Ebeye church service

We had 5 plus inches of rain in one day on Wed. which it rarely does here. Usually we get maybe an inch or less in one day. Any time it rains that much it washes out the road between Ebeye and Gugeegue. We held church service on Ebeye and we had about 20-25 kids at the service.

We received Bibles this week from the people who were sending Bibles for the kids. We ended up with 15 Bibles, stickers, books with Bible stories, book markers, some Bible story coloring books, some toys, baby clothes and two dolls. We had more kids this morning than we had Bibles so we decided to wait until next week when we hold services on Gugeegue. We will have our regular kids who come every week to Gugeegue and we will have enough Bibles to give all the kids. I will take a pic next week with all the kids with their new Bibles. I know they will be thrilled. I bought some used story books at a yard sale last week and some of the kids brought them back with them this week. They are so proud to get something.
We were sent some cars, skate boards with Bible sayings on them and some bracelets for the girls. I gave the two dolls to the smallest girls and the cars went quickly to the boys. The girls were thrilled at the bracelets and the rest of the boys got the skateboards. I got mostly boys in this pic with their cars and skateboards. We usually do some songs with the kids then we do a Bible story. I usually copy a coloring picture from the Internet and they color a picture that relates to the story. I then give them a couple stickers and a piece of sugarless gum. (We don't want to promote sugar on their unbrushed teeth.) When I can find things at yard sales I give those to them.

I think the next thing we could use are some supplies for doing crafts. Construction paper, scissors, glue, glitter, cotton balls, Popsicle sticks, etc. I could also use a book with instructions for crafts. The kids seem to enjoy coloring pictures but I would like to do a craft that relates to the Bible story. The kids range in age from babies to Jr. high age. Most are grade school age.
If you can help, please let me know at nothertz@gmail.com Any and all help is appreciated.

A huge THANK YOU to Audrey Mauck and the Edmond church of Christ young families class who bought most of the Bibles and some giveaways. They are beautiful Bibles and I know the kids are going to be thrilled to get them next week. Another huge THANK YOU to Gina Blankinship who coordinated the volunteers and bought Bibles and other needed supplies. Last but not least is Monica Wiggins who is using this opportunity to teach her two young children to give to others. God Bless all of you for thinking of others so far away. What a huge Blessing you are to these kids.

This is part of the nine kids who we hauled in the back of this taxi from Ebeye to Gugeegue to go to church on Sunday. They were part of the group we met with last Sunday on Ebeye. These precious souls are the reason we continue each week to make our trip from Kwaj to Gugeegue. As hard as it is for us to make that trip they don't know anything else. As kids do everywhere under most circumstances, they had a good time.

This is the way these two boys made the trip between Ebeye and Gugeegue. I don't know if they were brothers but it brings to mind the song, "he's not heavy, he's my brother".

I have a prayer request for my cousin, Jan Crosslin (Parker) and her family. Jan was diagnosed with incurable cancer that has spread to several parts of her body. She is 44 yrs old with a husband and four kids ages 8 to 19. May God give them the strength and guidance they need. God Bless them all.

Count Your Blessings Name Them One by One

Another boring sunset. Ho-hum.
I'm not sure I will ever get bored with the sunsets.









This is a Noni tree and the Noni fruit. One of the locals is going to get me some instructions on how to fix it to make it bearable to eat. The fruit is very bitter. She said that they use the fruit, leaves and all and it is supposed to be good for cancer and many other medicinal purposes.

We had our church services on Ebeye today. We had about 20 kids. The adults said they would all come to Gugeegue if they had a way to get there and back. We may have to work on that.

I thought that the living conditions on Gugeegue and Ebeye could not get much worse with only six hours of electricity each day. They now are going to have a total black out twenty-four hours a day for a whole week. The good news is they won't have high electric bills this month. The number of people who rode with us on the fairy to Ebeye was small but every seat was taken up going back to Kwaj. Last week we were trying to figure out where everyone was going on Kwaj. They opened the new food court so we were expecting the food court to be crowded but it wasn't when we went to eat. They are going to Kwaj to stay with their friends and family who live on Kwaj so they can be somewhere with A/C. They also bring their laundry to Kwaj to the laundry mat to wash their clothes. They carry back bags of ice for coolers and water to drink. They collect pallets and burn them to cook their meals. We were in a grocery store on Ebeye and there was a rolling cooler on sale for $160 and another non rolling cooler for $129. Supply and demand. I found one in a patio sale for $5 and I gave it to our maid. I say again, God Bless America!!! We truly are a blessed people.

Blessing to all.

Blessings

There is a lady on Kwaj who holds orientation classes for the new ladies on the island. We are taking field trips once a week to see something of interest on the Island. This week we went to the airport tower to see the tower operation and the view. It really was pretty to be up that high and see so much. There were dolphins that were playing off the shore. We would have never seen them if we were not that high up.



The living conditions on Ebeye and Gugeegue have gotten worse. The high cost of fuel and the lack of maintenance on the turbines at the electric company has resulted in the electric being run ONLY from 6 am to noon on Ebeye and from noon to 6 pm on Gugeegue. Imagine trying to live your life with six hours of electricity everyday. The only grocery store has to have a generator back up or not carry refrigerated or frozen items, which runs the price of food even higher. I never knew how blessed I was when I was in America. The price of electricity , when they can get it, is thirty something cents per kilowatt hour. It runs around seven cents or less per hr in the states. One of the local ladies I know said she used to only run her air conditioner at night while they were sleeping and it cost her $20 every night. They had to cut back on other expenses so they could afford to run their electricity. I heard that the electric was going to be run this way until sometime in October. All those fans we put in the church building are of no use right now.

God Bless America!

The fourth of July celebration was pretty good. They opened up with the little kids riding their decorated bicycles parade style. I did not get in a good spot to get a pic but it sure was cute and they were proud as they could be.





They played beach volleyball and swimming in the lagoon most of the day. There were kids booths where they could play games.









There was an Armed Forces Entertainment band. They were pretty good. With all the cut backs, we did not have any expensive fireworks but everyone had a good time.

Four

This is the golf fairway on Kwaj. No, I was not golfing but I thought it was pretty. They have two 9 hole well kept fairways. I was told you pay $10 and play all day if you want.






This is part of the fairway. Just past the row of coconut trees in the background is the pacific ocean. The other side to the fairway is the plane landing strip. It is long enough to land the space shuttle if needed.