Papua New Guinea has over 850 languages among the many people groups of this nation.  The official language is known as tok pisin or tok pidgin.  This is the language Blinda and I are learning! The last two weeks of March we officially began our language and culture study.  Tok Pisin is a trade language that was developed to allow the many people group to barter and trade.  It is a pretty simple language overall but still requires a lot of work to master.  It has been a great experience so far in learning and slowly being able to communicate with the people in our community.  We were able to start off learning the language in a classroom setting with our language helper, Aute.  Aute is one the nationals that lives close to our center that helps all new missionaries learn tok pisin.  Our language learning has had to shift gears quite a bit since COVID cases are spiking in our community and across PNG.  The country was able to avoid a serious COVID outbreak over the past year but it finally has arrived.  We are thankful for the leadership of our mission as they balance safety and the ever present burden of church planting among the people groups of PNG.  We do not know what the next few weeks or months will bring our way but are actively trusting that God has a plan for it all. 

The nation of PNG is being hit pretty hard by COVID.  Our healthcare system is overwhelmed with so many new cases.  Thankfully our center has stayed healthy through this time.  With all the unknown in the future we find ourselves wondering how we will learn the language and culture of PNG.  COVID has wrecked many of our plans in the past year and it seems to continue.  Would you pray with us that God would use this time for us to lean on Him and be encouraging to those around us.  We hope to be able to get out in the community soon but understand the need for safety.  Thank you all so much for being a part of what God is doing in our lives as we adjust to life in PNG.  

Jeremy, Blinda, and Miyah Dunn