We have landed!!!

We are thankful for 'no problem' travel.   The 15 hour flight was not as bad as we had feared; Margreet slept quite well and the food was not bad either. We did have a short two hours to change planes in Sydney. Thankfully we did not have to go through the 'quarantine' line up but could use the express lane. Undoubtedly we would have missed the connecting flight otherwise.

We did not see any of the damage from the flooding during our stay outside of Brisbane. It was 'too bad' that our friends Lynne and Eileen live an hour and a half from the airport; 'double bad' that it is a ten minute walk from their house to the beach!

Apparently it was the first week since November that the sun was shining and we enjoyed a long walk along the seashore and feasted on fish and chips afterwards.

We had a welcoming committee waiting: partly for us but more so for Joanne Choate, who was on our flight returning from a dentist appointment in B'bane. It is so much fun to connect again with this special group of friends especially seeing how the children have grown over the past two years.

We had supper with the Unger family (from Fort St. John) and their five high energy kids.

It is eight thirty (evening) and 30 degrees with a 80% humidity.

Tomorrow there is a beach party which includes the local employees.

Our love to you all..keep warm!

Henk and Margreet

Please pray...

...as Henk and Margreet are in transit now and for the next couple of days.  This is a long, arduous journey and we pray they will be safe and healthy throughout the next eight weeks until their return home to Armstrong.

Margaret

Sunday evening: this morning we were prayed for and over in both services at First Baptist Church here in Armstrong. Have said goodbye to our friends and then spent the afternoon getting packed. Our trusted suitcases will go on another adventure with us: with their duct tape and red tape they are always easily spotted on any conveyer belt!

We have reduced the amount of clothing and increased the amount of other essentials like spices, mustard and band-aides.

The weather looks very promising for our drive to Langley on Tuesday. After a visit with friends in Abbotsford we hope to have dinner with Fred and Edel (longtime friends from our Ladner days). They will drive us to the airport and look after our car for the next two months. We trust that the flight will leave on schedule (23.45). The direct flight to Sydney will last 15+ hours. After a short wait we’ll fly to Brisbane were we’ll be met by Lynne and Eileen, whom have settled in that area after decades of translation work in Africa. They were frequent guests at our house in Nairobi and this time it will be them hosting us. The following morning will board for our flight to Honiara.

Our itinerary has seen ongoing change so it will be interesting to find out how and where we can serve this group of dedicated literacy and translation experts.

A big thank you for all of you who are so interested in our travels and willing to help out financially and in prayer for us. An especial ‘thank you ‘to Margaret Crozier who will keep our blog going. We do trust that we’ll have reasonable access to the internet while in the capital Honiara.