Lane & Karrie Sanford

[Sanford News] Email

2009-12-09T02:31:00.001-08:00

Sorry I forgot to include this on my last update. I am back up and running with my normal email address – lane_sanford@ntm.org – so feel free to email me again at that address. Thanks

lane

[Sanford News] Back home!

2009-12-08T16:00:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to send out a quick update to let you all know that we have made it back (after 7 flights and 26 hrs) home. We are finally starting to feel rested up a bit and really enjoying all the great stuff here in the States.

We got an awesome welcome from a group of folks here from our 2 churches here in PA and it was great to see all of them again. We got back to the mission house where we are staying and we blown away by all the work everyone put in to get it ready for us. What a huge blessing to come home to a nice house all ready to be lived in.

Thanks so much to all of you who prayed for us and continue to pray for us. Please continue to pray for our partners too. The Jacksons are getting adjusted to a newborn again and Lujans are back in the village and have had to go thru some difficult situations in the village with the death of elderly lady and a suicide. Please pray that they would be encouraged and know how to go thru these difficult situations with the Siar, especially they still do not know the Lord and have no basis for experiencing real comfort and peace thru this.

Thanks again for your part in our lives…

Lane

[Sanford News] On our way...

2009-11-25T16:42:00.001-08:00

FYI - if you want to email us, send any messages to lanesanford@gmail.com as that is easier for us to check now.

Hi again to all of you. We wanted to send a quick update on our trip and let you know how things are going. We are here in Thailand staying with Karrie's parents and enjoying our time a lot (did I mention they have McDonalds here?). Yesterday we were able to go to the hospital and get a lot of testing done for Landon and Karrie and this afternoon we will get Karrie's results back. Landon is already confirmed for at least 2 allergies that affect his asthma and we will get the food allergy results in 2 weeks. That has been real nice to get testing for him and start to know more exactly what has been affecting him.

Our trip has gone real well so far and the translation check in Kavieng was a real encouraging time for us. We had scheduled 2 full days for the check, but we were able to get it done in a little over half a day. Everything checked out real well and our consultant said that the portions we checked communicated very clearly to the helpers and everything was accurate and expressed well. That was a big encouragement and pretty exciting to see the first Old Testament portions of the Siar Bible be approved and ready for printing and distribution. The picture attached to this email was actually requested by the Siar helpers themselves who said to me, "Lane, we aren't done yet, we need a picture of this because this is part of our history! We have never had any part of the Old Testament in our language and this is the first time so we need a picture to remember." Little does he really know the magnitude of what will come to them in the near future. Please keep praying for the team reaching the Siar. While we are home on furlough, the Lujans are still in the village preparing for a Bible Curriculum training course to get ready to start preparing Bible lessons for teaching. BIG things happening in Siar land and we need your prayers for strength, wisdom, and stamina for them as they move ahead too.

We will be here in Thailand until early next week and then we fly back to the States. Thanks so much for your prayers and for the part you play in our lives and ministry. Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy family, food, and football!

Lane, Karrie, Landon, Kade, Luke

[Sanford News] Down to the wire

2009-11-02T16:54:00.000-08:00

Hi again to all of you. We are down to our final last 2 weeks here in PNG and we are getting excited to get home. We still have one last trip up the coast to Kavieng to meet up with our translation consultant/checker so we can do a full check of the preliminary translated portions that we have completed (Genesis 37-46, the story of Joseph). This will all be done with the help of two native Siar speakers and my primary Siar translation helper – Jon Tioti. This is a very important step for the work here in Siar for a number of reasons:

· If the portions check out well and are approved, it will give the Siar their first portions of the Old Testament in their language!

· If it is approved, I (Lane) will be officially checked out as a translator and will be able to go into translation of the book of Genesis which is vital to beginning of our evangelistic teaching to the Siar.

· The check will also give valuable insights into the process of translation and how we can better improve the translation of the Bible into the Siar language.

So please be in prayer for both the trip up to Kavieng and the checking process, that things would run smoothly and we would be able to effectively evaluate and check the portions we have translated. Once we return from Kavieng, we get back here to the village for just 2 days and then we are off.

Due to some recent medical problems, we have actually changed our tickets to leave early and go thru Thailand to get some medical testing done for both Karrie and Landon. This will be especially hard for the boys since we will be with Kar’s parents in Thailand and Grandpa has already promised rides on elephants for the boys. Truthfully I could care less about elephants, but I was assured by my father-in-law there is indeed a McDonalds in Thailand and I will get to eat a Big Mac. Can you imagine, almost 4 years without a Big Mac? Now that’s suffering.

We wanted to touch base with all of you and let you know how things are going here. We are excited to get to Thailand and see Grandma and Grandpa Kennell and then to get home to the States on December 4^th to see all of you. Please pray for us these last few weeks that we would be effective and focused on what needs to be done. There has been a lot of attempts to distract that I can’t help but think is Satan doing his best to discourage us from the work here. Well, we are confident not to give in to his attempts, but we still ask you to pray. Our desire is to still finish the things we set out to do before leaving and we are working to that end. Thanks so much for your prayers and support. We have been sub-par to say the least, at saying thank you for the part you all play. I am confident of this though, the reward for all of you and part you play in Siar work is hardly something from me, but the God who sees and knows all is watching. We thank you for your “un-acknowledged” contribution to this work and we count it a privilege to work with you in this great work.

Next time you hit a McDonald’s or a Burger King (or Santino’s for those in Jersey Shore), tell them to keep the grill burning hot cause we’ll be back soon…

Lane, Karrie, Landon, Kade, Luke

[Sanford News] Literacy_School.JPG

2009-10-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

The attached file was originally sent with another message.

