Wednesday, January 6

Today we hosted our “First Annual Epiphany Morning Tea” underneath our house for the catechists and their wives, along with Chief Hensi and his wife. Sharing our family’s tradition of hiding “baby Jesus” in the cake was a small way to say thank you to these couples who serve the community so faithfully. And it was fun to be able to hand out the frisbees whenever anyone found a whole almond in his or her piece of cake. The best part? Hearing Matthew 2:1-12 read in Lavukaleve!

Tuesday, January 5

We thought we had it figured out. A few boards, a few nails, and the new rain tank stand would be in place lickety-split. That was a year ago. Obviously, our cross cultural communication and understanding still has a lot of room for improvement. Daily, we earnestly pray for the Holy Spirit to whisper in our ears as we navigate every nuance of living immersed in another culture.

This time, Aaron delivered a handwritten note with some reimbursement for time and energy and supplies tucked inside. And by the end of the day, we had a new stand for our 1200 gallon rain tank. I’ve struggled watching the water shoot out the end of the gutter with nowhere to go except the ground. Now I feel like we are being better stewards of the precious resource of water.

Before the tank could be placed on the new stand, it needed to be cleaned out. After sitting underneath our house for more than a year, it was full of stones tossed in by children and cobwebs built by spiders who thought this cavernous dry rain tank provided the perfect place for a home. Aaron and Katherine crawled inside to insure that the tank was ready to receive rain.

Aaron also needed to prepare the stand so it will last as long as possible in our tropical climate. He spent some time today painting a waterproof coating on the wood so our neighbors will have fresh, clean drinking water from this tank for a very long time.

Monday, January 4

One of my friends told me a funny story today. On New Year’s Eve, when our neighbors were gathering to ring the bell and beat the drum and make a lot of noise to welcome the new year, her daughter was standing with a group of young people at the corner of our house. They were counting down to midnight and getting ready to make a ruckus, but at just a few minutes before the stroke of twelve, Aaron walked out on our porch, and the group scattered in fear that he was coming to get them. What they couldn’t see was that he had a rat trap in his hand. The trap had just sprung, and Aaron was only walking down to drown the critter in the ocean before coming back to bed!

Sunday, January 3

“It is not wrong to make resolutions, but it is useless to do so unless we season them well with believing cries to God. Davide intended to keep the law of the Lord but first he needed the Lord of the law to keep him.” 

-C.H. Spurgeon, The Golden Alphabet

I’ve set myself a goal of typing in the hand written translation first drafts for thirty minutes each morning and thirty minutes each afternoon. That’s about all my eyes can handle as I ponder over the cursive written in dull pencil, often over erased portions. I’m still working on Luke, but as soon as I finish it (which will be a while at my very slow pace!), I have Philippians to begin.

The translation team continues to balance drafting scripture with editing, refining, and checking it. Slowly and carefully, the pieces are coming together for the Lavukal to have God’s Word in their own language.

Saturday, January 2

One of the customs to celebrate the New Year here is to get people wet. Whether it’s throwing a bowl of water over a friend or dragging somebody into the ocean, being drenched from head to toe is the popular thing to do (especially if you are under twenty five). Olivia especially enjoys joining her friends, both in dousing them with water and in being pulled toward the beach. She came home dripping wet and grinning from ear to ear yesterday afternoon.

Olivia also made a chocolate birthday cake for a birthday party last night. Katherine spelled out the birthday girl’s name in sprinkles. They covered it with a tea towel and delivered it, as promised, “after evening prayer”. Two and a half hours later, the party finally started. “Solomon Time” still challenges me!

When the party finished, all of the young girls began to “sing roll” around the village, singing and banging pots and pans to continue with the celebration of the New Year. We could hear three different groups marching around the village, all at the same time. We anticipate the festivities to last for a least another week! The girls made it home to fall into their beds just after midnight.

