Weekend Wonders

"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you....Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us." 

Isaiah 26:3, 12

With only one week left until we leave to go to the village again, it would be easy to live in a state of unrest.  There are so many things to do while we are still in the land of the internet in addition to the packing and preparing for the next seven weeks in Marulaon.  But the Lord is establishing peace for us and giving us the strength to accomplish things.  We've been working hard to finish up the requirements for our residence permits.  Friday morning, the whole family loaded up the school books and went to the doctor's office for our medical checkups.

Dr. Donna did a great job and everybody got a clean bill of health!  After seeing the doctor, we needed to go get photos made to attach to our permits.  Sounds easy, but getting things accomplished in the Solomon Islands often takes longer than we anticipate - just ask our colleagues!  God smoothed the way, and not only did we check off both the medical and the photos, but the kids finished their school work, too.  All that's left for our permits before we leave Honiara is for us to drive over to the prison for our fingerprints and background checks.  This time, we don't have sweet Edi to help us out!

Another delight this weekend was hanging out with the college intern who is in the Solomon Islands this summer to hone his linguistics skills.  Impromptu tacos and Dutch Blitz made a fun filled evening.  We get to rub shoulders with some pretty fabulous people here at SITAG.



Ugly, stinky, beautiful

 

I smelled the burning trash before I saw the thick smoke.  When I came around the corner of the house carrying the laundry basket, I stopped in wonder of the early morning sun streaming though the clouds of smoke.

 

I set down the laundry basket and sprinted upstairs to grab the camera, thinking, "I'm sure there is some spiritual analogy here!  Something about the ugly, stinky parts of life allowing God's handiwork to show up in ways that would never happen if life unfolded smoothly."

 

This afternoon, our village chief showed up.  Chief Hensy is in Honiara to return his daughter to school after the mid-year break, but he wanted to stop by SITAG to ask us to pray for rain.  This time of year is always dry in our area.  Hensy is a good friend, he holds the keys to our rain tank, and he has a responsibility to take care of Marulaon Village.  His wife, Nancy, is begging him to open our tank.  His sister, my good friend Kiko, is warning him not to unlock the tank because we are coming back next week.

This is one of those ugly, stinky situations.  Would you please pray that God will make beautiful things happen and show Himself in a real, personal way to our precious neighbors?

With a lovely British accent...

 

Our new friends from England sponsored a special evening of Turkish Delight alongside an excerpt from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe".

 

 

The whole SITAG family was invited to enjoy, and for most of us, it was our first taste of Turkish Delight. 

 

 

 

But for a room full of people who work with words, hearing the excerpt filled with the allegory of Edmond meeting the White Witch was like meeting an old friend.

Nineteen Years

 

 

"...then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." 

Philippians 2:2-4

 

Nineteen years ago, Aaron and I pulled away from the church in my little Honda Civic as husband and wife.  We had no idea what God had in store for us, but we knew that we needed God's help to be like-minded, to have the same love, and to be one in spirit and purpose.  Aaron brought his INTP personality into our marriage, and I brought my ESFJ.  We had learned that our "love languages" were upside down from each other.  But we also knew that God would teach us how to do nothing out of selfish ambition but to look after each other.  And He has.

"Making our homes places where people are known and loved deeply, as well as sent with the assurance of their worth and all they have to offer can be a rare and precious gift in today's culture." 

~Wendy Kessler

 

When I look back at the way I spent my time today (while Aaron sat in meetings), I see activities that include spending some time with the Lord, exercising with some of my colleagues this morning, helping Katherine with math, washing four loads of laundry, making a double batch of granola to take to the village, assisting Sarah with a particularly difficult line of music dictation, and hosting a belated birthday party for one of our SITAG colleagues.
 

"In the midst of sacrifice of time, money, luxury and self-indulgence, in the midst of putting God first and someone else second and self last - we can still have the fulfilments which help us to be balanced and whole creatures, rather than torn, lonely, unbalanced, splintered people." 
~Edith Schaeffer
 

 

My job as a homemaker fulfills me, challenges me, uses all of my skills and energy, and makes me fully dependent on the Lord each day.  I can't imagine a better job.

 

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ love us and gave himself up or us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." 

Ephesians 5:1-2

Pure foolishness on purpose...

 

"Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.  Then it was said among the nations, 'The Lord has done great things for them.'  The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." 

Psalm 1261-3

 

"Each day and the living of it has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness." 

~May Sarton

 

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." 

Proverbs 17:22

 

Happy birthday, Olivia!

 

 

Thirteen years ago, this spunky kid came blazing into our lives.  The description of Olivia's Meyers-Briggs personality type, ENFJ, includes words like: opinionated, productive, organized, loyal, helpful, warm, & persuasive.

 

Olivia chose to make muffins to share at SITAG's morning tea break.  A room full of people sang happy birthday to our blossoming beauty.

 

 

Olivia is also our comic relief and keeps us laughing over things we wouldn't normally have thought were funny.

 

 

Some sweet friends spent the night to help us celebrate some more, e-mails from adopted SITAG family around the world brought more blessings, and Skype even worked briefly for a static-full birthday song from my parents on a mission trip in the Ukraine.

 

We're so grateful for Olivia and for the joy she brings our family.  As the Lord continues to work in her life, she showers us with more and more joy!

 

"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists of building enough bookshelves." 

~Anna Quindlen

 

Katherine reading "Shadrach" to me while the morning sun spilled over her long, sun-kissed, eight-year-old self...

Faithfulness

"So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'" 

Luke 17:10

"Gami si na nabulu tavetavete mo.  Na mami tinatavete tugo mo si taveti gami." 

