Stories & Updates

Around the World in 335 Days

July 14, 2025

After radio silence on this blog for over 2 months, I am pleased to announce that the Potters are back in Alaska! School finished up at Kudjip for me and the kids on June 6, we departed on June 10, and then we spent a few weeks making our way back to the U.S.--flying west instead of back east! We hadn't initially planned to do a round-the-world trip, but earlier this year when Joel looked at ticket prices, he realized this would be an affordable opportunity to show our kids a few more countries and see some dear friends on our way back to Alaska.

Here are the beloved folks we were able to see:

After our European interlude, we arrived back in Alaska to a warm welcome from friends here. Offers of rides; car loans; invitations to dinner and Bible studies, play dates and walks and coffee; we feel so blessed by our Anchorage community!

Now the business of adjustment has begun; it's no joke! First you're reeling from the time difference (this is the falling-asleep-in-your-spaghetti phase), then once you can keep your eyes open at the appropriate time of day, you begin to notice that your surroundings are very different than a few days or a few weeks ago. After living in a country of hundreds of languages and then rapidly navigating through half a dozen others, our brains aren't used to hearing only one, which is maybe the reason someone (who shall remain nameless) called the cat "tummy" and someone else (also nameless) keeps calling nut butter "but nutter." 

And swirled into the excitement and comfort of returning to familiar things (cuddly cat! comfy house! friends! gorgeous mountains! cool air! Costco!) are some gaps, some small empty spaces--loss and longing for things left behind (other cats, that house with yellow flowers by the water tanks and vines growing on the long porch, other friends, other gorgeous mountains, warm tropical air, the bustle of the road junction market, living in a close-knit community with so many people you know and love). It's hard to hold it all in your hands and heart at once: the sadness that comes with loving people and places left behind, and the joy of being where you are now.

We're awash in tasks like unpacking boxes, scheduling dentist appointments and doctor visits, buying school uniforms, finding cars, getting insurance quotes, looking for a job (Bekah), yet we still want to take time to reflect on the gift that this year has been for us. While we were in Switzerland I told our friend Verne that I wanted to write a final blog post about our time in PNG but wasn't sure what to write. He told me I should write about "things that change, and things that don't." So, since he's worked in international communications for many years, I'll take his advice. (Thanks, Verne!)

Things that change

When we returned to PNG last year, it had been about nine years since our last short visit, and over twenty years since Joel and I graduated from high school and moved away from Kudjip. So some change was to be expected, but we weren't sure exactly how much. Here are some things we noticed that have changed since our childhood in PNG:

• Who is still there at Kudjip. All the missionaries we grew up knowing at Kudjip have departed (with the exception of my brother Ben, who has returned to Kudjip with his family), and many older Papua New Guinean friends and role-models have retired and moved away. A few have "gone on to glory," as Nazarenes sometimes say. 

• The population. Everywhere we went, in the Wahgi Valley especially, it was clear there were many more people than in the past. When my family moved to Papua New Guinea in 1985, the estimated population of the country was 4 million. When I graduated from high school in 2001, it was about 6 million. Now, while estimates vary, it is likely over 10 million.

• The exchange rate. At some point in my childhood, the PNG kina was worth more than the US dollar. At our last visit in 2015, it was worth about 1/3 of a dollar. Now, thanks to inflation, it is about 1/4 of a dollar--advantageous if you are bringing dollars in, but difficult for Papua New Guineans who have seen prices rise much more than wages.

• Number of expatriates (foreigners) living in PNG. In 1985, there were around 40,000 foreigners living in PNG. The latest stats I could find indicate it is now more like 25,000. I had noticed  that our presence would get a bit more attention when we would walk or drive into off-highway areas, compared to what I remembered from my childhood. (This suprised me--I had expected that with Internet access and more global contact, my pale skin would get less attention, not more!)

• Products and groceries available. You can buy tortillas in Mt. Hagen! Some stores stock Target-like household brands from Australia. And good coffee, jam, UHT milk, and even Oreos are available just 15 minutes away from Kudjip in the town of Banz!

• Number of staff living and working at Nazarene General Hospital at Kudjip. It seems like Kudjip has at least twice as many houses and people as when we were kids! A whole neighborhood has sprung up now where once there was only a swamp with a few cows grazing.

• Number of professional and executive positions in health care occupied by Papua New Guineans. When I was little, missionaries were still working as nurses in the hospital, as well as doctors and administrators. When I was in high school, all the nurses were Papua New Guinean, and missionaries were only in leadership or doctor positions. Now, Papua New Guineans occupy all levels of leadership, several Papua New Guinean doctors are on staff at Nazarene General Hospital, and other doctors in training rotate through as part of a rural medicine training program. 

Things that don't change

• The importance of relationships in everything in PNG. While this is true everywhere in the world to some extent, a network of relationships forms a much stronger system of cohesion in PNG than in the U.S.

• The cultural differences between America and PNG. (Some of the main contrasts we've read about and experienced are individual versus communal thinking, time-orientation versus event-orientation, and task focus versus relational focus.) 

