[Sanford News] We are HERE!

I can’t believe it, but we are finally here in Hoskins, Papua New Guinea!  We were supposed to be here on Sunday afternoon, but true to good third world countries, our flight was delayed and we had to stay overnight in the capital city of Port Moresby.  It ended up being a decent stopover since the airline put us up in the nicest hotel in the whole city!  We got a free night in the Crowne Plaza hotel and free food, so no major complaints from us.  To make a long story short, we made it to Hoskins with all of our luggage and without paying one cent of overweight!  It really was a miracle to say the least! 

 

We are trying to settle in here at Hoskins Base.  Let’s just say that the weather is just a little bit warmer than the US.  I go thru about 3 shirts a day from sweating so much.  It really is pretty humid.  We really like the base and the people here have been extremely nice and have helped us out in settling in.  When we arrived, we were surprised to find a stocked refrigerator; full of everything we needed, especially cold Cokes!  I was really starting to feel out in the boonies until I saw them Cokes.  All of that was thanks to our great friends at Hope Community Church.  Wow, what a blessing to not have to worry about food, especially after all the travel and being so worn out.  Thank you so much Hope family for doing that for us, it meant a lot to us, more than you’ll ever know. 

 

We are working on some pictures and video to send home here soon.  Hopefully we’ll get some new pics on our blogsite soon.  As far as email goes, feel free to email us anytime, but please refrain from sending big attachments.  Keep them to around 50k or less and we can receive them.  Anything bigger than that and it might get kicked back to you.

 

Again, thanks so much for the part you play in our lives and ministry.  It is unbelievable to think that we are here and one step closer to seeing a new group of people hear the gospel for the first time!  God bless… 

 

Lane Sanford
New Tribes Mission - Papua New Guinea
email:   lane_sanford@ntm.org
web:     www.lksanford.blogspot.com

 

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More Pic's from the Journey

Landon, Kade and Ethan playing in the airport

Our plane

All of us on the flight to Sydney

The boys watching movies on their personal video screens

Me and the boys all racked out

Luke sleeping in the bassinet

Us and all our luggage in Cairns

We made it to Cairns, Australia!

Well after many hours and a long journey we have finally arrived here in Cairns, Australia. The trip went very well; much better than we even expected. The kids did great, especially for being cooped up in airplanes for 20+ hours! We were able to get our seats changed for the long flight (LA to Sydney) to a bulkhead row with extra leg room and a bassinette for Luke to sleep in, which made that part of the trip much more enjoyable. After all the flights (Seattle-LA-Sydney-Cairns), al of our luggage arrived safe and sound and with no overweight charges!

It was also great to meet up with Chris Erin and Ethan in LA and fly over together. The boys really enjoy having another buddy to play with. We've had a great time together these last 2 days in Cairns, and we are so excited about flying to PNG on Sunday. We keep saying to each other, "Is this really happening?" We are amazed that we are finally here and ready to head on to New Guinea! Thank you all so much for your prayers for the trip. Hopefully you will enjoy these pictures from the trip....

Friends and family from Seattle sending us off

Walking off to our gate

On the plane to LA

What a way to say goodbye to Seattle

SHOTS!

Part of the joy of moving to a new country is the sheer pleasure of getting your body ready for the onslaught of infectious diseases. This comes in the form of immunization shots. To some the idea of shots is just too much to handle. Fear, cold sweats, and unbearable anxiety set in as soon as the word is mentioned -- "SHOTS". As you see in the pictures, my wife is one of those kind of people and thank God she is married to me; the ever brave and fearless man of the home, ready to conquer any small needle and any other obstacle. It gives her great comfort to follow me boldly into the deepest darkest jungles of Papua New Guinea...

Can't you see the fear?

I know how this must look; I am just trying to comfort Kade

Fun in Seattle...

We thought you might like to see a few pics of our time here in Seattle.

The boys with their friends at our small group dinner

The ladies striking a perfect pose

Mike, Mike, always the jokester

The boys with their cousins, Paka, Daniel, and Kayci

It's Here!

I can't believe that I am actually saying this, but Luke's passport arrived today in the mail! We were starting to look at real estate here in Seattle, thinking we might be here for awhile, but the PNG Embassy came thru and the passport with the visa stamped in it, is finally here. Thanks so much for your prayers over this matter. God is good to us and we count this as another affirmation from Him that we are going the right way and He desires to use us to reach the lost. Thanks again...

