Good to be Back

We are back in country now, and it is good to be back. We have seen the Lord do many good things for us since we have arrived. Our house was a complete mess from the rats when we arrived. I could not believe all the damage the rats did. Daniel and I first came over to New Ireland while the rest of the family stayed back on the island of New Britain. Daniel and I worked to get the house in order. Many of the people from the village came and helped us. We managed to get it livable and then last Wednesday I brought the whole family over. I have all the walls back up and painted as well as the cabinets. My office still needs a lot of work. Basically I have to redo the entire office. We are still waiting for our container to arrive, but it should be here by the first week of November. Please pray to that end.

We had to replace many items when we arrived, such as the stove, refrigerator, generator, kitchen table and chairs and washer. None of these items are the things in the container. The items in the container are mainly furniture items that needed replaced, such as boys beds, couch, living room chairs etc. The rats actually ate through the gas lines going to the burners on our stove! I traveled back to New Britain to get these needed items. When I enquired about a 6 or 7kva generator, I was informed there was not one in the country unless I was willing to spend K43,000 or about $18,000. While I was discussing this with a salesman, another salesman walked up heard our conversation. He then said there was a6 kva generator in country, even on New Britain! He said he sold it to a trade store, but they did not pick it up and payment had not been made. He said it has been sitting in a warehouse for weeks wrapped up and ready to go. He then called to make sure it was still there and it was! The Lord knew we would need that generator and He had it set aside for my family and me! We serve a great God! Almost the exact same thing happened with the stove we needed to purchase. It too was in a warehouse and unaccounted for! The Lord had it ready for us.

The boat ride over with these supplies was pretty exciting. Keep in mind I purchased theses items on the island of New Britain. I still had to get them to New Ireland. The means of transportation is a banana boat! The picture shows one of the two boats I used. It took us around 2 ½ hours for the boat ride. We made pretty good time all things considered. The Lord blessed! When I brought the family over on the boat, we had a chance to see several whales. When we were coming close to New Ireland, Levi asked, “Is this the wild?” I told him yes and this was his home. His eyes then grew big and with an excited voice he exclaimed, “I live in the wild?!”

We do have an important prayer request. We are in a drought, and our island has been dry since June. My family and I have to go the river for washing the clothes and bathing. The lack of rain is also hurting the gardens the people survive on. Please pray the Lord will send the needed rain.

Also, I already have a tire story but I will save that for the next blog.