(Luke 17:10b in Roviana)

 

Thirty-three years of faithfulness.  Integrity.  Attention to detail. 

Our evening filled up with laughter and celebration and stories of God using our dear colleagues Jim and Carolyn.  This sweet couple would tell you that they are only servants, doing what God has called them to do. 

Quietly, they have poured themselves in our family since the day we met them.  Jim and Carolyn have a heart for training and mentoring, and story after story confirmed that SITAG has benefited from their diligence and their wisdom and their love for the Lord during their time in the Solomon Islands.

After the feasting and the silly song and the stories that made tears spill down my cheeks,

 

we gathered round our friends and prayed God's abundant blessings on them and their trip back to America for typesetting.  I'm encouraged to follow their example, to be a faithful servant as I daily go about the duties that the Lord has assigned to me.

 

Thoughts on a week that has flown by...

This time last week, we had put Aaron on the Kosco and were waiting for a phone call from him to update us about the ship's engine trouble.  Shortly after the ship left Honiara, it turned around and came back for engine repairs.  Unfortunately, it never docked, so the kids and I couldn't go down and take Aaron some lunch.  By early afternoon, the Kosco had once again putted away only to stall again at the end of Guadalcanal.  Aaron finally made it to our home in Marulaon around 11:30 Sunday night.

He and the Lavukal translation team were super flexible and made the most of the time they had left together.  While the team reviewed Ruth in Marulaon, our family made the most of America's Independence Day in Honiara.

With the help from a SITAG uncle, our SITAG family made our own fireworks with steel wool and kerosene.  We call it "fireswinging".

The kids and I shared sweet books to celebrate the special day, too.  One of my favorites is "The Star Spangled Banner" illustrated by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire. 

We cut out sugar cookies, too.  My mama's recipe, the one that tastes like home no matter where we live.  The one she got years ago from the dear old lady who still lives across the street. 

Another SITAG family was living with the dad in the village this week, too, so the moms and kids combined for a slam bang America meal to close out our Independence Day celebrations Monday night. 

The rest of the week, we were busy doing normal things like school.  We have now completed three weeks of the curriculum and feel settled into the routine of the new school year.  The daily work of just living and cleaning up after ourselves takes longer when Aaron isn't here to add his strength, so we were super happy to pick him up at the wharf late Wednesday night and to stay up even later hearing the stories from his short time in the village.



This morning, we had the honor of practicing scruffy hospitality.  Sometimes we forget that we work alongside spiritual giants.  People like this sweet couple who have just completed the Roviana Bible.  The full Bible.  Thirty-three years of their lives invested.  They'll be headed back to America soon for the typesetting.  All of the coming and going here at SITAG is hard on our hearts, but we are incredibly grateful for the opportunities to rub shoulders with people who live out God's Word authentically.

"We live in a society that measures the worth of investing in anything by the return that will come back to us.  The community that we strive to create in our homes doesn't calculate value by that standard.  Living in radical community means that the fullness of our caring is not measured out according to how long people are going to stay or how much they can give back.  We open the doors of our home wide, invite others in, and choose to love whole-heartedly, knowing that we will say goodbye to many of the people who come.  And it may hurt a little, but it is still so worth it."

~Wendy Kessler

Rain

 

Much needed rain fell in Honiara this afternoon and enlivened a basketball game as it filled up the rain tanks...

 

Rain

by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

 

The rain is falling all around,

It falls on field and tree,

 

It rains on the umbrellas here,

And on the ships at sea.

Science, broccoli, crochet, and other exciting things...

 

"I search in skinny limbs and freckled noses and tangled hair, but my babies are gone.  They have been replaced with children who need to reintroduce themselves almost every day, so quickly do they change and grow."  ~Christie Purifoy

 

Olivia's science took a big jump this school year.  She's moved up into the Apologia Science series and absolutely loves it.  Her most recent experiment involved floating objects in different layers of oil and water, and Olivia tried some items of her own choosing in addition to objects the book suggested.  I like it when my kids get excited about learning!

 

Sarah and Olivia have been working on a crochet project during read-aloud all through our time in the village, and they are almost finished!  They have exercised their creativity and spatial skills on this project, the first of its kind for my blossoming women.  Soon, we'll mail it off so it can nestle a little one under much love.

 

We often remember certain books in conjunction with what project was completed during that shared time, or sometimes we remember the miles that sped along while we listen to a book when we are driving in America.  We get to read "Great Expectations" later this year, and I am already working on downloading a brilliant British reader so I don't have to try and wade through this book with my made up accents.

 

 

Something that makes my heart melt?  That my teenage son loves his smallest sister enough to play Lego with her and to share in the creativity together.  Benjamin is a tactile learner and remembers best when his hands are active, so the chink of Lego blocks often accompanies the sound of my voice reading aloud.

 

Another thing I love?  The way that school often dissolves into laughter in our home.  When we chose to school at home thirteen years ago, we had no idea that we would find the journey so joyful.  Who knew that geography would be so funny?

 
Or that a hallway could provide so much fun and exercise and giggles?  God knew I needed all this goodness to help continue the continuous refilling process.  It's like the widow's oil, although I seem to pour out every drop, the Lord continues to renew and refresh in unexpected places.  Sometimes, I feel like He doesn't refill quickly enough, but I'm satisfied with His perfect timing.  Wednesday morning when I drove into town, I was so excited to find a fresh shipment of broccoli!  So we pulled out one of our favorite recipes, Peanut Ginger Pasta, as a nourishing way to end the day.