Places We've Laid Our Heads

 OUR HOME!

Our Home July 2015-to-Present Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea. Formerly owned by Jeff and Kristen Brewer. We wish you were still here, but we love your house!

I (Matt) want to write this as a testimony to God's goodness to us! Our home here might not be impressive by American standards, but it is a great blessing to our family. It is actually beautiful and has more than we need. Compared to a typical PNG home, it is impressive!

We have a view of sunsets, coffee plantations, villages, gardens, and fields of kunai grass. We collect our rainwater in a big, aging metal water tank. We have 4 solar panels on the roof to give us piping hot water. In the back yard we have a banana patch. We have started growing corn, pumpkins, pineapples, beans, peppers, herbs, cucumbers, and soon...jalapenos!

When we sold our house in Boone in 2012, we didn't know where we would live, specifically. For the past three years we have lived or stayed in more than 30 or so homes! People have been so generous in opening their homes and sharing what they have with us.

The following is a short list of places we've stayed. Many houses have been left out.

Waxhaw NC, 1995-2015 We have been in and out of Nana and Papa Young's house for a long time.  It always feels like home! Many memories of breaks, summers, Christmases, and Holidays here.

Laurel Bloomery, Summer 2015 Grandma and Grandpa Golding's farmhouse in Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee. They have recently restored this house. Over furlough it became a special place for our family.

Vilas, NC Jan 2015-June 2015 We got to live in this house for 6 months of our furlough. It is owned by our friends Marta and Dave. It was a fun house in one of our favorite places: the mountains of Boone, North Carolina!

Long Island, Papua New Guinea June 2014  I (Matt) stayed in this beauty for two nights on a remote island. We were there for a Bible dedication. It was a short stay, but I had to include it for obvious reasons. It looks great but the floor was not much to sleep on and if I rolled through the open plastic wall on the far side I would have ended up in the ocean! Can't complain-no mosquitoes or rats! In the mornings you could watch large Blue Trevally swim underneath us.

Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea (Ukarumpa) January 2014-November 2014. We rented the Rehm's house...not a great picture of the house, but the kid is adorable.

Ukarumpa April 2013-January 2014. Our first rental house in Ukarumpa was the Troolin's house.

Just kidding! Never stayed here. I found this picture on the internet. Cool though, right? (Search: tree house, Indonesia)

Surumaran, PNG  March 2013-April 2013  Two villagers, Jems and Lidia, generously vacated their house for 5 weeks to let us stay there as we learned the culture and language. We learned so much from our time in this village.  It has a special place in our hearts.

Nobnob, PNG One night in February 2013 We stayed one night in Papa Ganig's house. Papa Ganig has been an employee of the Pacific Orientation Course school for many, many years.  We stayed here to begin to familiarize ourselves with the PNG way of life.

Pacific Orientation Training School, Madang, PNG  January 2013-April 2013  This one room dorm became our home while we were in training. It doesn't look like much and...it isn't.  However, it felt as clean as a hospital and as comfortable as the Hilton after coming back to it from village-living. We take for granted many conveniences we have.

Vilas, NC  June 2012-Dec 2012. We rented this place after we sold our house in Sugar Grove/ Boone, NC and before we left for Papua New Guinea in January 2013.

Sugar Grove, NC 2006- 2012 I built this home with the help of my brother and several others, on five acres. We sold it in 2012 so we could go to Papua New Guinea to work with Wycliffe Bible Translators. We loved this house, but we have never regretted selling it.

Yarinacocha, Peru, South America 1977-1995  This is my family in front of the only childhood home that I had. I spent the first 17 years of my life there. We have come full-circle. Now we also have two children and a home in a third world country. Like my childhood home, we also have two propane tanks, a house on posts, and a metal roof in the tropics. Nothing is quite as soothing as a rainstorm on a metal roof.

We have found these verses to be true! 

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

Mark 10: 29-30 “I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields - and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life."

This Guy Might Be Crazy (A Siane Language Adventure)

As I watched him I thought, "This guy might be crazy." He was an old man. For the first time ever he was listening to an AudiBible in his own language. The Siane language has had the New Testament for many years, but its use is not widespread. Many people cannot read. We were on a short exploratory trip to determine if an audio recording of the Bible would be well-received and if people would use it. As I watched this guy holding the Audi Bible to his ear, it looked like he thought he was talking on a cell phone. He kept talking to it. I thought he was saying "Nau nite. Nau nite.", which in Tok Pisin means, "Tonight. Tonight." I wondered who this poor old man thought he was talking to. As it turned out, what he was really saying was "O Nae! O Nae!", which in his language means, "This is True! This is Good!" He was in fact an old believer, and he was absorbing every word that came out of this little solar-powered device. Every time someone listened to it they had a similar excited reaction.

