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Monday, 06 July 2009

What we've been up to...

Let's see, it's been a while since I've written a "real" update and not just my daily photos!

So, here you go. Here's what's been going on in our lives lately...

Last weekend we had a girl come stay with us. Mallory is a pilot (Dan says she has more flight ratings than he does!) and a teacher. She is interested in missions and wanted to see what MAF was all about. She stayed with us Saturday thru Wednesday. The idea was for her to go along on some flights, see what life is like for us here, etc.

Well, one thing we were not expecting was this: on Monday night an airplane went missing. No, not an MAF airplane. But this whole "airplane crash" thing is getting rather old. It's not too great for the morale, if you know what I mean! Anyway, Mallory was able to go along on Search and Rescue for this airplane - I am sure that is something she did not ever imagine doing on her trip here! Anyway, I think there were 2 MAF planes that went out on SAR Tuesday morning, and they weren't able to find the airplane! It is not a huge airplane - a Twin Otter, for those of you that know airplanes, but still, you would think that an airplane crash would be fairly obvious! Evidently, it's not always that easy to find! They knew the general area of where the airplane should be from where the airplane was when pilots had last called the tower. But Dan was telling me that the terrain is so rugged that it is very hard to see much. The plane was finally located on the second day of searching. And to tell you how rugged the terrain is - a helicopter dropped off some guys at the closest spot he could land, and it still took them TWO DAYS to hike to the crash site! Anyway, we found out that the airplane only had 3 crew members on board, so we are glad that it was not full of passengers. But I think this is airplane crash #8 for this year in Papua, 3 of which have happened in or near Wamena. Crazy.

Mallory returned to Sentani on Wednesday afternoon, and I think she is on her way back to the States now, if she is not already there. We enjoyed having her in our home, and hope that she was able to get a good glimpse of missions here in Papua. Before coming to Papua, she was able to spend some time with friends of hers in other parts of Indonesia, so she got a good overview of lots of different ministries here in Indonesia.

I am still pretty busy helping organize stuff for our family conference which starts in a week. Lots of details to work out, and things that have to get done at the last minute...

We had a fun 4th of July. We played softball in the afternoon (I am still sore from that!) and then had a cookout here. Unfortunately while we were eating dinner it started raining, so no fireworks. Actually I was told that we had to get police permission to set off fireworks, so I am not sure we would have had them anyway!

Yesterday was a nice, relaxing day for me. Claire took a long nap in the morning. Dan and I were able to go over to our neighbors' house and spend some time visiting with them. Then in the afternoon, Claire spent about 1 1/2 hours just playing quietly by herself in the playroom! (Natalie was outside playing with friends.) Then church in the late afternoon, where I was actually able to listen to what was shared instead of taking care of the kids (they did a great job entertaining themselves). All in all, it was just a nice day yesterday. It's always great when that happens. Sometimes I feel like I'm just surviving!

Well, Claire is crying from her afternoon nap now so I better go. I'll update my daily pictures a little later.

Friday, 03 July 2009

Daily Photo: Friday, July 3

More fun 4th of July activities! Today we made "cake balls" from Bakerella (you may remember the website because that's where we got the idea for our "burger and fries" Father's Day treats.) We dipped the cake balls in white chocolate and then decorated them with red, white & blue sprinkles. Yum!!!
Daily Photo: Thursday, July 2

Fun 4th of July activities! Amber and I helped the kids make 4th of July t-shirts to wear on Saturday. A little paint and some pipe cleaners, and voila! T-shirts with fireworks on them!
Daily Photo: Wednesday, July 1

How is it possible that it's halfway through the year and I am STILL taking daily photos?! Gives me hope that I will make it all the way until the end!!!

Anyway, Natalie had ANOTHER birthday party to go to today (#2 this week!) Almost all the same kids again, too They had lots of fun playing with water balloons and breaking a pinata (come to think of it, I think this was Natalie's first pinata experience!) The birthday girl's dad finally had to give the pinata a few good whacks to get it to break open, but the kids still enjoyed scrambling for all the candy!
Daily Photo: Tuesday, June 30

Claire crawled up into Mallory's lap to snuggle for a while. We had Mallory at our house for just a few days, but she had a good time here (I think!) She was able to go along on quite a few flights and see how things run here in Wamena!