[Sanford News] Update from Karrie

 

Hi everybody,

 

Wow, it's great to finally have e-mail up and running and be in contact with friends and family again.  So much has happened these last few months, it's hard to know where to even start.  If we told all the details of everything that's happened this would be a very long e-mail, so I think we'll just hit some of the highlights.

 

First I'll give you a really brief recap on our team:

 

Mid May - Erin and Ethan Lujan fly back to CA because of pregnancy complications

-Chris, Lane and Jonathan leave for the tribe to prepare for initial house building

 

May 31st:  Melissa and I fly to Kokopo to meet up with our hubbies after 2 1/2 weeks apart.  It was great to see Daddy again and hear all the exciting things happening in the village.  The guys had begun house building; 3 men on our work team from PA had come early to help prepare materials for the work team and get a head start. 

 

June 2^nd:  We board our boat bright and early for our first trip to our future home!  The Lord gave us a nice day and great seas for traveling.  As we got nearer to the village we got more and more excited – ok, so Melissa and I were freaking out a bit J.  There were definitely many different thoughts and emotions going on in my head, like  “Wow, there really is NO turning back now!..... Wait, am I ready for this?....This is SO exciting!..... I’m scared, what if they don’t like me…..Will my kids be OK?..... What if I don’t like it?..... What should I do and say when I get there?....”  Anyway, you get the picture.  The trip over was definitely surreal and probably one of the most monumental moments of my life.  Oh, one cute kid story.

- As we got closer, Lane pointed out some smoke in the distance and said it was coming from our village.  So I’m talking to Landon trying to prepare him a bit, telling him that we’re almost to our village and that when we get there a lot of people would probably want to touch him and hold him and he didn’t need to be scared, but to just be nice and friendly, shake their hands and try to tell them his name in Pidgin or something.  He goes, “Ok, Mom, then do I start telling them about Jesus?”  I had to smile to myself – I guess we had ALL been preparing for this moment for so long, and Landon was ready to get started right away!

- It was great to finally arrive at our new home.  We had seen a bunch of pictures so we knew somewhat what to expect.  There were lots of people from the village awaiting our arrival, and they were all very friendly – thankfully they know Pidgin well so we were able to communicate with them right away.  They were so excited to see the kids and all wanted to hold them.  The kids all did pretty well.  Lane took us to see our house – there was already a floor and a roof on, I couldn’t believe it.  It was all very new and exciting.  We moved into a small jungle house that was comfortable.

-Those first few days were spent just settling in and getting used to village life.  We all were using an outhouse on the beach and bathing in the small river about 5 min. walk away.  We also were setting up the cooking area to prepare for the arrival of our work team.

-I distinctly remember one of my very first nights in the village, laying wide awake looking out the large open window at the stars, listening to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach thinking, “If my kids get sick right now or there’s some emergency, we’re totally stuck!  Wow, this is it – this is my home for the next 20 years.”  It was a very stark realization and I felt a sense of panic coming over me.  I remember just staring at the stars, praying that the Lord would give me peace and calm my heart.  I knew then and there that there was NO way I was going to make it out here on my own and that it would only be the grace of God that would keep me here!  (and it was just the very beginning – yikes!)

 

June 6^th:  The rest of our work team from Pennsylvania arrived ready and raring to work!  It was great to see friends from home, and wow, they were amazing and got so much done for us in a pretty short amount of time (about 10 days).  They all sacrificed time and money to help us and were truly a huge blessing to us in so many ways!  By the time they left, we had walls, windows, doors, basic plumbing and electrical, stairs, and various other things done.  Shortly after they left Lane sanded and varnished the floors and we moved in! By this time our bushy little outhouse was getting pretty nasty so we were thrilled to have a working toilet, even if we had to haul water for it!  Less than 2 weeks later our water tank was hooked up and we had running water.  So while there was still a lot to do on our house, it was basically one month, start to finish until it was livable.

-God blessed us with great weather during house building, gave us all safety as we worked and everything went pretty smoothly.  There were random “challenges” along the way – the barge that was bringing our food order was delayed so we were majorly scrounging for food for a few days (imagine all those hungry hard-working men!), but the villagers brought some food from their gardens, and some guys from our team went fishing and caught barracuda and a 6 ft. shark!  The Lord provides in some pretty cool ways!

-The kids did great during all the craziness.  With no house to play in (and no protection from the bugs) they were outside all day long which of course meant they were always filthy dirty and definitely got their fair share of cuts, scrapes, bites and thus infected sores, but nothing major.  The positive thing was that they got thrown into life here in the village and quickly became comfortable around the people and used to playing outside; they thought it was great!

