Happy BD Carlee

This is a pic of one of the bunkers from WWII on Kwaj. It is falling apart so you can't go inside but it is interesting to look at a piece of history.

We are in our rainy season so we get some rain almost every day. It is usually not an all day rain but usually a short shower here, another one there. A lot of them come during the night. Often less than an inch in a day. We were not sure we were going to be able to go to Gugeegue for church because we did get a heavier shower on Thursday which washes the road out between Ebeye and Gugeegue. The road had been washed out and it did rain lightly yesterday but we made it fine. I led my first Bible class in at least 28 years. I felt a bit like a fish out of water, which was appropriate considering where we were. It went fine once the kids warmed up to what we were doing. We saw that the church of god had a meeting under a tarp on Gugeegue. I'm not sure if they do that on a regular basis or not but they had good attendance. Lee and I are looking into buying a boat so that we don't have to worry about the road. We are checking out how many problems we will be taking on with the boat.

If you have not checked out our sweet granddaughter, Julianna's blog check out her mission trip to Nicaragua on my list of blogs.

Happy birthday to our granddaughter, Carlee who is one year old today the 29th. She is walking now and her mother says she is into everything as most toddlers do.

Blessing to all.

Rough Road

I took a one minute and twenty second video on my camera to show how rough it is riding the two miles between Ebeye and Gugeegue. Unfortunately the dial up we have to get on the Internet is wimpy and would not load the video onto my blog. It rained last night so the road was worse than usual. The taxi driver ran the pick up off the road. Lee pushed on the back of the pick up until the guy got us out of the ditch. We got there just in time for church. It costs us $50 round trip to run back and forth on a road that makes the Oklahoma toll roads look as smooth as a babies bottom. The number of people at church was down but it was still all worth it. There were two boys I would guess were 6 and 7 years old that were really interested in Lee leading singing. Lee lost them on the sermon but most sermons are lost on 7 year olds. Blessing to all.

Glass Beach

There is a beach on Kwaj called Glass Beach. You can go out there when the tide is out and there will be pieces of different colors of glass sitting on the beach. Some are clear in color, some are green, purple, to a black color. It is a natural thing that happens with the sand on that beach. Pretty cool.





My tomatoes are getting big. I guess Amy and Sandra's prayers work. That's an inside joke for those who are not related to us. The other plant on the corner of our patio is a pineapple. Our sponsors grandson had started it from a twig and gave it to us to plant and continue on. I may have to put it in a bigger pot soon.
We have a Nonie tree in our back yard too. I will take a pic of it soon. I never knew what a Nonie looked like before. I just knew the "natural" followers thought it was liquid gold.

Great Job

The building looks great from the outside. The three preachers made it back to their homes along with the little girls.

It was a bit of a let down Sunday without our brothers but we expected it would be. Lee did a good job leading us in all of the church service Sunday. I am going to start a Bible Class before the church service for the little kids. It is going to be slow going but God brought us this far, he will lead us where he wants us to go.

Back Home

The three brothers in Christ who have been working so hard on building the chruch building on Gugeegue have gone back home. They have done a wonderful job. They got to live Wednesday twice when they passed over the date line. The passport for one of the little girls literally came through at the last minute. It was quite a sacrfice for Haitie to give those two girls up because she knew both of their futures would be brighter in America. Robert and Danny had no idea they would be taking two little girls back with them to the states when they signed up for this mission trip and left Alabama. We do not always know God's plans but he will guide us through if we will allow him. I cannot tell you how many times God has guided each and every one of us involved with the mission on Gugeegue. GOD IS GOOD!

Check it out

The three preachers will be leaving tomorrow along with the two little girls they are adopting. They had no idea when they stepped off the plane on Kwaj they would be leaving with two little girls. They have put in long exhaustive hours to build a two story church building. God Bless you for all your wonderful work as well as your families and congregations for continuing on without you for so long. Check out the 'Sweet Julianna' link. My Granddaughter at seven years old and her father, Ellis, are on her first mission trip to Nicaragua. Lee & Ellis helped them build a church building two years ago and Lee built a swing set last year. They are putting cement floors into houses this year and of course they hold VBS every year. Blessing to all.

