Air show

Yesterday, Ryan and I got to go to the Oshkosh air show which is the largest one in the world. A man from our church gave us tickets.  I don’t know a whole lot about planes, but have spent many hours in them. We got to see the Kodiak, which is a new plane that New Tribes Mission is getting.  It is designed with mission aviation in mind.  I’m sure we will fly in it one day. We even got to sit inside of it! We also got to see the world’s largest airplane, the DreamLifter and we even got free matching hats! We are so thankful for the mission pilots who have spent many years learning to fly so that they can transport us and our belonging to and from remote locations.

By the way, we leave for Ireland today! We’ll be back in two weeks.

Photographer?

I’ve recently become interested in photography. I started learning on my own, then took a class taught by a friend, and finally bought a camera. I enjoy taking pictures and learning, but it’s just for fun. Somehow, when you buy an SLR (a camera with lenses), people suddenly think you are a professional. I got asked to do a wedding this summer and was scared to death, but really wanted to help out this family who couldn’t afford a real photographer. The day before the wedding, a professional photographer offered to help, and I was so relieved. I basically ended up shadowing him and it was a great experience and practice for me.

4 Years

This last week Ryan and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. We can’t believe how time has flown by! We decided to spend the day together in Milwaukee; Ryan said he had planned something, but I had no idea what. We spent most of the day shopping, eating lunch, and hanging out. When we were all shopped out, Ryan asked me if I wanted to know the rest of his plans. I said sure, and he told me we were going to Jazz in the park, which is a free concert in Milwaukee every Thursday night. I was thrilled, so we went to find a parking space. Ryan pulled into a parking garage, and I said, “wait, we can’t park here, it’s $2.00 for every 30 minutes!” He kept driving with a smile on his face as I tried to get him to turn around and find somewhere else to park. Then he said “this is our hotel.” I told him not to joke around with me like that, but he was serious! He had booked a hotel room through Priceline and had secretly packed my clothes and toiletries for the night. I was so thrilled and couldn’t believe what a wonderful surprise that was.

We thoroughly enjoyed our anniversary, and I’m so thankful for my sweet sweet husband who loves me so much!

Our Provider

Because of the high gas prices this summer, we decided to fly out to California instead of driving and just rent a car when we got here. Well, we are now leaving and we have not rented a car for a single day. When friends at church found out that we didn’t have a car they offered to lend us theirs. We’ve driven everything from a Honda to a Lexus! We have been very blessed this summer with the way God has taken care of us through His people.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.

Ryan the Tribal Guy

We were blessed again this year by being asked to be the missionaries for “Camp Courageous.” (Camp Courageous is VBS for 3rd - 6th grade at our church here in California.) Last year we were able to spend the whole week with them. Unfortunately, this year we are leaving half way through the week so we only had one day with them.

We had fun getting them involved in a little culture and language acquisition by putting together a role play. I dressed up as the tribal guy and Melissa led them through a few areas of culture and language learning techniques. They were great language learners and were able to comprehend all the words for all the eight items I had with me. It really was fun and I think that we’ll be doing it again. I am going to have to find some other kind of face paint though because it took me a good forty five minutes to get it all off. It did leave my skin feeling supple and smooth, though.

4th of July in Ventura

How was our fourth? Great! We spent it up in Ventura with Melissa’s relatives. The fireworks were great, especially the afterglow of the hill that caught on fire. The fire trucks racing past during the show definitely added to the patriotic experience.

We spent the rest of the weekend with Matt and Kirsten checking out downtown Ventura, playing mini golf and hanging out. We also got to visit the church where Matt is a pastor, which we have been wanting to do for a while. And yes, Matt and I were matching all day Saturday… yeah. We wish we could spend more time together, but we’ll make do with once a year!

The whole fam

I never realized that getting the whole family together would be such a rare occasion when we all got older, but that makes it even more special. Since most of us in our family are, or plan to be, missionaries overseas, our times together will become fewer and farther in between. I think not seeing them on a regular basis is going to be the hardest thing about being a missionary.

We thoroughly enjoyed our week together. We played bocce ball daily, went to the beach multiple times, got to go to an Angels game, and just had fun talking and laughing. I can’t wait till we’re together again.

West Coast

We made it to California and jumped right in. We spent the weekend up in the mountains with a group from our church doing a service project at a camp. Monday we started working.

We’re glad to be back out here reconnecting with our friends. And we’re loving all the fresh produce!

East Coast

We got to spend a couple of days in Pennsylvania visiting our close friends Mike, Amy & Greyson Hutteman. Ryan grew up with them in Papua New Guinea, and we were also in New Tribes training together. We hadn’t seen them in a year, so we were so excited to get to visit them and get to know Greyson. They are also heading to Indonesia, so we are thankful that we will see them again. Good friends like these are very rare.

A highlight of our trip was getting to eat at an Indonesian restaurant and shop at an Indonesian store in Philadelphia. I said my first Indonesian word to an Indonesian woman! Trimakasi means “thank you”. I also fell in love with an avocado shake, a popular drink in Indonesia.

New brothers & sisters

I know what you’re thinking. How can this be a picture of your brother? He doesn’t look a bit like you or Melissa… and he looks old. Well, he along with many others in three different tribal groups in Papua New Guinea were just adopted into the same family as us. Just recently the gospel message was presented among the Bises, Bagwido and Dinangat people where there are now brand new churches. Missionaries in these tribes have spent many years in training, learning language and culture, building relationships with these people, translating the Bible, and preparing Bible lessons. Now they are seeing real fruit of their labor.

Here are some quotes from newsletters sent by some of these missionaries:

The Bagwido Tribe: Alexia is a widow woman, mid 30’s perhaps, who is very quiet and kind of keeps to herself. She now walks around with a beaming smile on her face all day long. She said, “Jesus’ blood bought my sin. He bought all of it. We have heard the first part of the teaching, but I know that there is more of this sweet talk in the Bible. I want to hear more.”

From the Dinangat Tribe: After Totne saw the missionaries portraying the death of Jesus he said, “All my life I’ve turned my back on God. I’ve never come to any of the religious meetings that the people have. But as I watched those men beating Jesus I realized that I was one of those men. What Jesus did for me I can’t even put into words and I don’t want to turn my back on him anymore.”

This isn’t the end of the work for these missionaries, they will continue to teach and disciple these new believers until the churches in these tribes are fully mature. You can read more about these new believers and others here. You can see why we’re excited about the ministry ahead of us!