Meeuwse's. Papua: Language and Giant Fish...

Hi friends. I just had to clean up all the cobwebs on my blog....it has been abandoned since December. Yikes! It is funny, moving here it has made me wonder what to say. Words have not come so easy. But I feel some blogs coming on. So be on the watch! =)

I wanted to share with you what we are doing! We are growing in our language skills! I LOVE it when I can go out in the town and have a full and successful conversation with someone! Let me tell you, I never knew I could do this......learning another language, much less while being a mom and wife. But I am, I am DOING this. My language is not perfect obviously....and some days I have to fight off the frustration of wanting to be fluent NOW! =) But it is coming, and really, that is amazing! It is truly amazing for me to see the biggest barrier between the people and myself slowly coming down.....brick by brick....or should I say word by word, as I learn more and more how to talk with them, reach out to them, and just be their friend.

Studying words.

Jesus is so faithful. moving to this place has tested us, changed us, at times made me a total grump, at times made me full to the brim with joy. But more to come on that in the future.
Just to say that Jesus is more than faithful to us in real and awesome ways.

It is flashcard central around here. Grace added some artwork on a few.....free of charge

My friend. Her name is Silvia, and she is awesome. She is an answer to prayer. She is on fire for Jesus, she is fun, and kind, and a wonderful language helper! She has turned into a wonderful friend. She helps me understand so much! Many times she tells me all about culture here. Such an important thing to understand as well as the language! In these photos she is helping me understand the culture of women in the mountain regions! So....we dressed the part! Enjoy! =)

SO FOR THE BIG FISH PART! Last monday we went fishing with Jared...(Matt's friend since childhood) He knows Matt from when Matt's family lived out here. We woke at 3am, Grace came with us. The first thing she said when she woke up was "wahoo, we going fishing!" She stayed awake on the long ride to the beach and as we waited for our boat to show up. She finally got that glossed over look while sitting on the boat eating her breakfast of champions (pringles) I held her and she was OUT in 2 min. I made a nest for her at the front of the boat, where she slept for most of the trip.....(except when we caught our fish)

We had been fishing about an hour when Matt hooked into a fish! YES!!!!! Best feeling ever! He fought the fish in. It was a Tinggiri! I thought "wow! what a big fish!" The boys proceeded to tell me that this was a BABY tinggiri!
About 45 min later I hooked into a fish "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" goes my line. The fish was a big boy. I could tell by the way it pulled out the line. About 100 feet of line! I thought for sure I was going to run out of line! I fought the fish (with coaching from Matt and Jared) for about 15 min. When we got it to the boat, Jared gaffed it, and we LANDED it! GIANT TINGGIRI! Aka King Mackarel! Oh wow! That was my favorite catch ever. Thanks God for sharing your fish with us!