Me with the remaining living siblings of my adopted father, along with a few cousins.

 

Recent Events

We’ve rebranded! You may have noticed the new logo on this email and on the website. My daughter-in-law, Lydia, is volunteering with us to do Marketing. The first project we worked on was to rebrand Restoration International. We will now be referring to Restoration International as Restoration PNG, since most of our work is currently based in Papua New Guinea.

For the logo and colors, we took inspiration from Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing, which is the largest species of butterfly in the world, and is an endangered species. This butterfly is so rare that it cannot be commercially traded and it is only found in Papua New Guinea. The rarity and uniqueness of this butterfly shows the beauty of Papua New Guinea, who’s people are also extremely valuable and who we want to serve.

 

We’ve been back on West New Britain Island for a little over a month now. It has been great to reconnect with family and friends and to see Little Jenny fitting right back into village life. We are both learning so much from our family, and also trying to learn more of their language so we can communicate more clearly in the future, rather than always relying on the trade language, which has a very limited vocabulary.

Our house here has no electricity or running water. Below is a picture of Little Jenny and her sister washing our breakfast dishes.

We desperately need to install a solar system so that we can have electricity at our house here. I have to pay local businesses who have power to charge my two battery banks so that I can charge my laptop and phone in order to be able to do my office work. I usually need to charge the power banks at least twice a week in order to keep my electronics charged. No power means no fridge, no fans, and no lights. If you feel led to give towards this need, designate your gift as “solar.” I had an estimate and inspection done, and the cost for 4 panels, 4 batteries, all wiring and installation will run about $5,000 USD. Please keep this need in prayer.

No electricity means cooking our meals over a fire or using our small camping stove with a propane bottle.

 

Medical Missions Update

This past month we have conducted 17 rapid malaria tests, distributed 48 malaria treatment tablets, and 136 Tylenol tablets used to treat the fever and headache that goes with malaria. We are currently in a malaria and dengue fever epidemic as it is the tail end of rainy season, which means an abundance of mosquitos. Pray for the sick, and pray for God’s protection and good health for all of us.

We have three larger medical needs that you can be praying about and give towards as you feel led:

“J” is a 23 year old student living with epilepsy. We provide his medications for him. He needs to have another MRI done and a review to adjust his dosage. This will cost $1,000 USD (MRI fee).

“D” is a 14 year old girl who has had two recent episodes of blacking out and fainting. She exhibited no other symptoms. She will also need an MRI done to rule out epilepsy and the costs would be the same as for “J”. The fee for the MRI is $1,000 USD.

“C” is a 12 year old girl who fell from a tree over a year ago and broke or dislocated her left elbow. There was no medical help available in her province; they don’t have any orthopaedic specialists. Over a year later, her arm is still bent, her elbow joint swollen, and she experiences constant pain. Her mobility and ability to do normal household chores is limited. We would need to fly her to the capital city of Port Moresby where there are specialists who can hopefully re-break and set her arm properly so she can experience healing. We are unsure of the costs at this point, so we will go forward in faith that we can find the help she needs.

If you wish to give to our medical missions, you can do so by clicking the link below and designating your gift to “medical.”

This past month we reached a very important milestone in our agriculture program. We were able to purchase and install a dryer for the cocoa beans! It was such a special and rewarding moment, as we have all worked so hard over the last few years to get to this place. Now, the community can use this to dry and sell cocoa beans. It will mean a huge increase in income for those growing cacao, which means they can put food on the table, pay school fees for their children, and afford medicine and medical care when they are sick. We are also continuing to plant new seeds in our nursery to distribute to those in the community who do not have the means to purchase seedlings.

My adopted family has a registered cultural singing and dancing group. They have been privileged to perform at some pretty major events. Recently, we got to dance and sing to welcome the Prime Minister of PNG to our province. It was his first ever visit to West New Britain Province. I was so proud of my family! Enjoy a few pictures from the day.

We cannot thank you all enough for your ongoing prayers and generous giving. We continue to move forward in faith that God is going to grow our base of staff, volunteers, and donors so that we can continue to rescue women and children from abuse, enslavement, and trafficking; to give them a future filled with hope.

Gratefully on behalf of myself and our staff & volunteers,

Jennifer Wesner

Director of Restoration PNG