Greetings from England!

There are a lot of things to enjoy about living here in the UK:
 1) Seeing family and friends who we rarely get to spend time with.  We've already taken part in four family celebrations.

2) Experiences that we don't normally have.  Can you spot Andrew and Levi on the pirate ship?

3) Being able to buy the ingredients that the recipes in our cookbooks call for, as well as the occasional take-away for a special treat.

Our baby is due on 8th December, so hopefully not much longer to wait! 

We then will need to obtain the baby's birth certificate and passport quickly so that we can all apply for new PNG visas.  We will apply for these in early January.  Please pray for the visas to be granted quickly so that we can return to Papua New Guinea as soon as possible.  We have a house to stay in until the end of January, but would appreciate prayer that we will have somewhere to live until the time we leave for PNG.   Thank you!

Sending Sabers

As you may know, we are the support team for Beth Fuller, who works in the Aitape West Translation Project.  Over the last few months, this has involved sending medication, groceries and Sabers out to her.  "What's a Saber?", you may be asking.  It's a small audio player that is powered by a hand-crank mechanism, and includes an amplifier strong enough for a whole group to listen to at once.   Sabers are used here in Papua New Guinea for listening to vernacular scripture.

Beth and some colleagues are currently visiting villages where the languages being translated are spoken.  Mother-tongue speakers of these languages are teaching reading and Bible study skills during these visits and distributing printed copies of Luke, Acts and the Christmas and Easter stories.

This woman was first in line to purchase an AudiBible for her family to listen to.  Like the Sabers that were also sold in her village, the AudiBible allows listeners to hear the book of Luke read aloud in the language that speaks to their heart. (Photograph by Beth Fuller)

Here is what some other speakers of the Sissano language had to say about the Scripture distribution and teaching sessions:
      
                    

"God's talk was a long way from us before, but now it has come close to us."

"When we first started to read [Luke] in our language it was hard.  Now, look!  We practised two days and we are reading!"                
                               
                           "I am so happy, my happiness is overflowing..." (This comment was made by one of the translators, overjoyed at how well the reading and oral Bible study training went for the people who attended).

As always, we greatly value your prayers.  Here are some prayer suggestions:

*Praise God that people in the Aitape West area now have greater access to God's Word. Pray for stamina for Beth and her two colleagues, who will be spending two more weeks travelling between different villages, often on foot. 

*Please pray for us as we prepare to temporarily leave our work and life here and travel to the UK.  I (Clare) am now six months pregnant and not sleeping well, so would appreciate prayer for sleep, strength and patience.  Andrew has more work than he could possibly do in the next four weeks, but would like to at least get as much done as he can in that time.   Levi and Heidi are very excited about seeing family, but the next few months are also likely to be challenging as they adjust to living away from the surroundings, people and climate they are so familiar with.

*Please pray for uneventful travel and entry into the UK from 18-21 October, and that the extra paperwork involved with flying when 33 weeks pregnant would be processed easily.  (Look out for short updates at www.facebook.com/andrewandclare).
           

Family Photo 2013

Greetings from Ukarumpa!

We had this photo taken so that we could send it to 'Ken's Cycle Center' in Tennessee, which is where Andrew worked before he came to Papua New Guinea and also where the T-shirts came from.

These are Andrew's two vehicles that currently run.  We affectionately refer to the 1963 Landrover as the 'Coconut Car' because 'Powered by Coconut' is written on the side. Andrew won't be driving this car very much over the next few weeks though: Once again, the bridge to Kainantu (our nearest town and our only access point to the 'Highlands Highway') is in a bad state of repair.  At the moment, small vehicles are still driving over it (if the owners are willing to take the risk) but it means that it's increasingly difficult to obtain supplies.  Diesel and petrol/gas are usually sold at the Autoshop but last week Andrew had to put out a notice saying that sales would be limited for the foreseeable future.

It wouldn't help if the 'Coconut Car' really was powered by coconuts because coconuts only grow in coastal areas, which we'd have to cross the bridge to get to!


To find out what this photo is about, see Andrew's latest blog post!

Prayer Points:

- We praise God that the first five months of Clare's pregnancy have gone very well.

- We have have had several months of good health.  Levi and Heidi are both doing well, with Levi enjoying his new preschool class.

- Andrew has a lot of engines to work on at the Autoshop, but not a lot of time to work on them.  He has 'Executive Committee' meetings for the next two weeks, and then we'll be leaving for the UK in a little over two months.  Please pray that he will prioritise well and not get discouraged.

- Please pray that more people will join our team of financial supporters so that we are able to cover all of our regular expenses for the rest of this year and in the future too.

June News

Inside our Freezer!

For the last year, I've been working hard to produce healthy meals.  Of course a lot of items have to be cooked from scratch. 

Our staples from the store are wholemeal flour, eggs, meat, brown rice, vinegar, olive oil, milk powder, tomato sauce/paste, salsa, refried beans, some herbs and spices, and occasionally low-fat cheese.

From the vegetable market and our garden we enjoy broccoli, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, asparagus, a couple of vegetables that I don't know how to describe in English, and black beans.

I like to cook big batches of different foods, so the freezer has become one of my best friends (or often, my biggest enemy, as I try to cram everything in)!

This is what is in our freezer at the moment:

 

It's probably not too obvious from the photo what in there, but the list includes wholemeal tortillas, chicken, crocodile meat (not home-produced, obviously!), Italian sausage, frozen chicken stock, chicken bones to make into stock, black bean soup, frozen yoghurt (to be mixed with with water and milk powder and made into fresh yoghurt), BBQ sauce, grated cheese and black beans (raw, cooked and refried).

That wasn't the most exciting picture ever, so here is one of Heidi watering the mint growing just in front of our house:

How Many Missionaries Does it take to Change a Light Bulb?!

Faced with large electricity bills (often over £150/$200 a month), we decided to follow the lead of other families on centre who have reduced power usage by switching to LED tubes.  Here's Andrew (apparently just home from work given the grease smudges on his face!), installing a new LED in our kitchen.

As well as the lights inside our house, we also have several  lights on the outside to deter thieves.  So a lot of the electricity we use is for lights. We also, of course, use electricity for appliances and electronics.   Our oven runs from gas bottles, and the sun heats our water (or doesn't heat it, if it hasn't been a sunny day!)

We are often asked where our electricity comes from.  We get much of our power from the national grid; power is produced at the hydroelectric plant at 'Yonki Dam', which is located here in the Eastern Highlands Province.   We also have back-up generators on centre that start up if the national power is down.  Andrew has been involved in working on these generators, as well as on generators at other centres around the country where Wycliffe members work.

Here is a photo of Andrew and colleagues helping upgrade the power cables that bring electricity onto the centre.

Happy New Year!

In the last month we had the excitement of a visit from my (Clare's) parents, Rob and Jenny Noble.  We all had an excellent three weeks.  The bulk of their time was spent here in Ukarumpa, but we also spent a couple of days on the coast.  My parents were struck by the beauty of the place and enjoyed getting to know friends of ours from many different countries, all here to support Bible Translation in various different ways.  The best part was being able to spend time together as a family, and of course Levi and Heidi loved every minute that they got to be with their Grandparents. 


My parents were excited to eat bananas from their garden!