[Sanford News] Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you and we hope you all are having a great Christmas!  It is now Christmas afternoon and we are getting to have Lujans come over; we are all gonna cook Christmas dinner and eat together.  The boys already opened their presents last night (our family tradition) and so they have been running around in Star Wars costumes, and playing with new Lego’s so life is pretty good for them.  This year many of the presents sent to us from America actually got here before Christmas so we were able to open them on time which was fun. 

 

We have had a busy but really fun Christmas this year.  We finished up our language evaluations on the 23^rd and then got ready for Christmas and here it is!  We do love Christmas out here albeit without family, snow, trips to the mall, and a gazillion programs to go to.  We have had a lot of time to be with the kids and try to focus on what it really means in the first place.  All in all it has been great.  We are planning to take off until the new year before we get back into language and culture study again.  We are hoping to rest up good and get a little recharged to get back into it in January. 

 

Well, I am sure you are all busy with Christmas and family so I will let you peel your eyes from your screens now.  Thanks so much for your prayers and support of us out here.  We look forward to the day when we can celebrate Christmas with the Siar, hopefully that day will come soon…

 

God bless us all, every one (a little Tiny Tim there)….

 

Lane, Karrie, Landon, Kade, and Luke

[Sanford News] King Tides

Hey everyone,

 

We just wanted to send out a quick update and let you all know that we are fine and have not been affected by the recent king tides that hit PNG this last week.  To the best of my knowledge, there was shifting of plates somewhere in the middle of the ocean north of our island that caused dramatic increase in the tides to the point that it flooded and did a lot of damage on the north side of our island.  It actually took out a major hospital, so it definitely a point of prayer for the people that live here on New Ireland.  We have noticed a slight increase in the tide, but nothing major at all for us.  Anyway, just wanted to send this out quickly so you would all know that everything is fine down here, even if the news reports tell otherwise. 

 

We are busy getting ready for second language and culture evaluation which is this coming week.  Our consultant arrives on Tuesday for about 4-5 days of testing so once that is finished we will try to get out an update so you know how it went and what the plans are from here.  Again we thank you so much for your prayers for us and support of us and our partners in this ministry.  God has been opening the doors of this culture to us and we are more convinced than ever before that God has a mighty work in store for the Siar people.  We can’t help but think of how cool it will be to celebrate Christmas with the Siar once they know the reality of Christ and His birth, life, death, and resurrection for them.  That will be one cool day…

 

Thanks again for your part in our lives.

 

Surfing the high tides in Siarland,

 

Lane