Creative Nonfiction about Kayangel

Hey guys! I know its been a while since I posted, but for one of my writing assignments for my Art and Craft of Writing class I did a creative nonfiction piece on my week in Kayangel, and thought I'd like to share it with you guys! Sorry about the weird and random formatting, but here it is, as well as a picture that shows the islands well.

 

 

 

 

10 December 2014

Less Means More

After being back in America for ten months I find it interesting to reflect on my time in Kayangel.  My mind often drifts back to that week without any deliberate thought.  I miss the simple life I found there.  America is full of racing cars, busy cities, blaring music, TV shows, and smartphones.  I do have to admit that I have gone back to spending a good amount of my time in front of TV’s, my laptop, and especially on my phone. But I find that I do not care for these things as much as I once did.  They can no longer excite me more than as a distraction to pass time. I have left my phone at home on accident several times since my trip to Palau, something that would have never happened before my trip. I have also found that I do not like texting as much, or even phone calls.  I would so much rather spend time with people face to face.  When we step away from our technology we find out that it is very possible to live without it.  Remembering my week in Kayangel reminds me of this.  I miss Nolan, Bob, and Kan-Lee. I wish that there was some way I could find out how they are doing. 

The sun and heat in Palau always seemed overbearing, but I would love to get back to that, even if it was to work in a soggy ruined school house.  The work always seemed so fulfilling. We were doing something that mattered and we could feel it. I keep telling people that I don’t really have the desire to go back to Palau, but if someone asked me if I wanted to go back to Kayangel I couldn’t help but say yes.  I fell in love with those four little islands, and their incredible people.

~

The boat reached the top of the wave and then started the decent down the steep side. We held on tightly, feeling the spray of the water and feeling our hearts pounding in our ears along with the roar of the ocean and waves.  The sky was foreboding, gloomy and dark.  The turbulent water churned around our little open sided boat, thrusting it up and down over and over again.  The islands we were headed towards were nowhere in sight.  At the top of the waves all we could see was endless dark water and countless waves to come, and at the bottom of the valleys were only walls of water.  We held on for what felt like our dear lives.  The shiny steel railings were cold and slippery, but in my fear I managed to keep a solid grip on them while praying for safety and the islands to come into sight.  Adrenaline coursed through me, not just from the fear, but from the wonder of this crazy experience.  The waves were taller than the boat and the ride felt like a roller-coaster.  My eyes burned from the salt water spraying them.   But even through the salt spray and my own salty tears, I couldn’t help but keep my eyes open and watching.  The power of the waves was strong, and the heights and plunging depths were thrilling.  The crazy blue swirls with their foamy white caps were hypnotic, and demanded that I keep my gaze upon them.  I don’t remember where the roaring sound was coming from, but I remember that conversation was impossible. Instead, we simply looked at each other, sharing our fear and awe only through our eyes. 

We had waited almost two months to be able to visit the islands of Kayangel.  Our entire trip had been a precursor to that week.  Every week we thought we were going, and then plans changed and we wouldn’t be allowed to.  But now it was finally our chance to go.  All we knew about the week was that we were going to be helping with hurricane relief.  The typhoon had hit the islands in November, but no one was able to tell us how bad the devastation actually was, the reports were varied and vague.   

The waves slowly calmed down as we entered the giant lagoon sheltered from the windward waves by the crescent shaped arc of four islands. They pulled the boat up to the pier of the largest island and we hopped off. We unloaded our bags from the boat and then peeled them out of their waterproof covers, which were garbage bags, while shaking off the drips of lingering salt water.  The clouds had thinned out and I only remember sun and light wind.  At first glance, I did not think there was much destruction.  Quite a few palms had kept their leafy tops waving up to the sky.  But the closer I looked, the more damage I saw.  There were toppled trees all over.  The few palms that were in the air were just that, a few.  The fallen trees were so thick that we could only take a few steps before encountering an obstacle of fallen, rotten, broken trees and plants.  The fallen trees surrounded a cleared community area.  The long solid concrete pier connected to a road that went by a pavilion of sorts.  There was a building of some kind, I think they used it for storage, but attached were tarps to create a sheltered seating area. An area between the tarps had an actual roof, and the tables were larger than the others and closer to the ground. We used them more as seats than as tables. 

We bounded over to the place where we were going to be staying, hauling our meager amount of luggage with us. The community center was on the other side of the road and a ways back from the beach.  The building was a faded light blue, and up on stilts to keep it away from the damp ground.  They had giant tree stumps in front of all six doors, one on each end and two on each of the longer sides. As we climbed up, we were surprised by the inside of the building.  The other community centers we had stayed in had been barren, nothing but empty tile floors.  This one was different. In the center was a bookshelf built into the middle of the floor and going long ways through the entire building.  The bookshelves were loaded, from top to bottom, filled with words to read. We unlaced our bags and strung out our mosquito nets, tying the four stringed corners to the books on the shelf and to the slatted windows.

We hurried back outside to see off the boat that had brought us to the island, and then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening unpacking and getting acquainted with the community area.  Over by the full building there were two toilets that were still somewhat operational, a men’s and a woman’s each just one stall, with no doors.  They explained the toilets to us, there were buckets filled with rain water outside of the bathrooms, and you would take a bucket into the bathroom with you and pour the water in after you were done as a way to flush it.  That was the closest thing to running water left on the island.  They also helped us find the water catchment tank next to our building and the outhouse, and what was supposed to be the shower. 

We worked hard the next day starting our hurricane relief on the elementary school of Kayangel.  We walked to the building first thing in the morning. It was a short brisk walk through a cleared path of rubbish that had us sweating even so early in the day.  Most of the Palauans who were working with us were there when we arrived, and they had already begun.  The building had almost no windows left intact and no roof.  That first day we spent dragging what was left of the roof supports outside, saving what we could of the wood, and burning what couldn’t be saved.  The wood was wet, soaked through, dark, and heavy.  We would drag the beams over the warped slippery, slimy, and dank tiles out to the short stubby grass outside the white washed walls.  There we pinned the boards to the ground, sitting on them, standing on them, anything to hold them down and pull the rebellious nails out of the harsh wood. 

