Christmas Decorations

The First Christmas here was different from any other Christmas, but we had a wonderful time, and enjoyed making things, and trying to make it feel Christmasy!

Here are some stockings I made out of old sweaters...

I found some greenery off of a "yard" tree... thats what they call the tree here..

and the red berries I found off of a "tunget" plant..

I printed some 3D houses and colored them for a small village...

I made a couch cover for our white couch, that was turning brownish from wear...

Also, Tim got me some yarn so that I could make some garland by finger knitting..

Also, we made a rustic looking wreath from dry passion fruit vines... I was going to try to spray paint it white, (Tim's idea) but we didn't get to it in time...

And we would spend some evenings just drinking hot chocolate and spending time as a family!! It was so nice!!!

Paul was very much enjoying staying up late and drinking hot chocolate with us!!

Tim takes Paul with him a lot on outreach, even if Elisha and I can't go... so here they are, heading out on visitation!!!

Paul has been learning how to pass out tracts this month...

And here is our little sleepy head, about to drop off to sleep!

Then Tim went to Lae one day, and surprised us by buying a Christmas tree!!! It was such a wonderful surprise! I had been praying for one!!! And he found this tree for only about $6.00 and it is about 4 feet tall!!

Paul helping to decorate the Christmas tree for the first time!!

Tim also was able to buy us a washing machine!!! It has been such a huge blessing!! We had been borrowing the Crowe's washing machine before, but now the Lord has blessed us with one of our own!!! We are so thankful!!

And here is Paul enjoying a sweater that Mrs. Bamford sent him!!! Thank you very much!!! It fits perfectly!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and may the Lord continue to draw us all closer to Him in this new year!!! 

Grass Roof Hut/House

We are so thankful that the Lord has been blessing us with rain!!! It has been an overly dry year, and several parts of PNG, people have to go to the river and haul all of their water. However, we had a few hard rains, and our roof started leaking, so we went to Yababi and got some new Kuni grass bundles. Several men from our church offered to fix it for us, and that was a huge blessing!!!

Here are the grass bundles... I felt just like "little pig" making a house out of straw :) 

The men arriving to fix the roof... by the end, there were 11 men helping to fix our roof!! It was a blessing!!!

From the left...

(Iso, Rodney, Pita, Silua, Philimon, Tobi)

Our roof before they started.

David

Silua, working inside our house to find all the leaking spots.

Iso and Rodney making "rope" out of strips of bark to tie the "pit-pit" cross-pieces to the wood frame of the roof.

Here is the wood rope, and the pit-pit is there on the right side... it looks like tiny bamboo.

The bundles of old grass went onto the tarp to burn later...

Taking off the old grass.

Still making rope..

Philimon with little Kipsi

Iso and David taking a break...

from left... (Rodney, Silua is lying down, and Iso on the right.)

Iso and Silua are brothers, and they both got saved recently...

Rodney trimming all the grass from the inside...

And then they all sat down for a meal, and of coarse, you can see Paul in there, wanting his own share :)

So this is the finished product!! They did such a nice job!!!

What the new roof looks like from the inside!!

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day was very "untraditional" for us, as there was so much to do, but we did find time to make a pie, and have a nice meal together... We had all written something that we were thankful for, almost every day in November, and put them all into a container, and on thanksgiving day, we read them all!!! It was really fun...

Here is Tim and Paul on Thanksgiving Day!

We had a couple of family pictures taken awhile ago, but I thought you all might enjoy them!

And here is our apple pie!!! MMMmmm!!! Thank you to whoever sent us over the apple pie filling!!! It was so delicious!!!

And another family picture. This pic was taken out in front of our house.