That Air Is Important!

They have fixed the Gugeegue road but did not pave it.  When it rains or the surf is high and washes over the road, it has to be graded again.  We have had a lot of rain lately.  Our ride to Gugeegue had a flat.  I bet Lee is thinking, I'm glad I don't have to change that tire.

The guys are doing well in the Pacific Island Bible College.  They meet twice a week at the Gugeegue church building for study.

We are not having Christmas for the kids this year.  The US Government has made it impossible for us to get the presents through the security dock.  Pray that we can solve this problem  by next year.

Keep the Gugeegue and Ebeye Churches of Christ and the Brothers who are studying the PIBC course in your prayers.
JMC stands for Junky Motor Company. The van is two years old and is falling apart inside and rides really rough.

"A" Team

Four of the six brothers who are taking the Pacific Islands Bible College preaching school made "A's" on their first test and all six bothers made a passing grade.

These three brothers and........












 

this brother all did well on their first test.

Way to go brothers!  We are very proud of you all!

We will not be having Christmas for any of the kids this year.  Lee and I live on an Army base in the pacific ocean.  We have provided Christmas and usually lunch for the last five years for all our church family.  We have a secured dock area we have to go through to ride a ferry over to Ebeye.  Security ALMOST did not let us through last Christmas.  They have made security even tighter throughout this year.  If we use the mail they can cut our mail service off completely and refuse to let us through the dock with any of the boxes.  IT STINKS!!  WE HATE IT!! But, we do have to play by their rules,....no matter how stupid the rules are.  We will be looking for ways to change this next year, but for the 2013 Christmas, that is the way it is.

Ebeye Church Location Change

This is four of the six guys who took their first preaching school test.  We don't know the results yet, but I think it is safe to say, some will pass, some will fail. All will learn more about God's word if they stick with it and study hard.

God is good, God is great!  We now are meeting on Ebeye at the Community Center every Sunday morning. The heat of the afternoon was too hard on everyone. The building is open on both sides and there is usually a breeze, plus we have plenty of room to grow. We have needed this move for a long time. The Ebeye City Hall gave us a great monthly rate too. Lee and I are going to be going to Ebeye one week and Gugeegue the next.  Our Marshallese brothers will be preaching at the church's when we are gone.
To God be the glory! Praise be HIS Name!

Government Blankets

The preaching students studying during class.

I would like to tell you that we are getting all the help in the world from the US Army in getting the students onto the base to learn to preach God’s word.  Unfortunately, I am ashamed to say about my government, that would not be the truth.  They have now created a NEW blanket regulation to keep the class from happening in our home on Kwajalein. I bet if it was a Muslim class they would have broken their necks to accommodate.

 

We are going to meet at the church building on Gugeegue while we work on getting over the multi government hurdles. Meeting on Gugeegue has its own set of hurdles for the guys as well as costing us $120 per week for the taxi rides to Gugeegue.  God never promised us cheap or easy. To God be the glory!

For now we are meeting in a private home for church on Ebeye.

Learning God's Word

 These are all our preaching school students.  They are showing up for every class. There are two more weeks on their first unit, then they take their first test. We intend for all six to succeed.

Lee preaches every other week at Gugeegue and Ebeye. Ramey preaches at Gugeegue the next week and Peterson at Ebeye. Our goal is for both churches to be independent churches with many Marshallese preachers to spread God's word.  God's will be done.

Half Way Through the First Unit

Our Bible students are doing well.  It is hard to tell when you are dealing with two languages if the students are actually understanding what is being said or not. We are about ½ way through our first unit. We will see exactly how well they are doing when we take our first test in about 4 weeks.

We still have not gotten the younger boy onto Kwaj.  He has been keeping up by watching the DVD at his home. Every week we are told a different story, every week he comes to the dock and they will not let him on.  This week his mother is coming with him, but I’m not counting my chickens until they actually let them on the island.  Even if he gets on this week, we are still not set up the way we need to be. We will keep fighting until we get things set up right. The US government has enough red tape to choke everyone to death. Surprise, surprise!

Lee and I used to think that the weeks went by fast on Kwaj.  They really fly by fast with the students coming over twice a week. We meet at 5pm, I feed them, we watch the DVD for class, Lee explains anything he feels they may not understand and we try to get them back on the ferry ASAP because one of the guys has to ride a bicycle from Ebeye to Gugeegue.

Run Around

We are trying to get our preaching school students over to our house twice a week.  We are dealing with the US government, they NEVER make it easy.  Lee chased after a mysterious permission form to get, Erick, the 15 yr old above onto Kwaj. for classes.  After Lee spent days trying to find someone who knew about the form, he ran out of time and gained more things to get done at work.  It was pouring out most of Saturday, but I finally found someone who knew the answer to our mystery.  If they do not throw us any more curve balls, we may have everything set up for now.  Nothing ever stays the same with the government.  Some smarty britches will come along and decide to change everything. Pray for all 6 of the future preachers.

Lee is on Ebeye trying to get our stuff out of the kindergarten class room.  The Ebeye school is starting this week and they have not let us back into the room since they locked us out.  The place we are meeting right now is someones  house.  It is really hot in there and there is no chance for A/C.  I ordered a high capacity fan and there are a few 'last mile' fans.  Lee is going to see if he can fix an electrical plug in that room that is not working this afternoon while on Ebeye.

It always amazes me how creative people can be when you can't afford what you need.  I saw a toilet that had a toilet brush (that you clean with) as the float in the tank.  Nothing in the tank was the usual bowl innards.  It was totally rigged, but it worked. Hooray for ingenuity.

Blessings to all.  Keep us in your prayers.

Future Preachers

Four Marshallese Brothers and Lee started their preaching studies this week. Lee and I live on an Army base.  We have to go through security to get on or off the base. We decided to hold the first class at our house on the base which means we had to sign the Marshallese men onto the base.  To make a long story short, it ended up we could not get one of the boys on to the base.  Lee had already made copies of the DVD so I took my computer over to the dock and showed the DVD to one of the boys there.  It was less than ideal, but it worked.  They met Friday night on Ebeye.  It was less than ideal too, but it worked also.  The only thing you can count on in the Marshall Islands is that things will change quickly and you just have to move on to the next best thing. The preaching school is two years long.  Pray for all of these future preacher's success.

Our Sister who was teaching in the class room we were meeting in for church service decided she was not going to teach this year.  The Sunday that we got back from vacation we were locked out of the class room.  They let us have about a half dozen song books and bibles and no chairs.  We would have gladly gotten our things out of their way if they would have given us some notice or let us take our stuff then.  They should let us have them soon because school will be starting the second week in August. 

Blessings to all.