The Palauan’s worked faster than my little team. They rushed about like buzzing bees, bustling back and forth.  They worked quickly and efficiently, hauling wood, pulling nails, laughing, chatting, and working constantly.  They are beautiful people. I remember Nolan with his bright red shirt whistling and singing as he practically danced around the rubbish.  He had his black afro hair held back with a black elastic into a thick ponytail.  His smile was quick coming and his cheer made the day pass quickly.  Bob and Kan-Lee were also dressed in bright colors, green and blue.  Bob had a shy smile, he would pass us quietly, with a swift glance, a slight smile, and then be on his way past you to continue what he was working on. He used his camo fisherman’s hat to duck his eyes behind.   Kan-Lee was even shyer, he would glance up with a smile flickering in his eyes, and barely touching his lips before slipping past. His hair was shorter than Nolan’s and was held back with a headband.  Nolan and Kan-Lee looked very similar. They had the same caramel chocolate toned brown skin with distinct islander features of round faces, flat foreheads, and flashing dark eyes.  Bob had slightly darker skin, and a more oval face, his eyes were darker, like a shadowed cave.  The rest of the Palauans were a mix of the three in looks as well as personality.  Most were friendly but didn’t speak that good of English so they used what English they had, along with gestures and smiles to communicate.  They were all men and all, except Nolan, Bob, and Kan-Lee, were over 30 years old.  In total, we had about ten or twelve people working on the school. 

After that first day of working with the wood, we began to work with the other half of the building.  The first half was the cafeteria side with a small classroom. The side we worked on the rest of the week was a bigger side, which looked like it used to be one large room classroom.  When we first started to work on that side, it looked like it hadn’t been touched since the typhoon had hit it.  Bookshelves had fallen at crazy angles, desks were overturned, and rotted books lay everywhere.  You almost couldn’t walk across the floor.  The books were disgusting.  They were water logged, soaked all the way through, with pages bonded together, and they weighed three times more than they should have. They smelled even worse than they looked, rotting pages still dripping with rancid water. But they smelled even worse when we began to burn them.  The smoke drifting off the piles billowed thick and black.  We felt like Nazi’s for burning so many books, but there was no other option.  The books were ruined, and we had no way to dry them out, and even if we could they still wouldn’t really be usable. The school contained a variety of books. We found textbooks, fiction children’s books, and we each found at least one book that we had loved as a child.  But to pick up a book and have it be so slimy and slippery that you have to grasp it tightly and feel the moisture oozing out of it was horrific. So we tossed book after book upon the flickering fighting flames, as they crackled and popped, consuming the multitude of sopping pages.  I’m pretty sure I shed a few tears for all of the knowledge we were burning. 

The sun was hot on those days, and combined with the heat floating off of the multiple giant bonfires, we were sweating more than we ever thought we could. Our sweat would catch the dirt and grime we worked with and we were left with our entire bodies feeling gritty, dusty, and sticky.  When we finished the work on the school for the day we would walk or ride in the bed of their tiny white work pick-up back to the community area.  At the community area we would then proceed to rinse off the layer of grime that coated us.

Once we reached the end of the road, the fun began.  We would glance at each other out of the corner of our eyes, slyly watching. And then we would take off, running down the stretched pier, racing to beat the others to the end, kicking off our flip-flops in our haste. Once we reached the end, clothes and all, we would jump, flip, dive, or soar, anything to get ourselves into the refreshing crystal waters of the ocean.  The water was incredibly clear.  From the pier on a sunny day you could easily see the bottom, even if it was a good 25 feet away at high tide.  It was warm too, the temperature barely cooler than the air around us, but that didn’t make it any less refreshing. While in the water we would scrub down our arms, legs, and heads, trying to get as much dirt off as we could.  After our scrub, we would swim back towards the pier, our shorts and t-shirts swirling and constricting around our paddling limbs.  The concrete steps carved into the side of the pier were slippery and wet from splashing waves, and we would carefully climb our way back up them.  At the top we would find ourselves on the pier again with the concrete burning the bottoms of our feet with heat soaked up from the scalding sun.  To soothe our feet, we would hustle back to the edge, only to launch ourselves back into the water again.  We played this game over and over again, multiple times a day, it was our favorite pass time.  The best was when we could convince Nolan, Kan-Lee, and Bob to join us.  The eight of us would take turns jumping off, doing whatever crazy stunts we could think of.  Our Palauan friends were fearless, they would try anything, and most the time execute whatever they chose to do well.  They belong to the race of natural athletes and had the advantage of growing up next to the ocean and playing in it their entire lives. In the air they were as graceful as soaring birds, and during their dives and flips they looked as smooth as dolphins.  They made our game way more fun, and those are my favorite memories from that week. 

After our pier adventures we would head back to the community building to shower, or maybe I should say, to rinse the salt water off.  The shower was simply a stall.  Three sides were paneled with what looked to be tin roof material, up to about shoulder height with a wooden floor.  From shoulder height, to the slightly sloped tin roof, was a wide-squared metal mesh. This could be very awkward, since you could see out of the stall while you were rinsing off.  The fourth side of the stall was open.  We used a random board to cover the bottom half of the opening, which was enough for the guys, and then my girl teammate and I would drape our towels across what was left of the opening, sticking the ends of the towel through the mesh to get it to hang where we needed it to.  A bucket sat on the floor which we would fill with a hose connected to the rain catchment tank. In the other corner was a single plastic yellow chair.  That was the only dry place in the shower and even there I found it difficult to keep my clean clothes dry while trying to get myself clean.  There was a smaller cup in the bucket on the floor and using that we tried to wash off the best we could, which never really seemed to work very well.   We had soap, but it didn’t seem to help us feel any cleaner, and my hair never did feel right because we didn’t have any shampoo. Between our dirty work situation, our bucket showers, and salt water washes we always felt a little bit nasty.  I was amazed at how easy it was to forget how gross we felt when we were occupied with other things.  We spent the week this way, living in rugged simple conditions, but finding ourselves enjoying it.

On the last day we were there the sun beat down hot, blinding, and as strong as ever. From the beach was a light breeze wafting up to us and cooling our sweaty bodies. The palm trees swayed around us, but none of that mattered that day. Watch for the ball, hit the ball, pass the ball. Focus. The faces around me danced with smiles and flashed with laughter. Dark faces with white smiles, tanned skin with bright eyes. We still felt gross, but we ignored it completely. It was our last night on the island and we were going to celebrate the work we had done and the friendships we had built.  Starting with this volleyball game. They had set up the net next to the community pavilion, blocking the road that connected to the long concrete pier. There were no more boats coming in for the day and access to the pier was no longer needed.  Our teams trickled in, Palauans versus everyone else… no, my team verses everyone else… no, mix it up and let’s begin. My team of five, with three Palauans, and two other foreigners began to play in the heat of the afternoon.

