Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We feel it has
been an incredible blessing for us to be here in PNG supporting Bible
translation and we know that without all your prayers, encouragement,
emails, and financial assistance this would not have been possible. Thank
you!! We hope our newsletters have helped you realize what an important part
you have played in spreading God's kingdom around the world.

Although we will miss being with family and friends, we look forward to
spending Christmas day with a translator couple from Switzerland, and their
two national translators. God bless each of you as you celebrate Christ's
birth.

Return to PNG

December 10th we flew back to PNG, and it looked even more beautiful to me
than usual. We were so thankful to be back and be reunited with the rest of
the family again, and want to thank everyone who prayed for us and supported
us in so many different ways. It's great to be part of the body of Christ.

Tourists in Cairns

The last week we rented a car and visited the zoo as well as some beaches.
Cairns is a beautiful place to vacation, but it wasn't quite the same
without the whole family being there to enjoy it.

Another hospitalization

The next few weeks dragged by as we waited for his foot to respond to the
antibiotics, made a few changes in antibiotics, obtained an MRI, reopened
the foot and washed out the joint, restarted IV antibiotics for a week, then
returned to our hotel on further oral antibiotics.

McDonalds in the hospital

November 4th the abscess was drained and the next day, a very kind friend
brought Leif McDonalds which he hadn't had in a long time. Needless to say,
it disappeared quite quickly. I was happy to have an iced coffee.

Getting ready to leave

Noah and Tia were anxious to say good-bye to Leif; little did we know we
would be gone for 5 weeks. As we put on the water vests, I kept thinking to
myself that hopefully we wouldn't be needing to use them. We flew in the
new Kodiak airplane.

Leif's medevac to Cairns, Australia

On November 3rd, 2010 Leif and I were sent to Cairns, Australia for an
infection of joint and bone in Leif's foot. He initially had a soccer
injury, but then an infection he had simultaneously in his elbow, travelled
to his foot.