Catch the Wave: Pohnpei

Today was the Catch the Wave (youth) Retreat for the Pohnpei church in Kolonia.  The theme was Catch the Wave of Holiness.  Seventeen teens (with a preteen or two that slipped through) came out to enjoy the fun, fellowship, and study. 

As you can see, I was once again presented with a beautiful mwar mwar to wear while presenting. 

We played a lot of silly games....with some silly outcomes as you can see below....

We had quiet times and Bible study....

We gathered in small groups (Perry is really learning a lot)...

And everyone got a new backpack!

My sinuses are still giving me fits, so I'm hoping I can hold up this crazy schedule until I get back to Guam and stop flying and speaking for a few days.  Tomorrow will be even more intense then today (children all day followed by ladies that evening).  Sunday is also another fully day.  For now, I shall catch an hour nap before my next event (which is food). 

Fresh Crab in Kitti!

Today I got to spend the day in one of my favorite places, Kitti.  The Santos family welcomed me into their hearts many years ago.  I was around when their youngest two kids were born...now ages 10 and 14! Wow. 

We kicked off the day with a feast of freshly caught crab and tuna!  (Frankie always catches crab for me when I come. It is soooooo yummy!)

After a tasty lunch, we spent time ministering the children with stories and crafts. (I was told today was the first time for the younger kids to color.)

During this time, Perry made a new friend!

Before I left, I made sure all of the kids and teens had a new backpack with schools supplies. (Frankie wanted one too. He said it would be good when fishing.  And if he's always willing to feed me fresh crab and tuna...he can have one!)

A Blog of Pics Just to Make You Jealous

Blue Lagoon Resort, Chuuk is an absolute paradise.  I have had the blessing of staying here many times over the years.  My first stay was in 2006.  (It was a welcomed stay as the night before we were on one of the remote islands with no running water.) It's known as a Dive Resort as divers from all over the world come to dive the many wrecks from WWII.  (Over the years I have also been blessed to go on several wreck dives over the years. But a sinus infection last week left me unable to dive this trip.) This week I met divers from Brisbane, Auckland, Guam, and Baltimore.  

So I just wanted to make you all hate me by posting some of the beautiful pictures of the resort.

Now as you plot various ways to take me, be reminded of these following luxuries:

• Once in a blue moon you might find internet…in the lobby only…at dial-up speed. Sometimes.  It's only strong enough for email...none of that Facebook, Blog, News, Pinterest business.  
• Hot water? Ha!  Luke warm water? If you’re lucky.  My next hope for a hot shower void of roaches is when I hit the Narita airport on my way home. (Unless Saipan has hot water. Sometimes they do! But that's the end of June. Guam has hot water, but so many roaches join in. Ugh.) 
• There’s electricity.  Most of the time.  But it is guaranteed to go off a minimum of four times a day.  Some times more.
• There’s one restaurant. It’s really good! But you need to make sure you’re hungry when it’s open. 
• Addicted to television?  The state of Chuuk has no tv. Hasn’t for many years now. 

Well folks, Perry and I are moving on to the island of Pohnpei where we will be kept even busier than our last six days in Chuuk.  

Have No Fear, Bunkers are Near!

Blog for Tuesday, May 28

Well, it looks like those rains have moved in to stay.  I’m a little disappointed as I want to enjoy the beach.  (And I did get to sit along the waters early in the morning for Bible study).  But these aren’t go-swim-in-the-rain-anyway kind of rain. I’m talking strong wind and heavy downpour kind of rain.   On the bright side, I’m saved from getting sunburned. J

Perry took advantage of this cloudy morning to climb a tree and hang out at one of the many bunkers found around the resort. (Have to fear, should Mr. North Korea decide to send a bomb this way, I have plenty of all WWII bunkers to choose from. I’m certain I’ll be perfectly safe!)

My Tuesday vacation day ended with Pizza Fellowship with many of the church members. The state of Chuuk has figured out how to make pizza! 

Work by the Beach/Cozy Mountain Lodge

Blog for Monday, May 27

Today I got to have a mini-vacation.  (I say mini because I had a women’s retreat in the evening.)  I slept in…until 6:45am! I’m a super early riser on the islands.  When the sun comes up, I am usually awake. And the sun comes up here in Chuuk before 5am. 

I took a leisurely breakfast so I could enjoy coffee.   Then I had internet for the first time in several days. (and by internet….I mean dial-up speed. Enough to check in with my parents and send my assistant a picture of my paradise. He hates me now.)  

I decided to do my Bible study and ladies retreat session reviews by the water. There are three deck chairs scattered around the resort, so I drug one to a shade tree on the beach and spent a couple of hours working on stuff.  

(Perry enjoyed his Bible study under a shade tree as well.) 

