Isaac at Southern Adventist University

Who do I look like!?

2006-08-18T04:55:00.000+09:00

Their facial recognition software just saw a smile and went with it I think.

My parents will be so proud

2006-08-07T10:52:00.000+09:00

Two weeks into my stay here at Southern and I learned to tie my shoes!

Seriously.

The two seconds I'll save. And this knot is more balanced and less likely to come loose, so that's another five seconds (conservatively) I'm saving. I estimate I'll live another fifty years (Hey, I'm a vegetarian).

365 days in a year
x
50 years to go
x
7 seconds saved each day

That comes out to 35 hours I'll save in my life. woot! Thank Ian!
Now, back to wasting countless hours of my life looking at silly websites...

The Latest

2006-08-05T08:06:00.000+09:00

Well, it has been a very up and down time so far. The place I found when I visited turned out to have a very different atmosphere than I was hoping for, so I'm moving next week. I had some very generous people offer me a room in their house. I will continue to find an apartment/house situation and look for a roommate.

I have to say this has been a very educational few weeks. Mainly in dealing with the ups and downs of being back in Western society, far away from family, and dealing with a whole new culture. In some ways, it has been more eye-opening than Palau was, but most importantly I have learned again to trust in God. He has really helped me out, showing me that He's got everything covered. My uncle is lending me a car for the foreseeable future, which is totally awesome. Walking in this heat wasn't exactly ideal. I can now feel more "at home" in Collegedale since I don't have to bum a ride to the grocery store or church.

Make sure you're giving everything to God too.

Officially at Southern

2006-07-25T04:55:00.000+09:00

Today was my first day at Southern. I am taking a (free) SmartStart college class. I am taking the Life and Teachings of Jesus. It was hard to stay awake because I didn't sleep well last night.

I'm doing alright as far as fitting in. I am working on getting a vehicle. I'm also not sure about the place I'm staying at. I may move out to a closer, smaller apartment.

Check out my latest photos with my new camera here.

Where did Isaac go?

2006-06-24T08:59:00.000+09:00

Well, first off, home.

But first, I was waay busy and I never had time to update. Before I forget, here is what happened the last month or so in Palau. In a few short paragraphs.

I had to fill in for the 5th grade teacher only two weeks after teaching at PMA. So for the last three and a half weeks of school I was a fifth grade teacher.

Teaching is great, but why does every class have to have that one kid that drives you crazy?

I was also continuing work as youth pastor which kept me with very little free time.

I managed to have a camping trip with some of the youth. It was an awesome experience.

After school ended, we spent a week cleaning up and I had friends from the States to show around. We went scuba diving and snorkeling. I managed to get sick and had a horrible case of reverse block. (Imagine a knife in your sinuses that won't go away)

We also got very little sleep because people were leaving and we would see them off at the airport. The flights all left after midnight, so I was getting 3-5 hours of sleep a night that week. Then finally I left myself.

I went to Honolulu for three days and had fun but not as much as I'd hoped for. I stayed in a hostel for the first time, which was cool. Oh, and I was "approached" by a prostitute, not cool.

Jet lag is a killer.

Southern is taking most of my credits.

I found a house with three roommates to rent. Crazy, I know. But cheap and very close. (and fast internet)

And now you're caught up. I had hoped for a better update, but I can't manage it.

