Wednesday, November 27

We received a huge surprise today!  Four men from the US Navy showed up at our house to introduce themselves.  They are serving on an Aussie ship with a team that is working around the Russell Islands to help find "leftovers" from WWII.  They've already found several bombs and were asking if we had heard any stories that might help them find more remnants of the war.  I asked if they had any plans for Thanksgiving, and they said no.  So I invited all eight of the American on the boat to eat a Thanksgiving meal on Friday. One of the guys is supposed to come by tomorrow and let me know if they were granted permission to come share the holiday with us.  I'm praying that the little frozen chicken we brought back from Honiara stretches to feed eight hungry men in addition to our family.

Skita has been telling me that she wants to tell me her story, so this afternoon she and Eta came over for afternoon tea.  Sarah made gingersnaps (one of our village favorites because our recipe doesn't use precious butter).  The ladies were supposed to come at 3, but at 3:40 they still hadn't arrived so I went looking for them.  Nobody wears watches here.  I found Eta asleep, and she hopped up to go find Skita.  They both came to the house a little before 4:00.  The conversation quickly turned intimate among the three of us, and I learned that these two lovely ladies have a heart to help young girls in our village love the Lord and serve Him with their lives.  They also love to laugh, and we talked about a cheerful heart being good medicine!  They stayed until the bell for evening prayer rang at 5:45, and my wonderful family followed directions beautifully and gave us the privacy we needed to chat.  Plans are in the works for some casual get-togethers that combine fun, food, and God's Word.