Lane Sanford
New Tribes Mission - Papua New Guinea
email: lane_sanford@ntm.org

The Unending Saga...

Hi again everyone,

I wanted to give you another update on Luke's paperwork. I think my earlier announcement of his visa approval was a bit premature. In governmental terms, his visa has moved from one bureaucracy to another. His visa is approved and has been posted to the PNG embassy in Washington DC; which means it is available to us if they will simply stamp it in his passport and send it back. Talk about a nerve-racking wait. I could say a lot about this, but I will refrain. All this to just let you know that we aren't out of the woods yet on this deal. Please keep praying that the embassy would just take care of it and send it back ASAP. We are down to less than 2 weeks before we are supposed to leave, so the sooner the better on getting this thing done.

One last thing; we wanted to let you know about our new web log - www.lksanford.blogspot.com. This website gives us another avenue to keep you up to speed on our lives and ministry in PNG. All of our email updates will be posted there, as well as pictures of different things going on in our lives. In the future we will post some pictures of our trip to PNG, the base where we will be orientating, the village where we will do our Pidgin study, and other fun stuff. Feel free to check back any time for updates and new pics. Thanks again for your part in our lives!

Lane Sanford
New Tribes Mission - Papua New Guinea
email: lane_sanford@ntm.org
web: www.lksanford.blogspot.com

Were here in Seattle...FINALLY!

Luke zonked out from the trip


The boys playing at the window

Hi again folks,

We finally arrived in Seattle last night around 1 am (4 am PA time), after quite the adventure in Philadelphia when we changed planes. First, we had a great send-off in Williamsport with friends from our Sending Team, my family, and other folks from our church. They had made us a huge sign and all came to see us off with special goodies for the trip. Some of them even got off work and out of school early to be there; it really meant a lot to us. We had a ton of luggage and at least 3 of the pieces were well overweight. To my surprise, the gate agent gave us a break and only charged us for one overweight piece and shipped our double stroller for free as well, so that was great. When we left, our friends/family had received special permission to be on one of the “roofs” at the airport, and were all standing up there with our huge sign waving to us as our plane took off. It was definitely heart-wrenching, and a picture we will never forget! Thanks you guys!

Everything was going quite well after we landed in Philly from Williamsport. We actually were on our way to the next gate and we wanted to get something to eat and believe it or not, there was a Chik-fil-A in the airport! I mean I was thinking, “This is just the most perfect trip ever! A wonderful send-off, the kids are doing well, and Chik-fil-A? Could it be more perfect? I submit that it can’t!” Well that all changed rather quickly after we boarded our flight to Seattle. We ended up heading out on the runway and sitting still for about 2 hours in a jam packed stuffy airplane. Then the pilot gets on the horn and tells us that we are in a line to leave behind 20 other planes and we had been sitting so long that we needed to refuel. So we go back to refuel and head back out, now to the back of the line of planes and sit about another 2 hours. By this time I am about ready to lose my marbles. I am sitting in a row with Landon and Kade and Kar is in the row in front of us with Luke. By now the boys are about ready to completely spazz out. It was very hot and we had no drink, etc, etc. Let’s just say that we are glad it is memory now. When we finally took off the whole plane erupted in clapping and cheers. Our 5 hr. flight ended up being a 9 hr. flight!

On the positive side, we made it here safely, all of our luggage came thru fine and there were no other major hassles along the way. The kids slept a good part of the way and were pretty wiped out from it all. We got here to Kar’s grandparents house, and tumbled into bed last night at 5:00 am PA time. All things considered the kids did great on the trip, and we’re all doing fine – just a little tired. Thanks so much for praying for us.

I also just got off the phone with the PNG Embassy in Washington DC and they told me that Luke’s visa was transmitted! I will call again later and make sure that they received his passport that I sent last week. If so, it shouldn’t be but a few days before we have his passport in hand and ready to go. We will certainly keep you posted on that.

The Lord is so faithful! We are so thankful we can rest in the fact that He is going before us each step of the way. Again, thank you all so much for your prayers!

All for now…

Lane, Karrie, Landon, Kade and Luke