Friday, January 1

Yesterday, when I was walking around the village, a young mom called me over to see if I had any medicine for her little one with a cough. We try to keep children’s liquids available for simple things like colds and fevers, so saying yes was easy!

I noticed that her little one had a “necklace” made of a leaf or grass that had been softened over the fire, so I asked her about the necklace. She said the leaf was boas, and it was to help with the cough. I’m interested in learning more.

Thursday, December 31

Ezekiel stopped by this morning. He and Aaron had a “pre-meeting” underneath the house while the girls and I did school. I took them bowls of slippery cabbage and cooking bananas cooked in coconut milk and curry to fuel their business meeting. They agreed that Aaron would paddle over to Ezekiel’s house on Monday morning to convene the real meeting.

Wednesday, December 30

Monday night, caroling got rained out, but last night, the youth from our village went to sing on what they thought would be a quick trip. Only two villages instead of three, and those two were close. We have some battery operated Christmas lights on our little tree. When Olivia leaves the house to go carol, the lights stay on even after we go to bed. Since we have no ceilings in our little house, we can easily see if she has returned. Aaron and I woke up frequently and pried open an eyelid to check and see if the lights were still on, and each time we checked, they were still shining. Even when we got up and made coffee while a huge rain poured outside, Olivia still hadn’t returned. At 5:30 she came busting through the door like a drowned rat. They had just returned after a night full of being flexible! She took a quick nap, then told us stories over breakfast and morning chores.

Last week, Ezekiel came by and met with Aaron for several hours on our veranda. Today, Aaron paddled over to work with Ezekiel, but discovered that family business had pulled him away to another village. So Aaron left some materials, and they will try again on another day. With an intermittent to nonexistent phone signal, even if somebody does have a phone, it’s almost impossible to find out if they are at home unless you just go over there and find out!

Monday, December 28

Olivia went caroling last night with the Marulaon Youth and got home around 1:15 this morning. She popped up with her normal alarm at 5:30, since today was the first day back to school and work after our Christmas break.

Our rain tanks are full again after a glorious rain yesterday afternoon. Thanks for the continued prayers for a good balance of sun for the solar panels that provide our power and rain for the rain tanks which provide all of our water.

Saturday, December 26

We celebrated our family Christmas today by pulling out the stove top waffle maker and making gingerbread waffles. Food is one of the few traditions we can continue no matter where we live!

Caroling in America usually takes place before Christmas, but here the festivities kick in after Christmas. Our village has hosted nightly caroling, sometimes groups from multiple villages. They usually begin around 8 p.m. and can continue until around 2 a.m. Sometimes the group carols from house to house, and sometimes they sing in each of the village’s zones. Our village is big enough (around fifty households) that each zone hosts. While the group sings, the listeners bring small gifts up to a table. We usually contribute a container of unpopped popcorn. Katherine and Olivia went down to listen tonight to the first group, but came home and went to bed before the second group began.

Friday, December 25

Christmas Day in the village always begins early with bells ringing to call us to church while it’s still dark. When the service finished around nine, everyone went home to change clothes and to prepare for the festive day ahead.

Today’s celebrations were sponsored by one of the big men in the village, so things looked different than they have in the past. Balloons were strung up throughout the community hall, and special foods from Honiara had been brought in to augment the special day. Different groups sang carols while we drank hot, very sweet tea and ate yeast rolls for breakfast.

I really appreciate that our house is near the area where all of the dancing and feasting took place. So we could easily walk home for a bathroom break or a drink of water or when our introverted selves just needed a few moments of quiet.

Yesterday, one of the village leaders asked Aaron about borrowing our spade to dig a trench for when they killed the pig. Today, four pigs had been slowly roasting underneath the hot stones of a motu. When the men pulled these juicy guys out and carried them to the community hall, you could hear everyone’s stomachs growl!

Olivia and Katherine roamed around with their friends and holding babies, and I enjoyed a chance to move around among my friends, too. Mamas around here are so busy just taking care of everybody’s daily needs, and it was a treat to have time to just sit and visit.

