Good Friday, and an egg hunt!

The Good Friday Service here in Barunga went well. It started out slow, with just the church ladies. However, about half-way through the movie, a "bigmob pipul bin kaman!"(A bunch of folks came!) :) They finished watching the film of Jesus crucifixion, and then one of the church ladies (Anita) read from the Kriol Baibul the crucifixion, as well as Jesus resurrection stories! Then we prayed.

Twenty three people were present; including our family it's 28. On a regular Sunday, there's usually no more than 10. Praise the Lord for the new folks! Pray for each of them to be drawn to the Lord.

Today, though it's Saturday, we had our Easter egg hunt early. We'll be going on a family camping trip tomorrow for a couple of days(no school!). Here's some pics of what happened at our house today! Enjoy.Check out the ears. :)

The kids showing off their baskets.

Alice is learning to blow up her own balloon!

The size of the eggs the kids found! :) (Cam the Man!)

Classic Bethany! (She is such a character!)

Visitors! :)

Whitney and Clint! :) (The visitors!)

A week ago today, we were spending time with my cousin and her husband! They were the first family visitors we have had yet! (Hopefully the first in a long line of visitors... :) ) It was fun to show them where we have been living and what we've been doing here in Barunga and in Australia. They were able to go hiking with us in Nitmiluk Nat'l Park, play Settlers of Catan, and eat kangaroo steak(which, in my opinion, is pretty good). It was really encouraging to have visitors come from "home".
The church ladies liked them as well. In fact, within the kinship system, Whitney(my cousin) is actually my sister, because she's my mother's sister's daughter. So, that makes her my sister. PLUS she's also my father's brother's daughter, so she's my sister on that side as well. The ladies had no trouble calling her my sister. I'm not sure how Clint(her husband) fit in...
Unfortunately, it was a very short visit, because Whit and Clint were heading to PNG to visit his parents, and we were a "quick stop" in between. Really glad we got to see them.

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us while we're here. In a couple of weeks, recording begins for the Luk(Luke) DVD. Our team is currently working on translating/editing from English to Kriol. This is the final stretch, and there is still a lot of work to do before recording. Please pray with us for everything to be set in time for the recording slot we have been given.
Please pray for me(Jared) as I edit, and get the timing down for the script. Thank you!!

We'll be sending out a new (perhaps overdue) update very soon. Thank you for your prayers and love, we wouldn't be here without y'all. God is using you!

Serving Him Together, Jared for all

PS Here are some pics from our time with Whit and Clint! :)
Cam hanging from a Baobob (sp?) tree.

Bethy and Whit share some icecream.

Alice and Whit!

Alice and Clint "out bush". (I love this pic!)Whit and the Kids!

Update on Alice!

Dear Friends and Family,
Alice is home now. They released her on Thursday! Thank you so much for all your prayers and love for her and our family in the past week. We know it was through those prayers and God's mercy that we came home so quickly. We're all glad to be a family again! Alice is taking oral antibiotics four times a day, and is acting just like she did before this whole trial. Very encouraging. :)
Both Cheri and I were blessed and humbled to know how many people are praying for Alice and our family. Your comments and well wishes where an encouragement to us, helping us to remember we're not alone in trials! Thank you so much for loving her and us! You are a blessing.


Serving Him Together, Jared, Cheri, Alice, Bethany and Cameron