File Name: Literacy_School.JPG

[Sanford News] Literacy_School.JPG

2009-10-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

The attached file was originally sent with another message.

File Name: Literacy_School.JPG

[Sanford News] Good News

2009-08-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

In my last email I mentioned the proverbial snowball of life here and how things are moving ahead at an increasingly frightening pace, well not much has changed since! Like I said before, these are exciting times for both our team here and for the Siar but the pressure meter is rising. First I would update you on some of the things I mentioned in the last update.

Literacy: Since the last update, our literacy consultants have come and gone and we have completed the necessary materials for the Siar literacy program. Currently we have input the literacy primers into the computer and sent them away for final approval. Once they are approved, we can begin producing the materials and preparing for the first Siar literacy class! This is a huge development and a vital step in preparing the Siar for the Word of God, so we would appreciate your continued prayers for the Siar literacy program.

Language Check: We also have finished our language evaluations and they went very well. Both Kar and I progressed well. Kar jumped into the final phase of language learning and was checked as a capable speaker, speaking in paragraphs most of the time and easily communicating advanced concepts in the language. I was checked out and passed the final stage of language learning and am officially finished with language study. This is a huge praise for us as a team and for me personally. I would be lying if I said there weren’t days when I thought the day would never come! The most exciting part of this is that I can now go full time in translation to prepare us for developing the translation and bible lessons to begin our evangelistic chronological lessons. I have been working on that for a few weeks now and am currently working on translating the story of Joseph (Genesis 37-46) as a preliminary task before jumping into Genesis 1. A cool story about that – I was reading Genesis 39 that I had previously translated, to a group of guys, one of them being our big man in the village that gave us the land to build our houses on. I started reading and he stopped me, “Lane, please stand up in front of us and read that out loud so we can all hear it.” So I did (even though I felt like an idiot standing in front of only 4 guys). I read thru the chapter and at various points in the narrative that same big man kept shouting, “YES, YES! This is it! It is clear and we are finally hearing God’s talk in our language and it is clear! You meant it when you told us before that you came for this - It is really happening!” Wow, I gotta tell you that is an exciting thing to see. How many times have you shouted at the Word of God being read simply because it was clear and you could understand it? There is mountains of work to do and we are only at the start of this great task, but new light is shining in Siar land as these guys are getting pieces of God’s word into their language. Nothing like a little light to brighten someone’s day…

Plans and Prayer: So that leaves us with roughly 4 months before we head home for furlough and much to do. Our major plans are to finish the Joseph story and get it checked and also to prepare the necessary materials for the first Siar literacy class. Those might not seem like much in that amount of time but coupled with more culture investigation, more higher level grammar analysis, developing key biblical terminology in Siar, breathing, and the occasional snack, it is pretty ambitious on our part (quite possibly leaning toward ridiculous). That being said, we ask that you all be praying for these next few months before we come home. Lots to do and little time.

The Team: Please continue to pray for our team here. Lujans are progressing well in language and culture study and will be left with a big load when we leave so keep lifting them up as well. The Jacksons are still home and are encouraged in spite of the loss of Jonathan’s sister. They are awaiting the arrival of their baby and their prayer, as well as ours, is that they would be able to return here to PNG as soon as possible after the baby arrives. We would appreciate your prayers for our team as we collectively move ahead.

Well that’s all for now. Also we wanted to say a huge thanks to all of you who have prayed and supported us financially. We greatly appreciate your partnership and even in spite of our pathetic attempts at “thank you’s”, we know you will receive a far greater honoring by Christ Himself when all those prayers and gifts are taken into account by Him. He is worth it and the Siar are worth it, so thanks for your part and for rolling along with us in this snowball…

Lane, Kar, and boys

[Sanford News] the rolling snowball...

2009-06-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like so many things are happening in your life and there is nothing you can do to slow it all down? I’m not talking about over-eating, I’m thinking more about ministry or other things that really impact your life. For us, these last few weeks have brought us into many new things and we feel like we jumped directly into the proverbial snowball and it is getting bigger and bigger as it moves down the hill. We have been a part of training for translation and we have consultants coming to help us prepare for the Siar literacy program and for planning and strategy of the church planting goals here in Siar as well. It will all culminate in another language and culture fluency evaluation in a few weeks.

So there is much going on here but they are all good things for sure. We are excited to see the work here progress and move ahead, but we are also feeling the pressure of being productive and maintaining a good pace to the work. Sometimes we feel like there is so much to do and half of it we don’t know what we are doing anyways! Needless to say, I have never in my life felt the need to depend on the power of God than I do now. It makes me wonder, what was I doing before? If it was so easy and comfortable before, was I really doing what God wanted me to do? I think this is kind of place He wants all of us to be in – total dependency and confidence in the power of God to do the supernatural work of ministry thru us. I know it sounds simple, but it has taken me 30 years to get here where I really feel like I am finally experiencing that kind of life. It is a really cool thing but sometimes is also a very “AAAAHHHHHHH!!” kind of thing.

Anyway, we would appreciate your prayers for us these next few months as we have set some high goals to finish prior to coming home for a short furlough in December. We ask that you pray with us for strength and perseverance for these goals:

· Finish formal language and culture study

· Further linguistic analysis

· Finish preliminary translation of Genesis 37-50 (prerequisite to begin translation of Old Testament portions needed for Chronological Teaching program)

· Prepare the necessary materials for the Siar Literacy Program

Again we want to thank you so much for your interest in the ministry here and for praying us thru this time. We are very grateful to those of you who support us both financially and with prayer. We couldn’t do the work without you all!