As we played I remember looking around, at the broken trees, at the scarred land and the rubbish.  I couldn’t even imagine how beautiful it must have been before the fury of the typhoon. The ocean still provided a sweet smell, floating around the island, perfuming every part of this broken place.  The sun was hot, beating down, making sweat drip off our faces, but its warmth was comforting, assurance of clear skies and a reminder of a productive week. The few standing palms contrasted beautifully with the bright blue sky. The aquamarine water lit up the white sand, reflecting the heat and the light of the sun back to us.  The island was stunning, even in its destruction.

In the morning we would roll our sleeping bags into cocoons, fold up our mosquito nets into notebook sizes and then be ready to leave bright and early.  The island and its people, especially Nolan, Bob, and Kan-Lee, had left their mark on us.  Never had I been to a place that revolved so strongly around simplicity. Our shared meals with the community, the ping-pong games, boat trips, and swimming with Nolan, Bob, and Kan-Lee, the time sitting by the crackling fire looking at the sparkles in the night sky, all seemed to mean so much more than anything else we did.  We had been ripped away from our phones, the internet, TV, even electricity, and forgot to notice their absence. With the simplicity we found joy in our work and in our friends. I can only remember seeing Nolan without a smile once, and Bob and Kan-Lee, even in their shyness, always had smiles lurking in their eyes.  The strength, beauty, and continuous hope of these islanders who had lost everything amazed me. 

It was not a week of rest for us, but it almost seemed that way when my team got back to our host home the next week. We felt rejuvenated by the people we had come to help, who helped us more.  They had nothing left, their houses were waterlogged and torn apart, their fields were ruined by the salt water, their beautiful island destroyed, and yet they were the ones who taught us what it meant to be content.  They worked hard, played hard, loved fiercely, but lived meagerly. During our work on the school I was amazed at the skill and intensity the Palauans worked with. Nolan was the ring leader, of his own friends, of my team, and even the other Palauans seemed to take their cues from him.  Nolan, Bob and Kan-lee seemed to be the best general representation of the Palauan population.  They were adventurous and daring, smart and bold, caring and withdrawn.  Not only were they the first to get to work, but they were the first to make work fun, the first to call it a day, and the first to jump off of the pier.  They cared deeply for everyone around them, which showed in the ways they managed to help the rest of the people on the island.  They loved life and loved to share it. They were the reason our week was so wonderful.  They made the grimy work at the school worth it. They made the lack of running water worth it. They even made the lack of real showers worth it. It was they who really brought out the beauty in the scarred island. 

The volleyball game seemed to be the climax of everything from that week of work and all we had learned from Nolan, Bob and Kan-Lee. We all played like our lives depended on it. Volley after volley, fighting back and forth, over and over, getting more intense by the minute.  Then the ball would fall, or someone would miss, and we would all laugh, pick it up and keep going. The game was like their lives, even in simplicity they made it fun, laughed at their failures, fought through the pain, and kept pushing on. The people of the devastated island of Kayangel, Palau taught me so much about simplicity and love in one week, that I will remember it for the rest of my life.

 

 

Home Sweet Home

     Hey guys! How y'all doin? Just wanted to give you guys one last little update before I officially consider this adventure over. 
     I am home! I made it! I had to travel for 36 hours to get home but I made it back safely, just a little worn out.  I have been home for two weeks now (I got in on February 23) and am working on adjusting and getting back to some semblance of normalcy.  It has been a bit rough being home, to be honest.  I really did miss you all, and that's the good thing about being home, is all of you! But the rest is hard.  I really am not enjoying the cooler/cold weather.  I also have been striving to find my own routine for quiet times, and I've realized I have to make time for personal worship times as well.  YWAM does such a great job of giving you routines and setting aside time for these things to be done, but leaving that structure has been challenging. 
     The other thing I really miss is my team and my classmates.  I never realized how attached you can get to people after just five months, but man am I attached to them! I've been finding time to text or message several of them every once in a while, but its never going to be like living with them was. I miss them so very much.
     I am also dealing (naturally) with a bit of culture shock... after living out of suitcases for the past five months, I'm amazed at all of the useless junk I have.  I'm beginning to (slowly...) start going through my room to get rid of all these pointless, unnecessary things.  I'm also becoming amazed at how big the world/mainland is haha.  After living on islands and then flying from California to Colorado I was able to see the land stretch around me, and it was a bit overwhelming, and then my mind reminded me that that was only a fraction of the whole world.... amazing isn't it? :)
     I would love to hang out with any of you, so if you want to get together just let me know :) I am hoping to be able to do a small event to see you guys and to allow you all to see me and some of my pictures, if that works out I will let y'all know! Love you all! and until next time.

Week 9 (Last week in Palau)

2-17-14
     Hey ya'll!!! Well, I'm back in Kona now, traveled all day yesterday (40 hour day haha) and so... outreach is over, but our last (debrief) week was great. 
     Monday we had our last free day.  We spent it mostly at the café and watching movies, but we took time to have dinner with Malo and Lisa and a few others from Koror Evangelical Church and Emmaus High School. 
     Tuesday we had a bit of a relaxing day.  Brandon and Alicia were both out trying to get some possible flight complications figured out, and Max had Malo over to work on some music, so Max sent Colton and I out on a faith journey of sorts... where we found Keizer (I learned the correct spelling of his name... oops). So we spent a good amount of time with him.  That evening we had our last dinner out with Fuana.
     Wednesday I exhausted myself.  We spent the morning finishing the concrete for Fuana.  The afternoon we spent cleaning her house before we left.  In the evening we had Keizer over and hung out with him for a bit, but when it was over I was pretty darn tired. 
     Thursday was our official debrief day.  We spent the morning pondering and praying over some reflective questions Max had given us about outreach.  After lunch we went with Fuana to a waterfall (minus Brandon) and spent some time swimming and climbing the various falls.  After that we checked into our hotel that we were spending the night at, and then Alicia, Colton, and I were off to get massages.  After we came back we all met up for dinner and discussed the answers to Max's questions together.  After dinner we used our day passes to the Palau Pacific Resort to go use their pool, and even better, their jacuzzi which was amazing.  After that we all enjoyed hot showers, comfy beds and pillows, and air conditioned rooms that felt amazing! In the morning we all just kinda hung out at the hotel, laying on the beds, using the hotel pool and hot showers again. 
     Friday, after leaving the hotel haha, we hung out a Fuana's for a bit before helping to set up for a concert that the other team was putting on that Max was helping sing at.  We had an amazing night!Almost all the youth that we had worked with attended and it was a great way to say good bye to them.  But the best part of the night was finding Nolan there.  We had tried to see him the week before, but he hadn't made it Friday and instead got to be in Koror for a week, Wednesday to Wednesday.  He showed up to the concert looking for us, hearing that we were putting it on.  We spent as much time as possible with him that night and convinced him to come to the rock islands with us on Saturday. 
     So, as I just said Saturday we went to the rock islands, and they were amazing!!! We started off going to Jellyfish Lake, then saw the giant clams at Clam Cove, and then stopped at the Shark Sanctuary, but we didn't see any.  After that we had a wonderful Palauan lunch before heading back out going to Milky Way (it has sulfuric mud in it, which is supposedly really good for the skin, and looked really funny too hehe), stopped at The Cemetairy (great snorkeling spot) and then headed back to Koror.  That evening Keizer made it over late and we talked to him and hung out with him for a bit.  That was the last day we saw Nolan and Keizer.
     Sunday we went to church together at KEC one last time.  Fuana made us lunch, and then we finished backing before going to a bit of a bbq near Emmaus, where we were able to say goodbye to the other team and Malo before getting on the plane.  Fuana, Wilson and Ester, Prima and Hedrick, (all a part of the Palauan YWAMers) took all of us to the airport where we said goodbye to them.  Then we were off.  We flew to Taipei, Taiwan and then to Honolulu and then Kona.  It was something like a 40 hour day... we left Koror at 7:30 pm Sunday and landed in Kona at 4 pm Sunday.  Weird, right? But yea. So now we are back in Kona. 
     Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are our debrief days, before graduation tomorrow night.  Its nice to be back in Hawaii, I DO love these islands so very much, but my heart aches and longs to go home. I am trying not to think about how much I want to be home, and I'm trying to enjoy this last week in my favorite state, and enjoy my last bit of time with my DTS and Outreach team.  So maybe that's what you guys can pray for me... just that I would be able to keep my head and heart here, and in the moment.  Also pray for healing.  I got some inspected spots on my limbs, and now have an antibiotic, but I would love it if I could heal quickly and not have any issues from the antibiotic either... So ya. 
     Thank you guys all so much! Your prayers and support have carried me my whole trip! God bless you for that!!!!! Love you all and see you SOON! :D