 

June 22^nd:  Lujans work team arrives along with my (Karrie’s) Grandpa from Seattle who came to stay with us for 6 weeks and help out however he could.  Melissa and I were involved with cooking for the team and we were all still eating communally in the “kitchen” which was set up under our house.  During this time rainy season hit, and boy, it hit with a BANG!  We’re talking torrential downpours every day!  While this made for cooler weather, it brought on some new challenges.  It was a bit harder for the Lujan team to work (and several men would randomly wake up in a few inches of water in their tents), caused our new septic hole to cave in, nearly caved in and washed away the outhouse, and forced us all to wear damp musty molding clothes – lovely!  Rainy season also brought with it very rough seas with a whole new set of problems.

-During this time Jackson’s first work team arrived (not without great adventures – very rough seas forced them to land on a random island on the way for the night) and everyone was busy busy busy.  We were also now cooking for close to 30 people!   But work was quickly getting done and it was so exciting to see all of our houses going up.

-Chris left with his work team Mid-July; very ready and anxious to see Erin and Ethan again.  The night before he left the 3 guys shaved their facial hair and buzzed their heads for the first time since they left Hoskins– they looked so different!

-July 22^nd:  Jackson’s team prepares to leave, gets in our boat and one of our motors wont start – we’re still waiting on a part to fix it.

 

Beginning of August:  My Grandpa left; we were very sad to see him go.  He is a very handy man and helped us out in so many different ways.  Thanks Gramps!

-Jackson’s 2^nd team arrives to finish up construction on their house.  One of our language consultants comes in at the same time to help us out with various projects and to give us our “language/culture learning kick-off”; he’s staying with us for a month.

-Mid August, Jackson’s team leaves and things majorly slow down around here.

 

So this brings me to our…

“House building Recap”.  As you can see, SO much has happened for us these last 3 months since we’ve moved into the tribe.  Building in the bush in a 3^rd world country definitely has its unique challenges: as much as we tried to organize and plan ahead, house building materials we ordered were never ready on time, wrong supplies were sent, important tools were broken, etc. etc.  I’ve never longed for Lowe’s or Home Depot more (and I don’t even really like those stores!).  This was especially frustrating for Lane who is Mr. Organization and likes everything in order, but we’re definitely beginning to learn the incredible amount of flexibility and patience it takes to work out here!  Other small challenges were the pigs, dogs and chickens that were always going through our outside kitchen area trying to eat up our food supplies and make things less than clean; a pain for us, but great fun for the kids who loved throwing pebbles to scare them off.

-One of the hardest things for me during the whole process was just lack of time with my husband.  We had been separated to begin with, and then we both hit the ground running.  Lane was extremely busy coordinating things for our building team, organizing things with the tribal people, answering questions and dealing with supplies, and I was busy mainly cooking and taking care of the kids, which was so much more work in our rustic living conditions.  We were all going through major adjustments, but by sundown were too exhausted to even talk about anything.  As exciting as it all was, it was one of the harder times on our marriage.  When the teams were gone, the dust settled and we had moved into our house we were relishing family time again!

-During this time some kind of cold and flu went through our kids and gave them high fevers, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. and Melissa Jackson also got very sick with either malaria or some kind of bad virus.  While this was going on, Lane had to make several trips on the ocean to Kokopo (taking teams out or bringing them in) which is always at least overnight and like I said, rainy season=bad seas!  I went through many days of really struggling with fear.  It was hard to have sick kids, no medical help, and seas that I didn’t want to dare go out on, let alone with my kids.  Plus I was worried about Lane on the sea, a couple times on seas that were hugely scary, even to him.  I would try all day to suppress the pangs of fear that would constantly come over me.  I guess the good thing is that it threw me onto the Lord in a totally new way.  Do I really believe that He is in complete control of my kids and my husband just as much as if we lived in the US?  Anyway, this has been such a growing experience for us, and challenged our faith in new and exciting ways.  This has also given me a whole new level of respect for our parents and all the other missionaries who have done this before us (and had it much rougher I’m sure); I am so humbled to be involved in this amazing job!

-Oh, one cool story: in the middle of some of those hard days when I was especially missing family and friends and wondering if I was really cut out for this job, Lane came back from a trip to Kokopo with some mail.  Included was a package from my parents and a package full of Valentine cards from one of our supporting churches.  It had been sent airmail Feb. 2^nd, but got here in the middle of July.  The Lord knew exactly when I needed a little pick-me-up.  I tearfully read through each one, so encouraged by the love and prayers of so many ladies back home, and awed by the Lord’s perfect timing and His grace and love for me!  There was even a package of m-n-m’s that made it without melting!  Thank you Sue J. and ladies from Community Baptist Church!

