Back To School 2015

Yesterday was a glorious day!  The first day of the 2015-16 school year!  And this is the first school year ever (in the history of our family) that all of my children will be in school.  While Elijah is at his preschool class, I will have two entirely kid-free mornings a week!  Whatever will I do with myself?

All ready for the 1st day of school!

Everyone in my house was excited for school to begin.  Everyone was up and ready to go with time to spare.  I have a feeling that as the school year continues, that may get more and more rare.  But for now, I'll enjoy their excitement and having them be ready to be out the door in the morning!

Walking to school

A partial view of the Secondary Campus

This is our first time ever with a child at the Secondary Campus (7th-12th grades).  So we've got lots of new things to learn.  Kaitlyn has had to figure out lockers and where her classrooms are and what each different teacher expects from her.

Kaitlyn at the Middle School lockers.  They are all painted with the flag colors of various countries.

Outside the 6th grade classroom-- notice the bare feet:  kids remove their shoes before entering the classroom here

 Nathan is in 6th grade this year.  Due to staffing shortages, he actually has 3 different teachers teaching him this year.  As a 6th grader, he has the priviledge of getting to use the 6th grade hauswin (umm, English...gazebo, maybe?  Sort of, but not quite the right word)  Anyway, no kids except for 6th graders are allowed to use it.  He'll be starting to play trumpet in the beginning band, and singing in the choir.

Justin is starting grade 3.  2nd grade was easy peasy for him, so we'll see how 3rd grade goes!  Thankfully he won't have too much homework yet, so he'll have plenty of time to play with Legos and play Minecraft on the computer. :)

Julianne is kind of starting primary school for the first time.  She attended Preschool here in Ukarumpa, but since we were on furlough her Kindergarten year, she didn't really have a 'big kid school experience' yet.  So she'll get to have music and library and art and the sorts of things she didn't experience as a preschooler.  Her class is a 1st and 2nd grade combined class this year (again, due to teacher shortages).  But of all my kids, she is probably the most suited for a class like that... even MORE kids to befriend!

Elijah, with some of the playground in the background

Elijah will be in the Pukpuk class (Pukpuk is Tok Pisin for 'crocodile').  He'll be going 2 mornings a week.  Yesterday wasn't an official class day for him, but there was an open house where we were able to go hang out in the class and check it out.

Checking out some new toys in the preschool room

All the kids came home happy and excited about their first day back!  What a great way to start the school year.

Of course, there is always the random 'only in PNG' aspect to the first week of school:  Today (Thursday) was declared a national holiday, so, after starting new routines and getting all psyched up to start school yesterday, today is a public holiday, so, NO School!  Friday they'll have classes again and then the weekend.  I guess, for a kid, that's not a bad first week of school. :)

Breaking the Blog Silence....

I know, I know, it's been ages!  The business of life just caught up with me.  In between homeschooling 4 kiddos, the daily chores in keeping up with 9 people, travels, and my computer being monopolized by my kids, well blogging just didn't happen these past few months!

BUT, something so wonderful and exciting happened today that I just couldn't resist sharing!

My new oven got set up!

After 2 days of having it hanging out in my living room, it was finally set up in my kitchen!  Because it came from the U.S., Matt had to do a gas conversion kit so that it would run properly here.  That involved borrowing tools from friends (as we either didn't have them, or they were stolen in our break-in a few months ago), hiking down to the construction department a couple times while attempting to find the right fitting, and lugging the 200+ pound stove up our front staircase.  Simple set up.... or not!

What a beauty!

My new oven is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!  Fan forced, 5 burner, shiny and new, and, get this:  All I have to do to light it is turn the knob!  Fantastic invention!  No more cheapo match heads flying off and burning me as I attempt to light my stove! No more sticking my arm gingerly between hot oven racks because my gas bottle ran out, and I had to switch to a new one and re-light the oven!  All I have to do is turn a knob!  I love it!

Definitely not much to look at, but it served us well :)

 I will always have a soft spot in my heart for my dear old oven.  That ancient beast has served us well for the past decade.  And countless people for decades before that.  No one else can boast an oven whose door was held shut with a rigged clotheshanger contraption.  Or whose burners were so ancient that they literally disentigrated into metalic dust when bumped.  No, I will always remember this oven, and it makes me so very thankful for the new one!

Today was also a wonderfully exciting day for another reason:  The First Day of School!  But that will have to be a blog post all of it's own. :)

Beach Fun

It's been ages since my last post.  Most days are filled with the mundane:  School.  Chores.  Daily life with 5 kids.

But there have also been some really fun moments where we've gotten to enjoy things we miss while in PNG.  The beach is one of those things.  Being a California girl who spent almost her whole life just a few miles from the beach, I've really missed not being close to the beach while we are in PNG.  So its been fun to take advantage of some warm days and just go play!