Outreach Week 8

2-10-14

​Heyyo! I can’t believe we just finished up week 8… and that we only have one more week here. So mind blowing! Only two weeks until I’m back among all of you!!! I really can’t believe how quickly it all went by, even this past week went really fast.

​Monday (Feb 3rd) was another free day.  We spent the time at the café, I had a nice long cry about missing home (don’t tell Max ;) … I think I just needed to get it out of my system because I’ve felt fine and done much better after I had my cry), and then just hung out with my team for the rest of the day.  We took it super easy to try to recuperate and rest some from Kayangel and the youth conference.  We also determined at the end of the day, a bit of a plan for the week.  It is a common thing on outreach to have days where a student leads, and when Jim was here he encouraged Max to do that with us, so we prayed and each were told a day that we were supposed to lead.  Alicia- Tuesday, Brandon- Wednesday, Colton- Thursday, and me on Friday.  

​So Alicia lead on Tuesday, and she felt it was just to be used as a day for each of us to do whatever preparation we needed for our own day.  It was a relaxed day. I have to be honest, I don’t think I left the house once, and spent quite a lot of time in mine and Alicia’s room listening to music and just taking as much alone/personal time as I could get away with.

​Wednesday, Brandon led.  We started the day by going to Emmaus (the boys high school we’ve been working with) to do their chapel, where Max, Alicia, and I lead worship, and Colton gave an amazing sermon.  That night we attended the Palauan Baptist Church, which we all thoroughly enjoyed and got a lot out of.

​Thursday (Colton’s day to lead) we again spent most of the time at the house. We spent the morning waiting for someone, who we found out a few hours later wasn’t able to make it.  That night we went to the prison ministry where Max helped with the worship some, and Alicia and Brandon spoke.  We were able to converse and pray for some of the inmates, which was really cool.  

Friday (my day to lead) we got Fuana a new front door and were trying to watch and help as it was getting worked on to fit perfectly.  We also spend some time hanging out with another Palauan YWAMer (who is a good friend of Max’s and also teaches music at Emmaus), named Malo. (Whom we had waited for Thursday) He spent several hours over, chatting, hanging, and jamming.  After that I gave everyone some personal time, mostly because I needed to pray and talk to God about the day.  I was feeling very unsure, unqualified, and unhappy about the whole leading thing.  Earlier in the week when I had been thinking about my day I had thought about how the best leader should be the best servant, so I had wanted to try to find some way that I could bless my team and just serve them as much as possible. But when my day actually rolled around I couldn’t think of a way to actually make that happen, or what I could do.  As I was finishing up praying and trying to listen to God’s voice, He sent Alicia to me.  She told me she’d been avoiding talking to me about some stuff, and that God told her she needed to do it now.  She confronted me a bit about my attitude the past few days/week.  She pointed out how there are almost two sides of me… the normal side of me, where I am happy, joyful, sweet and just who I am, and who I am created to be.  The other side is a negative, grumpy me.  I have some infected bug bites (on my arm mostly, but there are a few on my legs as well), and she pointed out that even thought they are painful, gross, and just no fun in general (she knew from experience because she had the same problem) she told me that I can’t let it get to me and bring me down the way I was letting it.  She challenged me to try to be less negative, and to focus as much as possible on the positive.  She also challenged me to be more bold, and to stop looking and asking for confirmation or ideas from other people, but to make sure I’m really going to God.  The things she said were exactly what I needed to hear, in so many ways! And they also helped me to reconnect with God enough that I knew what to do with the day.  When we all gathered back together (Brandon was gone doing his own thing though) I told my team, that as their leader for the day I was taking them out to lunch for burgers (a novelty in and of itself haha).  After lunch we walked the town a bit just praying as we walked and trying to find ways to bless the people we had had multiple encounters with.  We met back together at the café and then hung out for a bit.  We spent the evening hanging out with the guys at Emmaus, playing guitar, comparing and learning songs, just trying to invest in them as much as we can as our time with them ticks down.  

Saturday we all enjoyed being able to do some physical labor.  We took the day to lay some concrete for Fuana’s back porch.  We spend most the day doing this, from mixing the cement, to dumping it and smoothing it.  I got to be the “smoother” and actually really enjoyed it and was just starting to really get the hang of it when we stopped for the day haha.  But it was not only a nice change to do something physical (even with all the soreness we got from it haha), but Fuana was so grateful and it was so nice to be able to bless her in such a way.  By evening we were all tired so we took it easy and hung out.

