Closing Down

Unfortunately we will have to close our blog down - since we can't really access it with our dial-up connection. If you want to receive a weekly email of our journey - please send us an email and we will add you to our list. NEVER SEND US pictures or large graphics - it blows our system. We are really in the 70's here!
Marcia

saotcpng@online.net.pg

Leaving...on a Jet Plane

Well our visas have finally arrived - just in time for Jim's birthday today! We will depart for Port Moresby on Monday the 29th, taking a small layover in Australia to catch up on some sleep. We will arrive on Saturday in PNG. Thank you all for your prayers and support during these difficult days of waiting and living out of a suitcase. This past month has brought new meaning to the verse "they that wait upon the Lord...." Look for our next post via down under!
Marcia

Countdown Begins

We have just received word that our work permits and visas will be ready this week, so we anticipate flying out on Sunday or Monday of this week. This will mean that we will travel to Philadelphia on Saturday to say farewell to our children once again and then pack up the last suitcases. We will spend 30 hours in an airplane and a lot more hours in airports. Thank heaven for lunesta! It's a five lap journey to PNG with a two night layover in Melbourne to visit some friends and to pick up our white uniforms. Our friend Armida is leaving the following week for Kenya, so we are packing, cleaning, and weeping together! Please keep Marcia's sister-in-law Naomi in prayer - her mother has been quite ill during the holidays and her mom is anticipating some major life-style changes which will require relocation to a new state. Will post some more as soon as we arrive!

Stress Makes you do Stupid Things

Well it's been a really long week - and it has nothing to do with Christmas. Well maybe something but not what you're thinking. We just spent the past two weeks visiting our parents in Florida and saying some painful goodbyes. We returned home to clean the house and empty our offices. The countdown was on and we had just seven more days to finish everything up. Then it happened....First our working permit didn't come through so our flight had to be postponed. Of course now we have no tree, cookies, or decorations, but we anticipated that already and decided not to let us be bummed out. Just having our kids home would be pleasant enough.

But from there my week just got worse...our Japenese Encephalitis shots has caused a major payment dispute between our insurance company and the doctor, neither one offering to reimburse the costs which are currently on our credit card - guess who that leaves - us! And let's just say we could pay a nice house mortage with that amount of money. Then the upholstery cleaning company that was to shampoo a braided rug and a sofa and chair increased their cost by a mere $350.00. Again I could just buy a new rug for that costs. Then the rented machines were out of soap - I guess everyone is cleaning house for the holidays.

By this time I should have just called it a day, but did I, no of course not. Then I went to the office and picked up my final paycheck (it is the Friday before Christmas don't forget)! I came home pulled it apart and put the stub in the file box for taxes right away so I wouldn't lose it and then proceeded to shred my direct deposit statement part of the check only to remember an hour later that I no longer have direct deposit. I had just shredded my REAL paycheck! If it hadn't all happened on just one day, I'd probably cry - but by now I'm beginning to realize that this "leaving stress" makes you do really stupid things-regularly!

Of well, God is still God! Hopefully I can get a new check before our plane leaves!
Have a wonderful Christmas! Ours will be vastly different this year, but the reason for celebrating is still the same.
Love, Marcia

The boat has sailed!

Friends.
Another milestone has been reached in our journey to PNG. Today the moving company came and now has taken all of our items for overseas. We hope and pray that they all arrive securely and without any mishap. Marcia and I will now live for two months with the bare essentials; good thing we wear our uniforms everyday. We were blessed to have so many friends donate items of clothing and study bibles and our own School for Officers Training helped out with much needed nursery school supplies and toys. Our Salvation Army Trade store{uniforms} also came though with all kinds of specialty items and I know the Cadets of Papua New Guinea will be so appreciative. We say a big thank you to all who have given gifts and all who continue to pray for Marcia and I. As time gets closer to our departure we sense the hand of God and His continual leading in our lives and while there is an anxious spirit at times, in our spirit we also have an inner peace.
Blessings.
Jim.

The First Painful Goodbyes

It hardly seems possible that a month has gone by since my last post and that in less than a week our stuff will be shipped overseas. The mover tells us that our possessions will be "on the water" 85 days. That sounds like so far away! We don't really have all that much that we are taking personally, but we did insist on bringing our own bed (Jim is awfully tall after all) and we are bringing quite a bit of furniture for the child-care center at our school. Our students have about 30 children which will also be living on our compound with us - so it appears we will be nearly 75 people strong.
This past week we made it through some of the first goodbye hurdles - we left our wedding rings in a safe in Maine and exchanged new Walmart specials ($25.00 each) rings a week later. We closed up our summer cottage there and said goodbye to our little spot of heaven for the next two years. Jim & I have vacationed there for over 25 years so saying goodbye was a bit traumatic for each of us in different ways. We took a long walk on the beach looking out over the ocean and knowing that the next time we visit the beach it will be a very different ocean- but it will be much warmer than it is in Maine!
The Lord continues to remind us to trust him for everything. This past month both the pastor and the Commissioner's (bishop) wife in PNG have died. Both were much younger than us; one from malaria and one from typhoid fever. We lift up their spouses in prayer and pray that God would bring comfort to each of them.
Special thanks to our friend Carolyn who sent encouraging news about the only two remedies for sickness in PNG: two aspirin or two American Airlines tickets! We look forward to visiting with them on our way to PNG!
Continue to keep us in prayer as we begin the loooooooong goodbye!

The Heat is Rising

New today from the other hemispere is all about numbers. Reading in the July 29th issue of the Salvationist I read "A crusade in the Port Moresby suburb of Morata-described by an occupant as 'the worst criminal-infested area in the city' - has resulted in 67 people accepting Christ as their personal Savior. Almost all the converts led lives of 'rascalism, alcoholism and adultery' and most youths are gang leaders, gamblers and drug addicts." This great evangelistic outreach came as the result of one resident opening her home to two young mothers and eight children a number of years ago. The fellowship has grown to a small church gathering of about 100 meeting under a tarpaulin each week on the hill behind her home. One young man, John Wemin, who himself was orphaned through tribal violence is now the youth leader and planning on attending The Salvation Army's training college in the future.

On another note...the temperature today is only 98 degrees - and it's the middle of winter!!!!!