Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Brisbane


Brisbane

On Wednesday October 28th we flew to Port Morseby to bring our residential visa application to Pastor Felix. On Friday the visa was lodged in the capital and we flew to Brisbane where we make a second application for our visa in PNG. The entire process should take less than three weeks and then we will head back to our home, celebrate Thanksgiving, and start Advent with our first group of Mesem friends by our side checking the completed translation work.

Brisbane is a great city to spend time in while we are waiting. The Internet works, so the long download of email takes a matter of seconds. We can add messages to the blog and update friends of the work from here. We’re adding some video taken in PNG. We’re in a handy DHL spot so we can get our new credit cards and debit cards to replace what we lost in the most recent “wallet walkabout” that happened at the market. The thief got a lot of cash (Neil had just withdraw money to pay the men) but thankfully the credit cards were not a problem.

Of course the Internet is not our only past time here. Tomorrow Neil goes back to the embassy and we’ll go along as in all these years I have never been in the PNG embassy. Brisbane has a lovely river winding through and a wonderful outdoor mall area where a book lover can sip cappuccino and pass some time. I’ve got the New Testament with me of course, and have finished Acts and should be done with 1 Corinthians this week.

Tony is happy and has found a gym near where we are staying that has a $3 fee for shooting hoops or playing a pick-up game. He will be 17 in December and though we’ve heard the teen years are supposed to be bumpy we’ve not had many bumps and we appreciate the good humour and versatility he has demonstrated in all our travels.

I will update you again as soon as we have more news.