3 weeks in Madang

Who would have thought three weeks could go so fast!

I am tired to say the least as I write this email.  I think Lorie would say the same thing about herself.  It has been a busy three weeks in Madang.  Moving just seems to come with it’s difficulties as well as it’s joys.  We have run the gamut of various tasks.  The home was the most strenuous.  We have been unpacking and organizing the home for the whole three weeks.  Praise the Lord, we are finally feeling more settled, and regular patterns of life from before are starting to emerge.

Homeschool

Lorie started homeschooling the kids on Monday, August 20th.  One of the first things she noticed, was the increased workload.  Those kids just keep growing and they are in higher grades than before.  It just takes more time.  Lorie teaches the kids from 8:30am until lunch time, then closes up remaining subjects right after lunch.  I have the privilege of teaching grammar to Greer in the mornings.  He has become a fun student of sentence diagramming. Belle is progressing in reading and some dictation.  And, Lord willing the remaining curriculum that we shipped will be here in the next three weeks.

Knox is doing very well, but has some areas that he needs to improve in.  Lorie was able to get some great help for Knox while we were in the States.  Please don’t hear me wrong, he is doing well in school, there is just a need to give him strategic teaching in order to correct some speech and reading difficulties he has.  Thanks to the help he was able to get from sweet friends while we were on furlough, we now simply get to carry those tools along with him. God is so good to give us the opportunity to homeschool our kids.  Praise the Lord, they are doing so well.

Logistics and Administration

I have had my hands in various areas of work since being back.  I organized, cleaned, and built some furniture for organization in the first week.  Then performed maintenance and dug into the organization’s finances and accounting these past two weeks.  We are so thankful to the Noyes family, who stepped into our role while we were away.  They kept things running for logistics, helped coordinate entry visas for Amelia and Work Permits for the Mitchells.  Craig Noyes got a “crash course” on the Logisitcs role right before we left, and all things considered, he did a very good job.

I have used this week to move the accounting over to a completely new system.  It streamlines the accounting side of administration and increases efficiently with the goal of saving time entering data.  It will also allow missionaries in the field, like the Canns, Mitchells and Amelia, to receive updates on their PNG finances more regularly.  There is still a good portion to complete but the massive data-move is done.  The good news, record keeping is already faster!

There is much more work on the horizon, but there will always be more work to do.  Seeing our friends has been an immense joy!  Every time we walk outside the gate or go to town, there is someone coming over to see us, or us coming over to see them.  So many people remembered and missed us.  Praise the Lord, we can say the same thing about them.  It is good to be back home in Madang.