• The beauty of the land and culture of PNG. While we were there, we got to do my favorite roadtrip of all time, driving from the highlands all the way down to the coastal town of Madang. We passed through so many different beautiful landscapes, ecosystems, and cultures just in those two days of driving, and it reminded me why I love that trip, despite all the dust and potholes!

• Challenges to development--lack of resources, government corruption, remote locations, little infrastructure.

• The heavy emotional toll (secondary trauma, burnout) that doctors and nurses experience, especially true in PNG where a high percentage of cases are patients seeking treatment for trauma. 

• The beauty of intercultural worship--as close to heaven as we get on earth. Almost every church service we attended in PNG had some blend of English and Tok Pisin and often at least one tok ples being spoken, and both Americans and Papua New Guineans participating. But sometimes there were multiple tok ples languages represented, as well as visitors from Australia, India, Wales, New Zealand, Canada...and probably more I've forgotten! 

• The acceptance and love offered to us by our friends in PNG. Over and over again, we were told, "You belong here." I want to remember to offer that kind of acceptance to others, because it has meant so much to me.

Well, Verne, now I'm on a roll, so I'm going to add a few categories of my own:

Things we expected

• To help provide education for missionary kids, help them process transition, and have fun with them!

• To reconnect with old friends and make new ones, to sit on our porch and "stori" with people.

• To give our kids experience with the culture, place, and language that formed us.

• To create family memories while expanding our kids' ideas of the possible.

• To spend time with family (Ben and Katherine, Simeon, Matthias, Tabea, Naomi, and Luka)

• To eat PNG food (kaukau! taro! kumu! mumu pig!)

• To have the opportunity to thank Papua New Guinean mentors who impacted our faith journey.

Things we didn't expect

• That Joel would get to teach a philosophy class in PNG!

• That I would get to teach with such wonderful colleagues--Charity, Cherish, and Karina were amazing teachers, absolutely lovely people, and dear friends.

• That Joel and I would get to climb Mount Hagen--I had hoped for Wilhelm and maybe Giluwe and Mount Hagen wasn't even on my radar, but I would 100% recommend! Talk to Pym at Magic Mountain Lodge if you ever want to try it! 

• That we would get to spend more time with family than any year since we've been married--not just with Ben and Katherine's crew, but also my parents, Joel's parents, and Josiah and Tim's families!

• That we would see so many other "Kudjip kids" who grew up with us and have returned to work in the health ministries there.

• That our girls got to see and hear from many women preaching and leading in worship.

• That our kids were challenged and stretched academically in a good way by teachers who were very attentive to their needs and pushed them to achieve their potential.

• That Dora and Sylvia would travel by themselves internationally for the first time to attend a Rendezvous retreat for missionary kids--a great time of fellowship and learning.

Lessons learned

• Small people have big emotions, and an early elementary teacher's job is in large part helping them manage those. (Those of you who are K-2 teachers are probably thinking, "duh!", but having been trained as a 7-12 ELA teacher, it was news to me!)

• Joel is great at being flexible and doing what needs done--he took over most of the household management this past year since I was the one working full time (although he basically was too, by the second semester!)

• Crisis saps creativity. In the classroom and in our family, the more we could keep ourselves out of "crisis mode" by preparing to meet challenges with adequate coping strategies, the more energy we had to learn and explore.

• Our family has been dealing for a few years now with some specific psychoemotional challenges, and while accessing support was more difficult from PNG, we are grateful for the avenues God did provide through Nazarene Global Mission personnel, internationally-accessible professionals, and several missionaries on station who had life experience and expertise that made them able to support and encourage us.

• When you come back to a place that was important to you in the past, you tend to have ideas about how it should be now. (We tried to keep our mouths shut as much as possible--thanks for your forbearance when we didn't, Kudjip friends!)

• Growing up in a place doesn't make you a cultural expert. We still were confused sometimes and had plenty to learn.

• Short-term missions makes a lot of mission work more possible--but in some ways more challenging, since the work of orientation has to be done so frequently for newcomers, and their time to develop local knowledge and relationships is limited.

• Missionaries and MKs experience far more frequent transition now than in our childhood--terms on the mission field used to be 3-4 years, but now most families travel between the U.S. and PNG about every 2 years, sometimes every year. While it means seeing family more often and a change from normal assignments, the cultural/locational whiplash (and just the workload of arranging packing, travel, housing, schedules, then 3 months later reversing) is a challenge of its own.

• With its wealth of resources, strategic location, and growing population and markets, PNG is poised to become more important in world affairs.

• Papua New Guinean Christians have new evangelism opportunities to reach people from Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or atheistic Asian countries who have come to PNG for business.

As we've looked over our accounts to close out our mission finances, we are overwhelmed with gratitude for how God provided abundantly for our needs through the generosity of friends, family, and even strangers. And this was not just financially--we know many people prayed for us, helped us get ready to go, followed along with our posts, took over some of Joel's classes, took care of our house and cat and mail, kept our pipes from freezing (!), checked in with us while we were gone...THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for making it possible for us to spend this past school year in PNG supporting missionary families through education. 

