Update from Carrie

 Thank you all so much for praying! My sleep study on Saturday showed terrible sleep (90 minutes total in lab conditions - those wires are awful!) but I have no apnea or heart, lung, brain, airway issues or anxiety during sleep. I mentioned today to the doctor that my “air hunger” awakening and resulting agitation has only been an issue at 5,000 feet altitude (where we live). He suspects this is a post COVID syndrome/symptom and should get better in 2-3 months from now (4-5 months from having COVID). He assures me it WILL go away. I just hope and pray that it happens SOON, and in fact, that it doesn’t come back at all. I’m relieved that I don’t need a machine for the rest of my life, although I was a bit disappointed that I can't go back with a “sure” fix. We really appreciate your prayers for grace and strength and sleep. I’m looking forward to getting home to my family!

Again, thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. I should be back in PNG with my family on Thursday night.

In Christ,

Carrie

Time-sensitive prayer request for Carrie

Hi friends and family, 

 Ever since Carrie had COVID a couple of months ago she's had increasingly debilitating sleep issues, specifically not breathing during sleep and waking up desperately air hungry. It fits a number of different possible diagnoses, but after a couple of appointments and various unsuccessful treatments/medications, our missionary doctors here say the next step is to get a sleep study. We tried to book weeks ago through one hospital in Australia, but they were really backed up. Just this week, after a particularly scary night for Carrie, the Lord provided an alternate sleep clinic and specialist to see her in Cairns THIS COMING WEEKEND. Please pray for all of this to come together if it's the Lord's will. Traveling during COVID is complicated! Even though the borders have opened there are so many more boxes to tick and ducks to get in a row. We deeply appreciate prayer that the sleep study and follow up appointment with the sleep specialist doctor will yield answers and solutions. We also appreciate prayer for Gavin as he stays with the kids and is in one of the busiest seasons of heli flying he's ever had. Life is already fairly overwhelming (though we both LOVE our jobs/ministry/community here!) as the end of the school year approaches. Please pray for peace and joy for the kids, and patience with each other and their dad. :)

Isaac MC'ing the high school talent show. How is our baby now the Master of Ceremonies?!

Seth in real Civil War reenactment uniform thanks to "Uncle" Daniel

Sunrise service on Easter

Doing a line dance at school just to embarrass the kids!

Michael Harrar, a friend from way back in Colombia days and now again in PNG, drawing for the crowds while using the heli skids or a canoe as his bench. Gavin and he had a whirlwind trip all last week visiting many ongoing language, translation and Scripture use projects!

Traditional outrigger canoe at sunset

The only thing Gavin likes less than coffee: hot clam juice!

And just for fun - Isaac photo-bombing poor Marcie and Mom with a goofy face.

Keeping Up With The Joneses - April 2022

Missionary kid moments!

(It feels wrong to post a cheery update given what's happening in the Ukraine, but we're praying fervently for those who are living through trauma we can't even imagine, and for their leaders and ours.)

Me at age 4(?) with "Uncle Cam," William Cameron Townsend, founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Photo taken when he visited our mission center of Lomalinda, Colombia, South America. He's showing me the medal awarded to him by the Peruvian government.

One of my favorite missionary kids who happens to be our best friends' and neighbors' daughter! We grew up in Colombia with her dad, then went to the same universities, dated and married our spouses at the same time, and I even got to be there at her birth. She wants to be a helicopter pilot like her Uncle Gavin, so joined him on a recent flight taking a Bible translator to a remote language location. So special! She's in grade 11 with Isaac and one of his best friends.

. . . and this is her little brother, one of Seth's favorite people!

Leave it to David and Will to have a great time getting their teeth cleaned.
David is moving Will's chair down for the hygienist.

Marcie still loves playing anything where she's a mom caring for something/someone. She's been like this since she was a baby herself. She'd cuddle stuffed animals even larger than herself and say, "Oooo-weee!"

Speaking of which, we got one of our kittens from October back again. She wasn't thriving in the village as the runt of the litter and is still super small. Her name is Misty.

Seth was working on LEGOs, and Misty decided his leg was as good as spot as any to perch!

Here Misty has chosen Isaac's forearm - doesn't seem very comfortable or roomy!

Poor Gracie's nose got displaced by Seth's forehead when they collided during play. All's well now - she was a trooper! We love our doctor/medical director! He is so great with our kids. A sweet little friend gave her a stuffed toy to comfort her during the reset.

And as long as we're on the subject of the Clinic:

We see pregnant women every Wednesday morning at the lab.

Alice is both a wonderful, supportive supervisor and friend.
I am SO grateful she works full-time so I don't have to!

 

Madang over New Year's

Playing with friends on the raft

Taking a dive course! (We celebrated Isaac's 18th birthday on the 22nd of January. I can't even wrap my mind around the fact that we have an adult child! Because we didn't start him at kindergarten until he was 6 we still have another year-and-a-half with him, for which we are truly grateful.) 

Date night!

The reason we have life insurance (Gavin is worse than the kids!)

Seth floating in the waves

Will

David and his favorite soda - pineapple Fanta!

Marcie (Few things are more refreshing than a soda at the sea on a hot day!)

Gracie's sweet face becomes a mass of freckles no matter how much sunscreen we use!

Marcie selecting her lunch at the nearby fish market

I think this is yellowfin tuna, but either way, she loved it!

Seth chose sago pancakes for his lunch from the fish market. He and I LOVE them!

 

A few fun Christmas photos

 Credit: Siobahnne Duhe, set up by Susan Smith for our Clinic staff! Gavin was off flying and Isaac was . . . not keen to give up his first day of break. 

A not calm but very bright Christmas

Not much in our lives has been calm since the five babies joined our family! But this was a lovely Christmas with lots of blessings.

Flashback to 2012: Seth was still in the hospital. We couldn't fit Will's big belly in the stocking. 😆

The girls and I sang in our week-before-Christmas church service. Gracie is the only visible girl.

Making a gingerbread house!

My favorite night of the year: our Christmas Eve service!

Gracie's gift to her siblings was a Christmas kitty cake. She is a keen baker and cook already!

We served it Christmas Eve with friends at our house.

Happy Christmas morning!

Isaac with his gifts: an ESV study Bible and Biblical Doctrines book - which he took on vacation with him. 😂 He requested theology and Bible study books for his gifts this year and bought Thomas Watson's Body of Divinity with his grandmother's gift. We're thrilled that the Lord has given him a passion for Truth, and we pray that his love for Christ continues to grow! We appreciate your prayers for him. He wants to go into full-time pastoral ministry, specifically aiming for the mission field. He needs your prayers because we know there is an enemy who would love to trip him up and attack him.

How they love LEGOs!

This young woman, Iren, needs your prayers. Marcie gave her a homemade plaque that says "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you, Hebrews 13:5." She's been a friend of the family since 2006 and has a very painful growth in her back and abdomen. Her pathology reports were never released, thanks to COVID disrupting everything. She needs to get to the hospital again ASAP and see a surgeon, but if it's cancer there's nothing that can be done. We had a lovely day with her and her family!