Tuesday, November 11

A huge thank you to everybody who prayed for our trip to the police station in Yandina yesterday!  We got off a little bit later than we anticipated, but that meant that the sun wasn't quite so hot on our backs.  After 45 minutes on VERY calm seas, we arrived at the police station.  The guys stationed there knew we were coming because our hard-working director had called them.  Yandina used to be the center of a coconut plantation, so the village is equipped with both a cell-phone tower and a land line phone.  Unfortunately, the station didn't have the "police clearance" form we needed for our residence visa, so the policeman called the main police station in Honiara to see if we could use a regular fingerprint form.  The first person he talked to said we would have to come into Honiara because Yandina didn't have the forms.  But then, the policeman called a different department, and the officer there said that we could use the regular fingerprint forms.  I'm so thankful that people were praying for us!  The whole time the policeman in Yandina was on the phone with headquarters, we were on the cell phone with our SITAG director, finding out new details and bumps on the road to completing our visas. 
We watched the policeman fill in two forms for each of us.  By hand.  He got a kick out of the name of the "village" where I was born - Little Rock.  Then Aaron and I made a set of fingerprints for each form.  We were encouraged to hear lots of Lavukaleve around the police station.  Yandina has traditionally been a melting pot of people working on the coconut plantations.  My watch said five o'clock by the time we finished, and I asked what time they usually closed.  The answer - four thirty.  I was really glad that we brought banana cake as a thank you for these hard working policemen!
Then we headed off to Hae Village to find Matthew, one of the Lavukal translators, and Stanley, one of the members of the translation committee.  They didn't know we were coming.  Just as we pulled up to the beach, we heard a boat behind us, and up pulled several guys who had been campaigning for the upcoming elections.  Matthew and Stanley were both in the boat - God continued to work out the details of our trip!  Aaron was able to quickly chat with them to set up a meeting for the entire Lavukal Translation Committee to be held on November 21-22 in their village.

Last night it began to rain, a lovely soft rain, a little bit heavy at times, perfect for the rain tanks and for the garden.  I found a beautiful black and gold (Steelers fan?) spider among the pineapples next to the house.  And Katherine and I dug a small spot and planted some green bean seeds this morning, too.  It has rained all day long today.  Much needed as the rain refills our rain tanks and our souls.

Having Edi in the house has renewed our love for all things musical.  What a joy to hear her humming, to enjoy watching operas with her, and to observe her teaching Sarah voice every morning!