They have to trim the coconut trees every once in a while to keep the coconuts and large branches from falling on someones head.

That cherry picker gets up there pretty high.

The Marshallese people celebrate Christmas for three days. They have all kinds of compititions from one tribe to the other. They ride up and down the streets of Ebeye singing songs and dancing until 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. That made our numbers down on Sunday. We had a good time with the ones who did show up.

More celebrating

Kids are the same everywhere. You give them a bunch of gifts and they play with the box you brought them in. This little boy is the cutest kid. Most of the younger kids recognize that we are a different color than their family circle and they will often cry when we talk to them. This little sweety doesn't care. Lee and I had a good Christmas day. We went to the feast at the cafeteria to eat lunch. It was raining so we got pretty wet riding our bike & trike to and from lunch. Lee complained about being too cool yesterday and today. I think he thought about getting his jacket out. Apparently we had a cold front come through. It was 82 degrees yesterday and a really cool 80 degrees today. It was 72 for a low last night and supposed to be 70 tonight. Lee said, lets cook some chili tonight. Absolutely the coolest it has been since we have been here. I realize that is nothing to what we have heard about the snow and ice in the states, but that is one of the perks of living here. A lot of people left the island so the streets were not busy today. Lee has to work tomorrow, but with so many people gone, he will probably get to work on cleaning up the shop. We pray everyone will have a joyous Christmas.

Joy to the Lord

The kids were blessed from numerous Christians from the states who very generously sent toys and personal products.

No child or adult walked away empty handed.

Their bags were bulging with Christmas goodies.

Lee and I were blessed with numerous gifts made from sea shells and coconut trees from the children and adults. For the first time in Lee's life he now owns several necklaces.

Afterwards we enjoyed a fellowship and delicious meal together.

Praise God for our Angels who sent an abundance of toys and personal goodies for all. Thank you to Sandra Dodd, and her daughter Amy Peterson who sent many goodies. Sandra is Lee's sister. Amy has a large following from her blog. Joel & Sarah Schopp and family, Jason & Chinell Darling and family, Linda Poppen and Monica Wiggins and her family. Monica has been our most steady blessing. Monica and her children have sent us at least one or two boxes each and every month. Thank you to Audrey Mauck and the Edmond Church of Christ Young Families Class. They have been a tremendous blessing to the kids.

Blessings to all. May your Christmas be as blessed as you have blessed the children of Ebeye and Gugeegue.

Scuba Santa

Kwaj has Scuba Santa who comes out of the lagoon water to see the kids. Scuba Santa's helpers. They drug a Christmas Tree decorated with chemical lights right before Santa came out. I think they had a hard time dragging the tree through the shallow lagoon water. After Santa has done his thing with the kids the local sail boats put lights on the boats and sail by several times.

The stars are really bright on Kwaj. They were shinning very brightly this night.

High Surf/Merry Christmas

The high surf that was supposed to be a possible danger did nothing more to Kwaj than splash up a little higher on the walls which has never happened since we have been here but nothing to worry about. Lee and I have been carrying boxes of toys for the last two Sundays to Gugeegue. We carried two large boxes of toys, soap, tooth paste & tooth brushes today(Monday). We loaded Lee's back pack down with soap and tooth paste. It was surprising how heavy that stuff was. Sunday we will have three or four more boxes to haul over. The sea had washed over the road between Ebeye & Gugeegue and it was rougher than ever. We rode a 'water taxi' on the way back from Ebeye to Kwaj. A water taxi is a two motor boat with a bench on each side to sit. If we had not paid the extra money for the water taxi we would have had to wait another couple hours for another ferry. The ride was a little rough but not any worse than the Gugeegue rough rider road. Of coarse, the sea was not that rough today. Thanks to all who sent Christmas for the kids. I will be more specific with the Christmas pics Sunday. Lee and I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you to all who have supported our efforts to bring God's word to the people of Ebeye and Gugeegue. Blessings to all.

Ripple Effect

We are supposed to get a ripple effect from a storm around Hawaii. The effect is a higher surf than usual. It has been higher for a couple days, but so far not that much higher. There is supposed to be a 10' surf today and possibly tomorrow.

They have been sand bagging around the Col. house for days. It must be nice looking out your window at the surf until the weather turns scary.

The surf first hit Roi-Namur (an island that is a part of the Atoll at the Northern most point) and flooded most of the island. They are even smaller than Kwaj. I'm not very concerned at this point. We do not have a scenic view on the ocean. If the water gets this far we are supposed to go upstairs to the second floor. I would be really surprised if we got one drop of the surf washing this far onto the island.

Christmas Tree Lighting

There was a Christmas tree lighting ceremony on 'Main Street'.

There were performances by the Jr/Senior band and chorus, the girl scouts, a dancing school, and the community band.

There was a good crowd.

These are the words to Jingle Bells, Kwaj Style. If you enlarge it you can read the words.

.....And the Christmas Tree lighting. It looks crooked because it goes up a coconut tree which are rarely straight up and down.

The plane that picks up and brings the mail broke down and we did not get any mail until late Sat. afternoon. We received several boxes with that delivery for the kids Christmas. I will wait to thank individuals. Watch for pics of the kids Christmas the Sunday before Christmas.

This a part of the unofficial main street. The post office is just to the right and not in view. The building to the right has the beauty/barber shop and the white building has the Affes PX and the second floor is a part of the hotel. On the left is the Affes PBXtra and the Shoppette. Around the corner to the right (out of view) is the Affes food court. There is Burger King, Subway, Anthony's Pizza and Baskin Robins. There is an all-you-can-eat cafeteria and another fast food place at the boat dock. People cook at home a lot.

We had 42 kids at church Sunday. I was too busy to get a pic.