Thank you SOO much for your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness with me coming back again so soon after my furlough this year to be with my mom!!! I’m incredibly grateful for each and every one of you!! Incredibly!

So first and foremost, I (finally) think that mom will be OK in this home. We’re just “not through the transition period” yet. I appreciate your prayers and your incredible support (in so many ways!) since I was called back to be with mom!! This visit could have gone a very different route, and truth-be-known, I thought I was coming home for a very different (even more painful) type of visit.

Thankfully the Lord had other plans.

I feel that I’m leaving mom in very capable hands. This will be much better for Suzy too. Carol told me yesterday that she doesn’t just “do this as a job,” and that “mom is her mama now too.” I needed that extra bunch of words ❤️ thank You, Lord!!

Suzy, mom and me

Carol, mom and me

I leave for Brisbane Australia in a few hours. There’s one glitch in my going all the way home; we have a housing shortage in Madang. If you can help us financially, please contact me. We’re raising money for this need. Anyway, my little one bedroom flat has been rented and it won’t be available until 25 September. That’s OK (I love the PBT couple who are in my flat! and…) they have found housing for me… But not until around 15 September.

Since I have to leave America or face the possibility of losing my health insurance and have to deal with a lot of paperwork to get American insurance (at *very high* costs), our director of support services said to go ahead and leave here today and that she would like for me to spend 10 days or so in Australia. This will help me to avoid more stress. It will also get my body acclimated to that side of the world and to get some much needed rest. This trip was *far* from “restful” or “easy!!” You know when we are vulnerable there is always more heaped on our shoulders, whether from our own doing, or other people’s lives, that make you feel awful, knock you down farther or sock you in the gut when you’re down. There’s been enough activity in this year to knock anyone for a loop! So some “downtime away from life as I know it,” is starting to sound like a really nice idea! Since I won’t have someone that I can share it with, I probably will spend quite a bit of time in my room – but that’s OK with me! I’m ready for a bunch of alone time with God!! This has been very emotional.

Speaking of emotional… I do *not* (not! not!!!) look forward to saying goodbye again… Especially how I was brought back this time. Please pray for us! This part *really* stinks!! Tears are coming as I write this. I’m incredibly grateful that mom is so much better than when I arrived!!!!

So back to Brisbane for a moment.
I’ve only spent a night here and there in Brisbane. I’m staying at another organizations guesthouse, so the cost is only a (tiny) fraction of what it’d cost if I weren’t a missionary. Thank You, Lord!!!

I’ll wrap this up with some fun news; mom, Suzy and I went to church last Sunday! It’s the first time mom has been to church in a very (*very*) long time. I enjoyed it the absolute most! There were people there who worked with PBT in Madang in the 80’s!! The husband was the director. He even had a picture of the office from “way back then” … He keeps it on his phone. It was incredibly fun! I asked mom if she wanted to go back there next week, and she said that she really liked how excited I was about meeting the people there because of PBT. It was a very fun connection for her. I felt that the teaching was strong and it was right out of the bible… I pray they continue attending!! Please join me in this prayer. Suzy and I had gone back and forth with almost a dozen churches, before settling on this one! I feel like God pointed us there.

Please pray:

That mom continues to enjoy and feel more at home in her new home

That Christ infiltrates and changes for His sake, my entire family and me

For travel mercies and rest as I have some much needed downtime before running back to Madang to my sweet Papua New Guinean babies!!

I hope you know how much I appreciate you!!

Phi 1:3 I thank my God every time I think of you