One of the best beach trips so far was when we went to Santa Barbara and spent the day with my cousin and her family.  We hadn't seen them in 7 years, so it was a great time to catch up.  The kids had a blast digging and playing in the water.  Kaitlyn got to go body boarding and once she started, we couldn't get her out of the water.  She stayed out there till dark!  We ended the afternoon with roasting hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire.  It was a great day playing with cousins!

Fun times with cousins!

 
A few weeks back, we had the nicest weather of our whole time back so far.  Here on the Central Coast, summer doesn't really kick in until September when the fog goes away and the warm weather comes.  So we took advantage of a hot Saturday to spend the day at Pismo Beach.  We packed a lunch and sand toys and had a wonderful, relaxing day.  The kids dug and splashed, and then we walked down the beach to explore the caves and tide pools.

Playing on the cliffs

Checking out the caves

Beautiful Pismo Beach

What would a beach trip be without getting covered in sand!?

We're back in the U.S.!

We're back in the U.S.! After multiple days of travel and seven different flights, we arrived back in California in early July, completing our four-year term in Papua New Guinea.  We plan to be Stateside for one year, returning to PNG next July.  So what are we up to while we're here?  We're glad you asked!  Matt will continue working on the Nukna translation of various portions of the Bible, and also continue revising the Nukna grammar he has written.  Christy is homeschooling our children, teaching grades 7, 5, 2, and Kindergarten simultaneously!  However, the most important activity we'll be involved in during this year will be reconnecting with you, our partners, after four long years away.  We'd love to get together and reconnect!  Let us know when would be good for you. Just before leaving our home in Papua New Guinea.  Please pray for our kids as they miss their PNG friends and adjust to life in a country and culture that is new to them.   The Arop-Lokep New Testament Dedication In June, just before we left PNG, Matt had the privilege of flying to Long Island, Papua New Guinea, to attend the Arop-Lokep New Testament dedication.  Long Island is a dormant volcano with a huge water-filled caldera in the middle (think Crater Lake, Oregon), and is opposite the PNG mainland and the Nukna area where we are working.  On a clear day, we can sit on our village house's front porch and see Long Island across the sea.  The dedication was a joyful celebration full of traditional PNG dancing and singing, with praises lifted up to God for his faithfulness and goodness.  The Arop-Lokep people, for the first time in history, now have the full New Testament in their own heart language.  Take part in the celebration by watching this short video of the Arop-Lokep New Testament dedication! The Arop-Lokep people celebrate with a traditional sing-sing Prayer and Praise Praise God with us for all that he accomplished during our last four years in Papua New Guinea, including the publishing of the first Scripture portions in the Nukna langauge! Praise God with us that we have the opportunity to see family and friends again after so long, and to reconnect with you, our ministry partnership team. Pray for the Nukna people during our absence, that the newly published Scriptures would impact their lives powerfully.  Pray also for our co-translators, Muransi and Simendi, as they continue to work on translation while we are gone. Pray for our family, that we would adjust well to life in the United States. serving together, Matt, Christy, Kaitlyn, Nathan, Justin, Julianne and Elijah   Our U.S. address is: 481 Rosemary Lane Arroyo Grande, CA 93420 matt_taylor@sil.org www.taylormissions.com Wycliffe Bible Translators PO Box 628200 Orlando, FL 32862-8200 1-800-WYCLIFFE www.wycliffe.org We have a new mobile number for our year in the U.S. - give us a call!  949.374.6908   Click Here to Give to Our Wycliffe Ministry Or gifts can be mailed to the Wycliffe address above with a note "Preference for the ministry of Matt and Christy Taylor". You are receiving this email because of your interest in the Bible translation ministry of Matt & Christy Taylor. Our mailing address is: Matt & Christy Taylor 481 Rosemary Lane Arroyo Grande, CA 93420 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences

Our Trip Part 2: Sydney

On our trip back to the U.S., we had quite a few overnights as that's just how it worked out for the best ticket prices.  We flew Ukarumpa to Port Moresby, where we spent the night.  The next day, we flew to Brisbane and then on to Sydney, where we had over a full day layover.  We used our day to explore downtown Sydney.  For our kids, who have rarely been in a city (and those who had were too young to have any memories of it), there were all sorts of fun things to do and see.

my sleeping buddies for the night... notice how much space E left me!

We took the train from near our hotel into downtown and walked around a bit.  We walked through the huge cathedral and (very quickly, as we were going at the pace of the kids' interest level) gazed at its beauty.

