The great discovery ...

As a missionary every little once in a while you find something that you know will be able to sustain you through any difficult times. A couple days ago we discovered the Masorina Lodge Family Night. Every other Friday night one of the local hotels has an all you can eat buffet with a special rate for missionaries. For both Jeri and I the meal costs under $15 USD. There was pork, lamb, fish, shrimp, beef, and chicken. They even have live music. Expatriates in Alotau go so we are also able to meet lots of folks. This Friday we sat at a table with some people who work with SIL Bible Translations. It was great to get to know them. The only bad part is that the meal does not start until 8 p.m.

Today we discovered a busy missionary Sunday. We left for church at about 8:30 a.m. and got home around 3:30 p.m. We had 45 minutes before heading out again and we were gone till about 6:30 p.m. After church this morning we stayed around and participated in the youth activities. Then we had a few people to take to their homes and one girl who we helped move back from school. The blessing is that we are always so encouraged by the Christians here in Alotau. We continue to pray God’s blessing on everyone.

Events

We decided Fridays will be our family days. So we ventured out this afternoon to swim at the Masorina Lodge here in Alotau. This was Hannah’s first time to swim!

We haven’t posted many pictures yet so we wanted to show this picture of when we went to a baptism last week. The picture gives you a view of the country side around Alotau.

The last few days we have been drawing up some floor plans on a house. Once they are finalized we may try to put some plans on our blog. Anyways, everything is going really well.

We decided Fridays will be our family days. So we ventured out this afternoon to swim at the Masorina Lodge here in Alotau. This was Hannah’s first time to swim!

We haven’t posted many pictures yet so we wanted to show this picture of when we went to a baptism last week. The picture gives you a view of the country side around Alotau.

The last few days we have been drawing up some floor plans on a house. Once they are finalized we may try to put some plans on our blog. Anyways, everything is going really well.

Mission Work in PNG

You know you’re a missionary in PNG if you…

• Have baptisms in the ocean
• Find ants in your cupboards when you go to cook
• Need to take more than one shower a day
• Look like you have a tan, then realize it’s just dirt
• Turn on your windshield wipers when you’re trying to signal at an intersection
• Drive on the wrong side of the road
• See more people walking than driving
• Host a night to watch a rugby game on TV
• Eat more canned meat than fresh
• Attract a crowd when you go out in public – especially with a white-skinned baby!
• Can’t sleep at night because of the sounds of the geckos and bugs
• Can’t sleep after 6 in the morning because of the roosters
• Have clothes as stiff as a board from being dried on the line
• Find it hard to believe that you actually live in a place that is so beautiful!

Thoughts of Thanksgiving

Thoughts of Thanksgiving

Craig is away tonight at a men’s meeting and so I’ve had some time to reflect and think while I’ve been alone. At first I was a bit nervous to be alone (with Hannah) in this place, but then I began to think of all of the blessings I have. I just wanted to share some of my thoughts.

We are so blessed…

• Spiritual blessings in Christ
• God’s protection
• God’s provision
• Our own family
• Kisses and smiles from Hannah
• Our families in the States and Canada
• Our new friends in Alotau
• Safety in our new home
• Our supporting church families
• Email and the internet
• A home in which to stay while we wait on our own
• Our good health
• Encouraging friends around the world
• Etc, etc., etc…..

Week 1

We have been in Alotau for a week now. Time has gone fast. Always lots of memorable experiences. Last night we went to a Christian sisters house for dinner. We ate authentic New Guinea food and enjoyed some wonderful fellowship. Hannah loved their rice because they cooked it in coconut cream (as opposed to boring water). She also showed off for a group of ladies with her big smile and laughs.

Today we got our PNG drivers license. They basically just ask what class of license you want. We are able to drive anything, but the biggest trucks here. Hopefully we won’t have to drive anything beyond a pickup truck. Jeri also drove for the first time yesterday. Let’s just say she turned on the wiper blades an awful lot for a sunny day. (For those of you who do not know they drive on the other side of the road. Therefore, they shift with their left hand and the blinkers are on opposite sides. Everyone jokes that you can spot an American when the wiper blades turn on at an intersection). Yes, she did a great job driving.

Today we also had to register the dogs for the family we are living with. The government came out with a Dog Registration Tax a few years ago. The locals call it the white man tax because the expatriates are the only ones who pay this tax. Anyways, there was an unbelievable amount of paperwork – for a dog. It actually took longer to register the dogs than to get the drivers license.

