Our Team - From left to right - Allens, Parrys and Hattons

We are very joyful, thankful and praising the Lord that He has recently answered that prayer!!!  We know many of you were praying for us specifically over the past several weeks as the Hatton and Parry families traveled to our center in the Madang region for more concentrated meetings to determine if our families should form a team together.  Thank you very much!  We had many full days of spending lots of time together as families, eating meals together and having important discussions on topics that often tend to cause problems on teams.   In general, we enjoyed time to just get to know each other better.   By the end of the 9 days, we were all confident that the Lord was leading us to work together!  Please praise the Lord with us for His direction!

Please continue to pray for us as we move ahead as a team.  What’s next?  Since we live in different  parts of PNG, the next major hurdle is figuring out a time and place when we can get together again to talk about team strategy and make plans for moving into a tribe.  The big decision that we need to make is regarding the tribal group in which to locate!!  The needs that remain in this country are great and we need the Lord’s wisdom as we narrow down the choices.  We’ll keep you updated as things progress.

January 2012 newsletter-web

Agnes

We go to visit Agnes, a young woman who is serving a 12 year sentence for a pretty serious crime.  We don’t know if she is guilty or if she is just taking the blame for someone else.  Agnes is from a tribal group where an NTM couple has been working for years.  These missionaries asked if we would be willing to take Agnes the Bible lessons in her tribal language for her to read and study.  These are the same lessons that the missionaries used to present the Gospel to her tribe several years ago.

No one else in the prison speaks her tribal language so when we first gave her the lessons and she was able to read her language again, it was a very special time! She told us on our next visit that the book (containing the Bible lessons and verses in her language) was now her best friend!  We don’t know how many times she has read through the lessons – probably lots.  This next time we go we will also be taking her the complete books of Genesis, Exodus and Mark that the missionaries have translated.

Now, of course, we don’t speak Agnes’ tribal language, but we are able to communicate with her in Pidgin.  So, Agnes reads the lessons on her own and then when we visit her, we talk to her about what she has read.  We only have about 30 minutes with her each time we go.

That we know of, we are the only visitors she ever has.  It is a really neat opportunity for us and for our kids to be able to be a blessing and encouragement to Agnes.  All of us really look forward to our prison days!  Luke and Titus enjoy the long walk from the prison entrance – down a big hill, back up another hill and then on to the actual fenced-in women’s prison area.  While we sit and talk with Agnes, they either play and talk together or make up a game with whatever they find lying around.  Caleb just smiles and tries to grab the books!  Of course, all the ladies in the prison love to see and touch the white baby!  Having never been in prison, I can only imagine what it must be like to be separated for that long from your spouse and children.  Our arrival usually brings a smile to lots of faces.

Reading the Bible lessons

Will you please be praying for our family as we spend time with Agnes?  Pray that we would be able to clearly communicate with her as we talk with her about the lessons and Scripture that she has been reading and studying.  And please pray for Agnes -that she would have good understanding of what she is reading and that she would believe it!  Please pray that Agnes will trust in Christ alone for her salvation!

Introducing Caleb to PNG

Mumu and singsing in a nearby village

Thanks for looking at our photos!

Well, we are in a waiting phase right now.  For any that are new to reading this blog and as a recap for the rest of you, here’s a short history of the past few years for our family.

- Two years of Bible school
- Two years of missions training
- One semester of linguistics training
- Almost 2 years of raising support
- Arrived here in PNG in December 2009
- Completed orientation and learned the national language (Melanesian Pidgin)
- Went back to the U.S. to have our 3rd son Caleb
- Returned to PNG in May 2011

Throughout this time, we have had the goal of being tribal church planters.  And that remains our goal. However, at this time we don’t know what tribal group we will be working in or who we might have as co-workers.

If you have been reading our updates or following the  articles that we have posted on here, you know that we are in the process of evaluating the newest tribal work in our region.  We have been talking with the two families that are currently working there (they are in the early stages of learning language).  We even took a trip out to California when Caleb was just a few weeks old so we could meet with the team (both families were on furlough then) and talk about us joining this work.  Everyone wants to be sure that moving ahead with us joining the team is a good decision – for us and for the team.  Working through this process just takes time.

So, that’s where we are right now – waiting!!  Currently one family is on furlough in the U.S. and the other family is in the tribe.  The earliest time we can all meet together again is at the beginning of August.

Will you please pray for our family as we wait on the Lord for His direction and guidance? And in the mean time we are keeping busy serving on our NTM center that supports all the tribal missionaries in our region.  We are also working on planning our tribal house and ordering equipment such as solar panels, batteries, etc. that we need to ship over from the States.  We long to get to work in a tribe but until the Lord opens that door, we want to faithfully serve Him where He has us right now.

