Troozshoes

We have been getting more confident in language learning, and have been getting out a bit more. We went down to a fish damming event on the Saturday of the first week, a few days later we went to the big river where we enjoyed splashing around, and Dave went up to visit the logging camp two days ago. On the way he saw several gardens, and we hope to visit those with the children sometime. We had planned on doing everything monolingually, and that is still our goal, but it is frustrating for Dave who wants to talk about things that we haven't learned yet, and are pretty advanced, as well as important, such as the practices of the logging company, our plans for starting translation next year, etc.! Please pray for our language learning!

 

We are doing very good healthwise. Joanna's sores are looking very good now, and Matthew is over his cold and the breathing problems! Praise the Lord for that!  Sarah cut Matthew's hair this week.  His curls were beautiful but it was all getting too long and hot for our little BOY!  There's a bit of lift to his hair still and a bit of wave and curl, so he looks quite stylish!!

 

We have been having great sunny days, so we are able to charge up our battery and use it for printing, using the computer, and the lights and radio without worrying about getting too low. That is a praise too!

 

On the 29th we celebrated Samuel's birthday! We had two parties, one with the people where we played games, ate popcorn, and had a great time, and the second with just our family where we had a great cheesecake pie that Sarah made and opened presents we brought from Ukarumpa. It was a very fun day, and now we are looking forward to the next party - Dave's brithday is on Nov. 19.

 

Our good friend, Paulus, came from Songgum on Monday, and we enjoyed talking with him again. He lives in another village, and came to Buan to visit the health clinic to get medicine for his three children. The clinic "doctor" is on strike though, because the community hasn't been meeting their obligations to him, such as digging him a hole for his pit toilet, and finishing his kitchen. So, he came to see us, and I was able to help him a little with medicine, but I encouraged him to visit the other clinic in the area because the symptoms were confusing and I wasn't sure what the children had.

 

Before leaving he said that he had had several offers of work with different companies, but he told them he couldn't take the offers. He felt like although he really wanted to get work to help with physical needs, he sensed that God didn't want him to leave the translation work. He felt like he had to stay in the area to continue helping us with the translation work. Almost all of the other translation and literacy team members have gone to work with a mining company and a logging company in the area. He said, "But I am going to keep working with you, and stay loyal to you, because this work is really satisfying to me spiritually." Wow! Praise the Lord for Paulus and the other two committed people, Paul and Philip!

 

Take care,

Dave and Sarah