Merry Christmas 2020!

We're so happy to be home in PNG! Quarantining was a bit rough, but once we got out and about and plugged back into our community and work/ministries here, it all just seemed so very RIGHT. I sure miss my family, who we were so blessed to live near for seven months, but there's a lot of family of Christ here! Everyone has been wonderfully welcoming! Our PNG friends had heard a rumor that we were dead, so the joy of some is greatly magnified by relief that we're actually all completely healthy. 😄

 The kids have adored school and were seriously sad when it ended for the semester. They keep asking how many days until they can go back! Gracie is now reading chapter books, Marcie is reading the Gospel of John from her pocket Bible, Will frequently snuggles down with a book (often Calvin and Hobbes or other silly stories), Seth seems to be wanting to read for the first time in his life, and David can read fine but just loves building LEGO instead. He makes some very unique creations! They all still play their group games and make-believe and run around outside with each other and with friends in the neighborhood and community. 

We're getting a kitten in January, Lord willing! Our other cat and kittens died during our absence. 😞The new kitty is darling, and her name is Callie. She's too little to leave her mom yet, so we go visit her.

 

Our family lit the Advent candle at church on Sunday. I took the opportunity to insist on a Christmas picture or three after the service. 😊 The girls' dresses are from Grandpadad - each girl cousin got one. 

(I got this dress and Isaac's shirt for $1.75 each at a local secondhand store. It's amazing the things we can find there!)

Last week, Gavin medevac'ed a woman who had been in labor for FIVE days. I cannot imagine! He's also flown to lots of language areas and reconnected with PNG friends and ministry partners there. He's been working for three different mission organizations, keeping really busy but loving it all. 

The kids love to pretend they're flying in the helicopter. It's a lot less expensive than the real thing!

I am back at work and loving nearly every minute of it. One nine-month-old patient last week was truly at death's door with a terrible, likely bacterial, respiratory infection. Her white blood and "band cell" counts were alarming (16,000 and 43%, respectively, for you medical people), so she was transported to the closest hospital and hopefully put on IV antibiotics while receiving oxygen to keep her alive. I think her mom had to walk a LONG way in from the bush to get her help! I prayed for her life to be saved, both here and now and, more importantly, in Eternity. 

Gracie with a friend's daughter, Tori. She was SO sweet and patient as the quints passed her around! I love seeing healthy and happy babies! Her wonderful mommy is such a dear woman and sweet friend. 

We're looking forward to Christmas with other dear friends, grateful for our many, many blessings, including YOU! The Lord richly bless and keep you in His love and care, at this time of year especially.

In His grip,

Carrie for us all

Jones' Clips - We Are Home!

Our Itinerary to PNG

 We are busy taking care of final details and packing, while trying to soak up as much family time as possible.  All are excited to be returning home, but saying goodbye to Carrie's family, who all live right nearby, is going to be hard. The young kids have had a great time getting to know their cousins better over these last several months, so they will be missed!

We hope to take off from Dallas/Ft. Worth airport tomorrow at 4:55PM. Lord-willing, about 50 hours later, we will be disembarking from our 3rd flight on Papua New Guinean soil!  Then a final flight up to our home in the Highlands, where we will begin a two week quarantine.  Here are more details on our itinerary (for simplicity, all times are in US Central Time):

• Depart Dallas/Ft. Worth: 1655  - Arrive Doha, Qatar: 0815 (about 15 ½ hours)
• 2 ½ hour layover in Doha
• Depart Doha: 1045  -                   Arrive Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: 1810 (about 7 ½ hours)
• 16 hour layover - we are going to be able to rest in the transit hotel that is in the airport!
• Depart Kuala Lumpur: 12:05 -    Arrive Port Moresby, PNG: 1910.
• Depart Port Moresby: ~2100 -    Arrive Ukarumpa: 2230

We would appreciate your prayers for all the paperwork to be correct and acceptable for the transitions to be smooth, for our luggage to all arrive with us, for the kids to travel well and rest well.  But, most of all, that we would travel with the love of Christ evident in us and that we would handle the unexpected with grace!

Thank you all for your prayers and love!

Here is a picture of our family from last week (thanks to photographer Micah Trostle):

COVID Tests NEGATIVE!

All 8 of our COVID tests came back negative last night! We are so grateful to have the paperwork hurdles over with and we are ready to get on the airplane for PNG tomorrow afternoon! Please pray for some of the other families who were going to be heading back with us that have hit some bureaucratic roadblocks. We've had a few people ask about our itinerary.  I'll post that a little later.  Thank you for all your prayers!

Jones' Clips - 28 October 2020

Jones Update - 24 September

Jones Clips - September - While We Wait

Marcie and school update and possible travel plans!

Thank you all for your prayers! Marcie's surgery went very well and she has recovered quite quickly! She still needs pain medication and rest, but she has been far more active than we expected. 

David and the other kids were eager to comfort Marcie when she got home!

The day after our last post, we were notified that the kids were all accepted to the school that we had wanted to put them in when we first came back. (Isaac went there in second grade when the quints were born.)  There was no availability, but now there were space for all of them! They were so excited today to be able to go to school in person and it went very well. We and Marcie thought she was ready to go to school, but she had a bit of a tough day. We will probably keep her home for a few more days to recover, but they all had fun and did well. We are so thankful for this provision!