Rolling with the snowball,

Lane, karrie, Landon, Kade, Luke

[Sanford News] A Little Update

2009-04-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

I wanted to send you a quick update with a few prayer requests and just let you know what is happening over here in PNG. We have been real busy and we have a lot on our plates coming up in the next few months. We just had my in-laws (Kennells) here for a visit and we had a great time with them. In a little over a month my parents are coming for a week visit here in Kaboman and then we all will fly out for a regional conference where my dad will be the speaker. The kids are getting excited to see Grammy and Grampy since it has been 3 years since they saw them last!

Once my parents leave, we have a couple weeks until we have another language evaluation and the kick-off of our literacy program as well. This means exciting times for us but also the onslaught of a lot of work and preparation. We are thrilled to be moving along mainly because we know these are all major steps in the timeline leading up to us sharing the gospel with the Siar. The further we go, I am more freaked out but also more relaxed (talk about multiple personality disorder). What I mean is that the responsibility of the work can be overwhelming but I am truly convinced more and more that the Lord must go before us and provide the means to do this because I just really don’t have what it takes! It is also cool to work on these things as a team too. It is encouraging to see God use the gifts he has given us and filling gaps with the different personalities and engiftments on the team.

Speaking of the literacy program, the community here has already begun work to clear the land and prepare the site for our school building. It was a neat opportunity for us and the community to work together to raise the money and materials for the school building and now we are getting close to the actual construction. It is neat to see them get excited about learning to read and write and beginning this “new thing” for their community.

We have a lot to be thankful for this Easter. I went to one of the churches here and heard their Good Friday service and the message given only solidified my already strong conviction of their need for the gospel here. Imagine an Easter service with no mention of sin, atonement, sacrifice, salvation, grace, or redemption! We really appreciate all of you and the part you are playing in keeping us here and working with us for the sake of the Siar people. They might not clearly know Him and His work for them now, but that day will come – of that I am sure.

Again thanks so much for all of you and the role you play in this ministry!

Lane for all of us

PS – a little picture of my kids for all those living in Arizona

[Sanford News] Update

2009-02-13T19:26:00.000-08:00

Hi again all of you,

I have received a few emails asking me about the baby that I mentioned in the last email and so I thought I would drop you all a quick update on him. The baby finally got back here to the village a week or so ago. Thankfully the doctors were able to put a shunt in to temporarily fix the problem but they are planning a full surgery on March 4^th. So all things considered, we are very happy that he is alive and doing well. Actually today we saw the little guy again and we are all a bit concerned that he might have other issues that aren’t yet really made evident. He has some apparent deformities in his hands and his general appearance does look different, but like I said before, I certainly am no doctor. We just pray he stays healthy and grows. Thanks for all your prayers on his behalf.

We are doing well and looking forward to some exciting things coming up in the future of the work here in Siar. It looks like we will be attending 2 workshops in the near future that will prepare us for both the beginning of a literacy program and translation. Both of these are major steps in the work and we are trusting the Lord that He will have us prepared and strengthened for both of these. We are very excited to be taking these steps but also feel the pressure of what it brings. It is sort of like overhauling an engine (so I hear). Once you open the hood, you stare at it blankly for awhile, then start taking off bolts, hoses, filters, wires, etc. You get to a point where there is just no turning back. You start getting freaked out trying to remember where all those little bolts and screws went and you could almost kick yourself for not paying the professional to do it, but you realize – I have to finish this thing. That is sort of where we are now. We are getting further down the road and realizing that there is no turning back and no professional to hire! Lucky for us, we can lean on the Creator of the universe for wisdom and we don’t need to ask Bubba from “Joe’s Radiator Shack”. That is probably the most valuable lesson of all that we are learning – if God doesn’t supply the increase for this work, we definitely aren’t gonna get it done! So all that to say that we are excited and nervous all wrapped in one. Please be praying with us as we head down this road and move along.

Yet again we thank all of you for your part in the work here in Siar land. God is preparing to do a mighty work here, we are confident of that and we are thankful to be a part of it with you.

Lane

How could I possibly not thank all of you for loyal and rabid support of my beloved Steelers? I must say, I think it was all of you that made the difference. Wave those terrible towels with pride!

[Sanford News] A little update...

2009-01-24T21:18:00.000-08:00

I thought I would update you all on some recent happenings here in the village. We have had a few busy days this last week and this week we hope to get back into the normal routine again and make some progress.

A few days ago Chris and I went down to a village south of us for 2 days where a huge death ceremony/feast was taking place. It was a great opportunity for us to see this very significant event and talk with many older men that explained a lot of the meaning and purpose of the ceremony to us. The basic importance of the feast is to satisfy the dead so that everyone will be ok. It is a time to settle all debts and/or hard feelings between the living and the dead. It is traditionally a long process that requires the building of a special meeting house for men, planning for the feast (this one involved the killing of 26 pigs), and hearing the spirits of dead people screaming and crying in the nearby jungle (people of course acting like spirits, but at least the children believe they are the spirits of the dead). It was a good time for us to learn and see this part of their belief system lived out. We got back at night and the next day had to go out to town for a supply run.

After arriving back home here, we were told the news that a new baby was born the night we were out in town. It was the baby of my village brother and good friend to all of us on our team. Everything seemed to be ok until this afternoon (a day and half after he was born) my village brother called Chris over and showed him that the baby didn’t have a rectum. Of course we about flipped and immediately pulled our boat and sent them out to town to take the baby to the hospital. Our prayer is that it already isn’t too late for him and that there will be a qualified doctor in town to perform the surgery. If you think about it, please be praying for them as they go thru this challenging time. He and his wife, like so many of the Siar that we live with here, have become dear friends to us, and we hurt with and for them as they go through hard times.