Youth Camping Trip

2006-04-25T12:08:00.000+09:00

With my newfound role as a high school teacher sucking up all my time now, the youth camping trip I had been planning for months almost didn't happen. I had wanted to have a spiritual retreat where I could really connect and push the idea that God loves them and wants what is best for them into their media-swamped brains. I hoped (and prayed) the beauty of Ngemelis would awaken something in them. At first I had around 15 youth and all seemed eager to go. As the date grew closer, more and more dropped out due to work or family obligations. In the end, six youth attended and one SM for backup chaperoning. Grace, Eva, Keo, Josh, Gelvon, and Julianne. Mladen was my last minute choice after I couldn't find a female SM who could make it after I had asked Ona but she was sick.
As I said, the trip almost didn't happen. The church boat was out of commission but was supposed to be fixed in time. It wasn't, so we had to scramble to locate another boat and a driver. My first week at PMA left little time to work on the details. I delegated quite nicely, but it still seemed impossible. I prayed that God would make it happen if he wanted it, but I didn't really want it to happen because of the stress and I was already tired by Wednesday and the thought of being "on duty" as a youth pastor in Ngemelis after teaching them all week wasn't all that appealing. But God made it happen. And he even changed my attitude on Friday so that I began to look forward to it. We almost forgot the permit that had been applied for three weeks prior. We actually picked it up at 2pm on Friday afternoon. The boat was supposed to leave at 2pm Friday afternoon. When I picked up the permit, they gave me a second copy and told me I had to take it to the ranger's station so that they'd know I was camping on the island that weekend. I tried not to panic because we were already late rushing around buying last minute items and picking up the youth and their supplies. I decided to let someone else drop it off, but when we got to the dock, no one was there that I expected to be there. So I made the decision to not drop off the permit copy. If they came to the island and tried to cause problems, I would politely ask the rangers to drop it off at the office when their shift was over. (hehe)
When we reached the island, we were greeted by a man who was staying in a smaller camp house that is usually abandoned. I had a flash of annoyance: I wanted to be alone with the youth with no outside distractions. However, I quickly brushed it aside thanks to God who has been teaching me a great deal about patience and humility lately. Twenty minutes after unloading the boat and beginning the setup process, Julianne came to me and told me that the old man (or rubak in Palauan) had already told her a story about how he had murdered a Bangladeshi worker a few years ago. (!) I smiled and said "Well, he seems harmless. Lets just say a prayer and not worry about it. The guy ended up being a great neighbor. He let us borrow fishing gear and a canoe to paddle around in. I never heard him speak English, but we had several people who spoke Palauan and that made it easy. We offered him breakfast and/or orange juice, but he said he didn't eat "American food." (Breakfast cereal I can understand, but who passes up free OJ!?)
Aside from meeting our neighbor, the first day was pretty quiet. We set up and prepared for worship. We did some sharing and Julianne presented me with a binder that she and Angeleen had made for me with the help of some others. It was a very touching memento that I will definitely keep. I actually got choked up at one point, but no one could tell. We discussed how we'd grown recently and what we wanted spiritually from the weekend. I encouraged them to find time alone with God (and they did!) that weekend. We sang songs, ate spaghetti, and eventually went to sleep. Well, I did. The youth stayed up till around midnight talking until the rain came. They came screaming from the beach "Isaac, get up, its raining." I had been sleeping outside on my air mattress. I stumbled out of bed, almost breaking my neck because one of my legs had fallen asleep and was worthless. As feeling returned, I realized I'd stumbled on roots too. Ah, the beauty of sleep-tingles mixed with the heat of stubbed toes. I slept well though.
The morning came and the youth didn't really wake up for several hours. Finally we got started on worship after I'd already eaten, snorkeled, canoed, and showered. Mladen was the worst offender perhaps. He slept 12 hours by my estimation. Lazy bum.
We swam, walked, talked, sang, lounged, laughed, chased, worshiped, and had a wonderful Sabbath. At sunset, we hiked to the top of rock island and watched the sunset. The youth were definitely feeling the Spirit, as was I. I loved that we had so much beauty, no rain, and a chance to get away from it all. Some construction workers came and worked on our camp house and some other facilities during the Sabbath hours, but we just avoided sticking around so that it didn't intrude on our quiet time. Normally I would have been ranting to someone and marveling at the injustice of life. A spiritual retreat with construction workers!!! But God blessed us regardless.
Sunday morning we did some more swimming, lounging, singing, sharing, eating, etc. I went canoing with some of the youth out to the channel where there is a rope swing that you can jump off a cliff into the water with. I did it twice. It was very high but very fun. I screamed like my life was over, but it wasn't really for show. The greatest fun was when one of the youth, Grace, kept asking nervously about dark spots under the water. We insisted that they were just inanimate rocks with no intention of harming her. She insisted they were "scary" regardless. In fact, we heard the word scary so often that it actually became a sort of fictional character in our outing. We would say "Grace, look out, scary is over there!" or "Watch out, I think scary is going to get you!" I guess you had to be there, but I laughed so hard at her antics as she would flip out at the slightest chance of something from underwater getting her. Eventually, I was laughing while swimming as she was swimming with unnecessary panic towards the shore after diving in the water. The look on her face made me turn onto my back, floating in the water, and laughing with a loud laugh I'd never used before. It was echoing off the cliff walls and the other youth were joining in. Little did I know that I was slowly getting closer to the underwater rocks and I kicked one. My laughter turned to a howl and thus ended my fun for a few minutes. I have a nice red and purple mark three days later. Oh the pain. It was worth the laugh though. Grace insists that I deserved it for laughing.
Ooh, this it out of chronological order, but on Friday night we also went walking around one of the island while it was low tide. We found cowrie shells, brittle stars, albino eels, rock crabs, and glowing algae. If you've never seen the waters blinking like starlight (beneath actual starlight) or had the sand flash with soft, green blips wherever you walk, you haven't lived.
On the boat ride home, I realized that I'd seen some of the PMA youth for nine straight days and by Sabbath it would be up to about fifteen solid days. We're going to be close by the end of the year I think. Or ready to kill each other. I just pray that they'll be closer to God by the end of the year in part because of my efforts.