Sunday was the best day of all! We got up a bit earlier than most Sundays to go back to the prison to teach again today.  Max and I taught (first sermon I’ve ever given haha) and it was just so good! After prison we attended our favorite church, Koror Evangelical Church, and were just blessed and amazed by the wonderful service.  After that we took almost a team nap haha, but some quiet time to rest before heading to Emmaus mid-afternoon.  When we got to Emmaus we spent some time playing sports and just general hanging out with them.  The other team was there and I got the opportunity to soak up some worship time with Caleb.  I realized that a lot of the things Alicia had lovingly pointed out to me stemmed from a lack of worship time. By leaving on Sunday for Kayangel I had missed the worship at church that week and it had ruined my week.  So on Sunday I found myself soaking up every ounce of worship I could get, at the prison, at church, and even more sitting with just Caleb, a guitar, me and God. It was wonderful. After that we all got to eat dinner with them before Max played some worship songs and then spoke a little. He told the seniors he wanted to give them a night they would never forget, and I think he succeeded! He challenged them to be the world changers they were set apart to be, and after that he asked that we all gather around them and pray for them, which they all were blessed (and made a little uncomfortable) by.  Caleb and the three leaders from the other team also took the time to bless the guys and to impart what they could to them (especially the seniors). After that we had even more worship time (to my delight) and then hung out a bit before heading our separate ways.  It was getting late when we got back, but for some reason we decided to watch a movie and proceeded to do so haha. It was a fantastic day, a memorable day, and probably one of the best days of outreach so far.  

This next week is our debrief week of sorts.  We will be taking it kind of easy.  We plan to go to Pelelu for a few days (the only island we haven’t been to yet, its by Angauar). We are taking a day to go to the Rock Islands, and then just not much on the other days.

​Well… that’s all folks.  I’m counting down the days until I get to see you all! It will be here so very soon.  Take care of yourselves J Love you all! ​

Outreach Week 7

2-2-14

            Hello all!!! We did it! We made it to Kayangel! So Saturday we spent the day packing and prepping for leaving, as well as working with the youth a the Evangelical Church for a bit.  Sunday was spent traveling to Kayangel.  It was a 3-4 hour boat ride, and the last half we battled some rougher seas, …that was an adventure I wasn’t too fond of.  But after that we landed safely and spent the day setting up and talking to a few people.  At the dock leaving Koror we met two wandering travelers named Mary (from Quebec, Canada) and Andreas (from Italy and Costa Rica) who were also headed to Kayangel with us.  I can’t give you a step by step view of this week, because I didn’t really journal at all (which means I have no memory, my journal is my brain! Haha, its only partially true, but still), but I’ll tell you what all I do remember. 

            It was a pretty laid back week to be honest.  We knew we would be helping with the typhoon relief, we just weren’t sure how that would play out.  What we ended up doing was helping with the deconstruction of the elementary school.  We spend the first couple days taking off what was left of the wooden supports of the roof, and saving all the long, reusable pieces of wood we found.  We burned all of the rest of the wood that we couldn’t save. The next day the only thing we did on the school was to take all the unbroken pieces of glass out of the windows, to save them as well.  The last thing we did on the school, over the last couple of days was to take all the books, and what was left of the bookshelves and a few desks out of the main classroom.  All of the books were ruined, most were soaked through so thoroughly that they were unable to open, and weighed twice as much as they were supposed to.  To dispose of them we tried to burn as many as possible (we felt like Nazi’s until we got used to it), but quite a few were so wet that we could not burn them.  Due to that, we spent the last day simply pushing the rest of the rubbish outside and clearing the floors.  They were going to be bulldozing the rest of what was left, and through the support and funding from other countries they were going to get a completely new school.  We got to work with 6 Palauans every day, making things seem to pass quickly and efficiently.

            But working definitely did not take up all of our time.  We spend quite a lot of time hanging out with and get to know the guys we were working with, and managed to succeed with the 3 guys closest to our ages… we think Nolan is somewhere around 25, Bob is 22, and Kan-Lee is 21.  We tried as often as possible to get them to swim with us, and we played many games of ping-pong with them. (All three of them were impressed with how good I was at ping-pong… so thank you Danny and Dustin J haha). We also were able to watch a movie or two with them in the evenings (we only had electricity from 6pm to 6am-ish).  We also spent many hours with Mary and Andreas, who after their beach camp got ruined by the wind, came and lived with us in the community center, allowing us lots of time to spend with them, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. (And Andreas was a bit of a chef and so we had some FANTASTIC meals there!)

            I have to say it was a very interesting week, looking back on it I see it as a great week, but at the time I wasn’t so sure.  The rugged living bothered me less than I thought it would, but at the end of the week I described it to myself as a dry week.  My favorite times where when I was hanging out with Bob and Nolan (and Kan-Lee, but he was quieter and harder to interact with).  My body was doing weird things half the week too, making the days difficult, whether it was an upset stomach, itchy infected bug bites, or a headache I always managed to feel the worse when we were trying to work on the school. I managed to sleep well most of the nights, but it never felt like quite enough.  But no more complaining…

            Someday I would love to be able to go back to Kayangel and see it as it was.  The destruction was not as bad as we had pictured in our heads, but it was enough to make you look twice.  There were more trees standing than we expected, but the palm trees had no coconuts on them, and the non-palm trees were mostly stripped of their leaves.  The underbrush was full of fallen limbs, branches, and even full trees sometimes.  But the brush was beginning to grow again. And there were plenty of new growth throughout the brush.  Most of the buildings were pretty well devastated.  There are only about 20 people living on the island, but to me they held the most scars from the typhoon. Most of them were living in one or twos trying to working on rebuilding.  There were few women and only one child on the whole island.  I remember listening to Nolan talk about how things have been for him, and it made my heart ache.  He described how they miss people and how they were so excited and glad to have us because we were outsiders, we were new people to interact with, and we cared.  He told us how there were many visitors who wanted to see the “island destroyed by the typhoon” and how they would come for a day and leave, not staying for more than a few hours.  They appreciated that we were different and we not only came, and stayed for a few days, but that we came to help and get to know them.  Nolan also told us how bored and frustrated they are.  They say they try to work, but there’s not much to do, and how they don’t have the supplies and funding (its been promised) to actually do anything, and so many days they sit around because they cannot do anything yet.  He said it has been that way for the past two months, and that they seem to just sit and wait, sit and wait, and wait some more.  He works for the state government of Kayangel and so he is required to stay there, but from what he said it seemed like he is going nuts. Most of them also are separated from their families who have stayed in Koror (like Nolan has three kids who live in Koror without him).  I think the night that Nolan was telling us all of this was the night my eyes were really opened.  It was then that I saw the island with new eyes and saw what was really going on, unfortunately it was on our last night there.

