Normally at Interface we're the ones hosting conferences, retreats and programs throughout the year for groups of students and other organizations, but this year we decided to try and pull off our very own (first ever and much needed!) retreat for ourselves...paving a new "road" that we were, truthfully, a little nervous about! There's a beautiful campus owned by the Swiss Mission about an hour away that we decided to head to for four days. After lots of planning, cooking ahead of time and packing we left Interface behind us and headed out. Several missionary families from other NTM centers graciously offered to come look after our campus while we were gone.
We took a back road into the Swiss Mission that I'd never been on before...here's the back side of our town of Goroka in the distance.
We headed to the Goroka market first to pick up fruit and veggies for the weekend...this lettuce was mammoth!
Lesley and Anna weigh out some carrots. Markets here are "bring your own scale." :)
We don't have flower shops here, but often you'll see ladies in the market selling bulbs. It's hard to pull us away from this section!
A quick trip to the supermarket and we had fresh meat for our long-awaited steak and potatoes.
We stopped in at a local "kai bar" (little take out restaurants common around PNG) for lunch, and were impressed with how decked out they were for Christmas.
Someone had taken a lot of time to welcome us to the Swiss Mission (called Orobiga).
We knew we'd be roughing it a bit when we walked into the kitchen and saw these huge cast iron fire-heated cooking pots. I think we did use them to heat water one day but other than that the small stoves we had sufficed.
It took about 5 minutes after getting there for everyone to head outside and start up a game of volleyball. We even took our supper prep outside to enjoy the sunshine and unwind.
It didn't take the kids long to find the swimming pool and even the rain couldn't keep them away.
The guys headed down to the campfire hut to start grilling the steaks.
It didn't take us long to transition from skirst to pants.
Plans for the weekend: chill and relax.
We were thrilled to have Jody and his wife, Marcia, (part of the NTM member care team here) come out to join us for the weekend and do a bit of teaching. We love these guys!
Pete whips up some omelets for breakfast.
The girls enjoyed visiting the tree kangaroo and cockatoo on campus.
Jody and Marcia did five lessons for us over the course of the weekend. They had a lot of interactive things planned, which was great for team building for us. We live on the same campus together 24/7, go to church together, work and play together, but we aren't often forced to dig into the Word together and it was great! Jody was able to remind of some great truths about Christ and God's character. We needed the relaxing and unwinding aspect of this weekend, but even more so the refreshment of grounding ourselves into who we are in Christ.
Orobiga was huge, and a nice change from what we see every day at Interface. The views from both places are incredible, but a change of scenery is always refreshing.
We spent a lot of time doing absolutely nothing but sitting around and chatting...no phones ringing or people knocking at the door, no responsibilities to be distracted by at home. It was the perfect get-away that we all needed.
Pete & Lesley Doerksen snuggle up.
Far too soon it was time to pack up and head home.
How perfect - the Swiss Mission staff came to see us off with little Toblerones!
The "road" less travelled, well worth taking!