We brought our lelenga to add to the feast, and then everybody lined up at the front of the community hall. Ten at a time we walked through the line and filled our plates. All I wanted was lelenga and some of the tender pork.

After the feasting, we listened to quite a few speeches. Our village chief, Hensi, sent greetings to our college kids, and Aaron was able to send greetings back to the village from Sarah and Benjamin. Then the dancing began.

Olivia has been taking private lessons this week to learn the new dances for Christmas. I’m thankful that her friends took the time and energy to help her be ready for today. Olivia is working really hard to finish her time in the village well, and today was a big part of that.

All of the festivities wrapped up around 5:30. Twelve hours of partying hard with our neighbors, and we were ready to fall into bed.

Thursday, December 24

Aaron and I were focused on “chest flies” and pushups a few minutes after six, when Olivia came running down the hall saying, “Somebody is knocking downstairs!” Because our house is built on concrete pillars, if people don’t walk up the steps to our porch, we often don’t hear their quiet knock. One of the ladies wanted yeast for Christmas baking, and we were happy to share.

That got our Christmas started off with a bang! Since our outdoor kitchen still hasn’t been rebuilt, we borrowed Volella’s kitchen just down the hill for making cassava pudding/lelenga as our contribution to the Christmas feast tomorrow. We thought we would have to move all of our stones, but she wasn’t making lelenga, so she allowed us to use her stones and firewood. What a sweet and thoughtful gift. We are still super slow, so we planned to alternate preparing the lelenga with decorating the church.

Olivia and Katherine walked over to the church once the other kids their age began to gather. Aaron continued to scrape and squeeze twelve coconuts, and I kept peeling the cassava. When the decorating action lagged, the girls came home and scraped more cassava. Back and forth. Back and forth. We got the lelenga on the hot stones late in the afternoon, just about the time the girls finished up in the church.

We all quickly showered and washed off the smoke and grime of the day, grabbed and consumed the leftovers from our little fridge, and walked the short distance over to evening prayer with a day full of good preparation for Christmas behind us.

Wednesday, December 23

“Our good works go forth horizontally (toward our neighbor), while our faith alone (not a result of works) is directed heavenward. We can love our neighbor and serve him or her through our work because we have been transformed by grace alone, through faith alone. Understanding this truth can transform how and why we work. Work is not for us. It is not for our own fulfillment. It is not for our own glorification or status in the world. It is for our neighbor.”
-Courtney Reissig, Glory in the Ordinary

Because the bell for morning prayer rang a little bit after 5:30 this morning, our little market started shortly after 6:00. I’m so thankful for the handful of friends who brought us fruits and veggies out of their own surplus. While I marvel at the good food that helps keep our bodies healthy, my neighbors think it’s a wonder to have some extra cash flow. Bonus...pineapple season is upon us!

Even after living in the Solomon Islands more than twelve years, we’re still figuring out our roles in the community and what serving here should look like. Daily we pray for wisdom and discernment to know when and how to give. If I’m going to introduce anything into this culture, then I want to be a strong proponent of sustainability. We’ve seen the damage done by people who truly want to help, but just throw Western money or Western practices at a problem. At the same time, we want to take Proverbs 3:27 to heart in a culturally appropriate way: “Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.”

Since our return to the village, we’ve enjoyed giving to our neighbors. Olivia bought earrings as Christmas gifts for every young girl here. Forty-five pairs. I lugged a bale of onions across the ocean so each household here could have one as a treat for Christmas. We’ve been able to meet a variety of requests...for material to make clothes, a rain tank tap that locks because water is scarce and often stolen, Vicks Vapo-rub, band aids to keep the flies away from sores, water from our rain tanks, laundry detergent, and pain reliever. All of these gifts come in the context of Melanesian relationships, and we choose to do good when it is in our power to act.