The boy that made us parents turned 13 on Friday! This boy is growing up!  He has always been an analyst, but now he is thinking big thoughts about future plans and budgets. He has always been conscious of the feelings of others, but he is now taking more initiative to step up and handle things for others.

Last month we got to take a break in Australia! Our first stop was to the town of Madang where we spent several days with the Twomblys and the Ruscios. I have basically zero pictures, but we LOVED our time with them. In Australia, we stayed on the Gold Coast, a bit north, in a sweet Paradise Point neighborhood with lots of parks and restaurants along the water. We went to Costco and ate good food and played in the ocean and felt so refreshed and thankful for our time! Here are some pictures. My mom and Zach's mom flew over and stayed with us for the first half of our trip. SO great to see them and we miss them already!

The established church here in our village is Lutheran. Or, at least, it’s called Lutheran. In reality, it is a mix of Lutheran religious practices, animistic beliefs, and a false gospel of being good enough to be accepted by God. One of the practices here is that they baptize their babies and believe that this baptism saves the baby. After being baptized as a baby, the child should grow up and do good things and will go to heaven.

This boy turned 11 on Sunday! He chose cookies and ice cream as his dessert because he knew everyone would enjoy it. Sundays are a busy day, but we celebrated midday with food and dessert and presents, followed by some fun family games. It is a joy to watch Oliver grow in wisdom and stature. This year he finished his first trek through the Bible, memorized Psalm 139; he listens to and think through the great claims of the good news of Jesus Christ, and is making efforts to be generous with others (especially his brother). On the stature front, Oliver is probably the strongest member of our family - certainly for his size. He is regularly swinging from his ninja course - a series of ladders, ropes, and handles hanging from our rafters. He can do a 6 minute plank and 35 pushups (far surpassing his parents' abilities in those categories). And we love how he uses his strength to care for and protect his little sisters.

We were thankful to host one of our pastors and his wives, Scott and Sarah Demarest, for five days this month. We got to do our Christmas activities and advent readings with them each day and had such a sweet time with them.  (Since they TOOK most of the pictures, they are absent from many...). Gingerbread cookies instead of sugar cookies this year, which was the right choice. Why haven't I been doing this all along?!

Sepla came to our door two days ago asking for an egg. Her baby boy was very sick and she needed the leaders to pray over an egg so they could confess any wrong they had done, eat it, and Alfons could be released from the sickness. Zach explained to her that this practice is not from God, and therefore has no power. He got Eki and the two of them went to Sepla's house to pray to God that her baby might get well. Sepla is a good example of the syncretistic thinking prevalent here. She attends church faithfully, but she holds on to many animistic beliefs. A very imbedded core belief is that sickness can be caused by the bad thoughts of a wronged person, or in some cases: a sorcerer who is actually intent on evil. Sadly, Alfons died yesterday afternoon. The leaders asked Zach to speak at their vigil in the evening and he shared two things. First, he read from Psalm 139 and explained that Alfons lived exactly the number of days that God had decided. God is in control of life and death. Second, he shared the story of David and Bathsheba's baby dying in 2 Samuel 12. There, the Lord is in control of everything. He is the one who passes over David's sin and gives the child a sickness. God is the one to whom David prays while the baby is alive and worships when he dies. Zach pointed out at the end that David says that someday he will go to him, but his baby boy will not return to him. From this text, Zach explained that Alfons' spirit isn't wandering around on the earth! David believes the child is in heaven where someday David will be. Zach said he believes Alfons is in heaven, not because he was good, but because God is merciful. What we also need to consider, Zach explained, is if WE will someday be with God. He shared the gospel with them and encouraged them to repent of their sins and trust in Jesus for forgiveness. Some of those attending last night, like Sepla's husband Bui, never attend Zach's teaching and therefore didn't know this good news. Please pray for Sepla and her husband Bui.

This girl is three today! We celebrated with cake and presents and phone calls. Sadly, she had a tummy bug, so she spent much of the day heading back to bed to rest, but true to character, she was a happy girl nonetheless.

As you may have read in our email update, we were able to host Scott Maxwell and Uriah earlier this month!

This is Oliver and I am writing my first blog. Today Jude and I went on a hike with my dad's language helper, Giye, and his sons. We hiked from our house to Giye's pig house. A pig house is a second hut they build to look after their pigs.