The Henderson's are Here - AYE!

Dear Readers, Family, Friends, $upporters and Prayers Warriors! Thank you for your continued prayers and words of encouragement. WE MADE IT!!!

Richmond Virginia to Dallas Texas, then overnight flight to Sydney Australia, and a short flight to Cairns, then a couple days R&R with Aussie family, and finally through to PNG!

PNG OR BUST!

We arrived safely at Kudjip yesterday afternoon and could not have asked for smoother traveling mercies - but of course after the 17.5 hour trans-Pacific flight earlier in the week, the two short flights to get from Cairns to the Western Highlands of PNG were a breeze. Pennie and Solomon were entirely enthusiastic about boarding the Air Niugini flights from the tarmac, and Solomon made quick friends with all our PNG seat mates (except the guy in front of us who may have been a little cross about the occasional seat kicking 🤷🏻‍♂️). Solomon even exercised generosity by giving his packet of cookies to our seat mate (after a great deal of serious consideration of my ridiculous suggestion).

Both kiddos zonked out on our hour-long drive from Mount Hagen to Kudjip Hospital, while Rachel and I both found ourselves overwhelmed with a flood of happy memories taking in the panoramic lush vistas and the cool mountain breeze laden with cookfire smoke (occasionally spiced with a hint of burning plastic). Rach says she caught herself tearing up, and I was noted to have said “Welcome home guys!” more than a couple times.

The Station Hospital has had a lot of impressive construction over the last few years, but nostalgic familiarity was especially strong as we drove past the hospital and down the lane toward our former house - with a mirror image residence across the street that will be our home for the next 6 weeks. My heart missed a beat to see the tiny saplings I planted 5 years ago standing as full size trees astride my curved stone walkway leading up to our old house. Tree growth credit of course all goes to the rich PNG Highland earth, bright sun and daily rain.

Our Former Home + 3 Bottle Brush and 1 Gum Tree

Our full time missionary friends the Crouches (Dr Mark and wife Esther, plus Anna, Levi, Lucy, & Gabe) walked over from their home on the end of the culdesac to be our welcoming committee, and as ever with these dear ones, conversation and hugs and kid-tossing picked right up from where we left off years ago...except now with a couple more kids to toss (a grand total of six between the two families). We took a few minutes to get our luggage inside and change diapers, then joined the Crouch family at their home for a delicious baked spaghetti dinner. Penniella and Solomon dove headfirst into the Crouchlings’ play while Mark and Esther caught us up on a few years of interval history. In addition to all the construction, the Station has bid farewell to quite a number of longterm missionaries and has welcomed many new servants of the Kingdom. It’ll be some work getting to know everyone, and loving on them as we desire to, in such a short time at Kudjip!

Photo Credit to Solomon...

After dinner we retired to our new quarters to get the kids into bed, which took a bit of work unpacking all the necessary sleep gear. With a 15 hour difference from our home East Coast time, we all still feel pretty wiped by 8pm, but of course Rachel led the charge on entirely unpacking everything before we turned in ourselves. Yawn!

Our New Home, complete with WELCOME sign

A wailing Solomon and the screeching first light cicadas had us up early this morning, but with all the vibrant sounds of the highland jungle sunrise (the rainbow lorikeets being my favorite), an early rise wasn’t so bad, especially with some delicious PNG coffee brewing. Rachel whipped up a pancake breakfast then took off with Esther back to Hagen for a massive shopping trip to cover all our grocery/living needs while on Station the next six weeks. Meanwhile Papa got to stay home with P&S to orchestrate play time, nap time, lunch, and lots of quality time with the Crouch crew - including a Station tour. Pennie was particularly happy to pet the cats and a bunny, and threw a flower into the cage of a neighbor’s cuscus (tree kangaroo). En route to the other end of Station, we visited a couple playgrounds, got a tour of the new hospital buildings, and made introductions with some other missionaries in passing. It was a lovely walk, but we ended up with a couple sunburned spots because Papa forgot just how brightly the Highlands sun shines. But if it’s not bright sun then it’s pouring rain, which now drums the tin roof over my head while I write and the children sleep.

So, here we are, all settled in (mostly), and hearts bursting with joy. We have MUCH to be thankful for, not least of which has been your amazing love and support. Thank you! Please continue to keep us in prayer as this week will be fairly busy getting back into the swing of things - myself at work in the hospital while Rachel establishes an entirely new home routine that involves juggling two toddlers, quite a bit of food prep and cooking, and the endless cleaning of dust and eviction of insects. Pray for our hearts to be genuinely selfless in the daily acts of serving and loving our missionary and native neighbors. And finally, please pray for God to grant us supernatural wisdom and discernment to bring His message of Jesus into every encounter and conversation. We are here for a reason, and we deeply desire every second to count for the Kingdom. Thank you for partnering with us, and we look forward to bringing you more pictures and stories of what God is doing in, through, and around us here in Papua New Guinea.

All our Love, Ted Rachel Pennie and Solomon