Baptism

Last Sunday 7 people were baptized! It was wonderful!

Here is the path down to the water..

This pic was taken on Saturday, so no, that's not someone getting baptized, its just someone having a bath... 

After the baptism, the church had a mumu... that is a feast in PNG... they kill a pig, and make this fire pit, that you see here, and roast the pig, sweet potatoes (they call them kaukau... pronounced, 

cow-cow) and tapiok... thats a root of a tree, and other stuff, and then roast it for awhile, and then cook rice and boiled bananas... As we were dishing the mumu onto people's plate, some people were only getting pig fat for meat, and you could still see roasted pig hair in it... it was pretty awful looking, but they were all excited to get it!! So that's what matters I guess!!!

Anyways, here is Jim, on the left , and Michael, on the Right, readying the mumu place...

Sunday morning, we had a lot of visitors for the baptism!! We couldn't get everyone in the pic, but you get the basic idea... I think there were about 200 people there in all..

Here are the nationals giving there testimonies of salvation... 

from left to right ( Jim, Philemon, Micheal, his wife Jacqueline, Sister Fay, Hannah, and Jim's wife, Cathy.)

Here they are at the baptism sight.

As you can see, they put a tarp in the water to cut down a little on the dirt and muck...

People here throw crushed flowers in the water as people are getting baptized.. So that's whats floating in the water.

Here is Cathy getting baptized.

And here is Philemon..

And this is some of the reception line waiting to hug all the people that got baptized!

Thank you for taking the time to pray for these people, and for the baptism! Please continue to pray that the Lord will keep them faithful, and serving him!! 

The Boys

Here are just some pics of the boys during the last couple of weeks! They are so much fun, and certainly keep us running all day, it seems... :-) 

Our goofy little Paul! We never know what we will find him doing next... yesterday i found him sleeping in his bed with a teething ring hooked on his nose, and he was fast asleep!!

Little Elisha, now sometimes called by his middle name- Hudson,  because many of the nationals here can't pronounce Elisha... Anyways he's a happy, smiley little guy, and is starting to coo, and is so sweet!

Paul riding the trash can and wearing Lishie's hat. 

 Paul just running around outside... his favorite thing to do, besides helping Daddy!!

Elisha is now almost 3 months!

Paul and his friend, Jeron, in the background... Jeron is only about three weeks older than Paul ... 

I was able to find Paul a swim suit with swimmers inside the suit! It works great, and we got it for free at a mission station about 2 hrs away! It was such a blessing, since Paul loves water, and doesn't think there is any danger in just jumping into the brook...

And here's our little smiley Lishie again!

Outreach to Anasina Village

The last few weeks have been full with baptism classes, outreach, new convert classes, and many other things, but we did snap a few pictures, hope you all ENJOY!!

Here we are, going on outreach! Tim's taking the pic so he's not in it...

When we got to the village, several guys were sitting around a fire making spears.

Here's a pic of someones bow and arrows...

Paul isn't afraid of anyone, and walks right up to them, and starts shaking hands and saying, "Morning"!

Heres  one of the spear heads one guy was making... 

Here is everyone that went on outreach that day.... they are sitting on our back porch..

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Tribal Fight Anasina vs. Abinomo

During the middle of September, the church hosted a huge youth camp! It was to start on a Monday, but the Saturday before, a tribal fight started.  I will try to explain the fight in the pictures.

This is Saturday morning, when a huge group of warriors from Abinomo went to Anasina, demanding a compensation because a man in there village had died from natural causes, but they thought that someone from Anasina had practiced "poison tok" on them, causing them to die..

As they were all traipsing across our station, some Australians that came for the camp went running out and bought some bows and spears off of the warriors... here is Hadassah Crowe holding some!

So around 3:30 Sunday afternoon, a huge fight broke out... Tim and I were sitting in the living room, chatting with some visitors when we started hearing war cries! I looked out the kitchen window, only to see a huge line of warriors storming down the mountain, crossing the creek, and coming up onto the station. Tim went running outside along with some other people. I could see all the warriors in from and behind our house running towards the fight!  To make a long story short, Tim and Sam Crowe drove into the middle of the fight... Sam was driving, but Tim was riding on the back of the truck! Only by God's protecting hand was he not shot with any spears! They were calling out for them to stop fighting, and usually if a white man does this, they will stop fighting, but not this time... it went on for about 4 hours, Tim went to both sides, talking with the chiefs and trying to get them to stop, but to no avail. Finally at dark, the fighting stopped, and the warriors started the walk back home, singing a victory song the whole way.

The next day, Tim and some nationals went back up to Abinono, you can see in the pictures they are all still holding their spears and bows! And Tim was able to preach to them, and they promised not to fight until camp was finished.

Some more Abinomo guys.

There were about 500 of these warriors fighting in the fight on Sunday afternoon.

This is the walk back to the station from Abinomo... You can see a big river in the picture... that is the Yonki Dam river...

This is a view of the station from Abinomo... you can see the top of the white tents that were set up for youth camp.

Then after going to Abinomo, Tim went up to Anasina and preached to them as well. As you can see they are all still holding bow and arrows as well... There were only about 57 of these warriors in the fight, but they were able to hold off the 500 from the other side, Tim said it was amazing to watch! I just locked the doors of our hut, thank the Lord several Australians had come for the youth camp and we were all able to pray while the fight was going on!

Some more Anasina boys!

Thank you to everyone for all of your prayers!!! We have seen the Lord doing a great work, but the still haven't made a peace treaty yet, so please don't stop praying!!! We will try to post some more later!

End of August/First of September

As most of you know, it has been pretty busy over here in PNG lately!! However we did manage to snap some pictures during the last couple of months that we thought you might enjoy!! Sorry it has been so long, but hope you enjoy!!!

We were able to snap a picture of our midwife holding Elisha! She was so sweet and nice!!

Here one of my friends, Koninga, is holding Elisha, her little son Marten is in the left hand corner of the picture.

Paul loves playing with his Tonka Truck!!!

One Sunday we put Paul down for a nap, and we found him fast asleep in his little brothers bouncer about an hour later!

One day while Tim was gone to Lae, Paul, Elisha, and I had a picnic.

It ended up being like a dirty throwing party to Paul!

Paul loves helping daddy fix things! There is nothing more exciting that getting into the tools! One day I told him his teddy bear was broken because the batteries in it had run out, so a few minutes later I look over to see him trying to fix his bear with daddy's Makita drill!

Paul loves Elisha, and is always wanting to do things with him! And when Elisha hears Paul, his eyes start to sparkle too!! It is so sweet!!!

Will try to post some more pictures soon!

Elisha Hudson Lewis

Thank you to everyone that prayed for us, and the birth of the new baby!!! The Lord has blessed in so many wonderful ways! We went to Lae on August 7th to wait for the baby to come, since the hospital is there in Lae. Elisha Hudson Lewis was born on August 18th at 5:00 p.m. and weighs 8lbs 2oz, and is 21 inches long! We went to the hospital at 8 on Tuesday morning, and were able to leave the hospital 26 hours later! A national midwife helped with the delivery, and I wish that I had gotten a picture of her with Elisha, but it slipped my mind at the time. Anyways, here are some pictures, and we hope you enjoy them! 

Elisha seems to be a pretty content baby, and sleeps a lot!!

Still at the hospital, waiting to be released.

Paul loves his brother, and is always trying to hold him, and care for him!!!

Paul loves lying down with Elisha too!!!