I still had one more training session of materials to write for my upcoming time in Pohnpei, so I headed back to the room to grab my laptop and then back to the beach.  I have to say that is how I like to work!

This afternoon I went to the ocean to enjoy the water and collect sand dollars.  Then the rain moved in.  I wasn’t necessarily excited about this, but Chuuk has been in a several week drought. They are having to deliver water to villages (as most islanders just catch rain water), so I was glad for them.  It rained all afternoon. 

Sixteen ladies braved the heavy rain for the Cozy Mountain Lodge (ladies retreat).  We ate food, played games, and studied the story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz. Even though Perry isn’t a lady, he found several girls to hang out with. 

And keeping with Filipino tradition, we ended the night with a group picture.

Red Stuff Ruins the Day!

Blog for Sunday, May 26

Whew. Another full (but awesome) day.  Perry and I kicked off the day at church.  Sadly for Perry, I was preaching. 

Following the service was a POTLUCK…island style.  I had my Filipino favorites: lumpia and pancit.  I was a very happy girl. 

After the potluck, we had the Young People’s Fellowship retreat.  This was a joint group of the Nazarene young adults (think 18 yrs to 45 yrs with a random 12 year old thrown in) and a group of young adults from one of the local Catholic churches.  This group has been getting together for outreach ministry on some of the outer islands since February.  They do medical checkups, give haircuts, pass out school supplies, etc.  They have also been meeting together once a week for prayer meeting. Now, how cool is that? 

The Catholics brought their worship band (and man could they sing!).  We had three sessions, music, games, and then MORE FOOD.  (I’ve got to get off this island soon before I gain a thousand pounds.)

After another full day of ministry, I had the evening off.  When it came time for supper (even though I really should have skipped that…but in my defense, I didn’t really eat the “more food” we had after the retreat because I was still full from lunch), I was invited to eat with strangers.  There is a big group from Guam here diving, so they just kind of gather together at tables.  I was invited by a military family to join them for supper.  The husband was here diving and the wife and kids are just on vacation.  The wife is actual the military person and the husband home schools the kids and leads a boy scout troop in Guam.  Eventually another diver joined the table.  He’s the whole reason I’m telling this story.  He and I both ordered the same meal, grilled catch of the day with vegetables and rice.  I get mine first (as I had ordered before him).  It was so tasty, and I was thoroughly enjoying my grilled fish.  Then he gets his…takes a bottle of the red-stuff-you-put-on-french-fries and completely….COMPLETELY….covers his fish in that disgusting-ness.  Obviously, I was appalled.  But the family I was sitting with, who are probably friendlies to the red-stuff seeing they had three kids, said, “What are you doing!?”  They guy looked up baffled we were all staring at him in horror.  He said, “Hey, I like ketchup.”  

Night ruined.

Mega-VBS-Day!

Blog for Saturday, May 25

Today was mega-VBS-day.  Think traditional VBS (5 Bible lessons, 5 verses, 5 crafts, 5 sets of games, and 5 sets of music) ALL in ONE day!  Whew.  I know what you’re thinking.  Were there five snacks too?  Close.  We had morning snack (tuna sandwich and mango juice), lunch (homemade Fried Chicken and rice), and afternoon snack (smelly round chip similar to a funion and mango juice).  We had 18 children (and thankfully five all-day adult helpers with a few additional ringers to help with lunch).  I think everyone had a good time (and hopefully, something was learned too)!  I’m fairly certain that the water balloons were the highlight of the day.

Here are some interesting things I took away from the day:

• Noah had a ship (not an ark)
• We played a game “Would you rather?” One question I asked is would you rather eat candy or rice.  Rice won…17 kids to 1.  I mean, I knew islanders loved their rice, but 17 to 1?
• I asked another question, “Would you rather read a book or play a game.”  This was another 17 to 1 answer.  In favor of reading a book.  I also found that interesting.  We need to ship these people some books!

As you can see, Perry had a blast.  (He did not partake in the water balloon games. Something about water didn’t set well with his stuffing.) 

In this picture you see the kids are holding up backpacks.  I was able to (barely) squeeze in my luggage backpacks for the kids on this trip.  I’m so grateful I had enough for the children today and should have enough as I travel on to Pohnpei next week.  Each backpack also had a pouch of school supplies. (Minus the erasers.  By taking out the erasers from each pouch, I gained an additional 5lbs for luggage.  I have 40+ erasers sitting in my room in Guam.)

I was able to end the evening with a beautiful island sunset. (I have the “sunset” view at the hotel so I didn’t even have to leave my room.  I actually could have not even left my bed, but there was something wrong watching a sunset sitting on a bed.)