Agape Feast

2006-04-25T08:01:00.001+09:00

Based on my recent success with AY, the pressure was on to make AY great. The planning phase was short...the day of the event. I had been struggling all week to figure out what to do and Thursday night I finally remembered I had wanted to do an Agape Feast for awhile now. Early Friday morning I took one of the secretaries shopping for tons of good food and arranged for one of the women in the church to prepare some unleavened bread. We bought candles and a roll of white tablecloth. Some of the older youth had nothing to do after school, so I let them in on what had so far been a mystery AY. Several of the other youth begged to know what was going on, but it was more fun saying "You'll have to wait and see. It's a surprise"

I recruited some of the SM girls to help prepare the fruits and vegetables. We were supposed to meet about an hour before the feast started. I got a call in the afternoon from the woman who was to make the bread. Her power was out when she got home and she wasn't going to be able to make the bread. I went into mini-panic mode, but I found a recipe online, bought the ingredients as quickly as possible, and then tried to track one of the SM lady-types to make some bread. Unfortunately, no one really had experience, but Sumi and Adelina volunteered to bake it as long as we didn't hold them accountable for the results. When the time came to cut up food, we all did so cheerfully. The music I had selected was playing while we worked and the programs I had printed out were on standby. I lit the last few candles just as the youth walked in. They were all stunned. They had no idea what an Agape feast was, so it was great that I had texts and words prepared to explain it. We prayed and I explained the idea of preparing a plate for the person sitting across from you. The food included unleavened bread (turned out great!), baby carrots, broccoli florets, cucumbers spears, apples wedges, oranges slices, and grape bunches. Yes, I'm being overly descriptive. Because it turned out so great! Praise the Lord. The youth were actually pretty quiet and respectful. I had Josh read a passage from a book that speaks from God's perspective about love. I talked myself. We had quiet times. We had a great special music by Peterson. The SMs that came were impressed and so were the youth. I was so happy it all worked out and that people were spiritually uplifted.

Teaching...

2006-04-25T08:01:00.000+09:00

A week and a half ago, I was asked by one of my friends, Marie, to do faculty worship for the elementary school. I agreed because I love trying to give the teachers a spiritual boost, and something about me smiling and being cheerful while all the faculty are half-asleep and dreading another day of dealing with students, grading, and lesson plans is strangely satisfying. My pastoral duties are more flexible, so I don't face the same challenges as they do. Or at least, I didn't. After worship, Eric, the school principal, asked to speak with me. I said "Uh oh" and he laughed and said, "You've heard?" I replied that I hadn't. I just assumed the worst when he wanted to talk to me. We laughed. Melissa, one of the SMs at PMA, had been ill for several weeks and recently had been put on an IV drip. She had decided that due to lack of recovery, it was time for her to head home. He asked if I would be willing to take her slot as Bible teacher at PMA. I was a bit stunned. But what an opportunity. I would get another paycheck, teach Bible every day instead of on Fridays and Saturdays, and I would get to know some more of the youth and hopefully make a difference. My pastoral duties have slowly evolved from big projects to smaller ones, so this was actually something I could do now. There wasn't anything stopping me other than the fact that I'd be swamped. I remember feeling that this was right. This was what God wanted. So I said yes. Eric was relieved.
I've turned down several other offers of jobs at PMA and I'm sure he was worried I'd do it again. He was also in a bind with only six weeks left, so I knew I had to chip in.
Well, Week One is over and it has been fairly stressful. I love the Juniors and Sophomores, but I have wanted to strangle Seniors and Freshman on several occasions. The biggest stressor this past week was the grading that Melissa left behind. She did do a bunch of grading before she left, but she also left some for me and one of the other teachers to do. I started on Monday and progress reports were due on Wednesday. We didn't finish them in time. There was simply too much, so I turned mine in on Friday morning, just before they went out to the students. I had to figure out how to enter them and make the grades calculate properly. Now I'm working on catching up with the assignments I've given since I became teacher and also getting an attendance sheet that actually has all my students. Oh, and figuring out what my duties are beyond teaching, like faculty supervision, chapel coordination, etc. It will be a rewarding experience I'm sure. I've already fallen for a few of the students, even some of the bad ones. I also appreciate how much teachers can hate a class clown, even when they're hilarious. Most of all, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, WHY CAN'T YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP AND LET ME TEACH!!!!!!?