            We had originally planned on leaving Friday morning, but the water was too rough (there had been a LOT of wind the whole week we were there).  So we were told we would be leaving Saturday instead, and Friday turned out to be the best day we had there.  Brandon, Alicia, Colton, and I took advantage of the low tide in the morning to walk to the next island (there are technically 4 islands of Kayangel, only two are really big enough to really live on).  It was a great adventure, the water never got more than chest deep there or back, and all 4 of us loved the trek, and even thought the sunburns were worth it.   In the afternoon we did a bit more work on the school (pushing all the rubbish out), before spending the rest of the time swimming, playing volleyball, ping-pong, and watching a movie with the guys.  The night was the clearest and most beautiful as well, I have rarely had the opportunity to see the night sky so big, beautiful, and starlit. 

            We left early Saturday morning, had an incredibly smooth, calm boat trip back, and then found we were gonna be helping with another church youth retreat that afternoon and night.  So we went back to Fuana’s, got repacked for the night, and actually took real showers (which felt SOOO good! Haha) before heading to the church.  We spend that afternoon exhausting ourselves even more than we already were by playing games, doing skits, teaching, and hanging out with these young people.  We were to spend the night with them at the church, and I think all the kids thought we were crazy because all 5 of us went to bed before any of them haha.  (Alicia and I slept in an air conditioned room, right under the AC… and we froze! Shows how we’ve adapted lol).  Sunday we were woken up at 5 with all the kids, and we did the morning devotional for them and then hung out until church time.  After church was volleyball again.  The evening we had Mary and Andreas over to cook dinner for/with us (they came back from Kayangel with us to head to another island for a few weeks before they leave to go to their next adventure spot, which is Australia).  We were blessed to have not only the 5 of us, and Mary and Andreas, but also to be joined by Fuana and Linda (another Palauan YWAMer who we met in Kona before we left) for the amazing dinner of tapas that Andreas and Mary fixed for us. 

            So yea, I think that gets you guys all caught up, doesn’t it? We aren’t exactly sure what this week is gonna look like, but God always seems to provide something so we are excited to see what He will give us.  I can hardly believe that we only have two more weeks in Palau and only three weeks until I will be home.  I realized this morning that I’m finally used to being here… and that going home might actually be a little weird. Not to say I’m not excited to go home! …but it will be a little weird… I definitely feel that it’s time though, I've started dreaming of home and people from back home almost every night for the past couple days… I’m ready, I think haha.  It will be interesting to be back home, I feel like outreach has changed me much more than lecture phase did.  Not just “outreach” though… Palau, and the amazing people I have met here.  Yup.  That all came out of no where haha, but now you all know exactly what I’m thinking I guess. I really didn’t mean to write that much, but oh well.

I miss you all so very much, and even if I do love it here, I’m counting down the days until I get to see you all! Talk to you soon, and take luck! J

Outreach Week 6

1-23-14
            Hey everybody! Well, its week six. And we didn’t end up going to Kayangle.  I sent out my last blog on Friday, and we thought we were leaving Sunday.  Well, if you hadn’t figured it out by now (and didn’t see my Facebook post) we didn’t go.  The governor abruptly told us we could not go.  We spent Saturday not doing a whole lot, the only thing I distinctly remember doing was an amazing youth group time with the Catholic church.  I gave my testimony (and ended up talking for half an hour, who knew?!?!) and then had worship and watched a bunch of high school kids get filled and overflowed with the Holy Spirit.  The other exciting thing of Saturday was that Jim arrived late that night.
            Sunday (19^th) we went to church, before once again going to play volleyball in the park.  Instead of going to basketball, we tried to go see one of the guys we had met at the high school perform, but we had misunderstood the time and missed them.  We all really enjoyed having Jim with us and the fun, refreshment, and energy he brought to our group.
            Monday (20^th) we spent most of the day at the coffee shop, having our one-on-ones with Jim.  And that’s all we really remember from Monday haha.
            Tuesday (21^st) we had an interesting morning.  We had a lot of good discussion and worship. We talked a lot about surrender.  Not just the “I surrender all” kinda mentality, but actually getting deep and specific about what we were surrendering, like going home, the job I think I have when I go home, certain people in our life, just getting into the deep specifics and getting into stuff we didn’t want to give to God, but that we needed to.  Later that day we took other faith journeys of sorts and Colton and I went and walked around the Community College, trying to see if there was anyone we knew or anything, but since we didn’t we just explored and prayed over the campus as we walked.  On the way back we bumped into our local buddy Kaiser, and got plans for the evening to hang out.  We also stopped quickly at the coffee shop, and at the gift shop of a museum by our house.  The evening we spend with Kaiser, while Jim, Max, and Fuana had a meeting with the Palauan YWAMers.  After they all got back we continued to hang out thinking that we would stay up until Max took Jim to the airport at 3am.  We all had a blast and hung out (with Kaiser) until midnight. 
            Wednesday (22^nd) morning, after having a bit of a slow sleepy morning, we found out Jim’s flight had been cancelled and wasn’t leaving until that night now.  So we met and spent some time with him in his (air conditioned) hotel room and decided to go on another prayer/faith journey.  Colton got wrecked beyond belief about how all the good in him comes from God, and the only reason he is worthy of ANYthing was because of God, and God in him. Brandon did his own thing for the day, Jim and Alicia met a girl named Latifa.  And then Max and I ended up going to, and getting a new connection at the police station. We met back together after our time out and spent some time in the early evening at Jim’s room, enjoying real beds (with some napping of course), TV, air conditioning, and for a few of us, hot showers.  In the evening we had a special going-away dinner for Jim, before sending him off. 
            Thursday (23^rd) we decided to bless Fuana and spend most of the day working on and around her house.  The evening we spent helping out the prison ministry, joining them for their chapel time with worship, a message, and communion before getting to spend a few minutes talking (and sometimes praying) with some of the inmates. 
            Friday (24^th- today) we spend the morning once again at the high school, but Max and I slipped out for a time to go to the graduation for the Police Academy, which we had been invited to when we were at the police station. The afternoon we had a bit of time before our crazy night, where we have the option to go to the once a month cultural festival, the celebration banquet for the graduated officers, and we have plans to again hang with Kaiser.  So we aren’t exactly sure how tonight is going to look. 
            So… for other news… We are currently being told (again) that we will be leaving for Kayangle on Sunday (forfeiting many plans we had for this weekend and beginning of next week…).  After having going to Kayangle cancelled and then back on 4 different times this week (two even just today…) we are not sure how we feel about this whole thing currently.  We have to sit and talk as a team, but we are discussing if we are still gonna go, if none of us are gonna go, or if we are gonna split the team and have only some of us go.  This whole thing has been a very trying process and we are frustrated, and we don’t know what to think, or even feel.  Emotions about it have been back and forth and just getting pushed through the wringer.  So we should be having that discussion tonight, but I figured if we did all end up going I wanted to get this to all of you guys.  If you could just pray for what we should do and what God wants us to do that would be immensely appreciated.  We trust Max, and God as well, and we just want to do what He calls us to do.  So pray that we would hear Him clearly and all have peace about whatever He asks us to do.  (After a bit more discussion, we are all beginning to feel a bit more peace about going.  We feel this is God and we are all working through our thoughts, doubts and frustrations, and this is all seeming to come together)
            The other thing from this week is slight colds.  Alicia, Colton, and I have been fighting sore throats and feeling sick the entire week.  Each day seems to be a gamble and all three of us have had some better days, and some worse days.  So pray for healing for us, especially if we go to Kayangle. 
            Thank you all so much for reading this, and for supporting us, in encouragement and also in prayer.  It means so much more than I can express to you.  Thank you and bless you! I love you all, and I’m counting down the days until I get to see you all, I miss you so much! Love you guys!!!!

