Cafe Chocolat: Where Women Delight in God's Grace

Today was the Guam ladies retreat.  The theme was CHOCOLATE so everyone loved that.  I (again) ate too much chocolate.  We played games, studied various miracles of Jesus are related those to the grace He shows us,. We also made wraps for the elderly and had a special prayer session--using chocolate.    I'm very sad that I didn't get a group pictures.  I thought about it around fifteen minutes after we finished.  

Beach Night!

Back in Guam...

Tonight we had a young adult (plus, plus) fellowship.  I suppose I fall in the plus and a few others in the plus plus.  

I was supposed to have dinner with two of the girls. The next thing you know that was changed to a get together with all the young adults. Then the next thing you know, it was a full blown beach sunset party.

So what do you do when you need a lot a pizzas for beach sunset party? Go to the Little Caesars large $5 Hot & Ready promo.  What I didn't realize was THE LINE. I wish I had taken a picture. First I stood in a line about 10 deep to pay. Then you take your receipt and stand in ANOTHER line (it was 35 deep) to wait to pick up your order. This took an hour.  Good thing I was on island time. (The sad thing is--I wasn't even the last one there. In fact, I was an hour late and still one of the firsts. ha ha)

A Blast from the Past

Generally when I am on island it is summer break.  So I don't have an opportunity to pop in to the school where I taught for two years.  Saipan Community School (SCS) is a beautiful school located ON THE BEACH! It's a wonderful place to teach and serve.  (It also comes with beach housing!)

Two super typhoons hit the island of Saipan.  Typhoon Soudelor in 2015 and Typhoon Yutu in 2018.  These were very devastating.  SCS still hasn't recovered fully (as they have been waiting on some of their relief money to finish repairs).  It looks like they were in the middle of chapel/church repairs now.  

Four of the employees are still there from when I was a teacher!  (Ms Ann, the secretary, Mr. Rommel the maintenance guy, and Ms Felly and Mr Martin, teacher's aides.)  

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.