A Little More Band

I was honored to get to do another band clinic. This time any band student on island was invited AND I was even on a poster to advertise! 

A few years ago, they started an all-island band festival.  Each individual school has 15 minutes to perform, and then all the students come together to form an Intermediate and an Advanced Band.  So, I was the clinician to kick off the rehearsals for this event (which is in mid-April.)  

There were a lot of talented students.  I didn't get many pictures, but I'm glad I had the opportunity.  Maybe someday I will get to do this again.  

Youth Night

Once a month, my Saipan church home as a youth service, and I just happened to be on island for it! (Or maybe it was planned on this day just for me.)   It started off a little rough.  (See "Because it was time my island car broke down" post.)  But eventually we did make it, and we had a great time!

They had been playing some games when we arrived....uh...an hour late.  Then it was time for food. I am happy to say we had SPAM fried rice!!! (and cupcakes)  

After our hearty meal, I led a devotion on prayer.  What is prayer? Who can pray? Why do we pray? How do we pray?  And then we spent some time traveling around the room experiencing various prayer stations.  

We ended the evening with a few more of my ridiculous games.  

And as always, Perry had the most fun of all! 

Living Hope Church of the Nazarene

On Sunday I had the privilege of getting to preach at my home church in Saipan.  (You only think I'm from Francis.)  I thoroughly enjoyed worshiping with my friends and "family" in Saipan.  There's a chance that this might have been my last Sunday to worship on this porch (and there is a chance I will get one more).  The church will be relocating soon.  We have been in this location for 12+ years.  But our lease will run out in a few months and the property will be sold.  Everyone has been searching for a new place to call home, so you can be in prayer for that.  

I didn't get great pics on Sunday, but as you can see we had lots of smiles.  Molly (the dog) helps lead the service (see if you can spot her). And our Sunday school classes are going strong.  I love seeing how the church is growing!!!

Because it was time my island car broke down...

When I took the kids home from church, they told me the earlier driver had hit a bump and then the car was smoking. Maybe I should have paid a little more warning to that...

I did the after church van run with little problem. There was a little rattle, but I hadn't driven it since arriving on Tuesday, so I couldn't say if it was a new or an old rattle.  This afternoon, I left out at about 3:30pm to pick up the Kagman youth for Youth Night down in the village of Dan Dan at Pastor Chad and Angela's house.  The rattle was still there, but it seemed insignificant enough. I picked up the youth, and then we needed to make a fast beach stop to get some sand for one of my activities tonight.  When we got back in the car, I said the air con wasn't really cooling very well, so I thought we should roll down the windows.  

As we started going up the mountain to come out of Kagman, it didn't seem super powerful.  But I did have a van load of kids.  We got caught at the light at the top of the hill.  There were two cars in front of me.  The light turned green, and I went to go. 

I couldn't accelerate. 

I couldn't break. 

I started rolling backward down the mountain.  

I was able to get the car in park. And then I might have panicked a little.  

We waved the cars around me. (No one even honked!)  Every time I was about to get brave enough to pull it out of park, a new set of cars would get behind me.  I was in the turn lane, and if I could just get us over a smidge, there was a gas station.

A guy come from the other direction, rolled down his window and asked if we were okay. I said, "no."  So, he went and parked in the gas station, and got the van in the parking lot.  It worked just fine for him.  (Thankfully, but go figure.)  He said he wasn't a mechanic and had no way of telling me what was wrong. So we decided since we were just a half a mile from the church, maybe I would drive it there and he would follow. Well, the van wouldn't start. I tried a few times and it would just die. 

My phone doesn't work here.  None of the youth had phones.  And the only number I had memorized was the house that no one was home. He offered to give us a ride since we couldn't call anyone.  

And so, we hitched a ride island style back to the house. (And the van is still at Kagman Mobile.)

Vacation/Family Beach Day

When I left, I had gone "90 to nothing" for days. (I just looked up this phrase.  I use it regularly. Apparently it is a southern phrase. Maybe I shouldn't use it on the islands.)  Anyway, I had District Solo & Ensemble contest, District Band Contest, Chamber Recital (plus throw in a ladies retreat mom and I led at her church and one of my crafting days along with regular school and church obligations).  I was tired.  So what does one do when they're tired? Book an 8000 mile trip to go "90 to nothing" a little while longer.  I landed in Guam at 7:30pm (ish) and started working the next morning at 5am.  And I kept going with activities/planning for six days straight.  Hey--it certainly helps jetlag be non-existent! (Good thing when I get home, I go back to school the very next day.  Maybe that will help with jetlag too!) 

I decided that I would take Friday and Saturday as vacation.  Family Beach Day for my church was already planned for Saturday, so they built in some vacation and fellowship for me.  On Friday, my plan was to go get a pedicure, get my second favorite lunch buffet (favorite no longer exists), go to the water park and spend the day in the lazy river, have smoothies on the beach for happy hour, and close with a massage. 

Well....I made pedicure and buffet. (Barely).  I hadn't felt perky and was getting a cold.  Stuffy nose, sore throat, ear ache, teeth ached....so I had taken Alka Seltzer cold meds on the afternoon and evening before and then again that morning. However, I could not wake up on Friday.  I even looked in the trash to see if I had accidentally take the night time again. (I hadn't.)  So instead of the water park, I came home and slept. FOR THREE HOURS.  I'm not a nap taker, and never a three hour nap taker.  But I felt a little better and managed to make happy hour, as you can see. 

By Family Beach Day I was much perkier and enjoyed getting fried...I mean a day at Pau Pau Beach.  (I did sunblock THREE times, so I was only a little fried and I spent the last hour in the shade...and ate lunch in the shade. Speaking of lunch, I tried some O-Pusit aka squid chips.  They were actually pretty good.)  I got to do a lot of snorkeling and saw all the main island fish and starfish, so I was happy.  

Band!

I have the honor of getting to work with some band students while I'm here on the islands!  When I lived here, I didn't teach band. Had I moved here a year earlier, I could have taught band. I have also been offered that opportunity a few times since living here when one of the positions come open.  So it was really a great honor to be asked to clinic while I was on island.  

My first clinic was with first and second year band students are Mt Carmel School.  Mt Carmel is just about a block away from Saipan Community School--where I taught from 2004-2006.  

Here are some pictures of my adventure of teaching band. 

As you can see, Perry came along for the ride! (He also observed to make sure I was doing everything correctly!)  

I also want to give a shout out to Ada Music Center for giving me I Love Band pencils. The kids were pretty excited to get a souvenir from Oklahoma. 

I will get to be a part of another clinic in a few days with the advanced band students from all the school on island!

International Women's Day = Ladies Retreat Saipan

In honor of International Women's Day (March 8), we decided to have a ladies retreat at the church. (This is a total lie. We had no idea it was international women's day until we started seeing stuff all over Facebook just a bit before the event started.  We just got lucky.)

We had a lemon theme: When life gives you lemons, God makes lemonade.  I cooked for the ladies.  It was a simple meal of chicken salad, various flavors of bread that I bought at the Japanese bakery, pasta salad, and fresh fruit. And since it was a lemon theme we had to have lemon desserts--lemon pound cake with a lemon glaze, lemon bars, and lemonade!  (They were very kind and complimentary of my cooking.  I should cook for them more often. The college kids just scarf it down!)

We talk about how God can make old things new.  We demonstrated this concept with a craft. I had a bunch of old t-shirts that we transformed into new scarves.  It was a fun night by all!