Saturday Night Phone Call!

We received a phone call from Brad and Karissa tonight.  They had just gotten back from the Sunday morning service in the village.  They are doing well.  I wasn't able to get a lot of details but found out they were able to distribute around 60 AudiBibles so far.  They mentioned that It's very hot, but they are able to do their laundry in a sink with collected rainwater and then hang it to dry under the house they are staying in!  We can't wait to hear more stories from their trip!

Thanks again for your prayers!  Kim

Friday Update

Our apologies for not updating for a few days.  LaVeryl, Anessa, Brad and Karissa left Ukarumpa a day and a half ago.   Max Voss emailed me later that day that they made it to the village. She wrote me last night, "I got a quick call this morning.  They wanted a number for someone here since they were having a few issues with trying to get the files to work with the Sabers (crank-recharged mp3-like players that were used previously) that are out there.  I asked if everyone was well, and it was affirmative.  Tomorrow they are going to start going to a different village."

Thank you for covering this trip with your prayers.   Kim

Tuesday update

Hello!  Things are going great in Ukarumpa.  We had a wonderful time at Sunday worship in the morning and at night with praise and a report of a Bible dedication.  Monday was filled with a variety of activities including loading the Sim cards into the AudiBibles.  It sounds easy, but doing it 200 times over and checking each one to make sure it works too took a good bit of the afternoon.  We also got a treat as we had burger and chips (big fries) at noon at the 'Store'.  That is the name, 'Store', so that should tell you where you go to buy things here.  It does have a nice selection of items including beef crackers and digi cell top up cards (prepaid cell phone minutes).  I love learning new terms and think I may be using some of them correctly.  Last night we had a scrumptious meal of puk puk fajitas (crocodile meat, just like chicken).  We did have pot roast and baked potatoes on Sunday so we are eating well.  We have also tried new things like kulau (a young coconut), sugar cane, and more tasty fruits that we know from the US like oranges, strawberries (!!!), and bananas.
Today was a great day as Karissa got to play trumpet-clarinet duets with Anessa and help Anessa paint part of the senior lounge at their school.  Painting that room is apparently normal for the incoming senior class to do here.  I got to exercise in the weight room which is very close to where I am at.  Speaking of that, I am staying in the other half of the duplex that the Voss's are in and Karissa is staying in Anessa's room as planned.  The family that owns it is back in the states right now so it works out great.
We will be getting the items needed to update the existing AudiBibles tomorrow and doing last minute preparations before we fly out on Thursday.  We are not sure exactly what we will find when we arrive in the village as the translator is not currently there.  Please pray that everything will be in good order and that the people will be receptive to getting the Bible as we work to be the arms and legs of Jesus.
It probably did not make the news in the states, but we had a 5.4 earthquake last night around midnight here.  I was asleep in bed at the time, but the boards stacked behind my bedroom door fell over and caused the door to slam shut.  That was enough to wake me up.  No aftershocks that I noticed so now I can check that off my list of things to do while here :)

Brad and Karissa

A few pictures for you now

 Here are some images of our travel and the market in Ukarumpa on Monday morning as well as us in the yard at the Voss'  Enjoy!

We're here!!

Hello from PNG!!!   We apologize that we haven't been very good about updating the blog, but hopefully we will be able to write more since we have a steady source of wifi for few days. Thank you for all your prayers on our behalf, they are much appreciated.  There are many things I could say about our flights, but suffice it to say that we never missed a connecting flight and were conscious when we arrived in Port Moresby, where we were met after immigration by Mosley who was a tremendous help.  He lead us straight to Mapang house where we had a toasty room ready for us to spend the night.  The next day, after a quick hour long flight to Nadzab by Lae, we were met by the Vosses who were a most welcome sight.  Karissa was so excited she dropped her luggage on the spot and gave Anessa a great big hug.  The truck was having starting problems, but after a prayer for help, some locals showed up and pushed the truck while LaVeryl started it.  We didn't have any truck troubles at all on the way up to Ukarumpa!  We spent about 3 hours in the truck and were able to take in the gorgeous scenery--pictures do not do the PNG landscape justice!  If you've ever been to a Montana, it's kind of like that, but with palm trees instead of evergreens.

This morning we went to church (in English!), and it kind of reminded me of church at home.  Ukarumpa is sometimes called Little America because of all the English speakers here.  After dinner, we went to a river and skipped rocks :)

Anyways, feel free to comment, and please keep on praying for us!  Especially for the truck, it's still not working quite right.  Everything else seems to be working out great.
Karissa :)

We're ready to go and hope to arrive in Ukarumpa on Saturday night (local time) which is early Saturday morning in the States.  Please pray for safe travels.  Thank you.

Prayer request

We will be traveling the Bariai area in a couple of weeks via helicopter. We will be on our own for a week after being dropped off as the helicopter has other important things to attend to. Once we are dropped off we will distribute as many AudiBibles as we can. The area we will cover is rather large so we would like to travel by boat so we can maximize the number of people contacted. There is no reliabe source of fuel for the boats so we would request prayers that a shipment of fuel arrive before we do so we can reach as many people as possible with our distribution. I know it sounds a little odd, but that is what we are challenged with.

Thanks for your prayers!

Here is Ukarumpa from the air, where we will be staying for a few days before heading to the Bariai area.

Here is a picture of where we will be visiting in a few short weeks!  Can't wait to go.

This is our pile of things we have organized so far. We have some more work to do before we leave in two weeks!