And we also hold deep gratitude for all of you at Kudjip who prepared for our arrival, welcomed us, hosted us, included us, prayed for us, supported us, worked alongside us, listened to us, and were patient with us during our year there! Not every moment was easy, but as we look back we see every moment and every interaction covered with grace--grace from God, to us all, between us all. And many moments were shot through with such warmth, beauty, and unity that it seemed like a little of heaven's glory rested on earth. (As, I think, it actually does whenever we have the eyes to see it and the heart to receive it.) Thank you, thank you for this year together.

As I wrap up this reflection, quotations from one of my students' read-alouds this year and from a song we often sang at devotion time resonate in my mind as a summary of life and ministry in PNG, or Alaska, or anywhere we find ourselves. 

The song is "Build Your Kingdom Here," and it contains this prayer: 

"Build your kingdom here, let the darkness fear, show your mighty hand, heal our streets and land." 

(Side note: the Kudjip elementary MKs loved to stomp their feet along with this particular version, with reckless abandon as to actual beat. Their enthusiasm is a favorite memory in this teacher's heart!)

The book is Tales of the Kingdom by David and Karen Mains. It's an allegory describing the Kingdom of God as a secret resistance movement against the darkness and evil of an enchanted city. In it, the watch call of the followers of the true king is this: 

"How goes the world?" 

"The world goes not well. But the Kingdom comes!" 

"The Kingdom comes!"

These are refrains for wherever we find ourselves; HERE is where we pray God's kingdom will come, his will be done. 

I Have Called You by Name

May 5, 2025

I am not good with names.

The older I've gotten, the more forgetful I am. And I think I've always been prone to mixing up names...making spoonerisms...searching for the right word and not finding it...and just generally not being great at talking. 😜 (I'll chalk this up to being bilingual--speaking more than one language has manifold benefits, but it does result in slower lexical retrieval.)

So, as further evidence that God has a sense of humor, my little class this year has contained three students with extremely similar names. 

A perfect storm for someone with an already-mixed-up tongue. 

Joel jokingly told me I should just go with one celebrity-style portmanteau name for all three. (My other two students at this point in the school year have names you might think would be sufficiently distinct...but for me, no. I've formed another portmanteau for those two!) 

Joking aside, I have made my best good-faith effort to keep students' names straight, because I think names are very important. Fortunately, my little crew is very gracious with me and we have all managed to truck along this year with a sense of humor about my mistakes. Last week we said goodbye to one member of our easily-confused-names trio when his family moved back to the U.S., and while it will make life easier for my poor tongue, we'll miss him sorely! He had a love for critters like none other, caught us our beloved class frog, and asked the best science questions. The picture above was taken on his last day with us--also PNG Day for our Spirit Week, hence all the PNG colors! (If you want to take a peak at his family's adventures and learn a bit more about PNG, they made some wonderful vlogs during their time here!)

I do believe that really knowing others' names is important. I've been thinking a lot about that lately. I'm not sure how this works in human brains, but it seems to me that when I learn the name of a flower, or an animal, or a place, I see it in a way I can't when I don't know its name. The same is true for a person. A person whose name I know holds a more solid and distinct place in my mind and heart.

Returning to PNG for a missionary assignment has felt a little bit like "cheating" to me, because for Joel and me it's really coming home, without the typical culture shock and intensive effort required to learn a language and navigate an unfamiliar place. We speak one of the languages spoken here passably well, the culture is not wholly new to us (though certainly we still have much to learn)...and we have many friends here who know our names. There's some unintentional "trading on the family name," too--when we walk down to the market just outside the hospital compound, someone correctly I.D.-ing me or Joel as our parents' child often results in a few extra vegetables being added to the piles we purchase, an ongoing thank-you for our parents' service to the community here, unearned by us but still gratefully received.

It means a lot to me when people remember my name from my childhood years growing up here. I'm often chagrined that I don't remember someone's name, but I'm trying to re-learn names I've forgotten in addition to learning the names of new acquaintances. I often have to catch grasshoppers and katydids outside the school to feed our class frog Pineapple, and sometimes kids playing nearby volunteer to help me. So I ask them their names, and I try to remember. Peter, Rachel, Macklynn, "G," Jedidiah, Heinrich, Sonja, Margaret.

An added challenge to remembering names in PNG is the fact that it's fairly common for people to change or add names. Often someone will choose a Bible name when they become a Christian, like our friends Dorcas (Koromin), Philip (Nanmil), or Stephen (Pundi). And sometimes children are given a name from their tribal language as well as a more Western-sounding name. Namesaking is also common, which helps me out with a memory aid. (Here are pictures of our daughter Sylvia with two family friends also named Sylvia--the left pair both named after Joel's mom.) 

