Many of you know that we had a 7.8 earthquake several weeks ago. It threw me for a loop, even though we didn't lose anything of tremendous importance and were all fine. It was just such an emotional and mental shakeup, as well as a spiritual one - in the best way. It took a couple of weeks to get feeling more normal, although even now I think, "Do we really want to bother putting that decoration up or repainting the house (which so desperately needs it) when it could all be gone tomorrow?" It really felt like the world was ending for about 30 seconds. This broken, evil earth is not our home; one day everything will be shaken, destroyed and made new!
Our friends Zach and Cassidy Cann lost their whole house. Gavin and his colleague helped fly them out of their incredibly remote village location on a rugged peak.
 |
| Zach Cann |
For us, the biggest adjustment was to the lack of reliable Internet. The 2 submarine fiber cables were severely damaged in 3 areas each. Large ships are working on repairing them but it may be at least another month before they're fixed! So Internet (including email) has been spotty.
 |
| Gavin loves helping with projects when he's overnighting in villages. |
 |
| A local store. Our kitchen was pretty bad but nowhere near like this! |
Recent violence between clans has also touched us deeply. Our oldest PNG man friend and yard man was hacked to death. Our house help, his wife, who's like a grandmother to our kids, hasn't been able to come back for weeks due to the violence threatened against her clan by the other clan. PLEASE PRAY for peace and for justice. We realize it won't ever be complete, and what these people (and all of us!) need is truly the Gospel. They have no hope apart from the Good News of a Savior for their sin. Their hopelessness and lack of true joy is blatantly obvious, and the outworking of the despair and rage is tragic beyond words. Please especially pray for the true Christians here to be courageous, stand up to evil, be protected and most of all be LIGHT in the darkness. We love these precious people.
The kids have had fun exploring our beautiful land.
