Turtles

There is a pond that a Dr of Science made to do some research on turtles. There are two very large turtles and some fish in the pond. I don't know what the results of the research was but the turtles and fish are still there. People go there and feed them veggies . We threw lettuce and carrots which they ate up. The fish even liked the lettuce.

More Souls

We had more than twice as many attend the church services last night. Robert did a good job delivering the sermon and Lee lead the singing. We had a morning service on Kwaj. It was a good day.

Progress

The second story on the church building is going up. There will be three class rooms on the second floor. This will be the front of the building.

Lee, Paul, Danny and Robert have gone to work on the building today. Danny was not feeling that good last night so he stayed home when we went to Gugeegue to hold church services but he went to work this morning.

The first ever high school graduating class of Gugeegue and Ebeye is this evening and the guys are going to attend.

Gina Curtain

I took this pic in a store window on Ebeye. I have no idea what a Gina Curtain is but I had to take a picture of it because of our daughter Gina.

It has been a busy week. Robert, one of the missionaries asthma kicked in. Danny asked me to go see about him because he was getting dizzy. When I saw him he was not breathing that well which concerned me. I called the ambulance and they took him to the ER. They discovered he had 102 fever and the flu and gave him Tylenol to bring his fever down and then gave him a breathing treatment for his asthma. That improved his breathing. He was much better yesterday but still weak. Apparently the flu is rampant on Ebeye & Gugeegue and the locals are bringing it over to Kwaj. The missionaries ride on the barge every day back and forth.

My sponsor who has gone home to Arkansas had a maid that she recommended. I have never had a maid in my life. We could never afford one. She came over and cleaned our house on Thursday. She did a good job. Lee was thrilled because he has been doing most of the heavy cleaning for several years because I have not been able to do it. It helps support a local family who would not be able to make a living other ways. I felt like I needed to get up and help her clean something. I'm sure I will get over that quickly.

Blessing to all.

Sweet Souls

These are some of the children that were running around after church Sunday night. They are precious souls.

The missionaries who are building the church building are holding short devo's before they start working every morning. That way they are teaching the local men a little about God's word every day. All three are preachers so they take turns preaching.

Lee and I had our 36th wedding anniversary yesterday. We spent most of the day putting things away and hanging pictures and decorations. We ate out at the only place in town to eat and watched the sunset. Lee took our sponsors to meet their plane for Hawaii yesterday. They are spending a couple days in Hawaii then on to their home in Arkansas.

Blessings to all.

God's House

This is the church service that was held on Gugeegue on Sunday night. There were about 6 local adults, five of us and eight or more kids. I decided to go so they would know that there were women behind all these men that were supporting the work on Gugeegue. We rode the landing barge (the ones like they use to move Army men from the ships to the beaches, only with seats) over to Ebeye and one of the young men that lives on Gugeegue drove his Nissan pick up over to Ebeye to pick us up. The road between Ebeye and Gugeebue was riddled with pot holes that are full of water and it was like riding in the Baha 500. The road was one of the roughest roads I have ever been on but it is the only way to Gugeegue. We never went over 5 miles an hour and we zigg-zagged back and forth looking for the least rough pot hole. I don't see how anyone can keep a front end, shocks or tires on any vehicle on that road. There is supposed to be some monies being spent on making a permanent road with a bridge to open up the lagoon again to the sea. When they put the road in they cut some of the natural flow of how God made it and it is effecting the lagoon sea life. Paul is paying the guy who picks us up $20 each way. It is a bargain! Once we got to the church building we held the church service. Lee lead singing and Paul did the preaching. I met three of the ladies that came to the church service. Next week they should have the second floor put up where we will have the second floor over our heads in case of a rain shower.

The building will also be used to establish a preaching school to teach Marshallees men to become preachers who will teach the Bible to their own people in their own language. They will also use it to teach the people to read English from the Bible. The Marshallees people have their very own language. It is made up of several different languages that they have been ruled by. Some English, some Japaneise, etc. World Bible School is planning to eventually print a Bible in the Marshallees language. There are non in print at present.

All in all it was a tireing but exhillerating trip. The people are very poor. Their houses are very old and falling apart but their souls are in need of Gods Grace.

Busy

We have been incredibly busy with putting our home back together and helping the missionaries out all we can. We moved them to a house last night where they can settle in and not worry about where they will be spending the night every night. Paul has spent a couple nights on our couch and Robert and Danny have spent their nights in their sponsors trailer house. They have been working really long hard hours. They have some walls up on the church building. The locals are excited about having the first Church building on the island. It is the talk of the island. Several come each day to help out and do whatever the brothers tell them to do. I'm hoping to get some pics from one of them so you can see their progress. We are having Church service on Kwaj this morning (it is Sunday here) and the guys are going to hold services on Gugeegue this evening on the Church buildings slab among the walls that the Lord has helped them build. It will be a good time to renew their souls and reenergize their bodies and mission. Blessings to all.

