The Lord is in Charge

We will never go through the San Francisco airport again. We made good time from OKC to SF.  Unfortunately, SF was soped in with fog.  We circled several times.  We went into the fog cloud to land.  You could barely see the wing outside our window. Of course, you couldn’t help but think about the wrecked plane still sitting on one of the runways below you.  We went down, down, down and all of a sudden, we took off, straight up out of the fog.  They took us to San Jose where we circled several times and finally landed to sit on a section of there tarmac with about a dozen other diverted planes. We sat on the tarmac for an hour and a half.  I wanted them to pull up to the airport and let us off.  I knew we could get another flight to Hawaii. No such luck.  The fog finally let up enough to get into the SF airport two hours late.  They said check your flight, they may not have taken off yet. The lady at the gate told us to go to gate 90 (at the other end of the airport) we ran (I have too much trouble with my feet, I don’t run anymore) down there only to discover that gate 90 was going to Chicago.  We ended up in line for two hours to be re-booked to Hawaii.  All the flights to Honolulu were full so we had to go to Maui to sit for four hours in their airport before we could then fly on to Honolulu. Lee and I used to dream of going to Maui, we just didn’t plan that it would only be to the airport. The flight to Hono was delayed forty-five minutes. We finally made it to Hono but our luggage ended up at the other end of the airport.  From the time we got out of bed in OKC until we went to bed in Hono was 26 hours of travel. We only had 3 hrs sleep before we had to make our 6 ½ hour flight to Kwajalein.  United Airlines has a monopoly in and out of Kwaj, but we will never use them again once we move away from Kwaj.

Sunday, we were very happy to see that the road to Gugeegue had been grated the smoothest we had ever seen it in five years.  It had been taking 40 min. to an hour to travel the five mile road. We made the trip in about 10 minutes. It was great!

When we arrived to worship on Ebeye they would not let us use the kindergarten room we have been meeting in for church service for the past couple years.  No warning, no reason,….. you’re out.  We ended up meeting in a room of one of our members mother’s house.  The room wasn’t much smaller than the class room. It is a temporary fix.  A building became available on Ebeye before we went on vacation. We are going to look at it next Monday and meet with the landowner to see how much $$$ he wants to lease the building.  It would be a great location and space is so hard to come by on Ebeye. It is a 77 acres island with 17,000 people living on it.  God sometimes slams one door to open another for you.  If there is one thing we have learned while living in the Marshall Islands is if plan A does not work, move quickly to plan B, C, D, E,……. God has led us thus far, HE will lead us where HE wants us to be. Please pray for the church on Ebeye during this transitional time.

 

Training Preachers

Ronald  is a brother from Ebeye who is graduating from High School next week. He wants to be a preacher on Ebeye and Gugeegue. He wants to go to college in the US. We talked in great length of what it would take and the expense of college in the US.

Brother Robert Martin, from Forest Park, GA.  was a missionary for many years on several Pacific Islands. Brother Martin, under the direction of the Forest Park Elders, created the Pacific Island Bible College. It is a two year course designed to train the men of the Pacific Islands in God's word. They do not have to leave their homes.

 We have signed Lee, Ronald, Ramey (at right), and Peterson (bottom pic) up for the course. All three of the Marshallese men want to spread God's word to their people.
Lee and I are going on vacation soon. The men will all begin the courses when we return. Lee and I will do all we can to help our brothers study God's word. Please pray for their success.

Lee and I live on an Army base. The mail is run as a courtesy of the US Postal Service to this Army base in the Pacific Ocean. They have tightened up on the rules of having APO Postal privileges. We can no longer accept mail meant for anyone except ourselves. They can cut off our mail privileges all together. They have also tightened up on getting the boxes through the dock to get on the ferry to go to Ebeye. That means we can no longer do our usual Christmas for the kids.  We can have it shipped in by boat, but that will require much more planning. It is the US government.  Their mission is to make things as difficult as possible for their people who sacrifice living in the Pacific.

Another Preacher

Ramey Alex preached his first sermon at the Gugeegue Church of Christ on Sunday. He preached in Marshallese.  The Lord and the Angels in heaven were rejoicing. 

 Lee, Peterson and I travel every Sunday morning to Gugeegue to hold church services in the morning.  Lee leads songs and preaches in English and Peterson leads songs and preaches in Marshallese.  The Sisters that live in Gugeegue hold Bible Classes for the local kids.

We travel back to Ebeye to hold church services on Ebeye in the afternoon.  The Sisters that live on Ebeye hold Bible Classes for the kids.

Every week brings a different challenge. God is faithful to provide a solution every time. Praise God!

Worshipping the Lord

We are holding the morning worship in Gugeegue with about 25 kids for bible class. We worship with our Ebeye brothers and sisters in the afternoon.

We had about 10 adults for worship in Gugeegue.

This is Anne who was adopted by our brother and sister, Peterson and Yolonda .  She is a sweetheart.

One of our brothers picked fresh flowers for the front. Thank you God for your beautiful world.

First Sunday Services With Both Churches

We had Sunday services at Gugeegue in the morning.  I think we ended up with 15-20 kids for bible class.  God is good!

Dan taught the kids bible class on Ebeye and Paul delivered the sermon in the afternoon. It was our first Sunday holding services at both Gugeegue and Ebeye.  We had to go to plan B, C and D, several times.  But, it all worked out for the glory of God.

Paul and Dan made a bunch of benches for our Gugeegue building as well as a lot of other work on the building. They will be returning to Alabama on Wednesday.

Thank you Paul and Dan for all your hard work on the building, but most of all for your love for the Lord. This mission work is not for the faint hearted.  God's blessings to Paul and Dan for trying and trying again.