Just wanted to drop all of you a quick note to pray for Tiffany tomorrow. She is going to be flying to Port Moresby by herself (my little girl is growing up). Because we opted out of getting a chest x-ray for her she has to go and sign some paperwork in the presence of the Australian High Commission saying that she will submit to a x-ray once the baby is born.
Moresby is not the safest city in the world but she is in good hands. Some folks from our office in Moresby are going to meet her and take her where she needs to go.
Anyway please pray for her safety. Also pray that she can use this time to relax. You probably also ought to pray that the kids and I can get our stuff packed up.
matt
Tiffany and I both have trouble saying goodbye. Lucky for us Papua New Guineans are great at expressing themselves, especially with those they are close to. We are leaving next Monday and our friends here are making plans to say goodbye.
When people leave for extended periods it is essential to say goodbye and to make a big deal about it. The grandmother of our children’s closets friends said they were going to have a little goodbye party for the children this week.
My best friend, Miani, and his family are coming Saturday and we are going to make a big meal and hangout. His wife, Judi, has also given us a bilum for the new baby to sleep in. She wanted us to take it with us so the baby will know how to sleep in it right away.
{Judi, holding Evie, visiting with neighbors}
What makes that an even harder goodbye for me is that he is going to a different part of the country to build houses for a big liquefied natural gas project. He will be gone for 6 weeks at a time and then home again for 2 weeks. The pay is really good and I am happy about that. But his family will be here without him and we won’t be here either. Luckily they have a lot of family here.
matt
*{have you entered our giveaway yet? we will announce the winner in 9 days! see the post below for details.}
It is our 1 year anniversary in Papua New Guinea!!!
And to celebrate we are giving away a beautiful handmade bilum made in the highlands of PNG…
There are 3 ways to enter…
1. Become a follower of our blog then leave a comment to let us know.
2. Leave a comment and tell us something you would like to see in a future post.
3. Blog about us and link from your post to our blog. Then leave us a note in the comments about it.
Leave separate comments for each entry.
We will randomly choose a winner on the morning of August 30th. {PNG time}
Deadline to enter is midnight of August 29 OUR TIME. {check the sidebar for local PNG time}
We can’t wait to hear from you!!!
{the correct way to carry a bilum…of course they make great diaper bags, purses or carry-alls too :) }
<3 tiffany
of a post to have to write…I’ve been putting it off for a few weeks now, but I know that in the past if we have humbled ourselves and shared our needs God, through you, has provided.
So, here is the plain truth…
This past month we have fallen $650 short of our budget. {For those of you who don’t know, we live strictly off of donations made to our ministry. We have NO other income.} We were warned when we came that we could expect support to fall after a year or so (out of sight- out of mind). It just so happens that it coincides with the birth of our 6th child, travelling to Australia, where the cost of living is MUCH higher than PNG (and even the US for that matter), and a substantial drop in the US dollar to PNG kina exchange rate.
Specifically, we need you to pray for new monthly donors to our ministry and one time gifts to cover our time in Australia.
We are currently assessing our spending to see if we can cut down even more…but honestly, we pay rent, buy food, and help out our neighbors whenever we can…one thing we can and will cut back on is our internet time.
If you would like to join our team financially you can sign up through the link in the sidebar. All donations are tax deductible for you.
We thank you for reading and for your prayers…
xotiffany
{stay tuned for a fun give away coming soon!}
I’m sure all of you had some pretty interesting stuff come to mind when you read this blog title. But nothing quite like this. When boys get to be about 15 or so their parents decide it is time for them to become a man. The community then decides who will be sent into the haus man. The haus man is a house that the candidates live in for 4-6 weeks. They are not allowed to go away from the house. Women and children are not allowed near the house. Men from the village stay with them and teach them all sorts of stuff that men should know. One of the great things about the haus man that just happened here is that parts of it that were animistic in the past have been redeemed and reworked to include their Christian beliefs.
Every night, morning and lunch they had the local pastors come and teach the boys how to do devotions and family worship time. It was out of good fortune that our house was closer to the house man than any other house on the mountain. At night Tiffany and I would lay in bed and listen to the boys sing praise songs. Also very lucky for us they could all sing very well.
Part of the deal is that they can only eat dry food ( food cooked in the fire) for the whole time they are in there. So, as you can see some of their stomachs are sunken in when they come out.
Coming out is a big deal. Everyone in the village spends the whole week before getting ready. I made several trips to other villages some distance away to buy pigs for the feast. Garden vegetables are gathered in mounds and rice is bought by the 10kg bag.
The boys (new men) and all the men who helped to train them paint themselves with red paint that they make from the seeds of a plant. They put on all of their bilas (leaves, pig tusks, chains, beads, and so on and so on) and march into the village. By this time everyone has gathered to see them. they march in a circle and the women and children are not allowed any where near them. Because Tiffany is pregnant they said she had to stay especially far away or it would mess up the baby.
After this they go back out of the village to drink water (for the first time in days), get a little strength back and then come back. Then everyone in the village can come and shake their hands and congratulate them. Once this is over every one has the opportunity to standup and give them advice about being a man (yell at them). When that is over then and only then can the feast begin.
this also serves as a great time for the village to relax together and tell stories (bonding time). We had a great time and are looking forward to the one in December (it happens twice a year) they are going to have a singsing (Broadway PNG style) then.
matt
{The newest member of our tribe, Lilly}
She is a baby Kapul. She joined us Monday afternoon. Isn’t she sweet? We are working on taming her…our next goal is getting her bathed.
xo tiffany