Also, we have just heard about a  flight next month with the World Food Program from Kuala Lumpur to Papua New Guinea. The people who just made it into PNG with our mission were on a similar charter flight. Please pray that our family could get on this coming flight! There are a lot of other details and issues to work on in preparation for the departure, should it happen.  

Thank you for your love and prayers!

Gavin +7

Prayers for school and Marcie and return to PNG

We are right where God wants us to be, that is clear to us.  There have good opportunities for growth in us as parents, in all of our kids, and in us as a family.  God has us learning more and more about himself and his goodness in trying times and it is good.  

It is hard, though, and we don't like a lot of what is happening.  Yet, learning to live with the joy of the Lord as our strength is what we are called to and are striving for.  

I'm sure many of you can resonate with us and the challenges we are facing with online schooling!  It is beyond frustrating for both of us.  Neither of us are natural elementary level teachers, yet that is what we are doing right now.  We're trying to wade through the mess of online services, logins, connections, meetings, submitting homework digitally, trying to keep six kids focused in the middle of all the distractions of home, etc., etc.

We are at the end of our online-home-schooling rope and we only have a week behind us!  Please pray we find a better option for all!

Also, Marcie is going in early tomorrow morning to have her tonsils and adenoids removed.  We've suspected they were causing problems in various ways for a while, but just recently found that she has sleep apnea, so they recommended the procedure right away.  Please pray for a smooth procedure and good recovery for her!

We continue to plan to return to PNG as soon as we can.  Unfortunately, little has changed as far as international flight options.  The only path is currently through Brisbane and each of those flights is apparently limited by the Australian government to 30 passengers, most of whom end up being first class, since the airlines can make the most money that way.  We pray those limitations will change or that some other international port will open up soon.  

In the meantime, I (Gavin) continue to work for the PNG aviation program remotely, doing some of the tasks on the computer that often get sidelined during the normal work schedule.  

We are all eager to return to our lives in PNG, but know we need to be joyful and open to where God has us now.  Thank you to all for your prayers and support!

With Gavin's parents and brother and family in the California mountains.  This cabin was built in the
1930's by his grandfather and just last week only just missed being burned down.  The origin of the huge "Creek Fire" was only half a mile from where this picture was taken.

Fun with the boys throwing rocks during a hike.

Sibling fun at "The Potholes", one of my favorite spots as a child.  It is all burned now.  I'm so
thankful that I was able to show my kids what it was like before it got scorched!

West Coast fun!

 

Isaac is really into drawing. This is an old photo of his beautiful Aunt Marlene.

The intrepid Marmi with Gracie, Marcie and David at the cabin in the Sierra Nevada.

Isaac is a fun chauffeur . . . scary, but fun. 

Building a tower of granite

Such a fun swing in front of the cabin!

BB gun delights

Swinging at the swimming hole

Ice cream shakes at the Hungry Hut in Shaver Lake

Happy at the Hungry Hut 

Castle Air Museum

Baby cousin fan club!

Stomp rocket "basketball" with the trash can as the hoop. Thanks, Aunt Laurie!!

Lincoln Logs with Papa, David and Will

Suffering in the sun with a root beer freeze. Thanks, Bob Quall!

Gracie's turn to suffer.

The whole crew

The kids found the train in San Francisco Airport INCREDIBLE. They're pretending to drive, of course.

Such sweet moments sometimes!

And now they are 8!

We had a wonderful pandemic birthday, unexpectedly Stateside with beloved family and friends! These kids were blessed/spoiled with THREE birthday parties: a small scavenger hunt one planned and hosted by Aunt Pam and Aunt Cynthia, a family only party hosted by my sister (at the house we brought the quints home to from the hospital and lived in for the first two years of their lives!), and a street party for our little neighborhood. The kids have had great little and big friends, and we have the sweetest neighbors.

Cinderella Gracie (even eating on the hearth like the princess she's dressed up as!)

Princess cousins! The theme was clearly blue and purple.

With the neighborhood friends. Such a fun place to live!

Piñata time! Gracie's turn.

Thankful for a great carport!

Each quint got to choose a small cake to serve.

With their wonderful big brother!

Family vacation - just in time! And a prayer request

We planned a few days in Galveston, hoping the 'Rona (as my brother-in-law calls this virus) would simmer down in time. It did, kind of, but it picked back up again the day after we got there. Thankfully our beach was a great place to socially isolate and no one got sick. 😁

Surf and sand but not much sun! It was pretty perfect!

We're still having fun, and he's still the one! Tomorrow he gets shoulder surgery, which is the prayer request. He has a full-thickness tear in at least one of his rotator-cuff tendons that's been steadily getting worse, following a slow-speed layover of his motorbike in Ukarumpa right as the pandemic started. His healing will take 10-12 weeks with physical therapy.

And now back to our vacation:

Aunt Courtney bought the girls these beautiful matching outfits. 💕💕

Thumbs up for the biggest and littlest cousins!
(Is Isaac such a teenager or what?? He's the best!)

David got so good at boogie-boarding!

Getting sno cones with Grandpadad

Back to real life: The dentist!

Pajama pals! Even our hair matches! 😂

Sometimes cousins' trikes are still really fun. 😊