 

***Along with some of the difficult things that have happened, we have been blessed in SO many ways. 

-During all of the many work teams and rustic construction sites the Lord has protected us all with no major incidents and has kept everyone safe on some pretty hairy seas.

-The Lord has given us a beautiful spot in the world here to call home!  Almost every day when we go to the river, swim in the ocean and view gorgeous sunsets one of us usually says, “Do we really live here?!”

-My husband has built me a wonderful house!  I truly love my house – it is simple, solid, and bug tight (Lane’s goals) yet functional, comfortable, warm and (hopefully when I get all my knick-knacks up) cozy.  I am so thankful!

-I am so thankful for our partners.  In those first few months (and sometimes still) of total craziness, emotional adjustments and missing both our families back home and our own husbands, Melissa and I would often give each other a hug and one of us would ask, “Are we gonna’ make it?” and the other one would be quick to encourage and reassure that yes, with the Lord’s help we will make it!  It’s not always easy sharing a kitchen with another woman and we shared a kitchen every meal for over 2 months and discovered we have a great working relationship.  We keep joking that we need to write a “Housebuilding Cookbook” with all the different ways to make meals from the only 3 less than desirable varieties of canned meat we’ve had!  (We have had no refrigeration and very limited fresh foods since May!) Some have been tolerable and others have actually been pretty good.  We have definitely been forced to become creative cooks!  But it was wonderful to be going through all of this with someone who understood your weird feelings cuz they were going through the same exact things and felt the same.  We also miss the Lujans very much.  Our team is definitely not complete without them and while we are thankful for this time they are able to spend in the US, we can’t wait til they get back here in January!

-The Lord has led us to a wonderful group of people to work with.  They really have been amazing, helping us so much with housebuilding, bringing us food, caring for our kids, protecting our stuff, showing a genuine desire to help us learn language and desire to be our friends.  The Lord has given us a love for the Siar people and we have already begun building some great friendships.  

-Landon, Kade and Luke have adjusted very well to life here in Kabaman village.  They have some great friends to play with in both the 4 Jackson kids and all the tribal kids here, love playing outside and with daily trips to the river and ocean are becoming quite the little fish.  They have already started picking up several phrases in the Siar language (even Luke) which always brings gleeful laughter from the people.  We are so thankful that our kids have the privilege of growing up here.

 

So where are we now?

-Since our house has been “up” for a little while now it has been GREAT for us to have some down time to adjust to life here.  This has given Lane time to work on different projects, build things like shelves and desks and a triple-decker bunk bed for the boys and do random things on the house.  There is still quite a bit to do, we sometimes wonder if it will ever be done.  It has been interesting for Lane to have a house here in the jungle and be the only plumber, electrician and builder around for more than miles!  He has had to figure out a lot of things already and is doing a great job!

-We are still waiting on our last shipment of supplies which has been way delayed.  It contains all of our solar electric systems (yay, no more relying on the generator), our whole kitchen (cabinets, sinks, refrigerator/freezer), table and chairs, vanities and sinks for the bathrooms, beds and much more.   It will almost seem weird to have ice and cold drinks again!  We are obviously very anxious for the shipment to arrive!

-This last week we had our official CLA (Culture and Language Acquisition) kick-off.  Lane and I are both very anxious to dive into language learning.  It will be very nice to be able to devote large chunks of time out with the people and we can’t wait to communicate with them in their own language!

 

So that’s about it.  Please continue praying for us….

-That as we begin CLA, we would both find a good balance between language learning and family time.

-That we may come up with a solution for our boat issue (small, shallow river mouth – very difficult to get boat in)

-That we would continue to trust the Lord to provide the funds to get us out of our housebuilding debt. 

-That our kids would continue to adjust to their new life here and continue to build great friendships with the tribal kids and that the Lord would give us wisdom as we desire to raise 3 little disciples of Christ!

-That we would be shining examples of Christ to the Siar people who are watching us very closely.

-And that we would continue to grow in our walks with Lord, and would continue to trust Him completely as we live here as a family and desire to be used of Him as He does His work here among the Siar.

 

Wow, my short “highlight” e-mail has become an extremely long book!!  Sorry!  Thanks to anyone still with me!  As “missionary cliché” as it sounds, it cannot be helped and we feel it now more than ever……. We could NOT be here without all of you!!  You are a vital part of our ministry and we are SO thankful for all of the prayers and support that you give us!  We will try to keep you updated as much as possible.  Please feel free to e-mail us any questions you may have.  We love you and miss you and count it a privilege to be working together!

 

Much love,

Lane, Karrie, Landon, Kade and Luke Sanford

 

 

Lane & Karrie Sanford

New Tribes Mission - Papua New Guinea

email:   lane_sanford@ntm.org

web:     www.lksanford.blogspot.com