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. (John 10:14-15) 

...he calls his own sheep by name. (John 10:3)

When You're Here, You're Family

April 27, 2025

Suddenly, we are counting our time left in PNG in weeks instead of months. Many people here are surprised that it is now so soon (June 10 is our departure date), and they are asking when we are coming back. One friend even paid me the compliment of telling me I must be buried here (Pok, for those of you who know him!), which I feel is a little premature. But we do consider it a profound privilege to be so accepted and loved by our Papua New Guinea family. And we do hope we will be back someday, even though we're confident now is the time for us to return to our friends, our home, our church in Anchorage. 

One thing I have been reflecting on lately is what I've observed about family and belonging in PNG. I won't claim to be an expert in Melanesian culture, but it is clear that "family" has a much more extended meaning; you can have many papas, mamas, brothers, and sisters outside your biological family or household. Americans are often puzzled when a Papua New Guinean refers to their "last papa" or "second mama." These aren't necessarily replacements for "original" parents; you may have lived with your biological parents all through childhood and still cite multiple papas and mamas. They may be someone related, like a biological aunt or uncle, or it may be someone unrelated who took care of them in a significant way. 

It is extremely common for people to adopt or foster relatives, or even unrelated children they come across who are in need. Something I admire greatly about many of my PNG friends is their willingness to accept children into their homes and care for them. One of our friends who lives in a nearby village has had five biological children, one of whom died in childhood, and has fostered at least three more. She is a master gardener and is proud that the work of her hands has provided for other children in need; she often brings us huge bilums (string bags) of produce from her garden as well. The last time she came to visit us, she told me about how she has always made sure she doesn't treat any of the children under her roof differently, regardless of whether she gave birth to them.

This expansive concept of family turns out to be really wonderful as a visitor in this culture; many of us who could be considered "outsiders" are readily adopted in and told we belong here. While the interdependence and continual stream of reciprocal gift-giving and indebtedness that go along with relationships here can sometimes feel confusing and difficult to manage to those of us from Western individualistic cultures, there is also a lot of beauty and truth in it. None of us stands alone, and we all owe each other something as human beings.

Recently, a retired missionary who had returned to PNG to volunteer at Melanesia Nazarene Bible College passed away just before he was to return to his family in Australia. Dr. Robert Woodruff had begun his missionary career here in 1974 before going on to serve in many parts of the world. Nazarenes here in Jiwaka Province have spoken again and again about how deeply they feel honored that Dr. Woodruff's family chose the Bible college campus to be his final resting place. In PNG, where someone is buried seems to be of great significance; in my interpretation as an observer, it seems to indicate where the person truly belongs. One pastor spoke to his congregation about how Dr. Woodruff is the second Nazarene missionary to be buried in Papua New Guinea, that his family gave his body to the church here, and that they have a "dinau" (debt) for this. 

While we came to PNG to serve by providing education to missionary kids, Joel and I already felt that we owed a debt to Papua New Guinean Christians for how they looked after us and modeled the way of Jesus for us when we were children here. Now, I feel our debt is even greater; the generosity many people extended to our families when we were growing up they have continued to extend to us as adults, and to the next generation, our children. I'm sure we have probably been presented with at least a literal ton of fruits and vegetables during our time here--a valuable gift for which we are deeply grateful, since our Highlander friends' skill at gardening far exceeds our own! Of even greater value have been the times spent eating together and telling stories, hiking, worshipping in church, working alongside, and sharing with each other whatever time and provision we can. 

If I start naming individuals to whom we are grateful, I am sure to leave someone out. But I do want to mention one person especially, since she has looked after us in our own home. Mama Susana has helped us with cleaning, laundry, and food prep every week, coming one or two days a week from her house 15 minutes down the road. In PNG, it is common for missionary families to hire a "haus meri,"  or house helper, to assist them in keeping up with housework that is a little more intensive than what we're used to in the U.S.--cooking almost everything from scratch, processing lots of fresh produce, hanging clothes out on the line, and trying to keep floors clean during muddy weather. 

Yu No Save Senis

March 1, 2025

We're knee-deep in the third quarter of the school year! It's hard to believe we have only a little over three months left here in PNG. And goodbyes, a constant feature of missionary and missionary kid life, have kicked in already.

While a few missionaries have arrived and departed since we arrived at Kudjip, this week was my first "permanent" goodbye to some kids from my class. I have a spreadsheet with the departure dates of each family recorded, but somehow it hadn't registered until a few days ago that I wouldn't see the Stewardson family again in the foreseeable future. We leave to return to Alaska before they return to PNG from their Home Assignment (during which they will travel to speak at churches, see family, and hopefully find time to rest and recharge!). (To find out more about this super cool family, the Stewardsons, check out their blog! https://stewsnews.mailchimpsites.com/ )

Another student will depart at the beginning of May. And from there on out, the goodbyes will come thick and fast, as various missionary families head off for sabbaticals and home assignments. This is missionary life in the 21st century, where many goings and comings can cause huge transitions for missionary kids even within the course of one school year.

I'm no psychologist, but I think I've been noticing the emotional impacts of transition in my classroom lately as my 6- to 8-year-old students navigate goodbyes and anticipate what comes next. Sometimes this looks like an uptick in things like fighting with your best friend, or feelings getting easily hurt, or a writing assignment or math problem or recess game seeming just too hard to cope with. Sometimes it's an upset tummy, or suddenly giving away your favorite school-desk treasures to your friends...or an excited count-down of days until you get to see grandparents and cousins. 

