Welcome to Kudjip

Wow! It feels like we only recently started sharing the news of our plans to come to Kudjip, and we are already here!

Between flights in Manila

Arrival

We arrived safely on Tuesday, August 18! Prayer after prayer after prayer was answered: we made it here before the school year started; we had no issues with travel from Los Angeles to Manila to Port Moresby to Mt Hagen to Kudjip; we greatly exceeded our fundraising requirement of $19,003.75, which pays for 6 months of living expenses, and at the moment have raised $30,204.94 (only $7,802.56 left to go for the year!); no one was lost; no one was injured; no one became severely ill; no baggage was lost; and no one has missed a meal! Some of these prayers may seem trivial, but we believe in a God who hears us and who cares about even the smallest things that may be causing us distress. 

Our welcome

The community here has been incredibly kind, having fed us five of our first nine dinners. They showed us all around the station and introduced us to several of the local missionaries and residents. We have especially enjoyed getting to know our language teacher, Emilyn, who is native to Kudjip. She has spent several hours teaching us how to speak Tok Pisin, and been incredibly patient as we go through the material. 

Paul is working hard to learn the ropes of teaching and facilitating the 7-12th graders, and is really enjoying getting to know them all. Gideon and Opalina have started classes with their new teachers and classmates, and absolutely love school. Rachel and Belladosia are enjoying their first few weeks together starting Kindergarten homeschool, and Rachel is looking forward to starting part-time work in the dental clinic later in September.

Running to class on their first day!

Praise and adjustments

Adjustments are still actively in progress: the language barriers with many of the locals; the strict water filtering and water conservation; the monthly meal planning to reduce treks to the larger grocery stores in Mt Hagen; and the new foods, plants, and insects. 

On Paul’s first day of teaching, he started the day out with prayer requests and praise reports. The students asked for prayer for rain, since it had been a particularly difficult dry season for Kudjip. That afternoon, it started raining; since then, it has rained every single day. There were probably a lot of people praying for rain, but it was a great experience for Paul’s students to see a prayer being answered so quickly. God is good!

Overlooking Jordan Valley

Prayer requests

We think we will really love being here, but are looking forward to being through the initial culture shock. We are very grateful to the Lord that He has called us and shown us exactly what His plan for us is right now. And we are also very grateful to all of you, for your prayers, encouragement, emotional support, and financial support. If you have any questions, comments, words of encouragement, would like to start financially supporting us, or would like to increase your current financial support, please contact us!

We are praying for all of you, that God would continue to bless you and guide you in your walk with Him. 

Nazarene Hospital

Many hugs!

Paul, Rachel, Gideon, Opalina, and Belladosia