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!

Hi everyone! Yes, we are alive and well, despite what probably seems like a long silence on this page of our blog! Check out the "Snapshot Sundays" page if you want to see more about what we've been up to so far during our furlough time in the U.S. We update that page weekly with a photo and short blurb.

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have been praying for us and encouraging us! We've been busy catching up with family, friends, and partners, as well as meeting new people...all while preparing to head back to Papua New Guinea by the end of June. We thank God for each of you!

If you'd like to see our latest newsletter update, click HERE.

If you would like to start receiving our newsletter updates, please email me at laura_young@wycliffe.org.

More to come soon!

Love,
Laura

We made it!

After lots of packing and goodbyes, six flights, and countless airport hours...we've made it back to the U.S.! We flew from PNG to Indonesia, then on to Hong Kong, Vancouver, Texas, and finally, North Carolina. Thank you so much for praying for us along the way! It's hard to describe how it feels to see our family again after two years...our cups are full! We will try to give another update soon, but just wanted to let everyone know we've made it safe and sound!

Goodbyes are never fun, but we were so happy to have our dear friends see us off!

Indonesia: Anybody want lunch?

Headed to Hong Kong!

The Hong Kong airport was BIG! After awhile, the kids needed a break.

Visiting friends in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was so strange to be COLD!

Grayson, reunited with his Grandpa Golding in North Carolina!

Even friends from Ukarumpa met us at the airport - what an awesome surprise!

Aitape-A Tsunami Story (Matt)

New Translator/ Center manager's house.

Women's dorm down below, with an office and flat on the top.

Four of my six carpenters had never flown before!  

Last month we flew out to the Sepik area to build a two-story women's dorm and another house.  After months of planning and logistics it finally came together.  Aitape West is almost as far west as you can go on the northern coast and still be in Papua New Guinea. 

One confused river and the many different twists it's taken.

In 1998 a tsunami leveled the trees and villages on the islands and ground that the Arop people lived on. Estimates are that 2,000 people lost their lives that day. Late in the day, an earthquake triggered a tsunami. Many who survived were washed more than a half mile across the lagoon and spent the night struggling in the mangroves. Others were trapped in various locations or carried out to sea. Many were never found.  I teared up as Emil, one of Arop's main Papua New Guinean translators, shared his story with us. He was trapped with a badly damaged leg. Many family members and friends were killed.  His story is told in the book Sleeping Coconuts written by John and Bonnie Nystrom. They were the American translators whose house was destroyed, but fortunately were not there. For a video of the story, click HERE. 

Many of the men helping us build had stories of being washed away when they were 5-10 years old.  Somehow they survived by holding onto driftwood and spending the next 12 hours in darkness, in crocodile-infested mangroves.

One of many unpopulated islands in PNG.

After the tsunami, several villages moved far enough inland to where they felt safe from the wrath of another disaster, and resettled.  The team started a fresh translation center in the new village. It has grown and grown and many more staff and translators have joined the project.  As they have grown, so has the need for more buildings.  This center runs impressively off of solar power and at times a small generator.  They have a huge satellite dish to communicate with the outside world (some of you may have seen Facebook updates while I was there).

I loved getting to know these guys as we worked in this intensely hot and humid area of Papua New Guinea.  The highlands where we live has spoiled us with nice, cool sleeping weather and comfortable daytime highs.

After we landed, Kevin (eyes closed) said, "I didn't like when we went into the clouds."

 When we started I was thinking that if we could accomplish what we set out to do, I would be really impressed.  I was impressed! 

Michael Wright, another builder in my department, took my place a little more than halfway through. He flew out with all the doors and some badly needed supplies. He finished the last two weeks of the project. Missy Smith, a manager there, was there the whole time. She worked out so many of the logistics of getting supplies and materials there, as well as having all the lumber cut by local saw mills. Much of it was literally walked out of the bush or carried by children from the road.

We may look overloaded, but this was before we bought about 30 boxes of food.

Gas Station! Probably the nicest roadside one I've seen.

Day One

Day 16

Taji airstrip

Island that the Tsunami leveled. All the trees were laid flat.

Big community help in addition to our 7-man team.

Every meal cooked right here; Stingray, crab, rice, sago, kau kau and kumu!

River house, but not far from the ocean.

Eating smoked sago grubs! Really not bad.

Lapun Peter carving a new boat behind our project.

Day something!

Michael Wright aka "The Closer"

Stick Boy Bakery plug for our Boone friends

Tsunami site

Boat trip to the Tsunami site and market

Boat companion

Sak sak(Sago), asparagus on top of a bush rodent, and sago palm grubs! This market was entertaining. I actually bought the grubs...and ate them.

Water tanks are full, after a drought!

Missy worked out so many logistics of this project and it wouldn't have happened without her.

Kevin, Naneka, Norm, John, What's-his-name, Baffen