 

Outreach Weeks 4 & 5

1-17-14

​Hey everybody!!! How are you all doing? I miss being able to have real conversations with you all… haha. But I am grateful I can send out this to still show you guys what’s going on in my heart and mind.  Since I’m a little behind on getting my update up I ask you to bear with me… as its gonna be a long one, sorry.

​Monday (January 6th) was a day off.  We spend the day talking, going to the coffee shop, and preparing for a special dinner.  Wilson and Ester and their kids came over for dinner (and brought most of it) and we ate with them and played a few rounds of spoons.  When they left the team played Indian Poker before going to bed.  

​Tuesday (7th) we began our time with the Boys High School.  Every day that we were there we lead the morning breakfast devotional and then joined the seniors for their Bible class.  Tuesday we did both of those, and then the guys when to play ball with them in the evening while Alicia and I stayed at Fuana’s.  

​Wednesday (8th) the boys add Chapel to their morning routine and we joined them to hear the other team do some speaking and leading.  After that the school had some concrete work they needed help with, so the guys did that while Alicia and I helped out in the library.  Then we had the Bible class before going and spending the rest of the day at Fuana’s.  

​Thursday (9th) we had a day very similar to Wednesday, devotional, working around the building until lunch and then Bible class.  After that we packed, shopped, and prepped for Anguar (An-gar).

​Friday (10th) we did our last devotional with the guys (hopefully not last for forever), and split them up into groups to have them pray for each other.  I had a bit of a hard time connecting with them in the time we were there, and had only really connected with the seniors who I could talk to on a more personal level through class. Who ever thought I would be intimidated by being one of two white girls surrounded by Palauan teenaged guys? But I enjoyed getting to pray and talk with some of them that Friday.  We then headed to the boat to Anguar.  It’s a 4 hour boat ride, and the island is small enough that you can walk around it in two hours.  We landed (with the other team, we all stayed together), got settled in and spent the evening crabbing and then did some worship.

​Saturday (11th) we did what we set out to do… but what I forgot to tell you was that it was raining the entire week.  The only day we didn’t have a lot of rain was Friday, which was such a blessing to be dry on the boat.  But Saturday we decided to go clean up the beaches, which is part of what our purpose in Anguar was to be.  But it was still pouring rain…. So we put on our swimsuits, grabbed our trash bags, and headed to the beaches.  One of the biggest problems in Palau is the Spirit of Passivity, and we decided to set an example in breaking that by going out in the rain.  So we spend the day drenched in rain, hiking through slippery rainforests, to pick up trash off of beaches… adventure right?

​Sunday (12th) was one of the most intense days I’ve had in a long time.  Max spoke at the little church that morning and God used him to teach me some… much needed lessons.  To begin with, I was struggling with why the spirit of passiveness was affecting me so much; I understood that it was the spirit of the land, but why was it so much worse for me? God showed me that it was worse for me because it is also a bit of a spirit in my family. Once I realized that I begged God to break it out of me, to set me (and my family) free from this spirit. I realized that my passiveness had lead to my feelings of isolation, and disconnect, not only with the other team, but with my own team as well.  I had been passive in trying to get to know the other team while I had the opportunity of living with them to do so.  In choosing to be passive about getting to know the other team I had also been losing my connections with my own team as they actually did get to know the other team.  See what a vicious cycle it was? Thankfully God broke it, and since I have been able to step out in many ways, including even saying this so bluntly to all of you.  The other thing God began to show me Sunday, and the rest of the time in Anguar was who He made me to be.  He and I sat and had a long conversation at the pier and it was so good and so refreshing to hear from Him and to hear even just a piece of who He made me to be.  To help me out, He allowed me to really connect with a leader (Tanya-Rae or just Rae) on the other team, letting her ask and me tell, everything that I had gone through that day.  She also encouraged me and lifted me up, and just told me to keep pressing in. We managed to rope in a few of the other team members to play spoons that night, and I had the best time I had had the entire time of being with them.  Funny how freedom and openness can brighten your mood and lighten your heart, right?

​Monday (13th) we tried to keep as a free day a bit, and so a bunch of us learned how to make local sweet bread from the pastor’s wife Sylvia.  I got to swim at the pier (something that happened more often than not… like every day haha) with Rae, and two others from the other team (Caleb and Anna).  We all got to take the time that evening to watch the sunset before eating dinner and having a family sharing time (where I again stepped out against passivity and apologized for disconnecting from them).  We then had an amazing worship time, where God spoke to me and also allowed me, again, to be blessed by Rae.  After that Alicia, Caleb, and I lead a small worship time for Fuana, our Anguar contact, and another amazing woman of Anguar.  

​Tuesday (14th) was another amazing day.  We spend the morning doing a prayer walk around the island and then visiting an old, fallen lighthouse.  After lunch we again set off to clean some beaches, and Alicia and I took our own.  We worked, talked, explored, and had a blast before heading to the pier to swim before dinner.  She is working on learning to dive (something she has never learned to do before) and each day she gets better and better.  I’m working on learning how to do a running dive, which is going a lot slower than Alicia’s learning haha.  For dinner we had a special Ships dinner, at the only restaurant on the island, owned by an Australian named Bennie.  It was a WONDERFUL evening; I shared what God had been teaching me and we all shared about the things we had been learning, growing in, and overcoming. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the food!!! SO GOOD!!!!!! And then we all just hung out played spoons and Indian poker, and managed to rope Bennie into playing with us at both.  It was a perfect, flawless night.