Other than that, life is normal here and we are doing well. We got a particularly good boost when we got the news that the mighty Steelers have returned again to the Super Bowl! I trust that all of you fans of other teams will root for the Steelers just on my account!

Thanks so much for your prayers and support of us out here. We are always thankful for your part in this ministry.

Lane

[Sanford News] Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T18:35:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-12T13:17:00.000-08:00

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

[Sanford News] We are still alive

2008-08-03T02:18:00.000-07:00

Wow it has been quite awhile since our last update. We have had good intentions of writing an update, but you know what they say about good intentions. So I wanted to get this out to you all so you would at least know what has been going on with us. I’ll try to make it short and to the point with as little bad jokes as possible…

Language Check – Since our last update, we had a visit from our friendly neighborhood consultants to give us a check on our progress in language study. After 2 days of different forms of testing and evaluation, the Siar Team got a good review. I am very glad for the progress that our team is making. Karrie is doing very well considering all the other responsibilities she has (cooking, cleaning, homeschool, etc.). She is certainly a natural language learner and has to put very little effort into it to move ahead. Me on the other hand, I still can’t say “hello”. OK, so it’s not that bad. Even though it can be frustrating at times, even I am making progress! The encouraging thing was that the consultants encouraged us to keep moving ahead at this pace and we could potentially be done with language study within the next year and a half or more. So we have a goal that we are looking toward and asking that you pray with us along those lines. We want more than anything for the Siar people to hear the truth and this is our biggest hurdle right now. Thanks for your prayers for us and our team and we ask that you keep it up!

Visitors – Just last week our nearest missionary neighbors (3 hour boat ride up the coast) came down to visit with us for a few days with their 3 young girls. We had a great time hanging out and getting to know each other better. They are preparing lessons to begin teaching the men and women in their village for the first time! We are so excited for them! Believe it or not, the other day we also had a boat pull up to the shore here with a few Americans in it. It was kind of a nice surprise for us to see some fellow countrymen and here that good ole American accent again. They were doing a diving/cultural exposure trip around PNG. One of the guys was a graduate from Penn State University, so it was especially nice to talk to a good Central PA Nittany Lion fan. Even more interesting was that the other guy is a part owner of the LA Lakers and LA Kings. Let’s just say that I didn’t let the guy know that I am a Celtics fan…Anyway, it was neat to meet those guys and talk to them.

Birthdays – Another big event this month is the birthdays of Landon and Kade. Landon had his birthday on the 8th and turned the big 6. I am starting to feel like a real dad of a bonafide kid. No babies, no diapers, no disobedience (if only…), it is amazing how times flies. He had a cool Spiderman birthday which his mom whipped up for him. He had all his buddies over (9 total kids all 6 years old and younger) and they had a great time. Kade’s big day is this coming Monday so he is getting pumped for that. He turns 4 and is getting to be a big boy too. He’s the serious/intense one of our boys, but slowly but surely giving us glimmers of hope that he won’t be in jail when he grows up. Now don’t get mad at me for saying that, my mom used to say that to me all the time when I was kid and I turned out somewhat normal! As for Luke, he is still a clown and has picked up other admirable habits like saying to Uncle Chris, “you want a piece of me punk?” Where does he get it?

Good News – In other more serious and much more exciting news, we are more than happy to let you all know that Landon has received his adoption papers – that is to his new family, the family of the Living God! We have long been talking and teaching him thru scripture all with the hopes that the truth would ring clear and the Holy Spirit would use the truth to convict Landon of his need of a Savior. I am never quick to quantify another person’s faith, but we are convinced that he knows the issues of the Gospel and how he personally needs a Savior and that Jesus came to provide the way for him to be reconciled to God. With Landon it was never an intellectual problem with understanding the Gospel, we just wanted to make sure that he truly believed that this salvation was bought for him personally and he needed to put his full confidence in the work of Christ. We really believe he has come to that realization and is resting in the finished work of Christ. Please be praying for him that he would learn what it means to be a child of God and how to walk with Him.

Along those same lines, we have had a few good conversations with Kade lately and it seems that he is thinking about spiritual things much more and we want to capitalize on that if possible. Please be praying for him too as we teach him and try our best to help him understand God’s work for him.

Thanks – We know how many of you faithfully pray and give financially to us and this ministry and we are so thankful for you and your part in what God is doing here. We are every mindful of the necessity of this work and we couldn’t do it without you. Please know that even though we might be delinquent e-mailers, we love and appreciate you for your part in our lives. No seriously, thanks so much for everything and more than anything, we ask that you continue to pray for the lives of the Siar people. I am more convinced than ever that God will do a mighty work here and we are excited to see it happen. Thanks again

Lane for all of us

[Sanford News] Were still alive...

2008-08-02T15:42:00.001-07:00

Wow it has been quite awhile since our last update. We have had good
intentions of writing an update, but you know what they say about good
intentions. So I wanted to get this out to you all so you would at
least know what has been going on with us. I'll try to make it short
and to the point with as little bad jokes as possible…

Language Check – Since our last update, we had a visit from our
friendly neighborhood consultants to give us a check on our progress
in language study. After 2 days of different forms of testing and
evaluation, the Siar Team got a good review. I am very glad for the
progress that our team is making. Karrie is doing very well
considering all the other responsibilities she has (cooking, cleaning,
homeschool, etc.). She is certainly a natural language learner and
has to put very little effort into it to move ahead. Me on the other
hand, I still can't say "hello". OK, so it's not that bad. Even
though it can be frustrating at times, even I am making progress! The
encouraging thing was that the consultants encouraged us to keep
moving ahead at this pace and we could potentially be done with
language study within the next year and a half or more. So we have a
goal that we are looking toward and asking that you pray with us along
those lines. We want more than anything for the Siar people to hear
the truth and this is our biggest hurdle right now. Thanks for your
prayers for us and our team and we ask that you keep it up!

