Thank you to everyone who prayed through both legs of our journey.
We were able to spend some much needed family time in Brisbane before heading off to Papua New Guinea thanks to the hospitality of dear friends who opened their home to us and gave our kids the time they needed to adjust to a very different time zone. I can’t imagine having done the journey without that time for adjustment so we are thankful!
We sent this video out prior to moving and I wanted to quickly touch on each area and let you know how God is answering your prayers and how you can potentially pray more specifically for us in the coming weeks!
Finances
Prior to leaving we were only in need of $190/month in recurring support. Due to some unforeseen circumstances and the fluctuating nature of partnership development, even though we’ve had some new supporters come on board since that email and some existing supporters increase their current giving, our need has actually increased to $281/month in recurring support.
We trust that God will continue to provide exactly what we need and we are trusting Him to help us reach 100% of our required monthly support before we arrive at Ukarumpa in just 9 weeks.
Would you pray with us that this gap would be closed? Would you pray for new supporters to join our team? We are SO thankful for all of the prayer and financial support we have received and we would LOVE to answer any questions someone might have about joining our prayer team, subscribing to our blog or coming on as a monthly supporter. If someone is looking for the forms and info, they can be found by filling out this form at http://bit.ly/sendthemccarthys
Safety
We arrived safely in Brisbane and then Port Moresby and now finally Madang. Thank you for praying for our safety! Please continue to pray for our safety and the safety of our kids!
Transit
Thank you SO much for praying for us as we made the journey with our 2 bags of luggage each and four kids, two of whom don’t carry any of their own items 🙂 We were a bit of a gong show on many occasions, with Elliott even lying down flat on his face with arms and legs spread in the middle of the Sydney airport while we tried to make our connecting flight. But, we had wonderful helpers along the way in the form of airport staff and fellow passengers as well as friendly Wycliffe faces to greet us in Port Moresby and we are thankful. We felt a whole range of emotions during our travel, but amidst it all there was peace and, again, we know that your prayers were a part of that so thank you (I wrote a blog post on this that you can check out if you would like to read more.)
In addition, on our last two legs of the journey, we were very concerned about the potential for a huge luggage overage charge and I am pleased to say that, with our hands full of two sick children very very early on July 24th when we flew out of Brisbane, we had NO extra charge. Praise God and thank you for praying!
Health
In the video above that we sent out to supporting churches before we moved, we asked for your prayers for health and, since then, on Facebook (because it took us awhile to sort out a good internet option that includes email prior to this), we have sent a few updates about our kids health and we have so appreciated your prayers! I will write a little update on each kid below but suffice it to say that we are all healthy for the most part and that is a HUGE praise item. Thank you for praying friends and please continue to pray. There are about 50 people living and working here in Madang at POC (Pacific Orientation Course) and, with shared washrooms and close living quarters, the spread of sickness is inevitable despite the amazing nurse who works tirelessly to help keep everyone healthy. Please pray that our kids stay healthy and don’t have any more bouts of sickness in the upcoming 9 weeks, especially in the month of village living. Thank you!
Our Kids
Benjamin – Ben is loving being able to explore but he wants a buddy to do it with. Please pray that friendships click and that he can have a little buddy to explore with, catch bugs and wander (within reasonable boundaries 🙂 ). He is doing amazingly well in terms of the food here and we are really proud of the way he has adapted in general but he sure does miss his friends and family!
Jacob – please pray for him to get his needed introvert time while also making friends. He’s not big on putting his feelings into words so, at times, that makes it hard for him to process this big change and he resorts to repeating himself over and over which can be hard to handle.
He has also done well with the food but still misses some of his comfort foods as he has a bit of a sweet tooth like his mama 🙂
Elliott – please pray for Elliott’s sleep and transition in general. Dinner here is at 5:45 regularly and sometimes will be later when we meet with local families. This makes it hard for our energetic little guy who is ready for bed at that time of day. This makes for some pretty epic scream-fests in the dining hall which make us feel a bit more like a gong show than normal. Often you can just imagine his head on my lap while I’m trying to feed Lucy and sneak bites in so that he eats something before he falls asleep. They also all share a room together so he goes to bed later than normal so please pray for sleep!
Please also pray for his adjustment to the nursery. There are fabulous national women working in the nursery and he is supposed to go to the nursery/preschool from 8-12 and 2-4 but has only stayed in there by himself for a an hour here and there without screaming for us. Please pray that he will get over his fear of being left behind and be able to rest easy and enjoy his playtime with friends.
Lucy – Lucy was being treated with antibiotics for illness shortly after we arrived but her culture results came back to show that she had picked up an amoeba probably on the first or second day here. The doctor in town prescribed some pills to treat it but she had a hard time with the side effects of severe abdominal cramps and was up screaming the first night before finally falling asleep. The remainder of the treatment but we are still unsure as to whether or not the amoeba is completely gone. Again, we are thankful for the wonderful care we’ve received from the centre nurse as she has helped us navigate Lucy’s bouts of sickness. Please pray that she recovers completely and that the amoeba would be completely gone from her body.
Lucy has been able to go into the nursery a bit and has been ok with the transition except for sleeping. In Papua New Guinea, babies sleep in a bilum which is like a bag with holes in it and the women carry the babies in these bags on their heads and then hang the babies in the shade to sleep once they are asleep. It’s pretty amazing to watch but Lucy’s not too sure about it yet 🙂 Please pray that she adjusts well to this new sleeping arrangement once she’s back to full health.
Our Youth
We are so thankful for the internet and the ability to keep in touch with friends, family and the youth that we miss from Jericho. Please continue to pray for those relationships to grow despite the distance. We love our youth and miss them dearly 🙂
Our Marriage
This past week has been rough on us as parents as we have tried to manage our sick kids while both wanting to be fully engaged in the language and cultural learning component. Please pray for patience and grace with ourselves, with each other and with our kids. Thank you friends!
Friendships
Please continue to pray for friendships for us and for our kids. It is challenging, amidst the chaos of managing our kids, the course work and general schedule of POC which is packed with lots of awesome learning opportunities to also find time to connect with others. Our kids are also trying to connect but have difficulty at times, as some of the other kids already knew each other from a previous training but we are thankful and we are hopeful that those relationships will grow and flourish.
I’ll leave you with these photos of Nob Nob, where the Pacific Orientation Course is held, and where we are staying for the next 9 weeks, minus one month in a nearby village. It’s just as you see it only add 6 very sweaty but thankful McCarthy’s 🙂
With much love,
Anita, Jon, Ben, Jacob, Elliott and Lucy
Leave a Reply