deserty things

It’s been a hot minute since I wrote to let you know what we were up to! Let’s just say that I was feeling super overwhelmed with all of the travel and transitions and change – and helping Lucy Mae to get through it all, too. It took us some time – more than I wanted – to get us feeling settled and into a routine. 😅 Let me give you the run down and an update.

• May 9 – come out Simple Living, and jump back into classes
• May 21 – classes finished at the Training Center in Missouri
• Clean. Clean. Clean.
• May 24 – turn 30
• May 25 – leave MTC, go to the zoo, heading for Wisconsin
• May 26 – June 6 – visit with churches, supporters, friends ♡
• June 7 – drive back to Missouri, pick up a trailer with all of our belongings, and keep driving.
• June 10 – arrive in Arizona!
• June 14 – start training!

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Our new Arizona house. Lucy Mae painting while I flight follow.

Woo! That was a lot of driving, a lot of change, a lot of hotels, and a lot of people. Lucy Mae did great for the most part, but towards the end you could definitely tell she needed some more stability (and honestly, so did we!). It felt like we had been running basically since Spring Break back in March.

It’s another proof of concept that you can feel all the things at the same time – so grateful and excited to see and spend time with friends and churches that we hadn’t seen since LM was just a tiny baby; and exhausted and ready to be in our own space.

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Many of these little friends came with us from Missouri – so thankful for knowing and being known. And thankful for new friends!

The last time that we were here in Arizona was when we were here for our initial training in 2014! It feels a little strange to be back after so long. There’s a lot more people, and kids than last time around, which is just so nice! But my thoughts haven’t changed – I’m still not a desert girl; give me trees and the tropics all day every day. Hah. But we actually have a really cute house with grass and several proper trees right around us, and it helps make it feel not quite so desert-y.

As you can see from the timeline above – Josh jumped straight into helicopter training and he is ROCKING it! He should be taking his commercial helicopter check ride in just a couple of weeks already! To say he is excited and loving it would be an understatement, and I am so proud of how hard he is working!

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So proud of Josh – this was from his first helicopter Solo flight! And our first childless date in over a year!

We still don’t know how long we’ll be here exactly, as there are a lot of different factors in play that could change. We’d love to be back in PNG by February or March, but we’re holding it loosely. Until then, Josh is flying, and I’m keeping home and doing some flight following. There’s not much else to do around here, but we’re keeping busy, and trusting the Lord’s timing for all the things.

ready!

We finished up our first week of our second semester here at the Ethnos360 Training! It was good to get back into the swing of routine, but we were definitely glad for the weekend to come.

Walking down to class!

My typical view in the classroom. Mask, coffee, laptop.

I was particularly worried about Lucy Mae moving up to a new classroom for the rest of our time. She has had a more emotional week, needing extra cuddles and attention, and not taking great naps, but none of that is unexpected. Overall, she is enjoying her preschool class and is getting along well with her teachers. She’s the youngest one in this class, and definitely the littlest – it’s kind of funny when we pick her up because she gets hidden behind the other, bigger kids. I’m sure those few transitional side-effects will wear off soon.

Lucy Mae is in the middle there during circle time!

Our classes have been full-steam ahead, and we feel a little bit like we just have to buckle up and hang on. One of our classes is taking all of the little foundational pieces that we learned last semester and putting them all together into one enormous picture. Church planting is hard, y’all! Josh and I both have a much greater appreciation for what our coworkers have to do and think about when in the tribe!

The other class we’re taking is called Literacy, and it is talking about the need for and importance of teaching people to read and write. We have a project where we are writing a basic literacy primer in a “foreign” (made up) language. It’s super interesting and challenging! I’m loving it. #nerd

Some extra snuggles on the couch.

This next week we finish up our primers and will start a new class about Missionary Technology. Josh is super excited about this one; and while I’m not sure how well I’ll do managing a soldering iron, I think it’s going to be interesting and fun. We also have some team meetings, and meals with friends to break up the week.

Taking the bike out on a particularly “nice” (not frigid) day.

Lucy Mae is overjoyed to have her friends to play with again!

We had a little break in the weather for a couple of days – not warm necessarily, but not frigid. Today it looks more like foggy cold soup, so we’re staying bundled up inside. I mean – that doesn’t sound like a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon, don’t you think? Ready for week 2!

13 done

Here we are — entering week 14 (of 18) at the MTC! This week, Lucy Mae’s classroom was closed for part of the week, so we ended up switching in and out of classes during the morning so that one of us was home with LM. Thankfully, the school offers live-stream of the classes, and counts that as attendance! LM was very excited to get back to her classroom mid-week, though (and so were we ☺️).

I got to have a little coffee date with friends this week – outside in the sunshine! What a special time with these sweet girls.

This week is our last full week of classes before Thanksgiving break! We’re planning to spend it with friends (thanksgiving is always better with friends!). We’re looking forward to time spent with them! Pray that there’s no more lockdown/quarantines in the area so that we can actually get together.