Another Great Day

My battery was about to give up again so these pics are a little hazy. Sorry about that.

We had another good Sunday. The guys did a great job on the service. Macy's had 90% off some toys so I bought a dozen baby dolls and that many footballs. Paul announced last Sunday that we would be giving them away and we ended up with way more kids than we had toys. I felt bad I had not bought more. These little kids have so little. The dolls were cheap little dolls but it was the world to them. I even saw one Jr high boy who came for the football but who knows what seed God planted in him. He may end up one of the Preacher students. One thing I have not seen yet is a teddy bear. Maybe it is not a concept that people who live in constant 85 degree heat can wrap their mind around.

Around Christmas I will start up a teddy bear drive for the kids on Gugeegue. Their needs are much greater than that but maybe we can give them a moment of fun. Perhaps we can do one box of fun and a box of children's health products.

One thing I would like to do right now is anyone who can buy just one of those really small Bibles or a Bible for grade school or preteen age. There were two girls who were probably 5th or 6th grade that I would like to get to help with teaching the little kids and translating the lessons. It would be great for every child to have a Bible of his or her own. Most of them can not read it, but we can start instilling that the Bible is God's word. Just guessing I would say we would need about forty to fifty Bibles. If you bring the kids in, the parents will follow. Good old Joy Bus flash back. I think everyone has my email address if you need my mailing address or you can ask one of our daughters if you can get hold of them.

Blessings to all.

Praise God

This is the barge that we ride from Kwaj to Ebeye to get to Gugeegue.








This is inside the barge. I was sitting closer to the front.






This is the rough road that you have to travel from Ebeye to Gugeegue. The trip is about an hour (one way). We missed the barge coming back last Sunday night and we had to wait an extra two hours for the next barge. The three wise men, I mean preachers, have traveled this road every day. Back and forth.

To God be the glory, they baptised a new brother in Christ yesterday. He wants to be in the preacher school when they get it going. Lee will have another man to help out with the services. He is a policeman on Ebeye. I will get a pic of him Sunday.

Local pics

Taxi's on Ebeye are pick ups. They jump in the back of the pick up and ride to where ever they are going. Keep in mind it is not a long ride because it is a small island. It is pretty rough to ride in the back on the way to Gugeegue but some of the guys usually end up in the back. On Sunday night on the way back from Gugeegue to Ebeye there were 5 people in the back of a Nissan pick up and it started raining. Everyone in the back got wet but they had no choice.



Chickens, pigs, dogs, and cats run all over Gugeegue. It is nothing to have a dog or some cats run through the church service chasing each other because we do not have doors up yet. They don't take their animals to get them "fixed" so there are lots of babies. The good thing about the chickens is they eat the ants and termites. The guys picked something up the other day and uncovered a bunch of ants. The chickens came running and had the ants cleaned up in short order.

Good Week End

Lee gave the sermon Sunday morning at the service on Kwaj. He did a really good job for his almost first sermon. I was very proud of him and everyone complemented him.

The Church building is coming along. They should finish the roof today. We actually had ceiling fans with lights for Sunday nights service.

Here are the four brothers who are spearheading the building. L-R are Robert, Paul, Danny and Lee. I will try to get a pic of the locals who are helping out.

Robert and Danny are adopting two of the little girls who are needing parents. Danny's daughter is adopting the little girl he is sitting with. Robert and his wife are adopting one of the 5 yr old girls themselves. He has Grandkids older than she is. They are going home with a whole lot more than they anticipated. The adoption process is real easy to do here and the relatives know they will get a better education and a better life in the states. The whole process has taken less than two weeks. Wow!

What a week end! Blessings to all.