"We Miss You Daddy!"

Andy left yesterday at 6.30am in very snowy conditions, heading for a three week trip to Papua New Guinea. Andy was with Mark Beckwith who is another MAF UK apprentice and Jim Newman who is leading the trip. They will be staying in Ukarumpa at a JAARS base (Jungle Aviation And Radio Services). There they will help a former MMS graduate restore a plane as quick as possible.

After a flight delay at Columbus airport, it was a mad dash to reach their connection in Chicago to Tokyo, Japan. I believe they were the final passengers on a very tightly packed airplane. From Japan they had another six and a half hour flight to Papua New Guinea. I had a quick email from him tonight to say they, and all their luggage arrived no problem and they were at the guest house awaiting a bed for sleeping! I believe they are approximately 15 hours ahead of us here in the Ohio, so they arrived early Sunday morning. On Monday they will get a flight to their final destination - Ukarumpa.

The rest of the Swanson's have been pretty much homeward bound due to snow and ice. Abi's school was cancelled on Friday due to snow. It did improve towards the afternoon and we were ale to get out to an MMS farewell dinner at a church in town. There were weather warnings about freezing rain later that evening but when we arrived at the church around 6pm everything looked okay. A little snowy but the main roads were clear. Two hours later, as we left the church we could hear the freezing rain hitting our car and I crawled home for twenty minutes at 25 mph in darkness (no street lights) ice and snow covered roads. I was thankful when myself and the kids got back home safely! It truly is amazing how fast the weather can change here. Overnight there was another four inches of snow so needless to say, we had another day in the house. Please pray I get out to church tomorrow as the children (and I) are very much needing a change of scenery :0) I had a few little surprises up my sleeve to entertain the children while Andy was away in the odd chance of a snow day - I was not planning on using all my surprises within the first two days! : 0)

We did lots of crafts today which was fun, and I managed to make a big pot of soup, dinner for tonight and tomorrow. While getting the children ready for bed I had a surprise call from my landlords who had acquired a second hand cooker for us and they would like to come by and deliver it in ten minutes. A few hours later ( and some paracetamol! ) the children were in bed, the new cooker was in, the snow was dried from the kitchen floor, the new cooker wiped down and the dinner dishes washed. A bit of a hectic evening but feeling very blessed. Most of our fellow Brits will be used to a ceramic hob, as we were in Scotland. I have hardly seen any over here. Most of the cookers I have seen in Ohio have the old fashioned rings, as did ours earlier! We are very fortunate to have such good landlords and I am looking forward to trying out this new stove tomorrow!

As many of you will know, I am trying to set up a parent and toddler group in Coshocton. Unfortunately it is not going to be allowed to operate out of the Family Services department as it is not linked to a government project. I have since been to my church and we have a large room attached to a kitchen and have also managed to locate some storage space to store the toys etc. It does mean that I have to build up the toys from scratch so I have been busy trying to get donations for this. I have filed the appropriate paper work for the church and just need the leadership to approve and we are good to go!

Please keep praying for Andy and the team that they will have good health and safety as they work out there. I am thankful the pregnancy is going well and nausea has gone. Continue to pray for us and Mark and Jim's families who are all coping with the demands of children and winter weather and the rest.

Thank you for your support.

Heatherx