Getting Settled

Jeri and I are getting settled in our new home. This morning we met most of the local Christians at church. There are many more women and children than men in the church. We already have two dinner invitations for this week so we will get to taste some of the local foods. On Saturday some of the Christians are having a welcome dinner for us.

This is also the first night since we have been in Alotau that we have not had a house guest. PNG is a very open culture and so ‘personal space’ must often be shared. We had a girl staying with us since Wednesday, but tonight we took her back to school.

We were able to take a short walk down the beach today so we were able to spoil ourselves a little bit.

The ‘big’ story so far is about Jeri’s trip to town. While in town a mentally deranged man grabbed her. He put his arms around her and only held her for a couple of seconds before some surrounding people pulled him off. I guess this guy has a reputation for that. Jeri was not impressed, but does figure that she could have beat him up if necessary. And no, Hannah was not with her. Jeri was shaken up, but is doing just fine. It is not often you get to meet the Gerasene demonic in the flesh. J

It rains 4-5 times a day, but the rain just helps cool off the temperature. It has been hot, but not unbearable.

By the way, the Williams have cable so we can watch TV. This afternoon we watched part of the movie A Date with the Presidents Daughter. The movie was horrible, but in New Guinea it doesn’t take much to entertain us. If we ever want to get up at 5 a.m. we can watch the Today show. Times have changed.

P.S. We are having trouble posting pictures, but we will keep trying to figure it out.

Our New Home

Wow! We are in a whole new world. We arrived in Alotau, PNG two days ago. It is so good to be here. Hannah hadn’t slept through the night since we left the States, but has slept soundly through the night since we’ve been here. I guess she knows we’re home.

The other missionaries met us on Tuesday at the airport. It was good to see some familiar faces. Les has been incredibly helpful in taking us around town and introducing us to people. We were able to look at a few houses and a truck that are for sale in town.

Thankfully we aren’t in a huge rush to make these purchases. The Reeses have been a wonderful encouragement to us helping us find our place in this town and ministry. They have been really supportive ensuring we don’t assume too much responsibility too soon. The Williams family is going on furlough tomorrow and we are blessed to stay in their house and use their truck while they’re away. We got to witness a baptism yesterday of a teenage girl. Her name is Regina. That was an exciting way to start our time here! Their baptistery is much bigger than most (the ocean!).

In case you’re unaware, things happen s-l-o-w-l-y in PNG. So we are thankful to have our bank account open after only two days and five trips to the bank. We won’t get our checks for at least a week since they have to be ordered from Port Moresby, the capital city. But at least we have an account!

It is rainy season here right now until about the end of July. It is quite warm though. I’m guessing it’s been in the 80s or so. It is very wet, but that’s one reason it is beautiful here. The rain makes everything so lush and green. I bet even I could grow something here if I tried!

Every time I walk out of the house I can’t believe we live here. It is an incredibly beautiful place. The ocean and mountains surrounding us remind me that God is with us - even in Alotau, Papua New Guinea. The people here are welcoming and friendly, and everyone absolutely loves babies! Hannah is going to be our conversation starter with about anyone we meet. She makes talking to the people easier because they want to talk to her. And we’re so thankful that she smiles at everyone!

Tomorrow Diane (one of the other missionaries) is taking me shopping around town. She will teach me what I should buy and where to buy it. There are a couple of grocery stores in town as well as the market. There is definitely a lot of learning to do.

Hannah tried mango for the first time. She loves it! There are lots of good fruits for us to have here. She is doing really well with everything and doesn’t seem to notice we even moved to the other side of the world. I knew she would make a great missionary kid!

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and emails. We appreciate your support and encouragement. Keep reading…we’ll keep writing and don’t forget to leave a comment on the comments section!

A random apology and travel update

Dear Alan, We had no other way to contact you so I thought I would write this blog to apologize that we did not meet you at Wendy's. Hope it went well.
The Fords
[To all readers - we went to church at the Morningside congregation in Auckland, NZ. After church Alan invited us to lunch at Wendy's. We were following him, but got separated and could never find the Wendy's. We have no way to contact Alan. But at least we have a written record of our deep regret. (just in case we ever run into him again)]

INTERESTING:
Earlier in the week while in NZ Jeri commented that it was strange being in a place were we didn't meet anyone we know. However, at church Sunday morning we met someone who I had a class with about 18 months ago at the graduate school. It's a small world after all ...

