|
In the Piper Line |
CP 169 |
SIM |
|
April 2004 |
|
|
There and Back Again Given the Oscar success of Return of the King, it would be passé to quote The Lord of the Rings, so I’ll resist the urge for the rest of the newsletter. Watching that movie on a big screen in a nice theatre was a good, but by no means the best, part of our visit to Oz over Christmas. |
|
|
Christmas and birthdays with
family: |
Christmas In Oz It seems like years since we were enjoying life in When we arrived in Australia, the first thing that struck me was how beautiful it was: clean, orderly, green grass, flowers, trees, well-kept roads, new cars; nothing run down, dusty, or broken. It was a pleasure just to gaze around and drink in the sight. The other thing that struck me was the super-abundance of everything. Standing at the deli in Woolworths, I could choose between eight different types of pate, zillions of cheeses, mountains of ham, bacon, salami, and turkey. Looking left, there were four fridges holding eight varieties of milk, and to the right, an entire wall of different cakes and breads. Shopping was initially a little overwhelming – though it still all tasted wonderful! |
|
Isabella takes a well earned rest |
The latest (and last) addition to the quiver Our best Christmas present
came a little late, but was appreciated nevertheless. Isabella Grace Piper
arrived right on schedule on January 11. We had been given some strong hints
that we were going to have another boy, so we were surprised and delighted by
the extra X chromosome. Since her arrival,
Isabella has been a delight. Like all besotted parents, we think she is the
cutest baby in the world, but in this case, we’re right! She’s started
chatting already, and even laughing. We’re still working on the
sleeping-in-cot-and-not-in-someones-arms deal, but – praise God – she does
sleep well at night. The boys are adapting well to their role of big brother,
though they are occassionally more enthuasiastic than Isabella can handle. |
|
Some guests are just not welcome |
Welcome back to Cuamba “Hey Dad! There’s a scorpion here at the front door. And it’s alive.” Drew shouted gleefully one morning, as we were collecting the daily milk. True enough, there it was: a small, flat, greyish-green scorpion, on the mat inside the door. “It’s not alive; it’s dead,” I said authoritatively, after a quick look. “It’s been squashed by something. But still don’t touch it.” We collected the milk, and then went back for a closer look. It was gone! Score one for Drew, zero for parental authority. Momentary panic ensued. The boys ran yelling into the kitchen, and I suddenly became very aware of the space around my large, unprotected feet. My shoes were nearby, but I was reluctant to put my feet into those dark openings. I spend a few seconds shaking the shoes thoroughly to make sure there wasn’t a nasty surprise hiding within. That done, it only took 30 seconds to find the scorpion, hiding under the tool case, and 10 more seconds to make sure that, this time, I was right – something had squashed it! |
|
The guest house is now pleasantly
livable, |
Home on the range Our regular ministries
have continued. I’m teaching “The Prophets” at the local Bible college this
term, and next term, I’ll be tackling the trickier topic of Heresies. The discipleship group
has grown, and there are now four young men studying God’s word each week.
These are still one of the most encouraging times of my week: working with
them to understand Bible passages and, once in a while, seeing the look of
comprehension or conviction when something clicks. On top of these regular
ministries, there are two more Bible study group starting this year in two
other local churches. I’ve also made a commitment to make a start at learning
the local language, Makua. My goal is to be able to make basic small talk by
the end of the year. When I can say, “How’re your chickens?” and understand
the response, I will have accomplished my language goal for the year. |
|
|
Pressing on towards what is ahead With our forward planning
caps firmly in place, we’d like to let everyone know that we’ll be on home
assignment for all of 2005. Starting in May 2005, we’re available to come and
speak in churches and in home groups. If you’d like to be annoyed by some
visiting missionaries, let
us know and we’ll make sure to come to see you. As always, thank you so much for your prayers and support. We can only serve God here because you provide those things for us there. With love, |
|
For further information You can get a nicely formatted version of this newsletter,
complete with pictures, either here (in Word document format) or here (in Adobe PDF format). Both are
about 300KB in size. Our web site (www.bigfoot.com/~phillip_piper)
always has the latest photos, journal entries and news about us. The journal
section and the photo section were brought up to date at the end of April
2004. Click here or here to see news
stories about Click
here to see lots of technical articles about Why did you get this email? This email goes out three times a year to people who we
think are interested in receiving information about the Piper family, who are
Christian missionaries in |