About That Time

So it's about that time. For me it's only seven days until I start my journey back home and I'm so excited, but at the same time sad to leave and end this incredible experience that the Lord has allowed me to have. These last couple of weeks have been really busy and probably the hardest I've had in PNG, but I'm learning so much. I feel like I've been just getting closer and closer to the Lord through the trials and and challenges I've had. God's been giving me such a hunger for His word, greater than I've ever had, and I just have this huge desire to understand and know more of it. And in that learn more of Him and what is pleasing to Him... So yeah.
I'm sorry I haven't really posted in a while, but I'm gonna try to get some stuff up ASAP. I'm so excited to come home to you, my wonderful friends and family. I'm so thankful for each and every one of you.

May the King of Glory bless you and keep you,
Robby

Out and Abau

Okay so these two videos are from yesterday when I went out to this village about four hours drive into the Central Province of Papua New Guinea. It's crazy roads and thick jungle...

Gnarly Spider

So I was just hangin out with some kids down at the Hostel when one of them walks up to me with this spider... They showed it to me and I got this video of it. They just played with it for a while and killed it when they got bored. This made me realize that I am a little girl...

A Quick Little Thought...

I've been spending some time here with Pastor Magi and this evening I had dinner at his house with his family. The thing I really see in him and a huge thing that I feel that God has really been showing me is just how huge loving people really is. I think that when we read our bibles and see how it says to love one another, that we often get this grand picture in our minds of us doing huge, amazing things and changing people lives right and left... But that's not what it looks like at all. Laying your life down for people is something that looks and seems so small to our naked human eyes, yet when we see through the eyes of God, the smallest, least things we do are what make us do such great things in peoples' hearts for His kingdom. That's what I see changing lives and saving them, not a love that's glamorous or that's seen by everyone important, but a love that's longsuffering and steadfast. I was talking with Carina and she was telling me how she loved how it says that if we give even a cup of water in His Name that we have a reward in heaven. It's so small to us, but so huge in the Kingdom of God. It's interesting how much humility and trust in God it takes to do such seemingly small things in His Name. Loving people is hard, yet mostly because we try to do it without Him with own capacity to do so... Philippians 2:13 says, "for it is God who works in you both to will and do His good pleasure." How awesome is our God that when we ask Him to enable us to love people or to just want the things He wants, He does it. That just blows my mind. God is so incredible that He gives us every tool that we need to do His work, but we still look at Him and speak to Him as if He's asking us to do this stuff on our own. There is such power and peace in knowing that it's up to Him to do it and make a way. Our part is just walking on the path that He set before us and being obedient to Him. It's pretty simple, but we find ways to make it complicated or just to mess up anyway. Thank You, Lord, that You are a God of limitless patience...

I love you and miss you all so much.
May God bless you and keep you,
Robby

(I'll try to get some new pics and whatnot up soon...)

People, Places, and Things...

This rooster lives at the Living Light Hostel where I am also staying. It never has a clue what the time is. It just screams all day and night. Three in the morning or four-thirty in the afternoon, it just walks around and screams. So I yell at it, throw rocks at it, and chase it away. I hate this stinkin bird, but it puts a smile on my face to know that one day it'll get eaten... Sorry animal lovers... Sidenote: I totally had Walabi for dinner last night.

This is Pastor Maria. She's in charge of Faith Club and Hope Kids. She has such a passion to show the love of Christ to children that don't really know love from anywhere else. I love serving with her because she really just lives her ministry. She even has taken in tons of kids, lives with, and takes care of them. Some of the kids that were in Hope Kids and Faith Club have grown up to be her main leaders now. It's just incredible to see the fruit of her ministries.

This is Pastor Magi. I went out to the bush with him to visit some villages where Living Light is planting churches. He's such an incredible man with a heart just to love God's people. Everywhere we went, everyone, I mean everyone, knew who he was. He just loves to serve and show the Lord to people.

This is me and a couple of guys at the most beautiful beach I've ever seen... I visited a village here with the the Living Light Church Planting team. It was incredible.

This is my first coconut. These guys just whip out their machete and chop a perfect hole in the top, about the size of a half-dollar, to drink out of. I was impressed...

Sweet sunburn that I got on a long drive with my arm out the window. I was pretty stoked on it...

Faith Club

I wanted to take some time and write about a ministry here at Living Light called Faith Club. It was actually the first ministry I got involved in when I arrived. I was so blown away by it and blessed to be a part of it. Basically the church has all of these kids and mothers come. The kids are either orphans, abandoned, or from broken and struggling homes. The church buses all of these kids and mothers in so that they can hear the word of God and get a good nutritious meal. For most of them, it's the only good meal they get all week. They have it on Tuesday and Thursday of every week and I go every chance that I get. There are separate services for the mothers and the children. It's so amazing to see these kids worship their Father in heaven Who sustains and comforts them. I've spoken for the children twice in the two weeks I've been here. I'm so amazed at how the Lord has used me to encourage them and tell them more about the God who cares for and loves them so much. While service is going the food is cooked, but the mother's get there at eight o'clock in the morning to begin preparing it. They toil all day to get on the bus, go to the market and get the food, take the bus back, prepare the food, gather firewood, cut the firewood, build a fire, and actually cook the food. Pretty gnarly... The food doesn't look that good, but it's specially made to be a good, well-balanced and nutritious meal. When it's over the children all line up to get their food first and when they're all served, the moms get theirs. I usually go and help serve the food. What really amazed and blessed me was that some of the kids help serve as well. These kids are just as hungry and in just as hard situations, yet they serve faithfully and gladness. I have a hard serving out my abundance let alone in my need. It really challenged me. I love spending time with these kids and I feel like I've already learned so much from my interactions with them. I know that God loves and cares for them so much. It's my goal and prayer they would see that in the love that I show them.

