our first two weeks in the tribe: part one

The last 3 weeks have been so full.  Full of excitement, anxiety, emotion, and lots of other feelings I really can't even name!  Just FULL.

I want to tell you all about our experiences, and the best way I know to do that is just to do a play by play.  So I'll start from the beginning...

On Monday January 16, we started the journey.  The first stop would be Yifki, which is another tribe that is somewhat close to Maliyali.  Yifki has an airstrip, and the missionaries and people there are so amazing to us.  We are able to use the Yifki airstrip to do helicopter shuttles to Maliyali, which is going to save our team thousands of dollars over the years!  

Nathan took the first flight to Yifki early that Monday morning.  He flew there, along with lots of cargo to unload.  David would go on the second flight, along with us ladies and the kids.  If you follow David on instagram (@david_rimestad), you probably saw the video he posted of Nathan in the airplane, all ready to go!  In the video Nathan said "I'm ready to jump bro!"...and that is exactly how we were all feeling.  We just needed to trust God to make this first "jump".

So the airplane dropped Nathan off in Yifki and then came back for the rest of us!

We were ready in our tribal clothes...only skirts for us ladies in the Yifki and Maliyali cultures!

Our NTM Sepik leadership was with us to see us off...I love this picture of Greg, our area leader!  These guys are the best, and they love our families SO WELL.

 Best support team ever!

So, once we got to Yifki we settled in for a couple of days.  You see, it is difficult to coordinate our flights, because we are dealing with both airplane and helicopter.  So it's not a bad thing, just details we need to deal with.  We wouldn't get a heli flight until Friday, so we would just stay in Yifki until then.  Thankfully, there is a house in Yifki that our families were able to stay in for our time there.  Those days were a great time of connecting with the missionary couple (Jon and Susan Kopf), and also the Yifki believers!

We spent time hiking and exploring...

 

Hanging out with the people...

The kids got to take care of some kittens, which was probably their #1 highlight!

We spent a whole day organizing.  Here, Nathan is organizing all of the tools and other cargo which would need to go to Maliyali on a flight about two weeks later.  There is so much planning and organizing that goes into this housebuilding stage of our lives!

We had to organize the food and other cargo we were going to be bringing in with our families...we tried to keep it as MINIMAL as possible.

Friday January 20 was the BIG DAY.  The helicopter arrived early that morning to take our families in to our new home...Maliyali!

Oh, the emotions we were feeling that morning!  I'll tell you all about it in the next post...stay tuned!

our next steps: we're gonna need PRAYERS!!!

Many of you might be wondering what our next steps will be, our timeline etc.  We are so happy to be able to share that with you now!  And we are going to ask for your prayers.  We are so thankful to do this alongside all of you back home--for sure, your prayers are what keeps us going!  So, thank you in advance!

Okay, so if you've been reading my latest blogposts, you know that we are headed for a tribe called MALIYALI.  So far, only Nathan and David have been in there--me and Emily haven't had a chance to go yet.  Mainly because it's VERY hard and long and expensive to get to!  But now, our families are preparing to go in and meet the Maliyali people!

However.  Not only are we going to meet the people, we are going to live among them for two weeks!  Two weeks might seem short, but as you all know, this is not like camping in the States.  Camping in the jungle will be much different, we are predicting :) 

Next week, we will helicopter in to Maliyali with the Rimestads...

So thankful to be doing this alongside amazing coworkers.  We really can't imagine doing it alone!

So, what's the game plan?  How will we live during our two weeks in there?

First of all, we will be living in a "bush house"--which is basically one of their houses.  Actually, the people are building two houses for us to use, which is SO incredibly nice of them.  And our guys will be able to use those bush houses all during the housebuilding season, which will be perfect.

This is one of the bush houses (it's unfinished in this picture in case you're wondering!!).  When our guys were in Maliyali back at the beginning of December, they had already started building it for us.  We are PRAYING that the houses will be done when we get in there!

During our time of bush living in Maliyali, we are going to be depending on the people for many things.  We really want to get to know them for a couple of weeks, and start this whole 20-ish year ministry with relationship.  We want the people to see us cooking over fires, depending on them for sweet potatoes, struggling to get our water, beginning to learn some language, using a hole in the ground for a toilet (okay, not actually SEE us doing that, but you know what I mean--ha!), etc etc etc.  This bush living will help us to identify with the Maliyali people--later on we will have some conveniences like stoves, washing machine, fridge/freezer, etc.  But for now, we will have none of that, and we hope it will show the Maliyali people that we are just regular people (actually, they'll probably think we're pretty stupid!)  They will see that we don't magically get our food and supplies just because we have white skin (a myth that many PNG tribes believe).  We are so thankful for this opportunity to get to know them in this deep way!