We talked in my class this week about how endings and beginnings, goodbyes and hellos often go together. One of the joys of missionary kid life is relationships with people in far-flung parts of the world; the poignant side of that joy is that wherever you are, you are far from someone you love.

A wonderful "hello" for our little school has been welcoming another teacher, Karina Pilga. Karina just graduated from university with an education degree. She grew up here at Kudjip, where her mother is a nurse at the hospital, and we are so excited that she decided to join us! (I love it that she is, like all our students and myself, a "Kudjip Kid"!) Karina is the first Papua New Guinean teacher intern at the MK Elementary School, an important step forward toward the sustainability of the school.*

Karina has lightened my load significantly, a welcome gift at this point in the school year! She's taken on reading time with my whole class, heaps of grading, and is trading off between teaching 1st and 2nd grade math while I teach the other. (One of my biggest struggles before her arrival was trying to complete both 1st grade and 2nd grade math lessons within a 45-min. math block.) In Rosie's class, she's helping with math, science, and history. She's also taking on some recess duty so that all of us get more planning time. Woohoo!

During Friday morning devotions the past two weeks, Karina has been teaching the students a worship song in Tok Pisin. Amid looming changes and goodbyes, its words have been particularly powerful for me, and I hope for our students too. 

God Yawe, yu stap (God Yawe, you are

Asde na nau yesterday and now,

Oltaim oltaim for all time,

Yu stap You are,

Yu no save senis. You do not change.)

I hope that this is a message that sinks into these MKs' souls, in every language they learn, every culture they experience, every place they go. God will always be unchanging and faithful (Hebrews 13:8, Lamentations 3:22-23), and he is always with us (Matthew 28:20).

*(The school is exploring recruiting and training local teachers to help provide more stability and continuity, since volunteer teachers from the U.S. have not always been available in recent years. Be praying that God will provide more teachers, from PNG or the U.S. or wherever he may see fit, and guide the development of the school in the coming years! Feel God nudging you? Find out more about the elementary school and high school volunteer openings!)

Catching Up

February 21, 2025

Much has happened since the last time that we've posted an update.

In December, Joel's parents, David and Sylvia Potter, came to visit us for a week and a half. They had served in PNG, 1992-2002, teaching at the Nazarene College of Nursing at Kudjip.

Joel worked with some of his PNG mamas to organize a traditional feast (a mumu) so that his parents could reconnect with old friends. In the highlands, a mumu is prepared by digging a hole in the ground, lining it with banana leaves, filling it with cooking bananas, greens, sweet potatoes, taro, pork, and extremely hot rocks. The mumu is sealed up with banana leaves (and now, sometimes, foil). The food cooks quickly at high heat.

There are many Christmas traditions at Kudjip; so, despite the lack of snow, it was a festive time and extra special to have Joel's parents with us.

We didn’t realize when we decided to go to PNG that we’d end up spending more time with family this year than we do living in faraway Alaska: Bekah's brother and his family are with us working at the hospital, Bekah's father, Dr. Jim Radcliffe, volunteered in November, Joel's parents were with us in December, and more of Bekah's family are coming in May!

We also got to spend time at Christmas with Peter and Jenny Isaac and their son, Junior, while they were on home assignment. Peter and Jenny are from Papua New Guinea and are the longest serving Nazarene missionaries in the Melanesia field. They served alongside Joel's parents in Vanuatu and have continued to oversee theological education and Nazarene missionaries in that country for over 19 years. 

Not long after they arrived in PNG, the capital city of Vanuatu was struck by a large earthquake, demolishing buildings, causing large landslides, and loss of life. One of the Isaacs’ sons was in Port Vila and it took many days before they were able to confirm that he was safe due to the loss of cell communications. The Isaacs have returned to Vanuatu and have overseen compassionate ministry responses in the wake of the disaster. Click here for more information about the Isaacs’ ministry and how to support their work.

PNG Studies Class

One of his goals is to help students connect classical philosophical ideas to the distinctions and traditional beliefs of their own tribal language and clan. So, each week he's giving them homework with questions like these:

•  What word(s) in your tok ples (local language) are used for wisdom? What are traditionally the qualities of a wise person? 

• What words are used for cause? What would traditionally be identified as the causes of something good or bad that happens? 

• Does your culture traditionally distinguish between a physical and a spiritual realm? If so, how are these realms understood to interact? 

• How does this compare to Plato's distinction between the visible world of physical things and the invisible world of Ideas? 

Philosophical training that is attuned to Melanesian beliefs and cultures can help these future priests properly contextualize and communicate the gospel. In April, Joel will give a public lecture at Good Shepherd on the promise of Melanesian philosophy as both a contribution to local questions and issues and to global conversations in philosophy.

February is birthday month!