​Wednesday (15th) we spend doing the deep clean of the community center we were living at… and man-oh-man was it gross!!! Seriously! But we put on our swimsuits, dug into the cleaning, and then dove into the ocean to get off all the chemicals and grossness.  We had a party of sorts in the evening, we invited the whole island, only a few came, but we had some worship, some skits, some testimonies, and some time by the bonfire, it was a perfect ending to our time.

​Thursday (16th) we finished packing, did another clean sweep and then got on the boat to come back to Koror.  The rest of the day we had free, which we spend at the coffee shop before having an amazing pizza dinner with the other team before we rented and watched a movie.  

​Today, Friday (17th) is basically another free day, at least for part.  We leave on Sunday for Kayangle, and it sounds like we will be there for quite a bit… like a month.  Sunday is the January 19th, and they think we will be staying in Kayangle until February 10th, which is basically the rest of our time here.  It will be the five of us Ships people, and we will be joined by only 3 of the guys from the other team, the other two who were gonna join us are going back to Anguar where they already left 10 other members of their team.  So Kayangle is turning out to be nothing like what we had expected, and to be honest… I’m extremely unsure of how I feel about all of it.  I’m afraid of feeling useless like I did in Ngarchelong, and I’m afraid of trying to live with no water, except to drink, and to live with not only the 3 guys from the other team, but most likely in a community center, with countless others.  I’m extremely intimidated by the entire though of everything having to do with Kayangle.  Not that I plan on letting it stop me, but… well, I don’t know… I guess I just have to say pray for me haha.  

​Thank you again for suffering through all of this to read my whole brain barf haha.  I have absolutely no idea when I’ll be able to post once I leave, or if we will come back halfway through the time to write home or anything, but I’ll write to you all as soon as I can.  You are all amazing, and I miss you all so much! Love you all!!!!!

Outreach Week 3

            Alii and Happy New Year to all of you!!! I pray that this New Year brings you joy for every day, blessings to fill the moments, smiles to fill your hearts, and love to fill your life! We spent our New Years Eve hanging out with the other team for quite a bit at Muhnz (the place where they live).  Our team was in a bit of a funk that day, Alicia and I struggling with various things, Colton acting against character and going off by himself and Max having to stay home incredibly sick (And Brandon, our constant, was about the same as normal).  We met for dinner with the other team, and then when to a night service.  After the service we went back home and sat and talked about all of the disconnect and things going on between our team.  Due to talking, we accidentally stayed up till midnight, so we went and lit off some sparklers before going to bed.

            Wednesday we decided to fast, pray and worship, just to stick with the things we had talked about the night before and really reconnect as a team through God.  Amazing things happened and we really revisited the vision and purpose for us being here in Palau.  After our morning we stopped by the café before going to the volleyball park (Long Island) and ended up playing ultimate frisbee for most of the afternoon, meeting quite a few people (Kaser, Mymy, Nikki, Nita, and a few others I don’t remember their names…).  Due to it being a special day (New Years Day), we went out to dinner at an amazing place called the Rose Garden Café, before going home and playing card games with our team for the entire rest of the evening.

            Thursday we traveled up the island to Choll (which is close to Ngarchelong, where we spent our first week) and visiting the YWAM land there.  We walked the land with the other team and prayed over it.  After that we went with both teams and had a beach day.  We spent that evening again playing card games (uno, spoons, golf, hearts, cribbage) (I’m waiting to get more decks so I can teach them all Nertz J).
           Friday we spent the morning at the capital, walking around the place and praying and trying to meet (and pray) for as many people as we could.  In the afternoon we went exploring to find a community where several people we had met playing volleyball lived.  The people who live in this community in E-Ang are not exactly excepted by Palauans, they come from islands just outside of what is considered Palau and so they are looked down upon, which was the exact reason we wanted to go there.  We found Joey (who was the one we were looking for because he was who we had met) and met his cousin Edison, and a girl named Janet.  It was a wonderful time to hang out and talk to them.  We found out about them and started making not only connections, but also finding out other people we should contact.  We went back home that day and spent another evening/night playing cards.

            Saturday Alicia and I had an early morning helping the other team and Fuana’s church host the monthly Women’s Prayer Breakfast. It was an amazing time spent hearing the hearts of several of the women on the other team, amazing worship (lead by Alicia), and the chance to pray over some of these amazing Palauan pray warrior women.  After the breakfast we rejoined the guys and spent the rest of the morning doing another Dean Sherman, Spiritual Warfare, lecture.  The afternoon Brandon, Colton, and I went to a pier with the neighbor kid AJ and swam and tossed around a ball.  The evening we all had dinner together and hung out.

            Sunday (yesterday) we were blessed to have AJ ask us to come to church with us, and he said he liked it and wanted to come back! He also joined us at the park that afternoon to play volleyball.  We did get to play some volleyball, but with a completely different group than from the week before.  That evening we had been invited to play basketball with Kaser and so all of us, except Max, went and hung out there and had lots of fun and got to know several of them more.

            So that was our week this week.  I’m finally doing better with the not missing home as much.  I realized when pondering the New Year that out of 12 months in a year, I will only be spending 2 of those in Palau and so I should enjoy the short time I get to spend here.  I’ve really been enjoying the times we get to interact and reconnect with the people we have already met, and those times this week were my favorite.  At the beginning of the week God really did rejuvenate something in each of our hearts, and especially in my heart. My passion for this place came back, the passion that I haven’t had since being in Kona, it was so refreshing and reassuring that this was where I am supposed to be.  I can’t say I don’t miss home at all, and that I don’t think about you guys, but it’s definitely not as painful anymore.

            This is random, but a little tid-bit on how to pronounce Palauan words …(most of which I’m probably spelling wrong ha).  The “ch”s are silent as are the “g”s.  So words like Ngarchelong, are pronounced more like N-ar-elong.  And Choll is pronounced O-ll.   And yea, I don’t know if that helps at all or anything, but I felt that I should put that in.

            This week we hope to spend a lot of time helping out at a boys boarding high school.  We are to lead devotionals, have worship times, Brandon is going to be doing some ESL tutoring, and we will be doing various other things that they need us to do.

Our next “big” adventure will be our trip to Angar (sp???).  The “monkey island” as I call it in my head, because they have monkeys there obviously! We will be spending the 10^th through the 16^th there and… I don’t know what we will be doing yet.  We are still waiting on God’s timing to on when we will be able to make it to Kayangle (pronounced Kai-an), the island hit by the typhoon, but we are just trusting in faith that God is making us wait for His timing.  So ya… I think that pretty much brings you all up to date! I’ll be a little late posting my next blog due to being in Angar, but I will get it to you guys as soon as I can after we get back.

I love you all and miss you all! And Happy New Year!!!! J