Dear friends and family
Now that that we have the time to sit down and write a letter we would like to give you a run down on our trip to the land of Oz (Australia). Why the sudden rush down there? David has glaucoma and it is not easy to get the medication for it up here. Our last order for it somehow went astray and he was starting to get what he thought was the symptoms that had when he first got the glaucoma back in 1996. If so, we would need to get to an eye specialist fairly quickly.
There were also other medical issues that we needed to take care of, but they were not urgent. So we booked a flight to Cairns on the 11th of January. David saw the specialist the next week in Cairns. He said that the symptoms were not caused by the glaucoma even though the pressure was very high in the right eye. The right eye was the one he was having trouble with and was also the one he had cataract surgery done on before we came up here this time. The specialist told him that the symptoms were caused by the membrane behind the artificial lens going opaque. It is age related. They can fix it with laser treatment but it is not worrying him too much at this stage. Wendy had a couple of appointments with an optometrist to have her eyes checked and they were fine. David also had to have a hearing test and hearing aids repaired in Townsville. Townsville was hot and dry but soon after his trip down there the rain we had been getting in Cairns moved down there. There was also dental work we had done while we were there. We also did a lot of shopping for things we can’t get in PNG.
While we were in Cairns Wendy rang her brother, Ross, and he said that his wife, Gayle’s, brain tumour was acting up again. So, they were moving up to Brisbane to the Redcliffe area to give her some quality time at the beach where she grew up. We felt that the Lord was giving us this opportunity for Wendy to see her and Ross. Gayle and Wendy became a lot closer when Wendy’s two sisters died so close together some years ago, she has loved the way Gayle has continued to stand with her in that. It was wonderful that this happened while we were in Australia. The Lord works all things according to His purpose. We flew down to Brisbane and Wendy’s brother-in-law, John, picked us up from the airport. He was heading off for a few weeks in Tasmania the next day, so he told us to stay in his place in the Peninsular Palms retirement village. Wendy’s brother, Ross, picked us up and took us to their property that they bought at Mt Mee. Then we came back and picked Gayle up from a hospital in Brisbane, went and had a look at the unit they are renting on the beach at Redcliffe. Then they took us to a cafe on the beach to cerebrate Gayle’s birthday along with her sister and some friends, so we had some good quality time with them. We spent 10 days in Brisbane and caught up with a lot of old friends, some of Wendy’s cousins, brothers, nieces and nephews. We also caught up with David’s brother and his new wife. Unfortunately we were not able to catch up with everyone we wanted to see.
And now we are back here in the nice cool PNG highlands. We arrived Tuesday afternoon. David worked on the car Wednesday then took a trip out to the village yesterday the 14th. He was able to contact Robert, Ekesue and Sevis and let them know that we will start teaching again next Wednesday night. We now have a pup that we are training to be a watch dog on the base here, so we are getting our exercise taking for his walks. He sleeps on our veranda at night.
Lots of love from
David and Wendy