A Walk in the Smoke…

We’re living under a near constant haze of smoke.  It’s causing a lot of irritation to eyes and throats. New bush fires seem to be being lit almost every day, adding to the smoke which blew over from across the border in Indonesia.

We took this video over a week ago, but as we walked home from Church this morning there was a raging grass fire along the same road across the bottom of the airstrip, just next to the fire in this video.  It was throwing up smoke into the air, almost like a volcano.

The ground and grass is so dry that a small fire lit by kids or a cigarette butt quickly becomes out of control.  Many of our friends have had their gardens cooked as a result, and are unable to replant because the ground is so hard and dry. The ground around our house’s foundations is cracking which is causing our house to shift.

We are also running out of water in our pilot houses’ water tanks.  We need enough water in the tanks in order for a touring pilot to come to Telefomin and cover for us the week after we leave.

Please pray for a big rain to put out all the bush fires and refill our water tanks, and also for our regular rain to return so that gardens can be replanted soon!

The grass fires along our path and in the hills surrounding Telefomin.

The smoke is so thick today that we can’t see the mountains which surround Telefomin!