Last Day of the Meeting

This is Sandy who lives next door to the church building. She has a bubbly personality and comes around every time we are there. She has no idea how to speak English but she will repeat almost anything you say. I was counting clothes pins with her and Joey the other day and she would repeat what I said. These are three of the boys that come from Ebeye with us every week. Great kids. This is five of the women who came to the church services all week. Heity, on the right front row and her husband were the ones who had the dream for a church of Christ being established on Gugeegue. He helped lay the cement floor and past away at the age of 54. Paul Hester raised the money to build the building and followed through with the dream. Annie is Heity's sister and sitting next to her on the front row. We had a great meeting with Brother Robert Martin. It has been bone dry for weeks and it rained everyday of the meeting. I think Brother Martin is kind of like the state fair. You can just count on it raining during the fair. Thank you to Monica Wiggins for sending some personal hygiene products for the kids and to the Gospel Broadcasting Network for sending a box of personal products and craft supplies. God bless all for your help.

Day Two of Meeting

We had sunshine today so we had a few more people to attend. The ferry schedules made our time tight but it should be better tonight. Robert is doing a great job with the lessons.

First Day of our Gospel Meeting

We went over to the church building to finish getting ready for the gospel meeting on Saturday. Robert Martin, the preacher flew in on Thursday. This is Robert painting the podium Lee made. Lee and Robert made another bench and Lee worked on a few door issues. Robert did a great job on the sermons. His voice carries well and he keeps the message simple and easy to understand. Robert has been preaching to the people in the Pacific for many years and he knows how to make it easy for the local people. It rained Sunday and it really cut down on our numbers. Several people got drenched riding to church Sunday morning. We still had pretty good numbers in spite of the rain. We had just under 40 kids and I was too busy to count the adults. This was our Sunday night group and our numbers were down but we are expecting better numbers tonight if it does not rain today.

Ready

Lee and I went to work on the church building to get it ready for the Gospel Meeting yesterday. We rearranged the building materials that are waiting to be used to finish the inside. We cleaned both floors, built two 11 ft. picnic style benches to sit on and a temporary pulpit. Lee mistook his finger for a nail once and almost fell down the stairs. That is usually my job. It was very, very hot. The electricity is on only from 6 pm to 8 am on Gugeegue right now. All the neighborhood babies were fussy from the heat. They were all crying and taking short naps. Water is a big issue on Ebeye and Gugeegue. People travel all the way to Kwajalein to haul back buckets or jugs full of drinking water. Many use rain water they catch that runs off of their tin roofs. Unfortunately we are in the middle of our rainy season and we are 11 plus inches behind.  Considering the heat, lack of water and electricity, it is pretty remarkable. Americans are very blessed. Count your blessings people.

Gospel Meeting

We are holding a Gospel Meeting on Gugeegue with Robert H. Martin, on Sept. 28-Oct 2, 2008. Robert is flying into Kwaj on Thursday. He has held several meetings on different islands in the pacific on his trip. Paul Hester, who was the preacher who built the church building was some how managing to make it to Hawaii with his work and then he was coming to Kwaj for the meeting. Unfortunately those plans fell through. It was disappointing for everyone. Lee and I are going to the church building on Monday to rearrange some of the building supplies that have not been used yet so we can make room for as many chairs as possible down stairs for the meeting. Lee is trying to come up with a way to make a podium for preaching and song leading. It is going to be a challenge getting over to Gugeegue every night but we will do whatever it takes. Please pray the meeting will be a success.