Tuesday, October 13

Our house hummed with activity yesterday. Aaron held another training with catechists from nearby villages. I sent a loaf of banana bread with local nuts, havu/ngali nuts, as a thank you to these guys for coming. Monday is a big workday after a day of rest on Sunday. Everybody needs to go to the garden, and many people begin the long process of making copra on Monday as well. But these guys were willing to paddle over to our village and give their morning to learn about God’s Word.

While Aaron taught, Nancy, Chief Hensi’s wife, brought two hands of ripe bananas and asked for banana cake and laundry detergent in exchange. A short time later, three of my friends showed up to weed our yard. I’ve told them whenever they want to come, I would appreciate their efforts at subduing the overgrown tangle. They are always eager to earn some extra money, and they know how to make the yard look right through Lavukal eyes. They worked, and the girls and I tackled school. This was a school day Olivia had been anticipating for a long time: dissecting a heart for Advanced Biology. Every time she digs into one of these specimens, we all end up with our jaws dropped in wonder at the way God created our bodies.

Olivia cleaned up, and Katherine and I began read-aloud and lunch prep. Aaron popped in and said he was finished over at the church, but he was headed down to talk to Bela about the upcoming translation committee meeting. Katherine was scraping coconut when Ezekiel popped in and asked for Aaron. When she told him her daddy wasn’t home, he asked why she was scraping coconut and seemed delighted that we were making soup for lunch.

Aaron came home soon, and the two guys did translation business on the veranda while a late lunch simmered and the ladies continued to work around the perimeter of the house. Ezekiel was too fast and left before I had lunch on the table. After lunch, I alternated rounds of comprehension questions with the girls while also keeping banana cake for Chief Hensi moving through the oven. I figured while I had the oven on and the precious gas heating up the house, I might as well make an afternoon of it. So, I made another batch of banana cake to begin our village sharing, along with a couple of loaves of cinnamon swirl bread. One for us and one for the next catechist training. The girls finished school and went out to play, and I shared plates of banana cake in appreciation of this village who has embraced our family.