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!