Welcome Back Sharon!!!!

My goodness, what a wonderful welcome – from the moment I stepped toward Joni at the airport, to when Marianne picked me up in Columbus! Thank you to all who love me so well!!

“It may seem simple to embrace change when it’s something you’re choosing
to do. But dealing with an unexpected change can be a totally different ball
game. Being able to pinpoint what you can control or influence, and what you
can’t, is key to rolling with the punches.”

That quote was sent to me last week. It speaks to me, and maybe to you. I watched you guys go crazy from afar for more than a year, and I know it couldn’t have been easy. I wonder how many people are now able to embrace change instead of fighting it. I think that if we roll with the punches, we can better see which direction we should head.

When my Jennie knew that I was coming back for home assignment, she, Robert and the boys jumped into action with my church family/friends, and together they set me up with the absolute best re-entry possible!!

But let me back up a tad, last November my boss/dear friend Joni asked me to come back to America for refreshment. It had been a particularly difficult term, and even though I needed to come back, I wasn’t quite ready. I couldn’t leave my teammates. We were (doing our best at) functioning with less than a skeleton crew. Covid struck and altered everyone everywhere. Anyway, my first excuse was that I didn’t have a car… well, God heard that.

Pictured above is my favorite youngest grandson Eddie Jake and me in the car – that I won in a raffle of all things! What a blessing, what a hoot!! I won it in December (on my mom’s birthday which makes it even more special!) … just a couple of weeks after the phone call with Joni who was in America at that time. My second excuse was that I didn’t have the money to come back… well, guess Who heard that too? My condo that was “supposed to be sold eleven years ago” … sold and I had enough money for my plane tickets. Of course I didn’t “put these things together” until Joni called me again at the first of the year and told me that I needed to come home. I finally agreed. It was then that she pointed out how the Lord had provided for my needs even before I knew I was going to need them. What an amazing realization that was! I love it!

Remember when I talked about my first and second covid tests in Madang being positive, but my third and fourth were negative, allowing me to get moving on the first international flight? Yeah, I left out the second most important item… I would not have made it on that flight out of our capital city if my director Brian, and his precious daughter RayRey hadn’t accompanied me to Moresby. I’ve had some health issues, and if Brian hadn’t stood at that ticket desk, and ran back and forth to the other side of the airport (for 3 full hours!!) to get me rebooked, I would not have made it. I had pretty bad pain and wasn’t able to stand up or run like he had to do. He was gracious and “let me play Skipbo with RayRey” while he literally got me out of Dodge. And a funny side note is that I had just taught her how to play that  game a couple days before, and she beat me more than she lost! 😁 I’m incredibly grateful for their help.

When I left Madang, we had two teams heading to Madang from America. In fact, the plane that carried me to Hong Kong was the one they took back to Port Moresby. We tried to find each other, but we’re on different floors. So at this moment we have four fresh teams in PNG, and the two teams that I left there arrived safely in America. Thank God with me for that please!

I’ve had a bunch of doctor appointments with more to come. I had surgery on my right wrist. I will schedule the left one in a few months. I want to be able to use both hands for a while first, ha-ha! I have seen several doctors for pain in my leg, including a vascular surgeon. I’ve had an x-ray, a CT scan, and I have an MRI scheduled this month. Whatever is not quite right in there has not been diagnosed as of yet. Please pray that this is resolved soon.

I guess that is it for now…

Prayer requests and praises

• Praise Him for knowing what we need – and providing it sometimes even before we need it.
• Praise God that I am in America for some much needed medical attention, rest and refreshment.
• Praise Him that I am able to get the medical/dental/counseling that I so desperately need.
• Please pray for a young teammate and his family that needs to come back ASAP so he can have back surgery.
• Please pray for those who are on the field doing their best to keep things going. It’s not easy (on a good day, let alone with such a small team). Pray for Martha and Diane who have not left the field, but don’t plan to leave. God grant them good health and the stamina to continue.
• Please pray for those of us in America trying to get everything done that needs to be done to be able to go back even healthier than before.
• Please pray for a team who is beginning their plan to return, and another teammate who has tickets and is hoping to help out for a few months – but covid is wreaking havoc.
• Please pray for all of my medical things to be figured out so they can be dealt with. I don’t have near the pain today that I had before, but that might partially be because I’ve taken pain killers nearly daily for my wrist.

So the Reader’s Digest version of my life today is that I have signed a one-year lease on an apartment and I have a bunch of things to deal with before I can go back to PNG. As I work online for our PBTPNG office it enables me to continue to contribute to my team and I just love staying in touch with my sweet ladies! I miss them!!

Thank you so much for continuing to support me as I take this much needed self-care break.

“You will be enriched in every
way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your
generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is
not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in
many expressions of thanks to God.”
2 Corinthians 9:11-12

Last but not least, my teammates Mac and Kaitlin recently made the (long and arduous) trip back to serve in Madang. Mac made this amazing video of when he and Jim took supplies to a helicopter shuttle to send supplies to our other team living in a remote village. I absolutely love this video. It is our lives… I asked if I could share it with you, and he graciously agreed. So here it is! Enjoy a taste of GORGEOUS Madang Papua New Guinea! I’m SURE you will LOVE it!