"A bar of steel worth $5 when made into ordinary horseshoes will be worth only $10.  If this same $5 is manufactured into needles, the value rises to $350, but if it is made into delicate springs for expensive watches, it will be worth $250,000.  This original bar of steel is made more valuable by being cut to its proper size, passed through one blast furnace after another, again and again, hammered and manipulated, beaten and pounded, finished and polished, until it is ready for those delicate tasks."  ~ M.R. DeHaan

This has been a doosy of a week!  

-Aaron thought he was going to the village on Sunday, then the ship delayed and changed its mind again and again.  

-A dear Solomon Island friend had a stroke early this week, so SITAG has rallied around her, providing the food and toiletries and prayer and physical help that the hospital in Honiara requires.  She has a long road ahead to recovery.

-An international school here in Honiara finally got its certification to offer the PSAT and SAT, saving us a trip to Australia.  But when we met with them on Thursday morning, we learned that they've lost their certification because no students have requested the exams.  At least we got a two hour "date" out of the meeting!

-Today, one of our SITAG colleagues had a wreck on his motorbike while visiting his language group and needed a trip to the hospital.  So Aaron dropped everything, hopped in the truck with a couple other of the SITAG men, and drove off to help.  

My list of "hammered and manipulated, beaten and pounded" looks different than those around me, but we all have those lists.

"These [trials] have come so that your faith -- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even through refined by fire -- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."  I Peter 1:7 (NIV)

Thankfully, I also have people in my circle who remind me not to be selfish.  They remind me that these hard things are simply tools to help me be more ready for the tasks the Lord has for me.  Those friends remind me that the whole point is for my life to "result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed", even if I don't understand how.