Missionary Kid Insights

The following is a story my daughter, Rachel, wrote for English class. She wrote on her life her in Papua New Guinea. I thought it would make a good post.

(The Photo below is of Rachel and Heather holding a python skin we found underneath our house.)



English Rachel Faith Mcgovern

Our life in New Guinea.
What we usually do on an every day basis is…
When we get up in the morning we, of course, read our Bible and pray. All of us read the Bible, except baby Levi. Then, we all make our breakfast, except Levi and we four older kids start school. When we do school, we all chose seats usually in the living room because the dining room is too hot, but Daniel does it in his room. Daniel is in ninth grade. Heather’s grade is eighth. I’m in sixth grade. Bethany is in fourth grade. We all start at eight o’clock. We three girls usually end at eleven o’clock. Daniel ends around twelve.
After school, I usually get the computer and play Incredibles or Nancy Drew. Heather and Bethany watch me. Daniel’s usually doing school. By the time I’m done with the computer, Daniel’s done with school. Sometimes, Bethany and I play Trouble. Then, we eat dinner. After dinner, we all go into the living room. Then, the baby has his bath and is been put down for the night. Then, we have devotions. Right now we’re learning about prayer. We haven’t finished it yet. Later, we three girls go to bed at eight thirty. Daniel goes to bed at nine. Mom and Dad go to bed at ten when the power goes out.
When we get up on Saturday, Daniel gets ready to mow the yard. Heather, Bethany and I get ready to rake. It takes a long time. We have a pretty big yard. When we’re done working, we all take showers. Then, sometimes we four kids play a game like Life or Monopoly. Sometimes, we just play hide and seek. Other times, we just read. When we play with Levi, he loves it when we say “uh-oh." When we get up in the morning on Sunday, we dress in some of our best clothes. Then, we leave for church around eight thirty. The drive to where we have our first service in Sohun takes about twenty minutes. There we have one Sunday school class. Then, we just shake hands. We hurry because we have to hurry to Kudukudu. The preacher in Sohun is Pastor James Abel. His wife is Sister Linda. His daughter is Lois. There are about sixty people at Liberty Baptist Church, [The name of the Church], altogether. The men sit on one side, and the ladies on the other.
It takes about thirty minutes from Sohun to get to Kudukudu. Kudukudu is right on a beach. The name of the church is Kudukudu Bible Baptist Church. We have two services, then a reading and writing class. The first services are just a thirty minute Sunday school. We always have the same song every Sunday before Sunday school. Its page is three sixteen. “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” My favorite verse is the second one. After that we have the main service after a little fellowship. Then, we have a little fellowship. Then we have the “Rit na rait” class. While Mom and Dad teach, Heather and I watch the baby. We do the class in a little hut. I think I would like to sleep in a hut. But only for one night.
Bethany and Daniel help Mom and Dad with the, “Rit na rait”, class. Mom and Dad do a new letter every week. Then for the writing they give them a book. Then they write in it. We do it because there’s a lot of Christians who need to read the Bible, but they can’t. After that we have a little fellowship. Then we leave for the fifty minute drive home. On the way, we stop by Sohun. Then we talk with who’s there. They finish earlier than we do. Then we go home. When we get home we always have tacos or taco salad.

At the end of every month, we go to a town on the island to get supplies. It’s called Kavieng. It’s about five hours away by car. If the road’s good, it’s only about four hours. We sometimes stop at a beach that’s halfway to Kavieng. There we stretch our legs. It’s only about two hours more. When we get there we first go to the New Tribes guest house. That’s where we are staying. When we get everything into the house Mom and Dad go to the store, to get us something to eat. After we eat we go to the Thruns. They have five children. The oldest is Meagan, 12, then Amy, 9, Katie, 7, Caleb, 5, Then Jared is three. We play with them whenever we go to Kavieng. We usually go on Wednesday. So, we go to church around four o’clock. We have one service there. Then we play with the Thruns while the parents fellowship. Then we go back to New Tribes to go to bed.
The next day, we spend all day in Kavieng. We don’t leave until the next morning. We play with the Thruns while Mom shops. While Mom’s shopping, Dad goes to the bank. He also goes to the Hardware store. When they are done shopping, they pick us up. We go back later for dinner. Then, we go back to the Guest House. We all go to bed. In the morning, we leave for home. It always seems longer on the way back home. When we get home, Mama stays upstairs to unload the stuff. When we’re done Mama makes a quick dinner.
In our little town, there’s only one little plane that brings mail. It only comes twice a week if they don’t cancel it. The two days are Thursday and Tuesday. Sometimes we just send our mail to Kavieng. The airport is just a little dirt runway with a little building. They have a little bench outside to put the luggage. The guy who works at the post office picks it up at the airport, if you want to call it that. There’s just a little building for a post office.
No it’s not your normal American life. Never the less, I love it!