During our two week stay, we will:

Get to know this beautiful land that is to be our new home!  We will do plenty of hiking because a lot of the people are very spread out from each other.

We will hike to the river, which Nathan says is about an hour hike away!  T'hankfully we will have a (much smaller) water source that is closer than that.  Although when the guys last went in, that closer water source was not much more than a trickle (!!).  I think that's pretty rare though--but we are praying that God will let that water be flowing!

We will be able to check out the land that our houses will be built on.  Nathan told me that the land he marked is up on a hill (it's hard to find flat land in Maliyali!)  So he's not 100% sure if it's the best location, but we'll be able to look at it, see which way our houses should face, etc etc.

Our kids will get a chance to get to know and play with the Maliyali kids!  We're planning to bring a soccer ball and some marbles for our kids to do with their kids, but that is all (the toys) we are bringing.  Please, please, please pray for our kids!  Pray that they LOVE Maliyali!  Pray that they will be excited to go back!  Pray for kids that they "click" with!  Pray that they can be creative and have fun without ANY toys!  This will be very very different for our kids.  God has always been faithful to help them adjust in every place we've lived so far.  We know He will continue to be faithful, but this move is vastly different than any move we've had thus far!

We will spend lots of time getting to know the people.  This will be SO GOOD.  Nathan met this couple and he told me he thinks I will like this woman--and her name is "Baby" which is awesome :)  We are planning to do some basic language learning while we're in there--not 8 hour days or anything like that, but we want to get a start so the people can see that we are SERIOUS about wanting to learn their language!

On February 1, the helicopter will come back to get me, Emily, and our six kiddos.  And our men will stay in Maliyali for a WHOLE MONTH to begin milling lumber for our houses!  Yep, you read that right.  A month.  We are so glad our guys will be able to start doing things to build our houses so that we can really move in to Maliyali, but we are going to miss our husbands (and daddies) SO much.  We will update more during that time, but that's the game plan!

Also, just a heads up...Maliyali is a very remote place in PNG.  We will have no internet or phone access, so you won't hear from us at all while we're in there.  We will have a SAT phone for emergencies, and to contact the helicopter, etc.  And eventually we will have email through a radio--but not now.  

When we get back to Wewak in the beginning of February, we will be so excited to update you on our time in Maliyali!  In the meantime--please, please pray for us.  Pray for safety, health, and God-glorifying attitudes!  We REALLY need your prayers!

Thank you!  We are so thankful to be doing this alongside you all!

a BIG commitment!

Back on November 30, we wrote blog posts and emails, updating you about a big survey that our men were getting ready to go on.  It was to be their second survey into Maliyali--but technically this one wasn't a "survey" (the actual survey had been done back in September)...this was a different kind of trip.  Most of you already know the outcome of their trip, but here I want to document it with pictures...

Nathan and David boarded an airplane here in Wewak on December 1.  Along with them was our area leader, Greg.  He was able to take his sixteen year old son Noah along, which was so awesome!  I love the idea of Kaine being able to do these things with Nathan someday.  (by the way, a lot of these photo creds go to Noah--he took pictures with David's phone which was a huge help to the guys!)  So anyway, first, the guys flew to pick up Jonathan (another missionary in a tribe) and Faimpat (a tribal believer in Jonathan's tribe).  Then all those guys flew to this airstrip, to once again begin the ten hour hike to Maliyali.

David, Greg, Noah, Nathan, Jonathan...and Faimpat is the guy with the plaid shorts.

A LONG hike, complete with some epic vine bridges!  I'm excited to try crossing one of these very soon! 😬

Among the Maliyali people again!

The guys really weren't sure what to expect--it had been 2 months since they had been in for the initial survey.  But one thing they did NOT expect, was that the Maliyali people had been working so hard to clear land for our families!  They didn't even know for sure if we were coming back to live among them, but yet they worked super hard to clear all this land.  When our guys saw that, they were super encouraged by the level of commitment the Maliyali people showed to us through that.  So thankful!

They cleared this area for a helipad.

I mean, look at this!  This is another point of view.  In this picture, David was standing on the edge of the helipad, looking back towards the village.  You can see the area that they cleared for our families to build houses!  So awesome.

The guys had some small meetings with land owners, and then they had THE BIG MEETING.  When I think about it, it's really amazing.  We went through four years of training, and this right here has been our goal and purpose--committing our lives to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to a remote tribal group.  Wow.  So humbling and so amazing.  

In this big meeting, Greg talked to the people again about the specific tasks that New Tribes missionaries do.  (Learning their tribal language, teaching them to read and write it, teaching the God's talk, and translating the Bible).  This had already been talked about back in September, but now Greg was talking to the people as our leader.  He was basically handing our families over to the Maliyali people.  He talked to them about the commitment they needed to make to us--a big commitment to teach us their language, to provide us with land for our houses, to protect our families, etc etc.  