 Our trip started out rough. Scott Carey, Ivan Dishman and I left our center early on a Saturday morning, the day after Christmas. Other drivers and people along the road kept warning us to turn around. About an hour into our trip we realized that was good advice. We came upon a road block.  It was Boxing Day, a National holiday, and for some reason this caused unrest all along the Highlands Highway.  There were reportedly multiple road blocks. After seeing our first one we decided it would be better to turn around quickly and head for home. We would try again the next day.

Sunday was much smoother and after driving for a few hours as we were approaching our destination, something odd happened.  While having a different color skin is noticed everyday, we'd never had someone try to stop us like that. We were at the peak of the Dualo Pass, one of the highest points in the area. It felt a little like a different country and it was covered in fog. Normally we would not even slow down, however a nice Toyota Cruiser was pulled over and they were waving us down. As we hesitantly pulled up next to them, they asked us if they could take a picture of us with them. We first said no and that we needed to head on. However after finding out that the driver was a police commander, we thought it might be a good time to stop and reorganize our cargo which was not strapped down well.

 Not fully realizing that this might be a divine appointment, we got out. Another police car pulled up. After learning what we were doing, they said that Siane was their "Tok Ples", their language! Scott immediately pulled out a small electronic WiFi device that contained not just the Siane language New Testament, but also The Luke video (Story of Jesus) and  Mark chapters 1-4 in Audio (which is all that has been recorded to date). This special device allows anyone within range to download all of that to their cell phones. Almost instantly the cell phones came out. The young kids understood the technology better than their parents, just like it is in America. At the same time, we began playing the Audio Bibles for them. Their eyes were big as they heard the Bible being spoken to them in their heart language. The police commander was very familiar with the printed Bible and owned one. He however, told us that hearing the Bible in his language was so "swit", sweet (but also means good or nice). Over and over he said how pure the language recording was and that it was so piercing and he felt it in his core. We left after half an hour, excited about our unexpected stop.
Our connection in the village was Pastor Benjamin and his wife Carolin, long time friends of Scott. They graciously hosted us. We slept in their home and Carolin cooked for us. I loved getting to know this genuinely happy family. I pray that God continues to protect them and let them be a light in their community.

Pastor Benjamin, his wife Carolin, and their family.

Jim, one of the original national translators for the Siane Language.

This lady was so excited to hear the Gospel of Mark spoken to her in her own language. She sat right there listening for a long time, calling to others to come listen.

Some of Benjamin's family. Even though this wasn't his dialect, he said it was clear to him and he really liked hearing it. He asked if we would leave it with him for the afternoon and so we did.

Ivan and I loved meeting new friends in the Siane area.

Our trip was short, but encouraging. There were many other things that occurred on this trip that were out of the ordinary, including running into Sam Kenni (striped shirt), who works on our center. This is his language and he has the ability to record all of the Siane language onto AudiBible. He was randomly there for Christmas break. Coincidence? I don't think so. He works closely with our center and could be instrumental with making this happen. We now realize that many people in this language group could definitely use the full recording of the New Testament. This has been a long-time desire for Scott and I was thankful to be included. We are contemplating how to make a complete recording a reality.

Back in Papua New Guinea!

It's all coming back...tropical rainstorms, parrots chirping, Tok Pisin (our language skills are a bit rusty, but we're getting there!), hanging clothes on the line, a hot Christmas season...the list goes on! We are happy to be back in PNG after being in the U.S. for almost 11 months and we're so thankful for the many, many people who made it possible for us to come back and serve here. Thank you for praying us safely here and for supporting and encouraging us!

I wanted to share a photo-journal of our trip here and the first few days settling in. It was a long journey, but a little easier this time since we had done it before and sort of knew what to expect!

Checking in! When you're moving somewhere for three years, you have a lot of bags (those aren't ALL ours, but 8 of them are!).

This was our second plane, the BIG one! It had two levels and 10 seats in each row! We enjoyed watching movies and even got a little bit of sleep on the 14-hour flight.

At the Brisbane airport we had to re-check our bags. Grayson and Brianna were a lot of help while we wheeled the carts around. It's nice that they've grown up a bit and could push this time!

Waiting for our third flight, from Brisbane to Cairns, Australia. Can you see the kangaroo on the tail of our plane?

Seeing parts of the Great Barrier Reef through the water between Australia and Papua New Guinea was really cool!

