Hewa: Part Two

(Click here for Part One).

So...Emily and I received our hubbies back from their trip to Hewa.  What a joyful reunion!  They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and it is SO true. We loved hearing all of their stories of the sweet Hewans, and LOVED looking at all the pictures!  

Well, about a week and a half later, it was a Monday morning.

I was getting ready to start homeschooling the kids, on my way across our long porch to hang a load of laundry, when I walked past David and Emily's house.  Nathan was in there, talking to them...and David came outside and asked me (with a funny smile on his face)..."Hey, do you and Emily want to go visit Hewa?  In one hour?"

I said, "WHAAT? One hour??  Are you nuts?? I'm not that spontaneous!"  But Emily was right there smiling at me, saying, "I'm down with it!  If you are!"  Lol.  She's so good for me ;) 

So, what happened is:  There are some support missionaries here in Wewak, named Brian and Rachael.  They have two kids, and they were planning to go into Hewa so Brian could build a little medical clinic for Yifki village.  Their whole family was going to go in, and his wife would be there to encourage the Yifki missionaries and help with the cooking, etc.  Oh, and also, they had a woman visiting from a supporting church in the US (Stacy), along with her 19 year old son (Ben).  Those two were going to go in with Brian and Rachael, and Ben would help Brian build the clinic, while Stacy would help with cooking and just being with the people.  Well, anyway, on the morning that they were supposed to fly in to Hewa, Rachael and one of their young boys woke up very sick, with pretty high fevers.  So last minute, Rachael and her two sons weren't able to go...which is so so sad.  Especially since she had her friend Stacy visiting from the States!  Now, Stacy and her son Ben would have to go in with just Brian...and it all happened at the last minute, so they couldn't even let the missionaries in Hewa know any of this.

Lol!  Did you follow all of that?  Again, so many details!

Well.  Nathan and David found out about all of this that Monday morning, and the plane was scheduled to leave in one hour...and they thought of the idea, Hey!  We wanted our wives to be able to visit Hewa!  This could be an answer to prayer!  They could see the village and meet the missionaries, and also be a blessing by helping to cook and encourage!

So they asked us.  And Emily right away was totally on board!  Me...I wanted to go, but yet it was so last minute!  And I wouldn't have a chance to give Nathan any instruction about homeschooling, the house was a mess, I hadn't prepared any food, blah blah blah.  But Emily's enthusiasm wore off on me, and I started warming up to the idea!

We called Brian to see if they would even WANT us to come along, and he said YES!  Especially Stacy-- she was so glad that she would have two more ladies coming along with her!

By the time we heard for sure that they wanted us to go along, we had thirty minutes to pack and be out the door.  Oh. My. Word.  That was a CRAZY thirty minutes!  I (with Nathan's help) just pretty much threw stuff into bags, donned a long skirt (what we need to wear in Hewa), and hurriedly told the kids, "Hey!  I'm going to visit a tribe this week! And we have to be at the airport in a half hour!"  Haha, it was so funny!  They were like, "What?  You mean like right now you are going to a tribe??"  Lol.

We were out the door so fast.  I was praying I didn't forget anything!  I instagrammed this picture on the way to the airport...I think it is an accurate picture of my feelings, but don't let Nathan's sad look fool you.  He was super pumped that I was getting to go into Hewa!  Although I'm sure there was some sadness mixed in ;) 

Right before we boarded the plane...

Our awesome pilot, John; Brian (the one who had to leave his sick family at home last minute...such a bummer for them!); Ben and Stacy (their friend and her son from the States) and Em and me.  It was a fun group!

Us ladies...(Emily and I were super excited to spend some time with Stacy!  She actually spoke earlier that weekend at a ladies' retreat here in Wewak...and we were super encouraged by her.  What a godly woman with an amazing testimony.  It was such a privilege to spend a week with her in Hewa!)

It's just pretty crazy to fly for an hour over straight jungle, and then look down and see a grass airstrip!  Wow.  This is Yifki village.

We all got off the plane (surprised the Yifki missionaries big time when Emily and I stepped off the plane!  They were so happy that we could come visit, after our husbands had just been there!).  Soon after we all hugged and talked a bit, the plane took off again.  I love how tons of the people stood right behind the plane, getting blown like CRAZY by the wind it created!  So funny!

And there we were, just me and Emily without our hubbies or kids for 5 days.  We were so stoked to be there!  And still sort of in disbelief that it happened so quickly!  Lol.  It was just two hours before this that I was planning to go hang my laundry and homeschool my kids and have a normal day!  God is so awesome.

Okay, Hewa Part Three is coming up!  I don't want to burn you out with mile long blogposts!