Trips to the wharf and to parliament

Yesterday, our family loaded up our sweet friends and finally took them down to the wharf to catch a boat.  We planned to stay all day at the wharf.  Traffic is still crazy because the "new bridge" (as opposed to the "old bridge" that washed away) is still being repaired and slowing down traffic.  I snapped this picture as we drove across the bridge:

 



Everybody helped unload the truck and save our friends' spot on the ship that wasn't scheduled to leave for six more hours.  The other mom and I went and bought fish and chips for lunch, and then she and I headed to market to buy fresh produce for her family to take to the village and for my family to take back to the house.  Prices are double for many things like bananas, papayas, & leafy greens, and some things are next to impossible to find, like green beans.

 



 

Everybody packs in like sardines to travel on the boat, this family of six won't have much more room than these four girls took up while they were playing paper dolls.  When the ship's warning horn blew just after six o'clock, we said our goodbyes, hugged necks, and drove home.

 



 

While our two families were at the wharf, the rest of our colleagues were at the parliament house for a celebration of the Kwaio New Testament.  We sent a cake to help out with refreshments since we couldn't be present for the ceremony.  I'll let our sweet friend and the Kwaio translation advisor tell her story:

 



"On Thursday, we had a ceremony at the National Parliament building.  The Prime Minister and many of the members of Parliament attended. 

 

 

The Kwaio NT was placed into a display that holds all of the completed Solomon Island NTs. 

 

 

I shared a story of how the translation had impacted someone’s life and read a passage in Kwaio. 

 

 

 One Kwaio worker at parliament talked to us during the refreshment time and said that he had been suspicious of the translation and didn’t think that it would sound like real Kwaio but that when he heard me read it, tears began to flow as he heard the Bible in his language and realized that it did sound “sweet” to his ears. 

 

 

He said that he felt convicted to be a part of the OT translation project.  We hadn’t planned on having a ceremony at parliament, but we are so thankful for the chance to do this and so thankful for the response of many of the members of Parliament.  Praise the Lord!"