Then it was on to the Botanical Gardens.  We spent quite a while walking around there and eventually we ended up on the steps of the Opera House.  It was definitely the popular place to be.  I managed to get a picture with mostly just the family in it, but in reality, there were swarms of tourists and school groups everywhere!

a neat drinking fountain

Nathan and his trusty lion with the vanquished Justin

on the Opera House steps

We had bought a family pass for the public transport, and that included the ferries, so the next stop was to ride a ferry out in the harbour.  It was a fun experience for most of the kids who hadn't been on the water.  We just rode across the way to the zoo exit, got off, went on a very short hike along the shore and rushed back with barely enough time to make the next ferry back.  Then it was time for a late lunch and we were off to the airport for our next leg of the journey!

Our Trip Back to the U.S. Part 1: The Goodbyes

Well, once again I've let life get busy and haven't managed to keep up to date with my blog.  So I'll be doing a bit of catch-up now.  There will be a few blogs in this series with our travels and some of the stuff we've been doing since we first landed back.

As always, the trip back (or to!) PNG is one that when it's over I always think, "Whew!  I'm SO glad we don't have to do that again for a while!"  It's just looooooooooong, with lots of very early mornings, and lots of hours of sitting on a plane with 5 kids, trying to keep them occupied, and constantly being on the alert: scanning and counting 5 heads, scanning and keeping an eye on all the baggage, while trying to maneuver through busy, unfamiliar and airports. Other than those usual aspects of traveling with 5 kids half-way around the world, our actual travel went smoothly.

It was hard to say goodbyes to good friends.  We are still so thankful for all the times we were able to share together and the wonderful memories we have!  It's been fun to see Nathan starting to spend more time on the computer as he keeps up a great, hilarious email conversation with one of his best friends.

Here are a few pictures from our leaving PNG:

exhausted in the airport

In the Brisbane Airport

 

Our kids were fascinated by the baggage carousels

Another Week Flew By

This week has been crazy busy.  In fact, it's hard to believe it's already a week since some of these pictures were taken.  Life is just flying by.  There's a ton going on.  But it's easier to show than tell, so here are a ton of pictures of our past week.

Last weekend we got to enjoy the annual Sports Day (well, technically it's a 2 day event).  It's great fun to go sit and watch the Track and Field competitions at the Secondary Campus on Friday and Saturday.  It had been a couple of years since we were last in Ukarumpa over a Sports Day (and not in the village).

A special and rare treat of Cotton Candy!

The aftermath!

Julianne pretty much knows all the High School girls and loves them.  We can never go anywhere without her stopping to hug everyone walking by!  Here she is with some of her friends....

I ran a 4x100m race with these awesome ladies!

Matt's 4x100m team.  And yes, they did run barefoot-- and they creamed the other team!

That afternoon, Justin's shoes just up and completely disentigrated!  Thankfully, I did have one more spare pair that I was just going to bring back to the US with us, but they are now being put to good use!

Then on Sunday, Kaitlyn's 6th grade class was in charge of leading worship during the Sunday morning service.  It's so neat to see her growing up!

On Tuesday, Kaitlyn got to come to Julianne's preschool class and talk to them about her pet guinea pig.  The theme for their week at Preschool was "Pet Week", so it was great fun to have Kaitlyn actually bring in one of her pets to show the preschoolers.  They loved it!

Wednesday was Julianne's last day of preschool.  The rest of the kids have about 2 more weeks of school, but due to the lack of a teacher to finish out the year, they finished early.

Friday evening was the annual Banquet here.  It is our equivalent of the Jr./Sr. Prom.  The parents of the 11th and 12th graders work insanely hard in the week beforehand to transform our large, non-descript all-purpose building (the Teen Centre) into a magnificant themed place.  On Friday evening, the community turns out to watch as the teens arrive dressed beautifully, to their Banquet (which goes to the wee hours of the morning).  The theme of each year is kept a strict secret and no one finds out till they arrive what the theme will be.  This year it was "Treasure Island".  They are treated to dinner and booths which are hand built by the parents.  There was even a mini bowling alley built this year!

Hanging out and waiting for the Banquet arrivals

My kids two most favorite babysitters ever!  We're so blessed to have these two amazing, beautiful young ladies in our kid's lives!

the Teen Centre transformed!

Finally, here are a few more random pictures from this weekend:

Julianne loves to rollerblade up and down our hallway.  With no sidewalks or paved driveways, this is the best flat place available!

Justin lost 3 teeth this month!  I think that sets the Taylor family record.

So, that's our week in a nutshell.  In the in-between times, Matt has been working on translation with our 3 Nukna guys who are here for about 4 more days.  And I'm attempting to pack up the house, in the midst of 7 people living in it and all the normal, busy day-to-day activities.  I'd say we're definitely keeping busy!