And for a closer, I had an almost-warm shower.  Sometimes, you just have to celebrate the little things.

Chuuk!

I thought I would let the world know that Perry and I made it safely to the state of Chuuk, island of Weno, in the Federated States of Micronesia.

Internet is sketchy, at best, but we want you to know we are alive. We were greeted with a mwar mwar (flowers on head) and a coconut!

The Adventures of Travel

Traveling is always an adventure. But our bigger adventure usually lies in the trip home...when we are at the mercy of an empty seat on a plane and not a clue how we are getting from Point A to B.  This year was different.

I was so excited to have an 11am flight out of Tulsa.  I could actually get a full night's sleep before travel!!! This has never happened before!  However, this was before the two-day (which has now because a three-day) tornado event was to happen.  We left home earlier than planned to head to Tulsa to avoid the storms.  That was a okay. A longer visit with Grandpa is always welcome.

Storms didn't seem to be ramping up like we thought, and then BAM.  Phone alarms.  Tornado sirens.  (Tornado sirens!?  I don't ever hear those where I live, so that was kind of exciting. ha ha).  Grandpa had already gone to bed, so we had to get him out of bed.  Since getting a 90 year old in a cellar was going to be tricky, we knew we couldn't do thinks "Okie-Style" and just watch from the porch and go at the last second if necessary.  So bunker down in the cellar we went. I was on my way out when I remembered Perry! (What kind of guardian am I?)  Thankfully after about 25 minutes it all blew past us and we were safe to come out.  Here are some pics of Perry's first trip to the cellar! (Along with my mom, aunt and uncle, and grandpa.)

I needed to go to bed, but we continued to have alarms going off all night long.  Mostly for flooding.  I was not getting the extra beauty sleep I had hoped to receive.  Then at about 6:20am it all happened again.  Phone tornado alarms followed by the neighborhood sirens.  So we turned on the TV to see if it was necessary to actually go the cellar.  It was heading directly toward us, so I got up mom while my aunt got up grandpa, and back to the cellar we went...in flooding. We were all so drenched!  Grandpa said, "We've got to stop meeting like this!"  Again, so much for that sleep. Here's the tornado we had to go to the shelter for....

Now that we were all fully awake, I had some extra time to get ready to travel.  I waited to see if my flight was delayed, but it appeared to be flying as normal.  Off to the airport Perry and I went.  Immediately after getting through security, my phone sounded.  This time is was United letting me that snow in Denver could be messing up my travel plans. SNOW!? We left 45 minutes late out of Tulsa, and I was fairly convinced there was no making my connecting flight.  Oh well.

Here's the snow as we came in to land.

Since I was on a small plane, United unloads you OUTSIDE at Terminal A.  It was a whopping 33 degrees as I stood in my short sleeves and flip flops waiting on my gate checked bag. BRRRRRR

After grabbing my bag, I bolted to the next terminal via many escalators and a tram and barely made my flight! (Only to sit on the plane for an hour before take-off so they could de-ice the thing.)

After leaving Denver, the rest of my 20 hours of travel was mostly uneventful--just how we like it! 

Perry is Packed and Ready to Go!

Perry has been sitting next to the suitcases for two weeks. He is determined not to get left!

We have sent ahead 6 boxes, have a 50lbs suitcase zipped and ready to go, and this one is looking to be about 65lbs.  Plus two carry-ons.  (All that really comes home with us is one half of the suitcase you see below.  Perry wants me to know he also comes home.  Not like a few years ago, when he came home the LONG way!) 

We head out on our big adventure tomorrow with flights on Tuesday.  The flight plan is TUL-DEN-NRT-GUM-TKK-PNI-TKK-GUM-SPN-GUM-and somehow a route home.  But since that means a whole lot of nothing to most of you, here's a better breakdown of our schedule.

May 21--Depart Oklahoma

May 22--Arrive Guam

May 24--Travel to Chuuk 

May 25--Children's VBS 9am-5pm

May 26--Preach; Young Adult Retreat afternoon

May 27--Ladies Retreat

May 29--Travel to Pohnpei

May 30/31--Children's VBS am; Youth Retreat pm

June 1--Children & Youth Outing; Ladies retreat evening

June 2--Preach; Adult training in afternoon

June 3--Travel to Guam

June 4-6--Decorate VBS

June 7-9--Youth Retreat

June 10-14--VBS

June 16--VBS Program

June 19th-ish--Travel to Saipan

June 22-Ladies Retreat

June 24-26--Youth Retreat

June 28th-ish--Travel to Guam

June 29--Ladies Retreat

This will change. And probably several things will be added to it.  Blogs will be minimal to non-existent while on Chuuk/Pohnpei due to lack of internet.  

See ya soon from the other side of the world!