Clay Pots for April 10th

In Madang:
Jason's sister and brother in law, our family, and Jason's brother who just left to go back to the States.

As we flew out of Lengbati for the first time on the new airstrip it struck me that this was the first time I didn't close my eyes on take off. It felt good to be taking off on solid ground! Normally I am a little sad when we leave our home in the tribe. But this time I felt relieved and didn't look back. It has been a long and tiring 6 months and I needed to get out to town and fellowship with people of my own language and culture. I needed to walk in a grocery store and pick out my own food and go to a restaurant where a pile of dishes wasn't waiting for me. And you know what the kids favorite thing to do here is? Going for a ride in the truck. An airplane they can do "any day" but a ride in the truck, now that is fun!

Jason is at a 2 week translation workshop in Goroka town, a 20 min flight away. So that means mom and the kiddos are trying to make the time go fast until Daddy comes home. Even though we miss him dearly it has been so wonderful to be able to just hang out with the kids in a non-tribal atmosphere. We don't have an audience every time we step outside and we can wear shorts!

This week I "get" to go to a Dentist to get 2 root canals. I should be thankful for the fact that I was able to find a dentist but all I could think about was if I lived in the States I wouldn't have to pay to fly to a dentist! But I am so grateful that my months of pain will be taken care of and we have awesome family in this country to baby-sit the kids while I am gone for a couple of days.

While we have been out I got a chance to go to a retreat for missionary ladies given by Women of the Harvest magazine. At my table there were some ladies who haven't gotten a single e-mail, letter, or package from their churches or friends in over 2 years. I was shocked. There is rarely a week that goes by that we don't hear from someone from home. And there is never a month that goes by that we don't realize the many who sacrifice financially to keep us here. Thank you so much for that much needed encouragement by your prayers, e-mail, letters, and packages. God uses you to keep our batteries charged and to accomplish His will in all our lives. Thank you for loving us and taking the time to tell us and show us that.

We are truly blessed by you,
His Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, & Malachi Knapp

Clay Pots for April 2, 2006

Jason checking the dictionary with Tingong today.

This week Jason is checking the last of the words in the dictionary with his language helper! He has made an English/Tobo dictionary that will greatly help us with the literacy primers and translation. There are over 2,000 verbs! Along with that he has also just finished a final grammar write up of the Tobo language and all needed literacy data (frequency counts,etc). So when you (and us)are wondering what are those missionaries doing over there?! Rest assured, God is moving things along!

Thank you for your prayers and support that make this possible!

His Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, and Malachi Knapp

Clay Pots for February 27, 2006

We have had the awesome blessing of having not only someone from our home church visiting us this past week but he also happens to be Jason's brother, Jeremy. They are working on the boxes Jeremy had made for us to put all our literacy supplies in.

Translation of Bible Lessons: Before teaching of God's Word can begin there must lessons to teach from. Jason has been working on translating those lessons. He hopes to have all of them done by this fall so that the teaching of God's Word to the Tobo people can begin!!!! Words can not express how much we yearn for that day. In the process of translating those lessons he goes over them with his three language helpers: First Tingon, then Kliford, then Singo. They all got it. The second one he just finished going over with Tingon. It is on God being eternal and everywhere. How he was there before the beginning, etc. He kept thinking that Jason was translating or saying it wrong. He kept wanting Jason to say that God "appeared" or "made himself" or whatever. Jason finally just had to put it in as many terms as possible: God had no parents; wasn't born, didn't appear, didn't make himself, no one made him, etc. Tingon finally understood and "believed". It was great to see him believe this most foundational truth which for his whole life he didn't know well. We can't understand how God can be eternal; but we have to believe it; and Tingon did. It excited our hearts to no end. This is foundational truth for the gospel and Jason feels so privileged to be able to teach it to these guys first as he goes through the process of translating it. Praise the Lord.

We are encouraged in the greatness of our God.

His Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, & Malachi Knapp

We're growing up!!

Today we will be celebrating Micah's 7th Birthday! Wow, where did the time go? Micah assures us he is getting really old now because he has hair on his arms.:-) He is excelling in first grade and loves to read anything he can get his hands on...even novels. Spelling is also a newfound hobby and his new name for Dad is "double D with an A in the middle".

Sophia has started pre-school with Kellie and I think it is safe to say Sophia would rather be playing dolls and so would Kellie for that matter :-) We have a shortage of band-aids now that Sophia is playing little nurse to all the Tobo kids bumps and cuts. On a sadder note we have just found out that Sophia is severely allergic to anything with lactose in it. We are thankful we have found the cause to her being sickly all the time. However this is going to be a whole new lifestyle change for all of us. We would appreciate your prayers as we try and find foods in PNG that we can give her and for mom as she learns to cooks a whole lot differently. No more chocolate:-(.

Malachi is an independent 1 year old going on 17. He mimics everyone and wants to help with everything. His favorite place is on top of the table where he finishes everyone's plate. His other place is market where he goes to person to person eating anything given to him. He has recently learned to climb out of his crib. Not a good thing.

There are many days that we struggle with raising our kids and not knowing if we are doing it right without a church fellowship and family giving us advice and showing us. Thank you for your prayers and support to us as a family.

It is a privilege to be here and represent you over here.

His Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, and Malachi Knapp