I made it safely to PNG

Hello everyone!

I have now settled into some sort of a routine here in
PNG. The first couple of days were kind of rough. It
took me a bit longer to recover from the trip than most of
the others. During most of our breaks I would be found
sleeping in my hut. We get these cute little huts to
sleep in, surrounded by beautiful flowers set on a sloping
grassy hill. In the distance you can see a lush valley
full of banana, silkwood, and pine trees, and behind that
mountains peek through low-lying clouds. It rains quite
frequently here, though never for very long or hard.
Sometimes we can hear the rain tapping lightly on our
metal roofs in our cabins. It is very relaxing. We have
had a couple of sunny afternoons, and with the very hot
sun I am glad that the clouds are not frequently absent;
but the unfortunate thing about this is that I have yet to
see a starry night sky. We are told that we can see the
southern cross from here, and I feel that I won't really
be able to comprehend how very far away I am from all of
you until I am able to see it.

The food here is great and varied. Today we had Chinese food, yesterday tacos, and a few days before that BBQ
chicken - all of which was delicious. We have a great
kitchen staff. I have had the ability to taste some of
the local fruit, much of which was not to my preference,
but the pineapple and bananas aren't bad.

My daily routine consists of waking up sometime around 7, having group prayer at 7:30, then breakfast. We are in
classes then until lunch and then free-time / homework
time until dinner. We then might have another class,
then some time to hang out at our staff's houses and more
time to study or do our devotions.

I have really loved our classes. My favorite so far has been phonetics. To learn another language, we will have
to write out very specifically what we are hearing, and
for that we need to know how to write it. Thus far we
have learned all the vowel sounds for the Tok Pisin
language (the trade language here in Goroka - and the one
we will be attempting to learn). They have quite a few and
include "i" which is pronounced "ee," "e" which is
pronounced "eh" and even some others that I can't even
find characters for on this keyboard. The homework is fun
too. We are given English words and are asked which vowel
sounds we hear and how to write them.

Some other homework isn't quite so much fun. I just finished writing a short essay on the destiny of the
heathen - using nothing but my Bible and a very old
concordance. I'm just glad this stuff isn't going to be
graded heavily. I was never that keen on writing papers.

Well, it sounds like it is raining outside again. I think I'll go sit outside on the swing and journal for a while until dinner. One of the reasons I was so much looking
forward to this trip is that I would have lots of time to
reflect on God and all the things He has been teaching me,
though I must confess, I have been pretty preoccupied with
so many other things. If you have some time, I would love
some prayers on this matter. One of the sessions we had
when we first got here was on our passion. The ultimate
passion we have as Christians is that of God himself. If
this is not the case, then our lives will be way off
balance, without peace or satisfaction. I have definitely experienced this before! It is anytime I have put myself and my priorities first. I am asking God
to give me that passion for Him; and in that, trusting
that He will lead me in the correct direction with the
rest of my life - giving me "minor" passions/ministries
that are subservient to Him, staying humble and open to
His teaching.

God bless, Jeniene

Or as they say in PNG, lukim yu behind! (i.e. good by)