Visitors – Just last week our nearest missionary neighbors (3 hour
boat ride up the coast) came down to visit with us for a few days with
their 3 young girls. We had a great time hanging out and getting to
know each other better. They are preparing lessons to begin teaching
the men and women in their village for the first time! We are so
excited for them! Believe it or not, the other day we also had a boat
pull up to the shore here with a few Americans in it. It was kind of
a nice surprise for us to see some fellow countrymen and here that
good ole American accent again. They were doing a diving/cultural
exposure trip around PNG. One of the guys was a graduate from Penn
State University, so it was especially nice to talk to a good Central
PA Nittany Lion fan. Even more interesting was that the other guy is
a part owner of the LA Lakers and LA Kings. Let's just say that I
didn't let the guy know that I am a Celtics fan…Anyway, it was neat to
meet those guys and talk to them.

Birthdays – Another big event this month is the birthdays of Landon
and Kade. Landon had his birthday on the 8th and turned the big 6. I
am starting to feel like a real dad of a bonafide kid. No babies, no
diapers, no disobedience (if only…), it is amazing how times flies.
He had a cool Spiderman birthday which his mom whipped up for him. He
had all his buddies over (9 total kids all 6 years old and younger)
and they had a great time. Kade's big day is this coming Monday so he
is getting pumped for that. He turns 4 and is getting to be a big boy
too. He's the serious/intense one of our boys, but slowly but surely
giving us glimmers of hope that he won't be in jail when he grows up.
Now don't get mad at me for saying that, my mom used to say that to me
all the time when I was kid and I turned out somewhat normal! As for
Luke, he is still a clown and has picked up other admirable habits
like saying to Uncle Chris, "you want a piece of me punk?" Where does
he get it?

Good News – In other more serious and much more exciting news, we are
more than happy to let you all know that Landon has received his
adoption papers – that is to his new family, the family of the Living
God! We have long been talking and teaching him thru scripture all
with the hopes that the truth would ring clear and the Holy Spirit
would use the truth to convict Landon of his need of a Savior. I am
never quick to quantify another person's faith, but we are convinced
that he knows the issues of the Gospel and how he personally needs a
Savior and that Jesus came to provide the way for him to be reconciled
to God. With Landon it was never an intellectual problem with
understanding the Gospel, we just wanted to make sure that he truly
believed that this salvation was bought for him personally and he
needed to put his full confidence in the work of Christ. We really
believe he has come to that realization and is resting in the finished
work of Christ. Please be praying for him that he would learn what it
means to be a child of God and how to walk with Him.

Along those same lines, we have had a few good conversations with Kade
lately and it seems that he is thinking about spiritual things much
more and we want to capitalize on that if possible. Please be praying
for him too as we teach him and try our best to help him understand
God's work for him.

Thanks – We know how many of you faithfully pray and give financially
to us and this ministry and we are so thankful for you and your part
in what God is doing here. We are every mindful of the necessity of
this work and we couldn't do it without you. Please know that even
though we might be delinquent e-mailers, we love and appreciate you
for your part in our lives. No seriously, thanks so much for
everything and more than anything, we ask that you continue to pray
for the lives of the Siar people. I am more convinced than ever that
God will do a mighty work here and we are excited to see it happen.
Thanks again

Lane for all of us

[Sanford News] the_new_addition.JPG

2008-04-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

The attached file was originally sent with another message.

File Name: the_new_addition.JPG

[Sanford News] Evaluation #1

2008-02-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

Hi again everyone,

It has been a few weeks since our first language evaluation and some of you
have asked how that went so I thought I would send a little update on that.
First things first though - many of you have been praying for rain for us
and your prayers were answered. We have had 2-3 really hard rains and our
tank is filled all the way up. We also were able to buy a diesel water pump
and us guys built a shed and installed the pump down by our spring. We just
need to run the pipe now and we will always have a backup plan when we get
low on water. So thanks for praying for water! Your prayers for water were
pretty effective so maybe we can shift those prayers to language learning
now! (nice transition huh)

So about 2 weeks ago we had our first formal language evaluation. We have
been in full time language study for about 3 months and that is the mark for
getting our first evaluation. The main purpose is to make sure that we are
making good strides and starting to get a handle on what is the most
effective way to learn. So our consultant came and went around the village
with us to see what we were able to do in the language and he found out that
Kar is doing great and I am a bit "special" when it comes to language
learning. No it wasn't bad at all and once it was finished, he charted our
progress and said that we were at "Basic Level - Mid". What this basically
means is that we can communicate at a word level and also starting to
progress into putting together meaningful phrases. Yeah I know what you're
thinking - basically we talk like a 2 year old. "Momma!" - "Food" - "Happy"
- "Can I eat this?" - that is basically where we are at. In learning
language it's this basic vocabulary and phrases that form the building
blocks for moving into more meaningful speech. So all things considered, I
think we are progressing well but there is still so much ahead of us. We
were encouraged and were also given a lot ideas for how to move ahead
effectively.

Our next evaluation is in 6 months and it will be much more intense and will
take longer. We hope to at least be freely talking in full sentences at
that point (so then we can sound like a preschooler).

We want to thank you all so much for your faithful prayers and support as we
work thru this. It is so hard for us to communicate effectively how
thankful we are for your part in this work, but I trust that the reward you
will receive for it will be much greater than my "thank you". Just know
that we are grateful for it and couldn't go on without it!

Later...