The end of this week is also Lucy Mae’s birthday! She’ll be 3 years old! I almost can’t believe it’s been that long, but also… she acts like a teenager (three-nager?) already, so I can’t believe she’s ONLY turning 3 (and not 16). I’ve got a couple of fun crafty things up my sleeves to celebrate.

Lucy Mae loved the orange and yellow trees by the lake. They’ve all just about lost all of their leaves now.

We put out a ministry update this week. If you’d like to get on our list – just drop a comment down below, or shoot me an email on the contact page with your email address and I’ll get you added. In it, we talk about our current support levels and needs. Several churches/individuals have dropped and/or slashed their giving (due to Covid killing their budgets, too) so we are really needing some more people and churches to jump onboard financially! Another thing is that we’re still waiting for a refund for one set of tickets from this summer — this is several thousand dollars that is “being processed” but hasn’t made it to us yet. Our tuition is due soon, so please pray that this would come through quickly!

If you have questions about anything, just send me a message and I’ll be happy to answer what I can! ♡

I very nearly had a panic attack when I came home one day to find this SNOW SHOVEL outside my door. I’M NOT READY YET.

covid19 on campus

I guess it was inevitable really… but here it is. Covid19 has arrived on campus.

This last week, one by one, our class of 56 students dwindled as people began getting sick or having contact with positive Covid19 cases and entering isolation; on Friday, there were only 18 students in class. Then this weekend, Josh started showing some symptoms consistent with Covid19. Thankfully his symptoms are mild (loss of smell/taste, headaches, some congestion), Lucy Mae has a little cough (but nothing we’re very concerned with), and I have no very noticeable symptoms so far (right now it seems like seasonal allergies, but who knows). With the number of positive cases on campus climbing, we’re assuming that’s what this is, too.

We’re now in isolation… the CDC says 10 days from the onset of symptoms, so that’s our current plan, unless I begin to develop symptoms as well.

The staff here have been working faithfully to continue classes and keep things running. Social distancing and use of masks, with the addition of quarantined students participating via Microsoft Teams. Pray for the staff and teachers here as they try to navigate classes and sickness taking over the campus.

It all feels pretty discouraging right now… This whole year has felt like just constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. What’s next? We’re not made for isolation.

On Friday, before we had to enter isolation, our training team was talking about John 15… we got stuck on the word “abide.” The ideas of rest, of continual worship and prayer, of peace was the overarching themes of our discussion. I thought back to March, when it felt like the world began to unravel… I literally barred people from talking about Covid19 on my porch, because all it did was stress everyone out. Now… 8 months later, here we are, still talking about it, still stressed out… but God is still the same, and we can abide in that truth. We can set up camp there, rest in that, be still and quiet in that, knowing that He is right here with us, that none of this is a surprise or a shock, and that it doesn’t stress Him out in the least.

So here we are… isolating, doing our classes, homework, and group projects via Teams. Grocery pickup is going to be our new BFF, and taking socially distanced walks to the Lake. But through it, I want to tease out that idea of abiding… and maybe learn to let go and just BE with God. Abiding in His truth and goodness in a weird time; in a weird situation; in a weird world.

savor

Last week, I was feeling overwhelmed. I even told Josh that I felt like I was just always swamped and trying to catch up. I had a couple of hard mommy days in the midst of everything, and I was not gracious or loving. Josh has sent me out for some time off, and it’s been so good!

One of the things that I think I’ve struggled with here, is that everything feels like its timed. Classes start and end on time. Breaks are on time, for a limited time. Team meetings are timed before childcare pick up. Volunteer hours are counted and managed. I think I felt like I wasn’t getting time to finish a conversation before the time was up, or before it’s nap / bed time and off I run. There’s not much time for just savoring.

Photo by Lucy Mae

So this week, I have. I had coffee at someone else’s house; I went on a girl’s date to a cute coffee shop. I finished conversations, or at least got past the surface a little bit. I made good food that’s close to my heart. I left the dust on the floor and savored a little bit more. I’m not very good at just “being” — I need to do something; but it turns out that I’m also not very good at go-go-go without ever really getting anywhere. I guess there has to be a middle ground somewhere — maybe one day I’ll find it.

not covid-approved, but sharing popsicles with friends

One of the fun things we got to do this week was for our Training Team dinner. Every week we have one evening when we meet with our training team (a group of students and staff that mentor/disciple/work on projects/eventually do “bush living” with, etc); our team likes food (hallelujah!) so we’ve done dinner every week. This week it fell on PNG Independence Day!

Suvim mambu (chicken, greens), rice, sweet potatoes.

Josh and I made “suvim mambu” for our group — it’s one of our favorite PNG dishes. It’s definitely a Highlands type of food, but we love it. It was so fun to put it all together, speak in Pidgin (one of our training team leaders speaks Pidgin, too!), and have a little taste of home. I’ll get the recipe up soon, because it was so fun.

This cooking pot was SO BIG.