Off to the garden

Lots of peanuts

Baby taking a nap

Caleb got his first ride in one the other day.   Our friend Katie wanted him to try it out, but he wasn’t too impressed.

"I'm not sure I like this!

Yes, that is Caleb in there

He did have a good time meeting some of our friends though.  A huge blessing since we’ve been back is that Caleb has adjusted so well to everything – the heat, new house, new faces…

Caleb and Godfried

Caleb and Pelsi

Emily and Caleb with Katie (Godfried's wife) and her two girls Jessica and Emily (10 months)

Everyone here loves the white baby!!  Just about everywhere we go, people want to touch Caleb.  Despite his somewhat slow start at gaining weight, he’s getting to be a little pudgy now and everyone loves that!

Everyone is adjusting well to being back here.  Luke and Titus are happy to be able to ride their bikes again, play in and build new forts, play with their Legos and be warm again! (You can click on any of the pictures to see a larger version.)

Titus working on a new fort

Luke reading in an old one

Caleb seems to be making the transition with no trouble at all.  The heat doesn’t seem to bother him much and he is sleeping pretty well now that we are all adjusted to this time zone.  He enjoys playing with toys, watching his brothers and of course eating and sleeping.

Caleb loves looking at the little duck above him

We’re enjoying some old family traditions like Friday pizza night with an episode of Andy Griffith or Little House on the Prairie, listening to kid’s stories on CD and playing board games together.  It’s been great to see our missionary and village friends again.  And we’re also readjusting to some of the other unique things about living here – buying our veggies from the market, stores not having things we want (like mayo, mustard, oatmeal, baking soda…) and driving on the other side of the road again.

But there have been some new things too.  Several evenings have been cooler than we ever remember it being here.  And the ants and little geckos that frequented our house before have not reappeared yet.  We’ve tried some new fruits too, such as the one  pictured below.  It looks like a hand grenade but the inside is a fleshy white fruit that surprisingly tastes kind of like yogurt!!

It tastes better than it looks!

Thanks for praying for us during this readjustment time!  We know this is where the Lord wants us and it’s good to be back here in PNG!

1. Our prescription at Walmart wasn’t ready because of some issue with the insurance.
2. Walmart didn’t have the right size zip ties that we needed so we had to make a stop at AutoZone too.
3. We stopped for lunch at a McDonald’s on the way.  In an effort to save time, we got our food to-go.  Bart asked for a burger with ketchup only for Luke.  It wasn’t until they got in the car that they found that Luke had gotten a bun with ketchup only – not even a burger!!!
4. It was about this time that Bart discovered his credit card was missing.  Did it fall out somewhere, did someone steal it…?  The last time he remembered having it was at the pharmacy in Walmart.  A call there confirmed that they did have it.  Thankfully it was not the credit card that we use in PNG!
5. We missed a turn getting back on the highway because the route number of the road we wanted had been changed.  We would have appreciated a sign that said something like – “this road was formerly…”
6. Once we got on the right road, we had to sit in traffic for a while due to bridge construction.
7. Finally at the airport, we were getting checked in and the lady helping us kept taking breaks to help everyone else in line too.  Good for those people, not so good for us as the time for our departure was getting  closer and closer.
8. Going through security, we had to have one of our bags rescanned several times.  Turned out that our shiny package of baby wipes was raising some concern until they figured out what it was.

So, our morning was kind of hectic and nerve-wracking.  We said our rushed, teary goodbyes and had our gate in view when we heard an announcement over the loud speaker – “United passenger Bart Allen – please report to Gate C51”!  We were the last ones to board the plane!!!  But we made it!!

And as I write this, we have made it as far as Cairns, Australia.  We are enjoying a few days here before we head to PNG.  After a really hectic last few weeks in the States and almost 24 hours of flying, we are feeling refreshed now and ready to get back to PNG.

We haven’t put many pictures on here or on Facebook recently so we’re including some below.

Luke and Titus with their Awana Sparks awards

The 3 brothers! We finally had a nice spring day so we could take a picture outside!

The boys by their tree at the farm

At the airport - our friends the Rices came along with Grandpa and Grandma to see us off

Caleb chilling out at our hotel in Australia

A highlight of our trip to the zoo - seeing lots of kangaroos!

Doesn't he look excited?

Now we’re just waiting for his entry permit (visa) for Papua New Guinea and we’ll be all set for our return on May 11.

Caleb James Allen

Our little Caleb arrived on 1/11/11 – about 3 weeks early!!  He weighed 7 lb. 9 oz.,  was 21 in. long and has lots of dark hair.  We are all adjusting to life with a newborn, but we are doing well.

The 3 brothers