Thursday, December 18

Since last Sunday's Old Testament reading, I've had Malachi 3:2 going around in my head - the part about Jesus being about laundry soap.  Between the Messiah aria (refi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ner's fire) and thinking about detergent, my mind has really been thinking about preparing for Jesus' second coming, one of the goals for Advent. 

Laundry detergent is a treat for our neighbors here in Marulaon, so I took a small ziplock bag and wrote the text from Malachi 3:2 in Pijin on the outside with a sharpie.  Then I filled it with detergent.  Not flashy, but my friend Margaret Rasol was super happy when I gave it to her!  I'm planning to fill as many bags as I can before we go back to Honiara next week.

While I was packing this afternoon, I looked out the window over the kitchen sink and saw lots of little girls climbing frangipani trees and gathering flowers alongside Sarah.  A few minutes later, a group of girls sat underneath our house making garlands of beautiful flowers to put on the necks of our friends.  Aaron left at 12:30 this afternoon in a motor canoe in the pouring rain to go pick them up.

At the same time that my girls were stringing flowers, our friends Jason and Kayla were zooming back towards Marulaon trying to get here before night fell.  Jason and the driver, Belza, took the opportunity to catch some fish along the way, and picked up three nice tuna.

God also gave our friends an amazing sunset as they motored toward the West.  As it got darker, we began getting excited in anticipation.  At radio sched with SITAG, we heard that the canoe picked up our friends earlier than anticipated, so we thought they might make it to our village by 7:00.

The kids and I went down to the beach carrying the beautiful flower necklaces.  As our friends saw us waiting, they joined us.  As the light faded, we heard the canoe approaching and everybody got ready to sing and welcome our friends.  Our friends sang some beautiful songs and shook hands with Jason and Kayla, then they helped us carry the bags up to the house.

We got lots of hugs and a quick supper.  It's hard to believe that they are finally here, since they bought their tickets in June.  Because Fiji Airlines and Solomon Airlines are still not allowing planes from the other country to land, forcing people to stay a night in Fiji and a night in Brisbane, our friends' trip has been cut short by four days.  But we're going to make the most of our time together and return to Honiara together next week.