We will transition again when school starts, but for these next couple of weeks we are just going to rest in this rhythm.

We also have a few updates we want to share with you over prayer requests we had over furlough. The first praises are in reference to the Amomonta community and ways that God was gracious in the midst of great hardship. If you missed us talking about this, you can check out our service at Trinity Evangelical here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRTjt5OAQFo#t=27m50s

I’ve had a few opportunities to catch up with my good friend Steven since coming back and he shared the pictures above and below with me. The two pictures are from a “Releasing Program” that the Amomonta community blessed their neighbors in Akuna with. The redeeming part of this story is that while Amomonta was being attacked on one side, their Christian brothers and sisters in Akuna on the other side, took them in. Akuna housed and fed them for months without knowing when the conflict would end. These pictures are from a ceremony that Amomonta hosted to say thank you and good-bye to Akuna. The people of Akuna were amazed by the generosity of Amomonta because they knew that their gardens were destroyed in the conflict. That leads to another miracle from the Lord that I want to share. Despite having their gardens destroyed months before, they returned to gardens that were full and prosperous despite what had happened!

The other miracle that I wanted to share is that God preserved their church buildings! Nearly everything in their village was burnt to the ground, but the House of the Lord prevailed! On top of that, as a result of all these obstacles, the three denominations in Amomonta have joined to worship as one many times and God has brought a new sense of unity that wasn’t there before. There isn’t a final assurance of peace in this conflict, but both sides are moving that direction and Amomonta is starting to rebuild their lives again. Thanks for your past and future prayers for our brothers and sisters here.

My last big praise is that I left a weekly Bible study in the hands of a couple of my CAM guys and they kept it going! When I left for furlough we were 10 chapters into Romans. When I returned I was incredibly delighted when Nonte, my team foreman, told me that they finished Romans and were 16 chapters into Luke—something that they picked and started all on their own!