TRAVEL:
We just wanted to update you on our last leg of travel.

We got to the Auckland airport and checked in all our bags. We went through security and they weighed our carry on bags and said they were too heavy. We had to either just check them ($80 each x 2) or go back and make our case to Air NZ. Guess what we did? We explained that had we known the weight allowance we would have checked more things in since we still had weight remaining on our checked bags. They were nice enough to call back for all our bags so we took things out of our carry on and put them in the checked baggage. Then after everything our flight was delayed by an hour.

We arrived in Cairns about 11:40 p.m. (1:40a.m. Auckland time). We were the last people in the whole airport to go through customs but did not have any trouble. We took a shuttle to our hotel and they dropped us off and all our bags (around 1 a.m. Cairns time). The front desk was closed and we called the phone to check in. The lady told us we (and our 250 pounds of bags) were at the wrong hotel. I told her we had the right address and the right name on our confirmation. She called a taxi to take us to the other hotel. We checked in and got to the hotel around 2 a.m. (4 a.m. Auckland time). In the morning they informed us that we did go to the correct hotel, but the toilet in our room was not working and they had no other rooms so they moved us to another hotel - without trying to contact us! They thought they would make it all up to us by taking an additional 4.50 (3 USD) off our room rate. I was not too pleased :) However, we did convince them not to send us back to the other hotel for our second night.

We feel much better after having rested and washed up.

On a positive note - it isn't raining as hard in Cairns as it was in Auckland.

Love you guys,
Craig, Jeri, and Hannah

Auckland

Unfortunately this blog will not include any pictures because we are at an internet cafe in Auckland, New Zealand. So far the trip has been very uneventful. Hannah did pretty good on the flight over (12 and 1/2 hours). She cried (screamed) during take off and during landing, but otherwise slept most of the time. We had a healthy perspective though because the people beside us on the flight had a 6 month old and had just connected from England (11 hour flight) and then left immediately to go to Auckland. Our 12 and 1/2 hour flight didnt' seem too bad in comparison.

We arrived here Wednesday morning at 5:00a.m. Our hotel was nice enough to let us check in around 7 a.m. so that was very relaxing. Yesterday afternoon we went downtown to see some sights. It rained a good part of the day, but we got outside anyways. By 7p.m. we could barely stay awake so we went to bed. Hannah slept all the way until 4 a.m. That was pretty good because she went to sleep at 6 p.m. We feel pretty good as far as the jet lag is concerned.

Today (Thursday) is another rainy day in Auckland. We are going to try and catch some more sights.

On the Move!

We left Memphis on Sunday afternoon and drove to Nashville to catch our first flight of many on our journey with a destination of Papua New Guinea. We got into our hotel in L.A. last night at about 10:30. We don't catch our flight to Auckland until tonight, so we are resting and relaxing for the day in the hotel.
If you like attention, you should try moving internationally! Everyone looked at us as if we were crazy as we walked through the airport pushing Hannah in her stroller, carrying a carseat, rolling 6 big suitcases and a few carryon items. I knew it wouldn't be long before we got comments from people. As we were struggling to get to the check-in counter, a man we walked past said, "Do you think you have enough luggage?" Craig just responded, "That's what happens when you move overseas."
We are looking forward to the day we won't have to live out of those suitcases any longer!

Here it is - all of our luggage (and Hannah). Don't worry...we took her carry-on!

Graduation in Memphis

Congratulations to Craig for completing his Masters of Divinity! He graduated on May 6. We enjoyed being in Memphis, TN for a few days visiting family and friends before graduation. We are pictured here with some good friends from Harding Grad School.



We were blessed to have Craig's parents drive all the way from Beamsville, Ontario to come to graduation. (They thought they would also spend a little time with Hannah while they were there, too!)


My mom flew from Wyoming to attend graduation as well. (Okay, let's be honest . . . we all know the real reason the grandparents came to Craig's graduation!) Hannah was so sleepy after a full morning of graduation and luncheon festivities.



We were blessed to attend church at White Station on Sunday morning. The Crosswalk Class prayed over us before we left. We're thankful for the thoughtful prayers and support of so many friends. We really appreciate it! It was so good to be with everyone again.

After many hard and heartfelt goodbyes, we are on our way to PNG. Thank you to our parents and friends for the love and support you have shown as we make this transition. We love you all.