We thank God for animal friends

Time for adventure

Small Things

November 23, 2024

Above you can see Rosie and some of the other missionary kid students playing "Red Light, Green Light" behind the little red schoolhouse where I teach. Our days are mostly full of little things: lessons, games, conversations, walks, meals, caring for small people (and animals!). These daily joys (and sometimes trials) are punctuated by additions to our routine: a trip with my brother's family, hikes, Joel speaking in local churches, market or town shopping, and most recently--a visit from my dad! 

A general update on the whole family:

Rosie is in her element here, enjoying school with friends and cousins, then running off each day after she drops her backpack at home to roam around the mission station with playmates. My brother Ben very helpfully lent us a set of walkie-talkies so we can summon Rosie whenever she's needed back at home. 

Dora and Sylvia are still working on finding a rhythm with their schoolwork--in addition to this being their first year of high school, they've also had to adjust to a very different, much more self-guided way of doing school. (I had hoped this would make it lower-stress for them, but they still have very high expectations for themselves!) They enjoy social opportunities with the other missionary teens and kids, and while I know it's a challenge for them, they are willing to follow along into cross-cultural experiences. 

Joel keeps very busy juggling his online teaching duties, shopping, dishes, laundry, cooking, helping with the twins' schoolwork and teaching an elective at their high school, speaking at churches, and planning any outings and social engagements for the family. I find myself pretty fully occupied with my daily teaching duties. I enjoy spending my days learning with my little crew of first- and second-graders; we may be small in number, and they may be small in size, but there are lots of big feelings to work through! I'm realizing that a huge part of my job as an early elementary teacher is not just to teach skills and information, but to help my students work through managing emotions and social interactions. 

A delightful surprise for me the last couple of weeks has been how much my students are enjoying poetry! We read a fun little poetry collection called Surprises, and my class did an excellent job reading fluently and with expression, finding sound repetition, spotting imagery, and just having fun with it! They're even working on memorizing some poems now. Makes my little English-teacher heart happy! I'm hoping to add in more poetry to our reading now that I know how much they enjoy it!

Small beings

My class

Here are some of the kids who keep me hoppin'! We've had a lot of coming and going the last month or so, with some leaving on sabbatical and others traveling for conferences and vacations. No two weeks are ever the same! I've been thinking a lot lately about how much transition these young people have to absorb; while I was a missionary kid at this same school, I think the mobility of the world these days makes their lives even more full of comings and goings than mine was. There's a lot of joy and richness in it, but keep them in your prayers, because it also isn't easy to be continually adjusting to change!

Recess and play time

Visiting local churches

Hiking

This was a Saturday meander into the hills behind Kudjip with a couple doctors and a Mission Aviation Fellowship engineer who were visiting Kudjip. We followed the road nearly to its end, looked down onto the Kane River valley, stopped at the Catholic mission station and chatted with some mamas, forded the river, and got very wet. 

Life around Kudjip

We had a friend who is a student at the Nazarene College of Nursing, Ellen Kui (wearing black), come over for Friday night pizza with some of her friends! They are all about to graduate from nursing school and have a great sense of mission for ministering to those in need of health care.

Kudjip Haus Sik

October 18, 2024

I last posted shortly after Papua New Guinea's Independence Day. On that same day my brother Ben, who is a general surgeon here at Kudjip, had given us a tour of the hospital, but it's taken me until now to get around to posting the pictures! I wanted to be sure to include these, because while we aren't in the hospital on a daily basis, this is the primary ministry that we are here supporting. All of my students' parents either work at the hospital or support its operation in some way. In Tok Pisin, the term for hospital is haus sik--a house for those who are sick. In the photo above, you can see a nurse caring for patients on one of the hospital wards. A Papua New Guinea flag decorates the back wall, along with a Scripture verse in Tok Pisin (translation: "All the burdens you carry, you must put into His hands," 1 Pet. 5:7). 

This is the same hospital where my dad worked while I was growing up in PNG, but the facility has changed a lot over the years. For most of his career, my dad was the only full-time surgeon at the hospital, which for many years had only one operating room. Now, there are four operating rooms and three full-time general surgeons, as well as an OB/GYN doctor who does surgeries regularly. The hospital also now trains Papua New Guinean doctors to work in rural areas, houses a dental clinic, and provides palliative care outreach, among other services.

Thank you for praying for the staff of the haus sik here as they seek day after day to show compassion to those who are suffering; for the sick to receive spiritual and physical healing; and for the children of those ministering here to continue to grow up secure and confident in the love and presence of Christ, the only true remedy for all the hurt they see in the world.

Happy Independence Day!

September 17, 2024

Papua New Guinea's Independence Day is celebrated on Sept. 16. The country gained full independence (peacefully, transitioning from Australian administration as a UN Trust Territory) in 1975, so next year will mark the nation's 50th anniversary! (I wish we could be here next year to see it--this 49th independence celebration was so festive, I can only imagine what the 50th will be like!) While it is the most linguistically diverse nation in the world, and one of the most culturally diverse, with 800+ languages and tribal groups, Papua New Guineans demonstrate a strong sense of national unity: "Wan Kantri, Wan Pipol" (One Country, One People).