This coming week, we finish one class and start a new class; share our testimonies with our training team; and take a weekend trip to see some of our other coworkers in the area. The weather has started to cool off significantly; and while I’m not ready to be cold, I’m looking forward to the coziness, the leaves changing, the boots and sweaters, and experiencing an actual season. 🙂

…and hopefully take some more time to savor the in between.

constant motion

Whew! We finally made it to the weekend! This whole week was so full! I think we did a little bit of everything except rest.

It was so sweet to see Melanie this week!

We had the Mark’s visiting, then an aviation cookout on Monday; then Tuesday we had a staff family over for dinner; Wednesday is our normal training team dinner; Thursday our other friend from PNG came to share in school, we had her over for lunch, and then Josh had a different aviation meeting; Friday was Airshow Set up and feeding one of the families; and finally Saturday was the airshow. All of that on top of normal classes / childcare in the mornings, and Josh has a work detail two afternoons a week.

Lucy Mae LOVED all of the airplanes.

The spins were her favorite.

I think Lucy Mae is officially starting to give up naps (*cue allllll the NOPE from mama*), so those are very sporadic and are making for a cranky, tired toddler.

No normal naps mean we end up with inadequate car naps.

It feels like we’re in a state of constant motion here, with very little downtime. I know, I know, I was complaining about too much downtime while we were in Florida and Covid had everything closed, and now I’m whining about not having enough. I’m hoping we can carve out a little more downtime this week.

First funnel cake! Love at first taste.

scrap it

Last weekend, Josh and I set out looking for a church to call home for the next few months while we’re here. We found a cute little church that is familiar with Ethnos360, has solid teaching, and is near all the good stores in town. 😉 We made a day of it, getting lunch, and our groceries for the week.

It’s a good thing, because that evening I started with a bad sore throat and runny nose. Week two at the MTC did not go according to plan at all. Monday morning, Lucy Mae and I were both down with runny noses and general yuckiness. Josh was able to go to class, and thankfully the school has a good system in place allowing students to watch the classes on livestream or recordings later on, so I didn’t miss anything either.

a look into our week 🤧😷

Lucy Mae seemed to get better quickly, which makes me think it’s probably just allergies for her (we’ve been told “if you don’t have allergies before you come, Missouri will give you some”). I got a little worse, however… getting the full blown seasonal cold experience: aches, cough, congestion, drainage. Luckily no fevers, and nothing that really made us think it could be covid. (I mean except for the part where I kind of freaked out that I was some sort of “Typhoid Mary” of Covid and would have to isolate from my family and friends forever… 😅🙄)

About the time that I started to feel better, Josh got hit with the same crud. So we decided to just scrap this week, watch our classes online, do our homework, distance ourselves as much as possible, and try to get back to routine after the weekend.

The leaves are just starting to turn around our house. Lack of rain, or signs of fall?

We’ve missed the social interaction of meals and coffees with different people; and Lucy Mae has definitely missed her friends and teachers in child care. It can be a little discouraging at times, not feeling good in a new place, still doing schoolwork, and not being around people you know really well.

My morning view and coffee spot.

But as Anne Shirley says, “tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it.” And God’s mercies are new every single morning.

I’m sure after a weekend to rest and recharge, next week will be better. Right?

first week

Just like I promised, I’m back to give you an update on what our first week looked like at school.

Our good friends the Woodards from PNG were our Kick-Off speakers!

This week was all about orientation, hearing the what and where and when of what is expected. It felt pretty busy, as we had classes every morning, and something almost every afternoon, and a couple of shared meals. We were all ready for the weekend!

We are so excited that we have 4 other Aviation families in our class with us! This means that they’ll all come to Arizona for their training course the same time that Josh starts helicopter training, next year. It feels like such a blessing to be able to start building those foundational relationships now before we even get to Arizona. And I’m really happy not to be the only student wife in Arizona this time.

First day of school!

One of the fun things to do in child care.

There is a huge emphasis here on church teams, teamwork, and relationships. We have been assigned a “Training Team” which is a group of about 7 families, and 2 staff families. We’ll be with this team for the duration of our time here; working together on projects, and lifting each other up throughout the training. In the Spring, we’ll do something called “Simple Living” with this team, where we will build bush houses and live off-the-grid for about 3 weeks. More details on that when we get them.

There is child care offered for the kids here — and it is such a blessing! They have 4 classrooms right now (nursery, mini’s, toddlers, and preschool). Lucy Mae is in the Toddler classroom with 11 other “students” and I think 4 teachers. She is loving it so much! She has walked in every day without even a wave. They do fun things like play dress up, and with play dough, learn about letters and colors, play outside, watch shows, read Bible stories, and sing songs. This is definitely an environment that Lucy Mae will thrive in; and I already feel bad to take her out of it when we are finished here.

Painting the letter E

Playground time and new friends.

Josh started helping out at SOAR this week, flying with one of the students there. He really enjoyed getting into the air again, and is excited to be involved with the program there!

Overall, I think it’s been a good start! We’re looking forward to building some foundational relationships; and someday we hope our classmates will come to PNG and we get to work with and serve them there!