"Give me a J. Give me an E. Give me an S.
What about a U. Give me another S. What
does that spell?! JESUS!!!"

Aunt Jill

So my Aunt Jill passed away at around 4:oo am this morning. Thank you guys so much for your prayers. Please continue to pray for my family. This is just a huge sudden blow to all of us. So yeah... I'm about to work on a another post right now and I'll have it up ASAP. Love you all.

YO

So I got some lame news today and I wanna ask you all just to pray. My aunt Jill had a stroke before I left for PNG and she's been in the hospital ever since. I called my dad today just to talk and he told me that they were gonna pull the plug on her tonight... She's only like 37... So she's gonna die. I love her very much and she's not saved. I had an opportunity to minister to her and talk to her about the Lord a couple months ago. Please just pray for salvation over her and peace upon my family in Jesus' mighty name. I know that God has a plan for this and I know He wants to use it to bring her to Him. Please also just pray for me as well. This is hard being this far away in a time like this. I'm confident that the Lord wants me here though. So yeah... I love you all and thank you.

May God bless and keep you,
Robby

A Sweet Video

Some More Pics

Some PNG hotdogs... Alright...

Mason really doesn't like soccer...

There's not really any explanation behind this one other than that this kid is ridiculously cute.

Some of the children that go to the school here at Living Light. They just love taking pictures!

These are the RI teachers. The top middle is Terrance. These guys are so awesome and they have a huge passion to see God's spirit move within the schools here in PNG.

So we were on a walk the other night when we crossed paths with this snake. This happens to be a Sea Snake which is one of the deadliest snakes in the world. It was about four feet long... Yeah super scary because it was dark and we didn't even see it at first...

Life in PNG for Me

So life here is taking some getting used to... It's so different. The culture, the people, the climate, just everything... But in the midst of that I see more and more of Who God is and that He is the same no matter where I go. He's the God Who walks with me wherever I go and Who's been with me the whole way. What an incredible and faithful God we serve!
I've gotten to be involved in tons of ministries here at Living Light Foursquare and my first week was insanely busy because I was trying almost all of them so that I could choose the ones I really wanted to pursue and be involved in during my stay here. There are so many that it would be very difficult to explain them all so I'll write about one for right now...
So, in order to go to go to school here, you have to pay big bucks to do so. On Thursday I went to visit two schools. They go once a week to teach this class called RI(which stands for Religious Instruction). I went with man name Terrance who travels to sixteen different schools a week to go preach the gospel to these kids in high school. He doesn't have a car so we took PMVs... Which are Papua New Guinea buses. They are absolutely insane!!! They're the ghettoest, smelliest little vans and they stuff so many people in them that you can barely breathe... But it was such an adventure. They're all privately owned so the drivers are crazy and it's just scary sometimes... Hanging out with Terrance was awesome. He has a real passion for the youth and bringing them to the Lord. When I spoke to the youth I gave my testimony and told them how I came to know God and the amazing works that He's done in me that're undeniable. I really stressed to them to not wait til they thought they were ready or perfect to start serving the Lord. And I told them that we're all called and that He has a unique plan for each and every one of us. I know that the Lord had brought me all the way to this side of the world just to tell them that. I really wanted to challenge them to respond to the call God had on there lives. In both schools altogether about twelve or so kids gave there lives to the Lord and tons of them had a response and wanted to talk to me afterward. God did such an amazing work through me and I was just so blessed by it. I'm so excited to walk further into the purpose and plan that the Lord has brought me here to be apart of and I know that every word He speaks is true and that it always fulfills the purpose for which He spoke them.
I'm sorry it's taking so long to get these up, but I'll do my best to continue updating. When you read this please POST A COMMENT! Because I wanna hear what you have to say and whatnot. I love you all and I'm gonna try to get some more pics up soon.

May God Bless You and Keep You,

Robby

Hello From PNG

Oh how I missed little Ezra. I don't know how he does it!!!

Me teaching some of the older students at Living Light Foursquare for their Wednesday chapel... So fun, but I was super nervous.

Just me with some of the in the Faith Club Ministry. They wanted to "tok stori" with me... That's just telling stories and talking...

A beautiful PNG sunset. God is such a good artist...

This is Junior... He so stinkin cute and awesome. Just look at that smile.

Some of the boys from Hope Kids Ministry...

This is where a lot of the kids actually bathe... Pretty gnarly. It was really funny because when we were walking over, one of the kids fell in and got all wet.

These kids just went nuts when they saw that I was taking pictures... So awesome.

Hello all! So I made it safely. It was the longest series of flights ever, but I enjoyed it. Every mile I traveled was more and more of God's faithfulness being revealed to me. He is so good. I've been here for about three days now and I've just been so busy... I wanna post some pictures for now and I'll write some more later on. I love you guys so much.

This is the Day!!!

So here we go! I'm leaving today and I can't tell you how excited I am to finally leave for PNG. It's so rad to see God's faithfulness and provision for this entire trip. I'm so thankful for all of my wonderful friends and family and the support that you've continually given me throughout this entire process. God is so good and I just want to tell you that this wouldn't have happened without your prayers, obedience, encouragement, and support. I want to thank you all from the very bottom of my heart. I'm excited for you to hear my testimonies of the amazing works that I know the Lord is going to do in me and through me. I love you all and I'll be updating you as soon and as much as I can. WOOT!!!

THANK YOU

Well as you all know I'm using this blog to update you on what is happening with me. And want you to see how the Lord is using your guys' prayers and support... I just want to thank all you so very very much. You guys are awesome and let me just tell you that God has used you in such an incredible way to impact my life. Please continue to pray for me. God has used and will continue to use your prayers. If you guys have questions or comments or anything all, please post. I look forward to seeing what you all have to say.