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Merry Christmas!

This year is bittersweet as we enjoy family and friends because next Christmas we’ll be celebrating thousands of miles away – in the tropics! It’ll be strange sweating on Christmas Day.

The Past Few Months…

We came home from Alaska on October 1, mowed the yard, fixed a few things on the van, packed, and left for Mission Training International (MTI) in Colorado on October 17. Along the way we stopped at a few interesting tourist traps, such the world’s largest mailbox. We even added more twine to the world’s largest ball of twine, which some family members claimed wasn’t very interesting.

We had four weeks of classes covering the issues that will “make or break” our ministry. Things like raising missionary kids, grief, conflict resolution, language acquisition, phonetics, managing long term stress, saying healthy goodbyes, and much more! I felt like it was exactly what we needed. We’re grateful to have had the opportunity. Thank you to those who made it possible!

For example: One way to help our children process the conflicting emotions that come with a big move is to talk about our “Yuck Ducks,” and our “Yay Ducks.” Yuck Ducks are things like homesickness. Yay Ducks are things like making new friends. These two ducks always swim beside each other as a “pair of ducks,” or a paradox. So we can help our children, not by ignoring the bad things, but by acknowledging both good and bad things are happening in our lives. Now at bedtime we talk about the Yuck Ducks and Yay Ducks we had that day. It gives us a chance to talk about conflicts and victories of the day. You’ll likely be hearing more about these ducks in future communication!

No Room in the Inn

Speaking of Yuck Ducks, our departure date has been shuffled back to March of 2023. This is because, in true Christmas fashion, there is no room for us at the inn! (Or the compound, in this case). So folks in PNG are busy building a new apartment for us. There is a house on stilts and underneath it there is a small laundry, with a large empty area. They’re enclosing that empty area and making the house on stilts into a duplex. The Yuck Duck: Our apartment will be about 700 square foot, which is big for a family made of ants but pretty cozy for a family of five humans. The Yay Duck: We’re up on a mountain and our front porch will have an awesome view of the Pacific Ocean! Plus, in the warm climate we can spend
a lot of time outside anyway. Also, Samaritan Aviation is currently renting their facilities from a national
church but are planning on building their own in the not-too-distant-future, so our apartment will be, Lord willing, not a long term situation.

Preparing the Floatplane

While not moving until March is a Yuck Duck, staying here at MMS Aviation and working on Samaritan Aviation’s floatplane is a Yay Duck! The floatplane is getting several radio and instrument upgrades. Then it has to pass an inspection by the FAA to get exported. After that, it gets disassembled and fitted into a 40 foot shipping container. And yes, we will be allowed to put some of our stuff into the container! The neat thing is that I’ll be saying hello again to the airplane when it gets to the other side of the world where I’ll help put it together again. I’m trying to pay close attention!

Thank you to everyone praying and giving. I wish you could see things from our perspective. God is doing something and we’re just excited to be involved!

With love, the Snaders