We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

Of all the missionaries I know, I think we have the best "care package brigade"! There is no way to describe to you how encouraging and refreshing it is to know that we have not been forgotten, and we enjoy the things you send so much. But many of you have asked what you can do to help those around us. We finally have a couple things that would really help out our neighbors:

1) White pillowcases - SITAG (Solomon Islands Translation Advisory Group) is building two new buildings right now. One of the main purposes for these buildings is to house national translators who travel far from their families to come to Honiara for training for weeks at a time. Each translator who comes will rest his head on a pillow with two pillowcases (to lengthen the "life" of the pillow in this climate), so would you consider grabbing a package of pillowcases and throwing it in your basket the next time you go to WalMart or Target?

2) Bandaids embedded with antibiotic ointment - In this climate, little scratches can turn into festering infections overnight. We talked briefly to the nurse at the clinic in Marulaon, and she agreed that these special bandaids would really help our neighbors. I realize that these bandaids are more expensive than the "regular kinds", but the embedded antibiotic ointment makes a big difference in speeding up the healing process. We were able to share some of these bandaids with one of the catechists while we were in Marulaon and saw him go from limping to walking normally in just a few days.

If you would be willing to grab a box of bandaids and a package of pillowcases, would you dump them in a couple of ziplock bags (so the Post Office customs officer doesn't think we are trying to sell them here) and stuff them in a manilla envelope to mail to us? We would love to be able to take something to help our village the next we go out!