Monday, July 9, 2012

Saying Goodbye


Ben and Missy left this morning, on their whirlwind tour, visiting friends and family here in the States before they fly back to Papua New Guinea this fall. 

A little over a week ago we met up with them and the rest of Jed's side of the family in Franklin North Carolina for a reunion.  

All 30 of us stayed in a large 7 bedroom house in the mountains.  

We ate lots of yummy food, enjoyed mountain views from the wrap around porch, and perused the quaint local towns near the house.  However most of our time was spent entertaining the 14 children, 9 and under! 

After four fun filled days in NC we headed south with the Hattons in tow.  

Our first full day back we celebrated both our countries and Judah's birthdays!  We took the kids go carting, ate cheese cake, did the "paper slide", and enjoyed lots of fireworks.  

The rest of their trip was fairly low key.  It's hard to get out with an infant and 8 other little kids.  Thankfully though the kids didn't seem to mind hanging out around our house with their cousins, for some reason the "boring toys" become less "boring" when other kids are around to enjoy them with!  

We woke up early this morning to see the 6 of them off as they headed back to North Carolina to visit with Jessie before heading to Michigan.  We wont see them again for at least 2 years, maybe longer.  We're so thankful that they've chosen to serve the people of Papua New Guinea but there's still sadness as we miss them very much.  

The exciting part is that they've finished their language learning (as in the country's official language not a specific tribal language) and have been invited to live with a tribal group.  This means they'll begin house building possibly this fall and are going to need people to help, they've asked Jed to consider going over there to help for a week or two. Although I'd love it if he could go, there are a few obstacles to overcome before he'd say yes.  We're praying and seeking God's wisdom.  




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