Avocado Trees and Changed Lives

In our garden in Papua New Guinea are two avocado trees:

They don't bear fruit too often, but we enjoy huge amounts of avocado when they do.  Even more exciting is when the work of Bible translation bears fruit.  It's been thrilling recently to read about lives that have been changed following encounters with the Jesus Video Bike that Andrew has worked on frequently.

We are not directly involved in the translating itself; but just as a tree's trunk supports its branches, we are supporting translation and literacy work by using our practical skills.

The part of the tree that can't be seen is the roots.  We know though that the tree couldn't survive without the roots.  I'm reminded of those who are faithfully partnering with us through prayer and finances from their home countries.  The gifts of prayer and finances go largely unseen, but are vital; without the financial and prayer support of people around the world, there would be no Bible translation work in Papua New Guinea.  

We're so glad to be able to catch up in person this year with many individuals and churches who are supporting our work in Papua New Guinea.  We're excited that we have several new opportunities to share about this work and let others know how they can be involved. 

This month's prayer points:
*We praise God for opportunities to speak to others about our work in Papua New Guinea.  
*We praise God for a successful medical check-up for Eowyn in March this year.  The consultant saw very little change since our last visit, which is a good thing.  We can wait two years before returning for a follow-up visit.

*We pray that God would be strengthening our 'roots' by enlarging our team of financial and prayer partners.

Many thanks,

Andrew, Clare, Levi, Heidi and Eowyn Koens

Effects of the Drought

In our updates over the last few months we've mentioned the drought that has affected PNG so profoundly.

Just before the drought started, we attempted to turn part of our vegetable garden back into grass:



But it didn't rain for weeks.  The view from our house ended up looking like this:


 
Of course the colour of our grass is not of great importance in itself, but it shows how much deviation there has been from the usual weather patterns.  This is the only time in our nine years of living in this house that the grass has been anything but green.

We are now well into 'wet season' and are happy to report that it has certainly been wet.  The grass is green again, and the new grass is finally starting to spread:



It is exciting to see our local vegetable market overflowing again with strawberries, cucumbers, beans and other faster-growing fruit and vegetables.  However we're aware that the people around us are still struggling to eat a balanced diet and to get all the nutrients they need.  It will be several more months before the staple food, sweet potato, is ready to be harvested.

The following picture is of the water tank at our house that normally stores our drinking water.  After getting emptier and emptier over a period of months, the tank started to rust.  Not only does the water now come out brown, but there is also a hole half-way up the tank, meaning that it doesn't get more than half-full.   At the moment we're drinking water from a tank that we filled with river water during the drought, so it's important that we filter it before pouring it into our glasses.  For more details about what it will mean to replace our water tank, see this informative blog post by our colleague, Catherine Rivard




If you would like to pray for us, we'd be most grateful.  Here are some ideas:

-We continue to look to God to provide for our financial and practical needs, including a solution to our water tank issue.
-Many Autoshop staff are currently on home leave.  Please pray for those who are still here and covering a wider-than-usual range of tasks .
-We thank God that the second semester of the school year has got off to a good start for Levi and Heidi.  Two of their teachers will leave the country at the end of this school year; please pray for others to come and replace them.

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!

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:

The Price of Food

One of the most common questions we get asked is, "What do you eat?" The photo below was taken in the store here in the Ukarumpa centre. As you can see, we are fortunate to have access to basic food supplies. We generally have an adequate range of key ingredients, though we can never guarantee that a particular product will be in stock at the time we need it! Since getting back from Home Leave, we've already gone through one week when there were no eggs for sale at all.



What might you expect to pay for these products? Here is what we would need to pay for them in various locations and at different times:

	US$	UK£
Cheapest US Price	21	13
Cheapest UK Price	23	15
Current Ukarumpa Price	51	33
2004 Ukarumpa Price	21	12

(For more information about how I came up with these figures, see our next blog post)

I won't pretend to understand all the reasons for these price differences. I do know that some of these items are imported specially because they are not items that Papua New Guineans would normally use. The increase in strength of the Papua New Guinean Kina against the dollar and pound has made a big difference to us over the last several months; this is one of the reasons that the basket of food above costs more than twice as much as it did in 2004, when Andrew was already living here and I was preparing to come. And of course all of you will have noticed the increase in food prices worldwide over the last few years.

Fortunately we are able to buy fresh fruit, vegetables and beans from local growers at an early morning market here on the centre. The prices are often lower than they would be in our home countries, and so we are eating a lot of market produce right now!

Increased cost of food is one reason why our expenses are significantly higher than they have been in the past. Of course we also have one more mouth to feed now. So far, Heidi seems to be enjoying food as much as the rest of us do!

Praise God:
-Levi has been healthy and happy since we sent out our January update asking you to pray.
-For financial support from a range of sources.
-For those who keep the store stocked with basic ingredients for cooking.
-I (Clare) am balancing my time and energy better.
-Two new Wycliffe members will soon be arriving to work at Autoshop.

Please Pray:
-That we will receive sufficient support each month to cover our outgoings. (Our positions are non-salaried and so we rely on God to provide for our needs through churches and individuals).