Our participation in independence weekend celebrations started Sunday. We walked to Tumba Church of the Nazarene, about 2 miles away, with my brother Ben's family and a team from India who is installing an electronic medical records system. The couple who are pastors of that church, Elis and Kopi, are long-time friends of our family. Another friend who attends that church, Gibis, has one daughter named Sylvia and one daughter named Kathy, after Joel's mom and my mom. 

While I'm often skeptical of the appropriateness of national celebrations in church, I was impressed by how Pastor Elis spoke about her nation's Independence Day. National pride was very apparent, with the worship team all wearing PNG flag colors, and altar decorations including the Papua New Guinea and Jiwaka flags constructed out of flowers. Yet the primary theme was not a claim to any type of exceptionalism, but rather gratitude to God for the good land He created in Papua New Guinea, thankfulness for freedom gained without violence, prayer for those in other parts of the world who do not yet enjoy such freedom, and celebration that while we come from different nations and have different colors of skin, we are all one in Christ.

We walked back home to Kudjip in the blazing sun and then enjoyed a Sunday "Nazarene nap" before celebratory sports tournaments commenced Sunday afternoon for the entire mission station community. Co-ed basketball and volleyball games continued Monday after the national anthem and flag raising in the morning, and lasted until Monday evening with breaks for sack races, a dance team performance, service awards, and free ice cream for the kids. 

After a decade in the Far North, we continue to struggle with fending off sunburn, so we tried to utilize our umbrellas and sunscreen plentifully while out in the full equatorial midday sun! I took some breaks to go do school prep inside, and Ben also gave us a hospital tour (more on that later). Rosie had the time of her life running around with other kids almost the entire day, buying candy and popcorn from those who had set up little concessions all around the sports courts. It was a great time to bump into old friends, visit, hang out, and celebrate together! Here are some more pictures of the celebrations:

One Month In

September 14, 2024

Our first month in PNG has flown by! Once school kicked off, the days have continued to be full. We've left the mission station a few times: two trips to Mt. Hagen for groceries, an expedition to Kumul Lodge in Enga Provice to view birds, a couple of hikes in the hills and mountains around Kudjip, and a visit to a church nearby. 

Many things have changed here, yet many remain the same, and we continue to adjust ourselves to being back in this very familiar place but in a much different stage in our lives. We've continued to be blessed by meeting people we remember or who remember us: on hikes, at the road junction market just outside the mission station, at church. Just like when I was growing up here, as I walk by I often hear a quick stream of tok ples (indigenous tribal language) + "Dokta Jim!" My parents' long service here is remembered well, as is Joel's parents'. On our last trip to Mt. Hagen, the maintenance worker who came with us to watch our car, Elijah, remembered that when he was a boy Joel's dad had talked to him while out on a walk, then given him his first Bible. Another woman told us that she became a Christian when Joel's mom spoke at a women's retreat in the Kobon region. 

Many of the Papua New Guinean leaders our parents served alongside have told us that we are their children, and the kids we grew up with say we are their siblings, and after coming back from a long distance of time and space to this place, it does feel like that. In a very real sense, many of the generation before us are our mothers and fathers in faith. And in the midst of such a new venture for us as a family, especially for our kids, it feels very comforting to be welcomed as belonging here.

I (Bekah) have been enjoying my days with a bright, creative, inquisitive, and oftentimes very talkative :) group of first- and second-graders. They are a joy to be with, and while a full day of school can leave me feeling tired, I'm glad to be here doing this. I am so thankful for the three years I spent as a teacher assistant in a third-grade classroom at Aquarian Charter School, because I learned so much from the teachers there that I'm able to apply now. (Ms. Danielle, Ms. Stacy, and Ms. Kathy--your teacher mojo remains my primary inspiration! I can never thank you enough.) 

Joel has been a wonderful support for me as I've begun this new year teaching: helping manage things at home, cooking delicious dinners for us, and overseeing the twins' school curriculum, as well as helping teach some subjects at the high school. He's been kept busy figuring out details of finances, Internet access, and household needs, as well as running errands, all while keeping up with the online classes he continues to teach for University of Alaska Anchorage. 

Our kids have been adjusting well to their new environment. While getting used to a new and different school workload has been a little stressful for the twins, they're getting their feet under them, and we've been grateful to see them enjoying chatting with their schoolmates and teachers. We hear many stories of amusing incidents occurring at the high school!

Rosie has been absolutely loving roaming freely with friends (and cousins!) around the mission station whenever she's not at school: building bamboo huts, digging in the dirt, getting eaten up by mosquitoes, and generally having a grand time. She enjoys her time at school, too, and seems to have fit right in. 

Our first week of school saw an unpleasant virus sweep through the missionary kid population--one day at the elementary school, we had five out of seventeen students out sick, and more followed. But thankfully, the duration of the illness was short, and Rosie was the only one in our family affected. Dora and Sylvia get very anxious about illness, so we appreciate your prayers for them to trust God with our family's wellbeing whenever there is sickness.

