Merry Christmas from the Stephensons!
As we
approach the end of this year, we are so thankful for the adventurous journey
that the last 12 months have taken us on. In November of last year, we moved to
Papua New Guinea, and since then we have had the amazing opportunity to live
and serve in this country.
Morgan has
been working with the Field Workshop to improve the mission housing, fix and
maintain mission vehicles, begin work on a new lodge building for the mission
station, and many more projects that generally keep life running smoothly here
at Kudjip Mission Station. He has rebuilt a clutch (that is something that goes
in an engine), laid wood flooring, moved tonnes of rock and gravel (a great
workout program!), and even gone swimming in a septic tank! (It was a brand new
tank only full of water.)
Danielle
has taught the Missionary Kid highschool, finding herself doing everything from
explaining 8th grade Pre-Algebra to drawing diagrams for 11th
grade Consumer Math to “explaining” (googling the explanation for) 12th
grade Physics. She has also subbed in as a PE teacher, taught a cooking class
(donuts, anyone?), and passed a rule for the classroom which allows only
correctly constructed paper airplanes to be flown.
Theron has
learned to talk while we have been here, and now liberally sprinkles his
conversations with non-English words. His favorites are “pundown” (fall down)
and “apinun” (good afternoon). He knows by name the Strawberry Man (John) and
the Asparagus Man (Wapi) who come by to sell us produce every couple weeks, and
he enthusiastically greets them. He also finds it important to shake the hand
of every security guard, jump off of every rock, and pick up every stick on the
way from our house to Grandma’s house.
Lula was
born while we were here, and now is already crawling around and pulling up! She
loves exploring the kitchen cabinets, and removing the labels from tin cans.
Fortunately I only buy two types of tinned food, and the cans are different
sizes easily told apart even without labels. Lula believes all people should be
equally grinned at, and makes a practice of dispersing her smiles liberally.
We will
return to the States in March of this year to begin working at a Christian Camp
ground in Colorado, so we are entering the last couple of months here in Papua
New Guinea. We have loved our time here, and are anxious to squeeze as much as
possible out of these last few months. Morgan is working to get some vehicles
up and running before he leaves, and Danielle is working to hand over the
running of the highschool to the new teacher arriving in a couple of months.
To you who
have allowed us to be here this past year with your support through prayer and over $24,000 of donations toward our financial requirement to be here, THANK YOU!!! You are amazing and we are so humbled that you have
seen us as worthy of your support. We have never gone hungry, we have always
had enough for each day, and for every need that arose.
We ask you
to pray with us and consider partnering with us during these last three months
as we wrap up our work here and buy tickets home. We still need about $2800 to be able to return home.
Pray for safe and
tantrum-free travels.
Pray for us to finish strong.
Pray for us to be able to
pour ourselves out to accomplish as much as possible during our last days here.
Thank you
for journeying with us this year!
Merry Christmas.
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