Lane & Karrie Sanford
New Tribes Mission - New Ireland Province
lane_sanford@ntm.org

[Sanford News] Rain, rain, don't go away...

2008-01-17T12:24:00.000-08:00

Well I am sitting here at my desk at 5:30 in the morning as the strong NE winds are blowing thru the village. The wind is great, but one of the problems with it, is that it is so strong that it carries most of the rain away from us. We are now getting quite low on our water tank and periodically we have seen those wonderful black clouds that bring much needed rain, but we can only watch in horror as the wind whisks it off down the coast past us with hardly a drop unloaded into our tank. So, we are thankful for the wind, but we do need rain. Sometimes I think we can never be pleased. If its rainy season – we want sun; if its dry season – we want rain. Lucky for us God isn’t like the federal government. Imagine if all of our flip flop prayers for sun or rain came in the form of petitions to the government? By the time our request for rain made it to some Senate sub committee, we would be all dried up or we would be in rainy season and be ready to send another petition for sun. Of course this is no negative comment on all you senators out there; we love and appreciate your…what’s the word…thoroughness? Anyway…

Speaking of rain, all our talk about needing rain has brought some interesting comments from the people. Although they do their best to put on the mask of religion and holiness, they freely admit that the rain is clearly not something that God has control of, but is the product and work of men. Some have even said to us, “Why didn’t you tell us you need rain? We’ll go to the rainmaker and have him bring some to you.” Funny how my reaction to that is, “Yeah guys, little do you know I have already been to THE Rainmaker over this issue and He has it all under control.” Anyway it has been a good reminder of their desperate need to come face to face with the Creator and to understand Him in truth and stand wholly on the Word of God.

Please continue to pray for the Lujans as they get their house finished up and moved into. It is a lot of work and their desire is to get into language study as soon as possible. You can also be praying for us this coming week as we have our first language and culture evaluation. Hopefully we will do ok and get an accurate picture of the progress we are (or aren’t) making and what we need to do to proceed. It sort of feels like taking the SAT’s in high school, but man I hope I do a bit better on this test than the SAT’s…I was that legendary guy that thought all those little fill-in circles were dots for connecting so instead of figuring the square root of 235, I said, “it’s an elephant!”

Could you do it? Our regular section devoted to debunking the one of many myths people find for not going into missions- “I could never learn another language”.

Your mission – should you choose to accept it, will be to find the verbs used in the following sentences. I will give you a series of sentences, and you need to break down the sentence and find the verb. Remember that word order is not always the same as English. For extra credit, locate the pronouns and define them too. Your prize? You get to go to Burger King and order a Whopper of your choosing – with or without onions (go without).

Ep bat kipung It’s raining

Landon i burbur lon rumai Landon is sleeping in the house

U kukutus ep yai You are cutting the tree

Met inan sai pirim We are coming down

U nuki kenak ep bat elpung naunau Do you think it is going to rain now?

Dit sik lon rumai They are at the house

Lane & Karrie Sanford

New Tribes Mission – New Ireland Province

lane_sanford@ntm.org

[Sanford News] Happy New Year

2007-12-30T21:06:00.000-08:00

Hello friends!!

We just wanted to write a quick e-mail with a short update as there’s a lot going on around here. We trust you all had a wonderful Christmas celebrating Jesus, and have a fun safe New Year!

It's New Years Eve here, and while there's no hoopla and no fireworks or dropping balls, we've realized we have SO much to praise God for this New year!!

First of all, thank you for praying for Kade's knee - it has healed up great with no infection or problems. He doesn't seem to have any pain, and it's amazing how nimble and active he is even with it fully splinted!

We found out a few days ago that my (Karrie's) dad was diagnosed with testicular cancer, which is always difficult to hear, especially being away from family. While we are unable to talk to them, we are so thankful for daily e-mail access! In just a couple days, he was diagnosed, had a barrage of tests run, received results that it was all contained in one spot, had surgery (this morning) and is recovering well!! It seriously has been amazing - we are praising the Lord and are so encouraged! Please continue to pray for his recovery and continued treatments (they're not sure yet if it will be chemo or radiation). We’ve all been looking forward to them coming for a visit the beginning of February, so it looks as though that will be delayed a bit, but we’re hoping not for too long!

Our partners, Chris and Erin, Ethan and Madison Lujan are on their way back here to Siar-land! They are probably in the air right now and have a LONG trip ahead of them. Please pray for a safe, stress-free trip for them all! They arrive in Kokopo (our supply town) on Jan. 2nd and will be coming in to the tribe here on the 4th. We are so excited for them to get here! Please pray for them as they adjust back to life in PNG, now with a newborn. Pray also for our team as a whole as we re-adjust to working together as a team of 3. There will be changes for all of us; pray we would continue learning how to love each other and be gracious.

Well, I want to keep this short, but just thought we'd keep you up with what's going on with us over here. This next month will be a busy one with a few different "work teams" coming in to help Lujans finish up their house. Language learning will probably take a bit of a back seat for us as we want to be available to help Lujans as much as possible, but pray that we would be wise with our time and not forget the things we have learned up until now. We’ve had an amazing 7 months here in the tribe, have experienced a lot, have learned so much, and are SO excited for all that God has for us in this next year!! We are so thankful for all of your prayers, and the amazing team of people we are working alongside (all of you) to help bring the truth of God’s Word to these people!

Again we want to thank you all for your part in our lives and we trust that this new year will bring more opportunities for you to grow in His grace and serve Him more effectively. God bless…

Lane & Karrie Sanford

New Tribes Mission – New Ireland Province

lane_sanford@ntm.org

[Sanford News] The sins of the father...