Finally, our LAST flight! It was noticeably hotter in Papua New Guinea! Only an hour and a half away from Ukarumpa, our "other home"!

We had a huge group of friends waiting to greet us at our aviation center (you can see them if you look carefully near the center of the photo)! We felt very welcomed and it was good to see friends we had been missing.

Airing out our things that had been in storage during our time in the U.S.

We were so thankful to find out that our shipment had arrived before we did!

This is the view from our front yard - we can't complain! In the distance you can see what turned out to be quite a rainstorm, complete with hail! It rained so hard that water came in through our windows even though they were closed!

Our Homeless U.S. Tour, Part Two

I'm not gonna lie...a month is a LONG time to be on the road. Although we've pretty much been living out of suitcases for the past three years, for some reason we're still not totally used to it! And we're looking forward to settling back into life in Papua New Guinea when we head back in October/November (we have a house there now!). But, we are SO thankful for the time we spent on the road and for being with people we miss when we're not in the States!

We spent two weeks with my sister and her family (Brianna and Grayson's only cousins) in Connecticut for two weeks, went camping, and made lots of good memories to take back overseas with us!

All of the cousins together!

Intently enjoying ice cream from a local dairy farm.

It's so nice to have smooth roads to ride bikes on (not so much in PNG)! The cousins rode bikes just about every afternoon.

We get a lot of great, tropical fruit in Papua New Guinea but we sure do miss blueberries! Picking them was such a treat!

So much sister and cousin love in one picture!

Somehow, this felt luxurious after village-living in PNG! We had clean running water, electricity, and a bathroom within walking distance! :) What a great time with my whole family!

I even got to see an old friend from growing up in Africa, Abby Neilson (Griffis)! It's awesome that time apart doesn't change some friendships!

The town where my sister lives has free bike rentals and a great bike path. It was a little like herding cats, but after awhile we were on our way and had fun!

Brianna photo bomb!

I'm pretty sure that line on the sign is a road, not a fence.

Big trees seem to be a theme on this trip - we visited the biggest tree in Connecticut before going for a swim in the river!

We are thankful for the unexpected blessing of being able to go on a long trip to see so many of our friends, family and ministry partners that we would not have been able to see if we had left for PNG in July. We also had the opportunity to share with two churches about our Wycliffe ministry in Papua New Guinea, as well as what Wycliffe is doing throughout the rest of the world.

We want to thank several generous givers for making it possible for us to go on this trip! Although we were initially very disappointed about not being able to go back to PNG until October, we are now seeing the many ways in which God's plan is so much better than ours!

Our Homeless U.S. Tour...Part One

Our original plan was to return to Papua New Guinea at the end of June, which was also when we had to move out of our rental house. Now that our returning to PNG has been delayed until October, we've had to find a new place to live until then...and our next house isn't available yet! So, what do you do when you have nowhere to live?

Go on a month-long road trip, of course!

Actually, our extended time in the U.S. has turned out to be a blessing in disguise, partly because we're getting to reconnect with family, friends, and ministry partners that we probably wouldn't have had the time to see if we'd left as planned in June!

Here's a mini photo journal of our trip so far:

Visiting our good friend, Caleb Chesebro, and his boys in southern Indiana.

Sunset on Lake Michigan.

Brianna and Grayson got to meet my cousins' kids in Lansing, Illinois for the first time!

Look what we found in downtown Chicago!

In awe of "The Bean".

Brianna got to experience deep-dish, Chicago-style pizza...the sauce was on top!

So different from what we're used to in Papua New Guinea!

We got to stay with my Aunty Alice and Uncle Bob while we were in Illinois. We didn't want to leave!

Our next stop was Russell, Pennsylvania where our friends, the Cliffords, took us raspberry picking!

These didn't all make it home. :)

Thank you, Diane!

We found the biggest Christmas tree ever! We could even go inside to a big open space to play in!

Grayson was the first to find the "secret door" into the tree.

Next, we got to visit Niagara Falls in Buffalo, New York!

It was so special to enjoy time with our friends there!

Our next stop was to visit Matt's cousin, Erik, and his family in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Three years is a long time to be away from family, but it doesn't take long to become friends again. Brianna and Grayson had a blast dressing up in silly costumes!

Now, we've made it to Connecticut to my sister's house! We had a great hike in the woods yesterday.

We still have a little over two weeks to go until we head back to North Carolina. We're so thankful for the time that we have to spend with our family and friends that we so rarely get to see. We're overwhelmed by God's provision for us and are so thankful for our friends and ministry partners that we get to visit along the way!