Since my last entry, we've received both good and bad news from our rainforest home.
My friend Dina Gabo, a government employee from our Samo village, was able to obtain public funds for the Samo airstrip. With these funds he will buy two 44-gallon drums of gasoline and pay for it to be transported by small aircraft. These two drums will hopefully be enough to keep the grass mower going on the Honinabi airstrip for at least a year. The airstrip is of course a grass strip and in the tropical climate requires pretty frequent mowing. For many years I paid these costs out of my budget, so we are happy that this is now being taken over by the government. I did contribute money for the motor oil, but that is tiny compared to the usual amount I have paid to bring gasoline to such a remote place!
We got a mixture of good and bad news from the Honinabi Primary School. The teacher Philip Toyobo has recently encountered a problem with his salary, and he still has not received any school materials from the government. But we are encouraged that Dina is now able to give some attention to these needs and that in his work position he can do something about them. But most of all I am happy that in a few months I will be able to talk personally with both of these friends!
Lastly, we have received very sad news from Benny Medowae, one of the Samo translators. He has encountered a family difficulty that is not his fault, and he will probably be able to continue with the translation. However, he (and we!) would very much appreciate your prayers. It appears that he has found a cultural solution, but the consequences of the whole experience could still be extremely difficult.
On the other side of the world, we are still waiting for our visas, but we are glad that Franziska has at least received her work permit: "one step at a time"! Actually we are expecting the visas to come at the last minute. So we are glad that we can continue learning to trust God and to be content :-).
During the waiting, the growing number of Swiss supporters also gives us hope and courage to press on! This week we were able to give an "intercultural report" in our (Swiss) sending church. Although it was pretty stressful to pull our thoughts away from all the packing, in the end it was a nice break. A surprising number of people took part in the event, which we put together with another Wycliffe missionary.
Wow! I've already said a lot, and I still haven't told you anything about our exciting spring break! That will just have to wait...