Ahem
Yes, my discipline plan could use a few tweaks.

The Youth

2006-04-02T13:44:00.000+09:00

Two weeks ago, I was struggling to figure out what to do for Friday night vespers (AY). Ken suggested taking them to Palau Pacific Resort for a hike up to the mountain where there is a nice gazebo. There were 14 kids piled in the back of the beat up church pickup that night. It was a successful night. We were able to get in and out without getting "in trouble" for not being members or guests. No one seemed to notice or care.

We played a game where you describe God with successive letters of the alphabet, explaining why you chose the adjective you did from your own personal experience. After that, we prayed and headed back to the church.

A few of the youth had tried to come up with another place to go, but all the nice spots in Palau are infected with drunk people on Friday and Saturday nights. So we went to PPR again. This time, the youth were supposed to come up with their own activity, but they pleaded their inability to think of anything and I just prayed and came up with something with God's help. And I'm glad He helped, because we had 20 people this time. It was a relatively huge crowd; we had people I'd never met before. I split them into small groups and had them discuss a text in 1 John.

I think it went pretty well. I still have some disruptive and/or not-caring youth, but a few seem to be genuine. One kid jumped in the water accidentally. He was heading for the water, but didn't see that their was a drop off so soon in the dark and -splunk- in he went, shoes and all. I had to drop off 13 of the kids. Although some of them could have called their parents, I think the ride in the back of the pickup is one of their favorite parts. We had a cop wave and say something, and I was sweating, but he didn't turn around even when I pulled off the road. Thank God for that. Many people ride in the back of pickups here, so I'm not sure they care. I did have a bunch of kids though. hehe. (I drive cautiously)

We need to work on the music part. Peterson was in the hospital with ear surgery, so he wasn't able to come the past few times. The youth have three guitars. One has been broken, one was just stolen apparently, and I need to find the other one in the stock room. It is unfortunate that I can't leave the guitar in the youth room. The youth will break into the room and use the chalkboard, eat potluck, and mess with anything I have stored in there.

Anyway, I feel like the youth are starting to get more cohesive here towards the end of my tenure. As I look forward to home, family, friends, and even school, I can't help feel bad that just as things start to roll around here, I'll be leaving them to their own devices. I keep talking about leadership and grooming some of them to be in charge, but I'm not sure they can do it with all the cultural blocks in the way. They all seem to be allergic to responsibility (which probably is normal for young people).

So I keep praying and trying to figure out how best to leave them. I don't want the programs to fall apart, but perhaps my job was merely to plant the seeds for their own personal growth. Maybe none of these kids are supposed to be leaders...yet.

The Amazing Scavenger Hunt

2006-03-29T16:35:00.000+09:00

Saturday night I threw together a scavenger hunt for the youth group. The idea actually came to me while I was waking up Sabbath morning. I was sort of praying and somehow it popped into my head, so I went with it. I remembered how fun the scavenger hunt in Gainesville had been although we'd used vehicles to get around. It was supposed to be just for the youth, but some kids were invited by one of the youth, so I opened it up for all ages.

Koror is a MUCH smaller place, and everything is within walking distance. I chose items (you can see the list in the previous entry) that were both physical and informational in nature. I also chose a nice performance piece in the form of the Palauan National Anthem.

The idea was for the kids to have a bunch of fun and get embarrassed by interacting with strangers. Unfortunately, I underestimated the ingenuity of the youth and the unique situation we have here in Koror.

We delayed the beginning about 15 minutes waiting on more people to show up. Eventually, I went over the rules with a group of 15 eager to get started. Six were under the age of 13 and the rest were around 14 to 17.

The rules were:

No Stealing
No buying
Nothing illegal
Always be polite
Be honest
One hour time limit
This is about having fun!

I figured these rules would cover all the avenues and we would have kids actually trying to find stuff through sheer brain power or panicked running around town. Once I went over the rules and divided the group into three teams of five, I said "go" in a nonchalant way that is always satisfying when you see them suddenly grab the papers and frantically begin to read the possible items.

The teams began to run around the church parking lot looking for easy stuff like a coconut and bottle caps. They quickly exhausted the parking lot and set out just as it grew dark. I realized that I'd just sent kids into the streets instead of just the youth and I sent up a prayer that none of them ran out in front of a car.

I began to follow a group to hear them split up and head for different locations. I was distracted when one of the youth, CJ, tried to approach some strangers for their autograph. It was fun to watch him approach different people and veer off at the last second as he saw another, perhaps less scary stranger. Finally he settled on someone and got the signature. He ran up and asked me where his group was, but I realized I'd lost track of them. So I wandered around looking for them for awhile.

