Ellie Turns One + Update

Cassidy • June 29, 2024

Much has happened in the last two months. Zach, Bryan Twombly, and Brett Stuart flew to the village in May for Zach's LAST build trip. They finished plumbing, painted the whole house, finished cabinets, and moved all our personal bins and furniture inside.

For those of you who haven't read all our updates, Brett (pictured above) came with some guys from his church, Countryside, for the 9th build trip. He stayed a month, joined Zach and Bryan for the 10th trip in March, went back to TX, and then came again for this 11th trip! He is a young guy, but a hard worker and knowledgeable. So glad he was willing to come to PNG to help us in the village and Bryan in Madang.

Then there is this guy! Bryan joined Zach on FIVE of his build trips from October of last year to May of this one. On this last trip, he finished our cabinets and painted them while also helping Zach paint. We are so thankful for him.

We had a few interim weeks of finishing homeschool, packing and supply buying for our move in July...

... then, on Monday, Wendy and Kate from our home church, GBC, came to join Kerra Twombly and me in the village for a cleaning and unpacking trip.

These three ladies did SO much to get our house ready to move in. We did things we expected, like clean and unpack and wash all the dishes. We did things we didn't expect like clear out rats' nests and burn ruined toys. And we did lots and lots of things that didn't quite fit in either category but will help us function in the new house and get back to life and work quickly: things like replacing the kitchen faucet,

cleaning and adding new shelves,

putting up curtain rods, adding a screen to the water tank overflow, hanging clocks, organizing the desks, cleaning out the stove (which had also once housed a rat's nest), cleaning wasps from windowsills, installing a medicine cabinet, hanging an indoor laundry line, filling cracks with Great Stuff, moving lots of tools, etc...!


Here is an after photo:

It was also a sweet reunion with some of my friends:

and I got to show these ladies my village! Thank you to Kerra and Kate and Wendy for all they had to do to come and help me. And thank you to anyone else reading this who helped send them and cover for them (like Bryan with their kids!) and who sent wonderful care packages to us in their bags.

And then there is this sweet baby! Ellie turned one today! She is timid and gentle and cautious and generally content and happy. We celebrated her with some purple cupcakes and snuggles. We love you!

Cake!

If you get Zach's email updates, you will know that his dad passed away this week. Zach left today to begin traveling to the US to grieve with his family, attend his father's funeral, and also attend his sister's wedding (we are all so excited to welcome Max into our family!). He would love your prayers as he travels and spends time serving his mom and siblings.


And we would love your prayers as well - we have lots to do here to prepare to move back to the village in three weeks and it will certainly be more complicated to do it without Zach. We trust God though and know that He always does what is best.


We are rejoicing that Bruce is in heaven now, though we miss him dearly!


Sorry for the fire hose of information, updates, etc... but I wanted to jump on here and get everyone up-to-date - thanks to all of you who have reached out!

Literacy Class 5

By Cassidy • September 3, 2025
On Monday, a new literacy class began! Our literacy teachers, Maikepe and Namura, have been gathering names and school fees for a year, but interest here was low. Once some men from a nearby village decided to join, interest (there and here!) spiked and we have an overflowing classroom. Sewing to bind four more literacy books to account for the extra students:

JAARS Video

By Cassidy • August 6, 2025
JAARS trains and sends pilots over here - we are thankful for them!

Highlands Break

By Cassidy • August 1, 2025
We were able to fly up to the highlands to take a break at SIL's mission base (called Ukarumpa). We wanted to rest, see doctors, connect with coworkers, and give the boys time with friends.

Teaching Video

By Cassidy • July 7, 2025
Zach and I put together a video for our church's Sunday school hour. The first small part explains how we keep ourselves supplied and the rest of it is how Zach handles foreign concepts in translation. If you have an hour and want to know more about the work here, see the video below:

Ellie Turns Two

By Cassidy • June 28, 2025
Our littlest Ellie turned two! We love this little girl and thank God for completing our family with her. We can see her beginning to grow A BIT in independence and contentment as she matures and is able to communicate. She has lots of words, giggles often at Annie's silliness, loves rice, and (as a last born) is usually just along for the ride. She is happy to write in the dirt or play on the rope swing, look at books on the couch or look out the window in a hut, but if anything goes wrong, she just wants her mama. It is sweet to see how good the boys are with her, and Annie is a good big sister, too! (Though Annie DID have a good cry a few days ago when she realized she wasn't going to get any presents on Ellie's birthday 😉)

April and Easter

By Cassidy • May 4, 2025
After celebrating Jude's birthday, we had a pretty low-key April and Easter. Zach has been faithfully preaching through Ephesians, and there have been good opportunities to follow up with people afterward.

Jude is a Teenager!

By Cassidy • April 7, 2025
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.

Australia Break

By Cassidy • March 20, 2025
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!

Teaching on Baptism

By Cassidy • January 20, 2025
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.

Oliver Turns 11

By Cassidy • January 15, 2025
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.