We've also been enjoying recreation opportunities on the mission station. Volleyball is a Saturday tradition here, and an all-ages soccer game happens almost every Wednesday. (Unfortunately, Dora took a soccer ball to the head this week, which resulted in a moderate concussion! She seems to be recovering well, but we do appreciate your prayers for her.)

A very sweet part of our time here so far has been being near family--my brother Ben, his wife Katherine, and their five kids are long-term missionaries here at Kudjip. They returned from their home assignment in the USA a couple of weeks after we arrived here, and it's been fun for our kids to be able to go to school together and play together, and for our families to enjoy pizza and movie nights together! 

Thank you for continuing to pray for us! We hope to find more balance and rhythm with our daily duties and routines soon so that we can take time to reconnect with more people, both in the U.S. and PNG.

We Made It!

August 13, 2024

Thanks for praying for us! We made it! This is our third day at Kudjip, where we have been warmly welcomed by friends old and new. We've been unpacking, getting adjusted to the time zone, getting oriented to where things are on the hospital campus, meeting new doctors' families and visiting with Papua New Guinean friends, and this morning the girls started language study. (This is challenging for them! They do understand a tiny bit of Tok Pisin from hearing our families speak to each other, but 3 1/2 hours of language immersion this morning with their very gracious language helper, Saina, left them pretty exhausted! We'll shoot for a little less tomorrow.) 

Different missionary families are hosting us for dinner every night for our first four nights here, which is AMAZING. So thankful for the delicious food and great company! Tomorrow Joel and I will head into the town of Mount Hagen with another missionary to do our first round of grocery shopping.

Our house here has been carefully prepared for us--some remodeling was done, and it's fully stocked with furniture, linens, dishes, and cooking implements. We were so happy to find that our digital piano, which we had sent on a container shipment ahead of us and was waiting in our living room, had arrived intact and is working! 

An additional blessing for the kids has been that there are several neighborhood cats, one of whom has already visited our house twice! They still miss Nori, but Kira, Princess Buttercup, Willow, and Roz will help fill the void. They've also enjoyed visiting my brother Ben's family's dog, Gemma. (Ben and Katherine and their family, long-term missionaries here at Kudjip where Ben is a surgeon, will return in a couple of weeks from their home assignment in the U.S. Until then, Gemma will be getting some extra pats whenever the kids have time to sneak up there and visit her!)

One of my fellow teachers, Cherish Shinners, arrived a few days before us, and the other two teachers (Charity Shonamon, who will be at the elementary, and Anna Kindle, who will be at the high school) will be arriving shortly. I'm eager to get together with them and start gearing up for school! Our school year will start August 30.

I'll drop some photos over on our photos page--you can find that here! Shoot us an email, FaceBook message, Instagram DM, iMessage (our U.S. cell numbers don't work anymore, but I can still get texts from iPhones), leave us a note via our contact form, or find us on WhatsApp (Rebekah Potter), if you have questions or just want to say hi! We'd LOVE to hear from you!

-Bekah

Friends, if you could only see our house right now...it's a maelstrom of laundry, storage tubs, piles of books, dirty dishes, and other random belongings scattered helter skelter in every room of the house! We are now in the final throes of packing, and T-minus 6 days till liftoff. If only we could stop cooking, eating, showering, and getting our clothes dirty, I think we might get ready on time. As my Southern relatives say, "Y'all pray for us, now!"

But in the midst of the seemingly endless tasks of preparing to go (filling prescriptions! changing insurance on our house! squeezing in final doctor visits! consulting airline baggage allowances! selling our car! finalizing school paperwork!), we remain SO GRATEFUL for your love and support. We feel held in God's love as you hold us in your prayers.

And we are so grateful for the wonderful times we have spent with so many of you in this whirlwind of a summer. Our hearts and memories are so full, and I only wish I had more time to share the goodness we've experienced this summer. But because I need to go fold laundry and pack away the winter boots, I'm just going to drop some brief pictures and captions here for you to enjoy. 

These kids were fully present, earnest, and open to God working in their lives. It was a privilege to get to worship, pray, and seek the Lord alongside them. (And we had tons of fun, too.)

Well, the totally epic yard sale is in the books! THANK YOU to everyone who supported our upcoming year teaching in Papua New Guinea by donating things, buying things, offering to help, lending a tent, telling your friends, or stopping by to chat! First Evangelical Covenant Church of Anchorage, your support was amazing! Nunaka Valley Community, we felt the love from our neighborhood, too, and enjoyed getting to meet so many neighbors!

We were able to raise over 10% of our funding goal from the yard sale, which puts us almost halfway there! Grateful again for God’s provision through your kindness. 

Thank you to those of you who have been praying for our final paperwork to be completed so we can purchase our tickets to PNG! This morning we arrived back in Anchorage from a trip to see family in Michigan and Ohio. Just about as soon as we had carried our bags inside, taken off our shoes, and patted the cat, the package from the Papua New Guinea Embassy in Washington, D.C. arrived! Five passports, five visa stickers, with all the correct letters and numbers on them. :) We're thankful to God for continuing to direct our path to PNG!