It's Home Again

We got our shipment yesterday. It poured rain and thunder stormed (thunder storms are rare we are told) in the early morning hours. It let up some later in the morning but was still raining. It finally stopped around 9:00 so they loaded our crates and stacked the boxes in our house. The bed was wonderful last night but what surprised us both was when we sat in our recliners it felt like we were home again. We emptied most of the boxes yesterday and stuff is everywhere but I can work on getting it put away. That forty-two inch TV is twice as big in this apartment. They tore down at least two forests with all the paper they wrapped our stuff in. We have to wait until tomorrow for the trash to come. Paul has been working on getting the church building materials from one island to the other all week. He was in hopes of having everything already moved by now. The two brethren who are coming from the states to help are coming in today. Paul felt like he needed to be tending to getting the materials moved. The Marshalees don't have the drive Americans do plus he is working with a truck that is in really bad shape. Paul paid for some gas for the truck. It was $7.00 a gallon! The locals are glad to get it because they don't always have gas. When it comes in everyone scrambles to get it. I am going to meet the two guys at the airport and see if I can get them settled for today. They will be really tired when they arrive. Blessings to all.

Shipment

Our shipment is being delivered tomorrow morning. Praise God! I will let you know how things turn out. Some things I learned on our trip from San Diego to Kwaj. 1) The Pacific Ocean is way bigger than I had anticipated. It goes forever! 2) There are a lot of clouds over the ocean. 3) Clouds look like cotton balls (which I already knew) but they can line up in a series of rows just like a cotton patch. 4)You can actually fly into Honolulu, spend the night and fly out early the next morning and never see anything but the airport and the hotel. Not recommended! 5)They are fibbing to you when they tell you that you have to show up and check in for the flight to Kwaj no less than two hours early or you will not be permitted to board. There were about eight of us who believed what they said and the other 149 mostly native people showed up less than 30 minutes before we boarded the plane and we all made the flight. 6) Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands is really long and skinny. Not what I had expected at all. 7) The Majuro airport consists of a runway that has ocean water just outside your window on both sides of the plane. 8) The plane that flies into and out of Kwaj is based in Guam. They fly from Guam to Kwaj to Majuro to Honolulu and the next day fly back to Guam. 9) The airport at Kwaj is a top secret area. You can not take a picture of anything on or in the airport or they will take your camera away from you. Why just that area is top secret I have no idea. 10) The Pacific Ocean is really BIG.

Another sunset.

I goofed again. Ebeye is not pronounced E B it is pronounced
E BY. I did get Gugeegue right. I'd like to tell you that was the only mistake I made on Monday but I would be wrong on that one too.

Lee had quite a day yesterday. It took them half the day to get through all the political stuff to get their building materials released on Ebeye. Paul already had gotten the Kings, and land owners permission but there is always someone who wants to throw his weight around just because he likes the power. They finally worked through that and they loaded as much as they could onto a beat up flat bed truck. Lee said the bumpy two mile ride between Ebeye and Gugeegue seemed like ten. They had some locals helping. Lee came back sun burned to spite the suntan lotion he put on before he left. Paul will go back today to try and get the rest of the supplies moved over to Gugeegue. Lee said they have at least two more truck loads if the truck makes it that many times. The other two men from the states will come in on Thursdays plane. That should help Paul's burden tremendously.

Mother's Day

This is the boat that brought our shipment in on Friday. They actually had it half unloaded by the time I took this pic. Hopefully we will get our stuff Tuesday.

Lee went to Ebeye (pronounced E B) with Paul, the missionary to hold church services yesterday. There was no place for me to sit so I did not attempt to go. I think we packed our folding chairs so I should be able to carry those along next week. They had about 14 or 15 to show up for the service. Some of them came from Gugeegue (pronounced like the baby talk you do when you tickle a babies chin....goo chee goo) where they are going to be building the church building. Lee said they were not as poor on Ebeye as Nicaragua but still pretty poor. They have small cars and stores that seem better stocked than ours on Kwaj right now. We are in transition of changing our stores over to AFFES which will be a huge improvement. When they get the church building built it will be the only Church on Gugeegue. They are anticipating it growing very quickly because the people have had to go to Ebeye to attend church and it cost them money to go from one island to the other and back again. Most people could not afford the expense. The building materials for the church building came in on the same boat as our stuff. Paul has managed to get it moved to Gugeegue. Lee is off today (Monday here) and Paul and Lee are going to Gugeegue to unload the truck load of building materials. There are two other guys coming from the states this week to work on the church building and some local people that will be helping.

