An Orange Dress

At the Chuuk ladies retreat, I was presented with a beautiful gift of an orange dress.  Yes, everyone on the islands know I love orange.  (They probably think that because all of my suitcases are orange. BUT...it is way easier to spot your suitcase when it is orange.  Regardless, I do love orange.)  They told me it would be a beautiful dress to wear the next morning when I preached.

My island dress and carving. 

I had this moment of panic. What if the dress didn't fit? On Saturday night, I got home and put it on.  The dress part fit as they are made very loose, but the arms were so tight. (I would like to think this was from my large muscles, but fat is more likely the correct word.)  I assumed I could survive, but I also didn't want an arm to be amputated while I was in the remote of the remote.  I just happened to have a handy dandy sewing kit in my bag of tricks and was able to get me about a centimeter more space on each arm, which really helped!

After the morning service, I was in charge of children's activities while the women prepared the meal and the mean geared up for the big basketball game. (More about the game later.)  I had a little mini-VBS with two lessons, music, and crafts.  (All with a translator of course.)

Children's Crafts

Singing Songs

Story of Jonah (Can't you tell we are in the boat going to Tarshish?)

Children holding up "matzah" (a cookie) for the story when Moses leads the children out of Egypt.

The church had a basketball team entered in a tournament.  Imagine being on a tropical island...with an indoor basketball court...where the air cons really didn't work. Yep, that part was miserable.  But watching the the slightly overweight and out-of-shape church basketball compete was absolutely hilarious. (To any Filipinos who played on that team and might be reading this blog, I mean absolutely no disrespect.  But...well....you did lose by 24 points.)

The team. The cheerleaders. Me. (Next year I want a matching shirt!)

That night we had pizza fellowship to celebrate/mourn the loss of the day.  The pizza was absolutely incredible.  Some of the best I have ever had! It was a great Sunday in Chuuk! (I was also incredibly exhausted and was out cold by 9pm.)