2007-12-24T18:38:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a Christmas this has been! We had grandiose plans for a simple
Christmas at home without all the fanfare and craziness that it usually
brings, but those plans were thwarted yesterday morning.

Yesterday (Christmas Eve morning) Kade was playing around with a small bush
knife and managed to put a nice gash on his kneecap. Now just last week I
stitched up a guy in our village that cut open his elbow, but immediately I
realize that this is bigger and deeper than I can handle, so I know that I
need to try to get him out to town so it can be sewn up. Amazingly enough,
as soon as I get Kade on our porch and realize the extent of the cut, I hear
a boat going by on its way to Kokopo. So Jonathan ran down to the beach and
flagged it down and within about 5 minutes, Kade and I were on our way to
Kokopo.

On our way there, I was reminded of famous quote of a son receiving the sins
of his father (not sure if is from Proverbs or the Godfather), anyway I was
reminded of when I was a kid and on a now infamous trek thru the jungle, I
found a rusty old machete and managed to gash - you guessed it - my kneecap.
What are the chances?! I just hope Kade doesn't follow my other legendary
screw-ups (using spray deodorant to cover the smell of cigarettes, totaling
my dad's car on a deer, every guitar recital I ever had, and that one time I
thought I could replace the long axle on my Pontiac Sunbird...) Anyways, in
a weird way it did make me realize that this poor kid is going to turn out
much like me, and I have the chance now to change those bad things for the
good. Luckily for him, when Kade cut his leg he had adults around to help -
on the other hand, when I cut my leg I was in the middle of the jungle with
2 other dough-head 4th graders who thought they could administer first aid -
I'm lucky to still be here.

Anyway, we got out to town and with the help of some friends in town, I got
the hospital and got Kade ready for the needle. Let me say I am very
thankful now that it is all over. The poor guy was scared to death and I am
not exactly sure how well the anesthetic worked, but we made it thru. Then
we had to get back down to where the public transportation boats sit and
wait for passengers. After a long day, Kade and I got home just at dark,
around 6:00 PM. What an ordeal.

Although all our great plans for peaceful and family Christmas were crushed,
in the end it was all we really needed - everyone together and everyone safe
and healthy (at least all in one piece). So we will never forget our first
Christmas here in Siar land, but we are very thankful still that we have a
reason to celebrate and we can't wait for the day when our Siar friends will
know the truth, know the Messiah, and know why He came and who He came for!

Trust you all have a great Christmas and New Year, and know that we are
thankful for all of you and part you have in our lives...

Lane & Karrie Sanford
New Tribes Mission - New Ireland Province
lane_sanford@ntm.org

[Sanford News] Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T16:20:00.000-08:00

I am not exactly sure what day it is there in the States right now, but we
are one day past Thanksgiving here. We haven't celebrated here yet and I
think we will wait until Saturday. Well it's not like Thanksgiving back
home, but our first Thanksgiving here in the tribe will certainly be a
memorable one. That being said, we have much to be thankful for.

The main thing we are thankful for is that Landon's health has improved
although he is still battling a strong chest cold. His breathing and heart
rate have improved a lot and for that we are very thankful. We are still
keeping a close eye on him, but it seems like the worst of his condition is
over now. We thank you all for praying for him. We were just talking last
night that it couldn't be medicine that has healed him because we never got
out to town to go to the hospital. It must have been your prayers and the
grace of God that has healed him.

Another thing we are thankful for is the safety of everyone in our village
here. There has been some real severe weather here these last few days and
I believe it is due to some tropical storms floating around PNG right now.
We have had very high winds and rain and rough seas for a few days now. 2
houses in the village were destroyed from trees falling on them and a number
of other trees fell too, all of them just out the reach of other houses.
With all the madness and all of it taking place in the middle of the night,
no one was injured which is a miracle. I am not sure whether we are "out of
the storm" yet or not, so please keep praying for safety not only for us,
but for everyone here in the village.

Jonathan and I were walking around the village yesterday checking up on
everyone and we were talking about how good we have it back home in the
States. Man our people here are just left to fend for themselves. In the
States with this kind of storm, we would have FEMA kicking in (maybe a
little late, but they would come), the Coast Guard would be there, the
governor would declare a state of emergency and free up millions of dollars
in aid, etc. etc. And this is all in a country with profound wealth and the
means to truly take care of themselves. Unfortunately out here in a country
where the people have nothing, they are left to figure it out on their own.
The funny part is that they just laugh it off and go about life. In the
middle of the night one guy's roof flew off in the middle of the strongest
winds. He has 3 kids under 4 years of age. I asked him what he did, he
just laughed and said, "we just sat there, what else could we do?" I
thought, "call 911" at least! Anyway, we have a lot to be thankful for
sure.

So we wanted to just check in and say a big Happy Thanksgiving to all of you
and let you know how thankful we are for you and your part in our lives.
Thanks for praying for Landon and please keep praying for him that his cold
would clear and he would heal completely from all of this. Take care...

Lane & Karrie Sanford
New Tribes Mission - New Ireland Province
lane_sanford@ntm.org

[Sanford News] Pray for Landon

2007-11-21T15:44:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, we just wanted to update you on Landon and ask that you be
praying for him today. Yesterday we came down with what seemed to be normal
cold, but it quickly escalated to something worse than that. He woke up in
the middle of the night throwing up and wheezing. He was definitely having
a hard time breathing but wasn't complaining about it. By morning he was
pretty bad and was breathing about 50 times per minute which is pretty high.
No high fever or anything like that, but a strong cough and rapid breathing.
Anyway, after a long talk on the radio with our mission clinic, we decided
to take him out to Kokopo. So Jonathan and I ran down to the boat and got
it ready to take out. We got Landon and took off.