Gina and Bonnie called for Mother's day. After I talked to them we took Paul to the only place to eat in town right now. They had quite a spread. We met the only other C of C family on the island and worshiped with them. They are moving to Alaska. Her husband is already in Alaska and she is waiting for the kids to get out of school before they move.

Blessing to all.

Boh-Hoo

Our shipment is not coming in until Friday which means we will not get our stuff until after Tuesday (we're off Sun & Mon). I was sooooo looking forward to sleeping on my mattress. The C of C missionary, Paul, arrived Tues. and we met with him last night. His shipment of building materials is on the barge with our household goods. Lee will meet with the brothers and sisters on the Island where they are building the church building Monday and we will meet Sunday with the sister who is moving from Kwaj soon. It appears the Lord has put us in a missionary field ripe for growth. Blessings to all.

Sunset

This was the first sunset we watched from the shore. They have put benches all along the shore line and people come and sit on the benches and watch the sunset. A couple on the bench just down from us brought their wine. Lee looked over there and started whining and said we brought our whiners too.

Blessing to all.

Lagoon

This is a small part of the lagoon. That is a grown man in the water. It is deaper in some areas and more shallow in other areas.

Parking Lot

This is the Wal-Mart parking lot. Not really. I'm not sure why these are all parked here. It was Monday, which is like Sat. in the states.

Swarm

This is the welfare line for sharks. They are fighting over the throwaway scraps from the tuna that was being cut up. These sharks are not dangerous. If you jumped in the middle of this feeding frenzy I'm sure you would be hurt. Normally they will not hurt you. There were some people who were swimming in the water off a boat anchored onto a dock not a hundred yards away. Lee said they let lawyers on the island.

I am going to upload these pics one at a time. The Internet lines are still in the dark ages here. All we have is 56k dial up. It took over thirty minutes to upload the pics yesterday.

Fishing

We did not go fishing but we waited for the fishing boats to come in. This is one boat that came in and they caught a 92 lb yellow finn tuna. A large shark had taken a 10 lb bight out of the bottom of it. The first pic is of a shark and turtle that are waiting for some scraps from cutting up the tuna. I will send some more pics about the sharks that gather for the fish scraps in the next blog.

Duplex

The picture above is a view of our block and the left is of our duplex. There is a patio in the back and covered patio on the side. The duplex is a throw back to the sixties. It is built of cinder blocks and bricks which is sturdy during storms, gives you a good fire wall, is cooler year round, and keeps the noise between apartments to a minimum. There is no luxury to it but it is more than sufficient and beats the chicken barn we once lived in. Lee's morning commute is about 5 minutes. He left the other morning and said, "I guess I better go so I can fight the traffic". There is an ally between the blocks and there is about as much traffic in the ally as there is in the street. There are some vehicles that are army, maintenance, etc. They can not go over 15 mph. The police even have a radar gun and check the speeds at times. Lee will have a good time going on the interstate at 15 mph when we come back to the states. They run over you if you do the speed limit.

It is Sunday here. There were some missionaries here from C of C but they moved to Australia. There is not a C of C service in the Army services any more. We are going to worship with the Baptist this morning. The two people who play instruments are gone today. They are not sure if they can sing acapella or not. The missionaries who are coming over from the states to build a church building on one of the islands close by will be here next week so we should be able to worship with the Marshallees brethren next week.

Blessings to all.

One pic

This is not a good pic because the battery on my camera was cratering. I have not been back to get more pics yet. More will come.

Lee has been working hard all week. It is Saturday here. The work week is Tues-Sat because we are a day ahead of the States. He will be off Sun & Mon.

Our stuff should be coming in on Wed next week. I'm not sure how long it will take for them to inspect it and release it to us.

I have drug main street several times on my bicycle. Of course it is only one block long so it doesn't take more than 20 seconds to drag main. There are more places of business than that, but that is main part of town.

I have seen some sea shells as big as a basketball on the Island. They will not let you take those off the Island. They do not want people to take the local treasures and sell them in the states, E-Bay, etc.

I need to get busy. More later.

Arrived

We have arrived on Kwaj. Everything has been really busy but good. My muscles are really sore from the travel and the bicycle since we arrived. Our bodies are still on SD time and we can't manage to stay up past 9:00 pm and then we wake up at 3:00am. Hopefully that will pass soon. We got a nice tour of the island yesterday. My camera battery decided to crater so I did not get many pics. Plenty of time for that. I will write again soon to tell you about the things I learned on our trip. Blessings to all