Singing Praise to God

We had a great day of worship on Sunday. Thank you to Jim Long for sending some more song books. We had two different song books but did not have enough of either book to be able to sing from one book. When we sang praises the guys had to announce two different numbers for the two different books. Now we can use one book. Praise His Name. Our Sisters are doing a wonderful job teaching the kids in their language. I have bought many books and craft supplies over the past two years. My spare bed room is crammed full. Right now I plan and put together everything for the classes, mainly because Lee is our copy man. I do not mind planning the lessons, but I would like to give the Sisters a chance to plan their own lessons. They will learn more that way. I have been working on getting everything labeled and put into a waterproof file box so we can carry everything to the church building. The sea air is a huge factor in keeping anything at the church building.Then all we have to do is plan far enough ahead so we can make the copies needed in time to carry them back to the church building. Be thankful for all the resources your church has at your building or at least near by.

The Lord's Work

Before Paul left he gave Lee a new Archaeological Study Bible to help him in his studies. Paul is like the energiser bunny, he just keeps on giving. Bless you Paul for all you do for everyone in Gugeegue. Thank you to Dean & Becky Lightfoot who sent a box of assorted needs for the kids this past week. You guys have been a great help to the kids. All of our Sisters are doing a great job teaching the kids in their language. Our Marshallese Brothers are doing a wonderful job at participating in the worship service. This pic is Peterson serving communion. Two of those kids up front are watching their daddy serve the Lord. How great is that? Peterson also found a song book that is printed in Marshallese. Lee and Peterson took turns leading the same song. Lee sang one verse in English and Peterson lead the next verse in Marshallese. It really turned out great.

Almost Up In Flames

We had a good group at church today. If not for Heity, we would not have a church building. One morning last week at 6 am Heity woke up to a funny noise. She thought Joey was playing. Upon checking out the noise discovered a fan/light in her bathroom had shorted out and caught on fire. A neighbor man helped her put it out. If she had not been there the whole building could have gone up in flames. There was very little damage. I told you last week that Paul was talking to another lady about being baptised. She has been coming for a while to church. She was baptised into Christ. That is her son standing in front of her. He wanted his picture taken too. That made five that were baptised.

Hard Workers

Lee and I went to Gugeegue yesterday to help work on the building. Paul, Jim and some local workers Paul hired were pushing to get as many of the white boards put up as possible on the second floor. They were all working hard. Paul and Jim are preparing to leave today and they catch the plane back home tomorrow. Lee finished painting the back of the building. I BBQ'd some fish and hamburgers for all the workers for lunch. Thank you again, Paul and Jim, for all your hard work. You guys are wonderful! They paid for all their expenses and the workers out of their own pockets. May God abundantly bless you for all your sacrifices.

Praise His Name

We had a big crowd at church this morning. About 40 kids and 30 adults. We walked over to the dock. And the angels rejoiced with four baptisms. Our new brother and sisters in Christ. Praise his name! God is good. Paul was talking to another lady when we had to leave so we may have another sister. It was a great Gospel Meeting and the guys worked really hard on the building. Thank you Paul Hester and Jim Long for your extra large hearts and your aching backs. God Bless you both.

Better and Better

We had another good sized group studying God's word last night. I think we will have some baptisms at the dock in the lagoon on Sunday. Praise God, everything went much smoother than the day before. All the taxi's made it without breaking down, we made it to the ferry on time and they fixed our A/C yesterday and it was still running when we got home last night. God is GOOD! As you can notice the downstairs room is looking better and better every day. All the white boards are up and the windows painted. It is looking great! The upstairs is completely unfinished, but it should not take nearly as long to finish as the downstairs the next time they work on the building.

Flexability

There are three humongous lessons I have learned from living on Kwaj and going to church in Gugeegue: 1) Never take driving on a smooth, paved road in an air conditioned vehicle, to a church that is 20 minutes or less away for granted again. 2) Don't get upset about anything that happens on your way to church. You will get there eventually. One of the taxi's (small pick up) broke down (again) on the way to church. Luckily the second taxi came up behind them and we crammed as many as possible into the one taxi. We were not too far from Ebeye so the ones that would not fit in walked back to Ebeye, called another taxi and got there in time for the party. It was Jim Long's birthday so I baked him a plain Jane chocolate cake and Paul bought 5 gallons of ice cream. After the service we had cake & ice cream. Jim was as tickled as a kid with a new ball. Jim received several necklace's made out of sea shells from the Marshallese people that I'm sure he will be delighted to show off when he gets home. Lesson #3) There is no worse feeling than getting to the dock just in time to see the ferry pull away. Knowing that you will wait another 1 1/2 to 4 hrs. depending on the schedule for that day. We got back to the dock last night just in time to see the ferry pull off. Less than one minute late. We had to wait an hour and half for the last ferry of the evening. When we got home, the air conditioner to our duplex had gone out while we were gone. We have an upstairs bedroom and all the heat had gone up there. I turned two fans on and went to bed. It leads me to the analogy of what it will feel like when Jesus comes and we are standing there saying, "but I was going to follow you with all my heart in just a minute." I can imagine that same sick feeling of being left behind. Too late for a do-over then.

Gospel Meeting

We had a good start to our gospel meeting. Paul and Jim have been working on getting all the white board up inside. If you look at the past pics they are close to getting it all up. Outside view of the building. They did a great job on getting the outside painted.

It's Official

The guys painted the building on the outside and hung the church sign for the first time. Praise HIS name. There is another house next door to the church house. That is the next door upstairs window that you see that needs painting. Our Gospel Meeting starts tonight and runs each evening through Saturday night. Please pray for it's success. To God be the glory!