The day zucchini came

Yesterday I saw a recipe that a friend shared online that looked yummy.  I clicked on the link and then saw that it called for 4 cups of shredded zucchini. We cannot buy zucchini here, so I thought, "Well, I guess I can't make that recipe."  It's a fairly common occurrence that I don't have access to all of the ingredients in a recipe, so it wasn't that big of a deal.  

But then Kars comes home from a day of flying...and he pulls a zucchini out of his backpack!  What?!?  One of the missionary families he'd seen in the village had sent out a zucchini for me, completely unaware of my recipe dilemma that morning! I didn't even know that anyone grew zucchini here, so this was a complete shock to me.  I felt like God was smiling down on me, showing me in a very tangible way that HE sees me and HE is not limited by the things I feel limited by.  What an incredible God He is!

I spent this afternoon baking yummy things with zucchini and I'm still smiling thinking of God's amazing provision.  I wonder what we will get next time?!

(Chocolate Zucchini Cake, Zucchini Bread & Zucchini Pizza Casserole)

Vacation to Manokwari

On the last day of 2019, our family took advantage of a flight request out on the west side of our island and went to visit some close friends of ours.  It was the first time for us to visit them in their town, see their home and get a glimpse of their life.  We know firsthand how encouraging it is to have people come and experience your life, so we hoped to be an encouragement to them.  We had a great time!  An added bonus was that Kars was our pilot all the way there and back (it was multiple legs, since it's so far away), so we got to see him at work.  Once again I am impressed with the abilities and skills that God has given him, which fit so well in his role as a pilot here in Papua.  Here are some photos from along the way.

"Tickets" for our flight!

Ready to take-off

Papa: our pilot

Leaving our town

Our organization's planes are parked in the middle of this photo 

What we saw out the window for the first leg

Coming in to land in Mulia

Lined up with the runway

MAF was also flying into Mulia that day

Mulia is in the mountains 

Next stop: Nabire, which is right on the ocean

Refueling the plane

Taking off from Nabire.  The runaway is right up to the beach.

Beautiful Papua coastline 

Landing in Manokwari

Excited to see friends!

We were all happy to be together!

Since it was New Years Eve, they took us up to a spot overlooking their town

Kids rode bikes

We got some photos together

And when it was dark, we did some fireworks

Sparkler fun

Back at their house, we enjoyed getting to hear updates on their life

The next day they showed us around the Bible school campus where our friend is a teacher

The campus has trails leading around the "jungle"

Crossing a bridge on campus

Our friends' house

Later we went to a nearby beach, where the boys had fun in the waves

There was also a calmer spot with tide pools

Fun playing with marbles and water

A unique restaurant entrance

The restaurant had statues of animals and other fun decoration for kids

"Riding" the deer

"Walking" into the tunnel mural

Silly boy (phone wasn't working!)

First phone booth they've seen!

He just keeps growing!

Dinner with our friends and their coworkers

On the way home, I got to sit up front one of the legs

B's turn to sit up front
(he kept track of the time of every take-off, landing and flight time)

A part of Manokwari, which is mostly on the coast

Aerial photo of the spot we went on NYE

Beautiful mountains 

Peeking at the back

We had to circle a bit before we could land, because of the clouds on the runway.

On the ground, loading up our coworkers and their belongings

Making sure it all fits (well, we actually did 2 loads)

Chatting through details with our coworkers

Ready for the next leg

Waving goodbye

Leaving the village

Almost to the next stop

Landing in the town we waited in while Kars flew the second load

Ice cream break!

Travel by river covers a lot more miles!

Circling over another friend's house to say "hi" since we couldn't land

Unloading the underwing pods

Waiting for the next leg