Greetings from the shaken in Papua New Guinea!
Many of you may have heard on the world news that on 11 Sep a magnitude 7.6 earthquake hit our area. In fact the town where we go to get supplies (Kinantu) was about 40 mi from the epicenter putting us about 50-60 mi from the epicenter.
It lasted over a minute and began just as we began to worship on Sunday morning. Yes we felt it! Many things have happened and we are still waiting to hear news from Papua New Guineans. Many I’ve seen have said that they are fine things fell and some things broken but it seems that many houses are still intact.
Our house is fine, we had many things break (like dishes and pantry items) but all in all we are totally fine and most of those things can be replaced. Thankfully we serve a God who knows what we NEED and we are resting in that truth.
We are writing to you from our blog because the earthquake messed with the fibre cable in the ocean brining internet to us! So we still have internet; but it is minimal. Hence no pictures here. We have been able to pop on and off Facebook at different times and we were able to post there from a spot In Ukarumpa.
We spent Sunday cleaning our home and Dan helped with things around center and we helped neighbors in need. Monday the kids and Tonita helped at both school campuses to get things cleaned up before the late start for school. Dan was busy cleaning up at aviation!
Things to pray for:
- Water: many tanks were destroyed. There is a drought so many were already low on water(on center and in our valley). Papua New Guineans mostly eat from their gardens and the river got even drier after the quake as water was displaced.
- Safety: We’ve had many aftershocks a 5.2 at 1 am so that woke us all up. Then there was some fighting at around 4am; thankfully the kids slept through that but we did not. So even safety as Dan works with less sleep and energy.
- God to be glorified: There has been lot’s of fighting in our valley since we’ve returned. We pray that God would get glory, that people would turn to Him. That the Holy Spirit would enable people to forgive what they wouldn’t normally culturally forgive! We know God is working and are praying that we can be vessels of His grace.
- Our family has been directly impacted by many of these things. Pray that we parent well, navigate things well. That our kids gain tools to deal with these hard things and as always that they can look to and trust God with these big and heavy things!
Note: Please DO NOT post ANY of this communication on social media. I am writing without editing because I have a window of internet available! Also please excuse any typo’s as I said I’m trying to write to let everyone know what’s going on, that we are safe and SO incredibly thankful for your prayers that have covered us. We covet your prayers and are SO blessed by each of you.
If you want to communicate with us currently email is kind of working. Don’t be surprised if we don’t answer right away. Also FB messenger is working off and on.
Dan’s email: [email protected]
Tonita’s email: [email protected]
