Christmas around here is very quiet! There are 3 or 4 little trade stores (a counter with a few things for sale behind it) where the kids did their Christmas shopping all by themselves. (They told us they had picked out a gift for Daddy but decided on something else when they realized what they were going to buy was a pack of cigarettes!) The girls were delighted to find some little bottles of nail polish at the corner market (a few women sitting on the ground selling miscellaneous items) which they bought each other as Christmas gifts!
This being a less busy holiday season I took the opportunity to do some Christmas baking with the kids this year, which was fun. We made gingersnaps, crunchy little "Paepanate", chocolate crinkle cookies and coconut Christmas cake. The kids also made some salt dough ornaments which they painted and hung on our little Christmas tree to dress it up a little! Although we miss the gatherings and get-togethers with friends and family, we are enjoying a more reflective holiday season this year.
Best wishes to you this Christmas and we wish you a blessed New Year!
The Derksens in PNG.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Moving to Telefomin
The village of Telefomin has been our home now for just over 3 weeks. Telefomin and the other nearby villages are on a plateau surrounded by mountains all around so we are enjoying the change from the prairies of Manitoba! There is one other MAF family here right now (the only other white people here besides us) with 3 girls, ages 2,4 and 6. The people are very friendly and the kids spend much of their time playing with national kids in the neighborhood - climbing trees, making forts, playing soccer, tag, etc. or making fires (burning the dry bush grass). It rains nearly every day but lately we've had less rain, which means the hydro electricity is on only for a couple of hours throughout the day and evening. (We have a back-up generator to make sure our freezer doesn't defrost with 3 months worth of meat all at once!) We are really enjoying living here and feeling more and more at home.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
It seems like our To-Do list keeps growing just as fast as we check things off! Looking back at our "Have-already-done" list, though, it's encouraging to see God's hand in it all as we move forward in faith. This is what we've been up to in order to prepare to move to Papua New Guinea...
* shared about MAF's work around the world and in PNG with several church groups, small groups, friends, S.S. kids, Awana club kids and anyone else who would stop long enough to listen!
* went for medical checks, dental checks, eye checks, blood checks, police checks -- and waited for people to send in cheques!
* got shots for all sorts of wonderful diseases with fancy names (and updated our will while we were at it!)
* filled in stacks of forms and paperwork making sure to dot our i's and cross our t's -- until we were going cross-eyed!
* collected two years worth of homeschool materials to try to keep our kids semi-civilized while living out in the bush!
* watched God do a miracle at a fundraiser supper put on by some very special friends.
* packed and sorted and tried to cram two year's worth of "everything" into two suitcases each.
* were humbled to have friends and family clean our house until it was so sparkling clean we wanted to move back in!
* enjoyed lots of fun times of camping, birthday parties, family camp, kids' basketball games, kids' baseball games, swimming lessons and wonderful times building memories with friends and family.
It's certainly been a bit of a whirlwind these last months, but we have been so richly blessed thanks to many of you. Thanks for all your help in getting us ready to go.
We are currently doing more orientation and training at the MAF Australia headquarters in Cairns, Australia and plan to head for PNG at the end of August.
We love reading your e-mails and are grateful for your prayers. God bless.
ld
* shared about MAF's work around the world and in PNG with several church groups, small groups, friends, S.S. kids, Awana club kids and anyone else who would stop long enough to listen!
* went for medical checks, dental checks, eye checks, blood checks, police checks -- and waited for people to send in cheques!
* got shots for all sorts of wonderful diseases with fancy names (and updated our will while we were at it!)
* filled in stacks of forms and paperwork making sure to dot our i's and cross our t's -- until we were going cross-eyed!
* collected two years worth of homeschool materials to try to keep our kids semi-civilized while living out in the bush!
* watched God do a miracle at a fundraiser supper put on by some very special friends.
* packed and sorted and tried to cram two year's worth of "everything" into two suitcases each.
* were humbled to have friends and family clean our house until it was so sparkling clean we wanted to move back in!
* enjoyed lots of fun times of camping, birthday parties, family camp, kids' basketball games, kids' baseball games, swimming lessons and wonderful times building memories with friends and family.
It's certainly been a bit of a whirlwind these last months, but we have been so richly blessed thanks to many of you. Thanks for all your help in getting us ready to go.
We are currently doing more orientation and training at the MAF Australia headquarters in Cairns, Australia and plan to head for PNG at the end of August.
We love reading your e-mails and are grateful for your prayers. God bless.
ld
Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Welcome!
Welcome to our little corner of the world where we look forward to posting journals and pictures as we get ready to travel to Papua New Guinea (PNG) to serve with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF).
About 10 years ago we lived in PNG (also serving with MAF) for about 18 months and returned for the birth of our first child. It will be a little different going back - this time with our 4 children! We are all very excited! (Although our kids can hardly imagine life without Grandparents just blocks away!)
Since our 2-week orientation training at the MAF Canada head office in Guelph, ON in November '08 we have been raising funds and our support level currently sits at about 65%. God is blessing us through people like you! (If you are interested in joining our support team it's easy to link to the MAF Canada website right from this page and click DONATE ONLINE where you can specify where you would like your gift to go.)
MANY, MANY THANKS to those of you who have already committed to partnering with us financially and in prayer! We feel so blessed to have friends like you!
OUR GOAL: We hope to be ready to leave in EARLY JULY if our support comes in time, as well as our PNG work visas. (We've been busily filling out stacks of paperwork to meet all the necesssary requirements - thumbprints, blood tests, x-rays and 36 passport-sized photos between the 6 of us!) If we can't get away by July then it would probably mean waiting until January 2010 when the next training/orientation course will be held. We will trust God's timing.
PILOT SHORTAGE: Since MAF is extremely short of pilots in PNG at this time they are having to cut out a lot of the flying they normally do which means people are not getting the physical and spiritual help they need. That is why we are eager to get on our way as soon as possible. Please pray for the pilot families who are working hard to help as many as they can.
CHECK BACK SOON! We hope to add more pictures in the near future. God bless!
The Derksens : )
About 10 years ago we lived in PNG (also serving with MAF) for about 18 months and returned for the birth of our first child. It will be a little different going back - this time with our 4 children! We are all very excited! (Although our kids can hardly imagine life without Grandparents just blocks away!)
Since our 2-week orientation training at the MAF Canada head office in Guelph, ON in November '08 we have been raising funds and our support level currently sits at about 65%. God is blessing us through people like you! (If you are interested in joining our support team it's easy to link to the MAF Canada website right from this page and click DONATE ONLINE where you can specify where you would like your gift to go.)
MANY, MANY THANKS to those of you who have already committed to partnering with us financially and in prayer! We feel so blessed to have friends like you!
OUR GOAL: We hope to be ready to leave in EARLY JULY if our support comes in time, as well as our PNG work visas. (We've been busily filling out stacks of paperwork to meet all the necesssary requirements - thumbprints, blood tests, x-rays and 36 passport-sized photos between the 6 of us!) If we can't get away by July then it would probably mean waiting until January 2010 when the next training/orientation course will be held. We will trust God's timing.
PILOT SHORTAGE: Since MAF is extremely short of pilots in PNG at this time they are having to cut out a lot of the flying they normally do which means people are not getting the physical and spiritual help they need. That is why we are eager to get on our way as soon as possible. Please pray for the pilot families who are working hard to help as many as they can.
CHECK BACK SOON! We hope to add more pictures in the near future. God bless!
The Derksens : )
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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