Unfortunately for us, we are in the middle of a real severe weather pattern
of high winds and equally rough seas. Part of the difficulty in deciding to
take Landon out was the seas and they appeared to be ok. Anyway, we took
off and got about an hour out and the winds picked up more and the seas got
rougher. To make matters worse, we usually have decent visibility to the
coastline of Kokopo, but we couldn't see a thing but big clouds and bad
weather moving in. I am always leery to get into big seas, but with a sick
kid, it is even worse. Plus his breathing condition really wasn't improving
as he got more scared and wet from the seas. So after going an hour out to
sea, Jonathan and I decided to head back and just pray that Landon would
improve.

We came back and Landon did seem to be breathing better. So now it is the
next day and he has improved a fair bit. His breathing is not visibly hard
like it was yesterday although his heart rate is bit faster than it should
be. That too is going down slowly so it looks like he might pull out of
this fine. Anyway, a real long story just to ask that you be praying for
him today and tomorrow. Our mission doctors thought that he might have had
a viral induced asthmatic attack, so pleas pray too that we would gain some
wisdom about that type of condition and what kinds of medicines we need on
hand for him if this comes up again.

Little side note: We got home yesterday just in time for a huge storm to
hit here. Very high winds and a lot of damage around the village. One
house was taken out by a coconut tree and another one partially damaged by a
huge mango tree. So our village is quite the little disaster area right
now, but this morning we have had a number of the people come to the house
wanting to know how Landon was doing. Our village leader told me, "That's
it! You call the PNG government right now and tell them to get a hospital
put in here for you! I don't want Landon getting sick like that again and
no more going out on the big seas!" Pretty funny to see their concern for
him and wanting him to be taken care of.

OK, all for now. Thanks for praying for the little guy...

Lane & Karrie Sanford
New Tribes Mission - New Ireland Province
lane_sanford@ntm.org

[Sanford News] Oh I love the sun...

2007-11-02T20:28:00.000-07:00

I am certainly no beach bum; all the sand in your pants, sunburns, glare in
your eyes and the inevitable sandwich dropped in the sand - it is definitely
not my idea of the greatest time. That being said, these days we are loving
the sun more than ever. Is it because we can go to the beach every day?
Not really. The main reason is that our solar electric system has finally
been completely setup and all the power in our house is running off the sun.
This might seem like a minor thing to you, but after 5 months of temporary
power (only when the generator is on), this is an awesome development for
us! The biggest advantage to this is that we now have a fridge and freezer.
Both of them run directly off of the solar power system so now we have both
which is such a great thing. Finally, finally a cold coke....

So with this last project being finished, we are actually completely done
with the setup of our house. We have been in full time language study for
about a month now, but we still had this last project to finish, so this
really gives us a sense of completion on the house and now we can fully
devote everything to language learning. Being able to not worry about major
projects on the house is really a huge jump for our language learning too.
It is amazing how much our progress is stunted when we have other things
that are consuming our minds. So all this to say that we are very excited
right now and very thankful to have things completed and ready to move
ahead.

Our days are different depending on what is going on in the village. We
have a plan for going about getting language information but we always stand
ready to tag along to some daily activiy to get a closer picture into the
lives of the people. Most times we bring the boys along and they love it.
Some times we come home and I swear they are dirtier than the village boys!
To prove my point I have attached a pic of the 3 Amigos in action. The
picture really captures them in their typical behavior: Kade looking to get
into some kind of new mischief, Landon lost in superhero world - pretending
a stick is a rocket, and Luke giving the, "Look at me - I am the cute
innocent one" - yeah right!

We sure are thankful for our boys and for how well they've adjusted to their
new life here. Our kids don't hesitate to run up and 'wrestle' with
village kids with obvious 'skin problems', or find some poor excuse for
turning down 'questionable' food when it's offered to them by their friends.
They also have not complained about canned meat or grumbled once about
drinking warm water, despite the number of times I'm sure they've heard
their parents do so. It's funny how often we "try" to teach them, yet we've
realized how much the Lord has taught us through the simple, accepting lives
of our children.

As we get further along in the language, we will try to give regular updates
on how things are going and also try to give some examples of the things we
are discovering in the language. Our first major discovery is that there
are 6 ways to say "they". It all depends on how may people there are and
who you are directing your speech to. Talk about a headache. When I told
them that in English there is just one way to say "they", they all laughed
and asked me, "well how do you know who they are talking about?" Good
question actually. Anyway, the language is very interesting and we are
starting to get used to the unique sounds that it has in it and also getting
more aquainted with their basic vocabulary. I know, I know, by now some of
you have already fallen asleep or moved on that more exciting email with the
special offer from oldnavy.com. So I will close for now and just say a big
thanks to all of you who faithfully pray and support us in this work. We
are privileged to be here and be used of God to shed His light in this dark
corner...

Lane & Karrie Sanford
New Tribes Mission - New Ireland Province, PNG
email: lane_sanford@ntm.org

[Sanford News] Update from Karrie

2007-09-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

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

[Sanford News] Were up!

2007-08-06T23:36:00.000-07:00

After many tries and failed attempts, we are finally up with email! This is
a really big development for us so we are very thankful to be back in
communication with the outside world again.

It has been about 3 months since we last were up with email so to say that
we are behind is the understatement of the galaxy. Please know that we have
gotten all of your emails and will certainly reply to you all as soon as we
can get to it.

Well life is much different now for us. Our house is finished and we have
been living in it for over a month now. We are so thankful and amazed at
how much work has been done in such a short time.

Thanks SSOOO much for your prayers and support these last months; you have
kept us here! Just wanted to drop a quick line and let you know we are up
and running with email! Talk to you more now...

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