two things you might be wondering about.

1.  Our language studies.

We are still at it!  Although I will admit that with moving up to Lapilo (for our medical training) for one week, and then transitioning here to Wewak...it took a bit of time to get back into the language learning groove!  It was so great in Madang--we had these close relationships with our language helpers, and we were in such a good routine...and then we had to say goodbye to those friends and now we have to make new relationships.  It's all good...just not easy :)  

But anyway, we are back at it now.  Still figuring out a good routine, but at least we are getting there!  Our goal is to finish Tok Pisin studies this summer...hopefully by the end of our bush orientation (you will see more about that soon!  I'll be blogging about bush orientation plenty!) 

We've connected with a great family who lives close to our home...our new friends' names are Leroy and Shelley.  They seem to really love helping us with language!  We are so thankful.  

 Teaching us all kinds of things!  Here, Shelley is showing Nathan how to take the outer layer off the coconut.

 We drove Shelley to town and she went to the market with us.  She told us all the good things to buy, and we brought it back to their house to cook it!  Our kids did so great that day.  It ended up being a six hour thing!  Great for language learning and relationship building, but a bit of a long day for the kids.  They did great :)

The girls LOVE helping with this kind of cooking!

Also, there is a sweet girl named Rosama who is living with a family on the NTM base here.  She is so sweet...Emily and I have started meeting with her a few times a week for language sessions.  Today, I wrote the story of Noah's Ark in Tok Pisin, and I read it to Rosama.  Then, I asked Rosama to retell my story (in her own words) to Emily!  When she retells the story (in her much better Tok Pisin than mine!) I record her.  That way, I can hear a much better way of telling my story, spoken from a native speaker.   

Me and Rosama...thanks for the picture, Em!

2.  Our teammates!

In my last post, we were anticipating the return of our partners, the Rimestads!  Well, let me just say that we are LOVING reconnecting with them!  What a gracious, loving, servant-hearted, and FUN couple!  I thank God all the time that He has allowed us to partner with such stellar people who are so in LOVE with Jesus. 

These are our houses...it's so awesome to be living so close to them!  Makes it so easy to learn all  about each other, have team meetings, and hang out after the kids are sleeping at night!  

  

Okay, this little girl is just too much.  Little Louise...she is so stinkin adorable!  And she LOVES Kaine!  She absolutely adores him!  The word that I hear her use the most is: "Kaine!  Kaine!"  Aww...so cute.  And if you know Kaine, you can probably imagine how he reacts...he's just so sweet, and really doesn't know how to respond to all of Lou Lou's love and affection...lol! :)

Learning to just live life together...what a blessing!

And sweet Calvin.  He is such a cute kid and he just LOVES our kids so much!  They have been having such a blast together.  We are so thankful for Calvin and Louise!

I am so thankful for those of you who tell me to keep blogging.  We love keeping you all informed, and it does my heart so much good to know that people want to know what's going on over here in Wewak, PNG!  I'll keep blogging...thanks so much, all of our wonderful friends back home!  We love you all!

our partners are coming back!!

For those of you who don't know and/or remember the details, let me tell the story...

It started back in our third semester at MTC (in Missouri).  There was this really cool family who lived next door to us, and we were good friends with them!  Throughout that semester, we grew closer, and this other couple really encouraged Nathan and me in our faith and our relationship with Jesus.  This family was the Rimestads :) 

Here we are with the Rims, during that third semester at MTC.  Such good friends!

This was also during that third semester.  Lol!  These two guys will make a great team!  If you can kill chickens together by snapping their necks, you are pretty much unstoppable :)

Right before we graduated MTC (December 2014), we got "engaged" to them!  Or, in other words (less creepy words)--we committed to partner together in reaching a tribe with the gospel in PNG!  That was an exciting time! (I blogged about it here).

Here we are at MTC graduation!

Well, after graduation, the Rimestads moved back to California to finish up raising support--they planned to head to PNG in the summer of 2015.  Meanwhile, Nathan and I returned to MTC in January after graduation to do the linguistics program.  Our family planned to go to PNG in January 2016, so we would be about 6 months behind the Rimestads.

That summer, the month before David and Emily left for PNG, we went to CA to visit them!  It was great to see them one last time before they moved across the world.  What a fun trip :)

Lol...these two guys again ;)  

What a sweet friend Emily is to me!  I thank the Lord for her!

Well, we hugged them goodbye after that trip to CA, knowing that we would see them in just 6 short months, when we arrived to PNG in January!

The Rimestads got to PNG in August and rocked their orientation!  They did their orientation in Madang just like we did, and then in December they moved on to Wewak.  The plan was for them to be here in Wewak, finish their Tok Pisin studies, and wait for us to finish our Madang orientation.  Then we would arrive in Wewak in May (which we did!  That's where we are now!)

Rimestads in Wewak :)

But...God had other plans.  And we have been reminded over and over that God's timing is never wrong, that He knows what He is doing!

So after the Rimestads got here to Wewak, Emily started to have some severe pain in her back...and over the next few weeks, it kept getting worse.  The NTM doctors did tons of tests and finally they recommended that David and Emily return to America to figure out what was causing the pain.  

So, as our family was landing in PNG in January 2016, the Rimestads were making plans to return to America.  Is that crazy or what?  It's easy to question God in times like that, but again--He is so in control!  

So while we were doing our orientation in Madang, our partners were back in CA, getting Emily the help that she needed to get rid of that pain.  And praise the Lord, she is doing so much better!  They were given the green light to come back to PNG, and so...

OUR PARTNERS ARE COMING BACK IN TWO DAYS!!!

(I keep thinking I should pinch myself--it's so surreal!)

Our family is so incredibly excited to get our partners back over here!  Our kids made a countdown and every night before bed Halle checks off another day.  And the Rimestads made a countdown of their own...

On Tuesday at 5:30 pm (PNG time), we will go pick up their family at the airport here in Wewak!  And they will live next door to us here on the base.  Thank you Jesus.  He is so good!

Will you please pray for this sweet family?  They have to say goodbyes again (two times in one year is a lot!)...and they have that LOOOONG couple days of flying ahead of them (still fresh in our minds...what a long journey!)

We will keep you posted.  I'll definitely post something on Instagram when they arrive safely!  

David, Em, Calvin and Louise...we can't wait for you to be here! Your apartment is ready for you :)  We love you guys and we are praying!!