Nathan and David signed a contract, to do those four things that Greg mentioned.  And representatives of all the nearby villages signed it, too.  It was a contract of mutual commitment--us to them, and them to us.  This is no small thing--it's HUGE.

After that, they showed David and Nathan the land that they will be providing for our families to build houses on!  Here is Nathan, marking the land for our house.  The people are continuing to clear away trees to prepare for housebuilding. 

Our guys standing in front of the land they have allotted for us.  So cool.

After the meetings and formalities were done, the guys had time to hang out with the people.  It's weird that me and Emily haven't been to Maliyali yet!  But we will be soon!  I'll tell you about that in another post!

Is this not GORGEOUS?? This will be our kids' backyard very soon!  I can picture our kids and Calvin and Louise, running around with all these Maliyali kids.

Our new family :) 

Thanks for praying, everyone!  We have seen God answer countless prayers lately--for years, we have been praying for "our" tribe...we are so thankful that we can now pray for them by name!  Please join us in praying for the Maliyali people.  To God be the glory!

Maliyali, here we come!

We are so thankful to announce that we have chosen "our" tribe!  God has led us to Maliyali...the one that Nathan and David first surveyed back in September. We have spent MUCH time in prayer and discussion within our team, and with our leadership.  We feel confident that we want to spend the next decades of our lives among the Maliyali people.  For God's fame and our joy. We are feeling very thankful, excited, and VERY overwhelmed.  Thank you for your continued prayers and support! We need it!  There is a lot that goes in to allocating into a remote jungle tribe...we will share more of that in the future.

Please check out this video, which we already shared on facebook.  It shows the last survey that our men took into Maliyali, in which they told the people that we are coming to live among them.  David did a fantastic job on it!
 Click here to watch it!

We love you all so much, and we thank God every day for the love and support you give us!

our first tropical Christmas!

Thank you for your prayers for our family during this Christmas season!

We are doing well.  Of course, we miss our family and friends back home, but God has been so good to us here in PNG.  We are coming out of the holidays now, and we aren't feeling sad...just thankful!  (and a bit overwhelmed, but that has to do with our near future which I will be telling you about sometime soon!)

Anyway.  Our Christmas was filled with friends, the beach (that was a first for us! We can't do that in an Indiana winter!), Christmas cookies and other good food, games, gifts...and most importantly, talking to our kids about the REAL reason we celebrate Christmas.  And the fact that Jesus came to earth for ALL peoples--this theme is all throughout the Bible!  So cool and so humbling.

Now for some pictures...

The kids at the church we attend just LOVE to shower our kids with attention...and gifts.  Lol.  I think especially since it's Christmas time.  I love this mask that Daisy's friend gave her!

Our kids got the opportunity to be in a Christmas program here on base!  What a blessing.  We are so thankful they could be a part of this!

The whole cast, along with the amazing Miss Stephanie who directed it!

A couple of weeks ago, we built a "snowman" at the beach!  Or at least, the closest thing we can get to an snowman ;) 

Our Christmas weekend started out with our first Team Christmas.  Have I mentioned before how incredibly thankful we are for David and Emily?  We hit the jackpot with these teammates...we just love them.  Dave and Em, we loved our team Christmas and we can't wait for many more!  Chad and Martha, next year hopefully we can all celebrate together!

After dinner, we headed outside to play a really funny reindeer game...haha!  We laughed so much :) 

On Christmas Eve night, we started doing some family Christmas stuff with our kids.  Nathan created lots of games with prizes, just like my dad does at home...sniff:(   Our kids had a blast, and so did we!

On Christmas Eve we all slept in the living room...even though I so desperately wanted to go up to our bed!  Lol.  I did it for the kids, even though I KNOW that rats come in our downstairs at night.  Thankfully I didn't hear any--that was God's kindness to me!

Daisy broke out our new blowup boat...haha!  She slept great, even though to me it just looks HOT! 

On Christmas morning, we read the Christmas story and had a little church service.  Then we opened gifts.  Both my parents and Nathan's parents spoiled our kids by sending over packages...the shipping on those is NOT cheap!  Thank you to our dads and moms...you made our Christmas very special :)

That afternoon we hit the beach with the Rimestads and some other friends. Again, that was our first time ever going to the beach at Christmas!

Daisy and Lou--the cutest little mermaid ever!

 We took Daisy's "bed" to the beach...the first time we used it in the water!  Of course, it ripped, which isn't a surprise because we got it in town pretty cheap, which is a recipe for disaster here in PNG.  But it's all good... the kids still had such a good time!

Thanks for your prayers!  We really appreciate all of your prayers...and we NEED them!  We have a lot happening in these next few months.  A lot of really good things, but really BIG things.  So keep on praying!  We'll update again soon!