I ended up at Surangel's, the grocery and department store, where I finally saw a group. They were leaving with a huge bag of merchandise. I walked up and asked them what they were up to. They said that they asked the store if they could borrow some things and they let them! I was shocked and mortified. Then I saw another group running into the store as well. After speaking with the group who had borrowed from the department store, I found out they had already performed the national anthem to a Filipino couple.

I decided to follow the other group to see what they were doing. I was wondering why they took so long to get a few items of information and perhaps get the bag with a store name on it that the scavenger list called for. They were upstairs in the department store. AND THEY WERE BORROWING STUFF TOO!

I was turning red as I walked into the store. They had a group of department store workers running around the store helping them gather things. Instead of locating a Scrabble letter, they had a whole box. They borrowed five balls of various sizes, sunglasses, a hat, and even the robot worth five points that I put on their as a long shot! I can embarrass easily given the right circumstances. Having my little scavenger hunt disrupt an entire department store qualifies as a right circumstance. My only consolation was that the department store workers seemed to be enjoying themselves (for the most part). They were going through all the coins in their cash register looking for a 2002 coin. Both groups were quick to point out they hadn't bought anything. They were only borrowing. I had no rebuttal. I just couldn't believe they'd let kids off the streets take stuff while only writing down their name and what they took.

Of course, this being the Republic of Palau, some of the kids actually were related to the store employees. And I also found out/recalled later that the owner of the store, who is a Seventh-day Adventist, has a standing order that store employees are supposed to assist with church-related activities. My youth took advantage of that and made the final scores for the scavenger hunt somewhat higher than I expected.

In the end, it was a close game, but the original group who borrowed had the most points. I rewarded them with sodas although I immediately wished I'd had drinks ready for everyone. They were all quite thirsty and sweaty from the excursion. They also had a blast and wanted to do it again the next week. I told them we'd do it soon. Hopefully that will give me time to come up with a way to keep them from "borrowing" the whole department store.

The List

2006-03-29T16:30:00.000+09:00

Coconut 2 points
Straw 1 point
A penny from someone outside of your group (must have the name of the person) 2 points
A coin from 2002 4 points
Stranger's Autograph 2 points
Image of someone in your group 2 points
A shell 1 point
A white flower 1 point
A paperclip 1 point
A used phonecard/airtime 3 points
A picture of your group at RIC 3 points
A robot 5 points
A bible verse that mentioned heaven 2 points
A hat 2 points
A scrabble letter 3 points
A square of toilet paper (please, please, unused!) 1 point
A feather 2 points
The number “7” or “seven” printed on something (no writing it down yourself) 1 point
A bottlecap 1 point
How to say "Thank You" in 6 different languages 3 points

The phone number of the President's office (Executive Secretary)
1 point
Pastor Norton’s middle name 2 points
Palauan stone money 3 points
A hotel or diving brochure 3 points
A pair of sunglasses 2 points
A foreign driver’s license (Non-Palauan; be sure to return it) 2 points 3 if it is non-American

The whole group can sing the Palauan national anthem to someone in the Surangel’s parking lot and have them sign this paper saying you did. 4 points

The name of all the Palauan States 1 point each
The price of a can of corn at WCTC 1 point
The price of a can of Medium Olives at Surangels 1 point
A fruit (any kind) 2 points
Origami in the shape of an animal 2 points
The church’s PO Box number 1 point
What is mentioned in Proverbs 20:1 as bad for us. 1 point
An animal (be kind and gentle) 4 points
A red article of clothing 2 points
Four local acronyms that have “P” in them 2 points
The date Palau became Independent 1 point
A crayon 2 points
A shoelace that isn’t black or white 3 points
A basket woven from plant leaves 5 points
The number of books in the Bible 1 point
The letter that comes above “F” on the keyboard 2 points
The cheapest menu item at the Internet Café 2 points
An mp3 player 4 points
A French fry 3 points
A bag with a store name on it 3 points
Something pretty 1 point
Different kinds of game balls
1 ball 1 point 2 balls 2 points 3 balls 3 points etc Max 5 balls
A hair band 2 points

Hmm, I thought there were fifty...

Tons of Fun

2006-03-21T20:07:00.000+09:00

Wow! I've been busy. This weekend was the start of spring break for the SMs. Stacey's parents and Angela's mom were also on island. They put together a trip to Peleliu and the Rock Islands. We all left Sunday morning at around 8:30. Our first stop was Milky Way where we checked out the white silt and showed it to those who had never seen it before. Then we left Peleliu. It was really cool to finally see some of the WWII stuff that is featured on the island. We visited a Japanese communications center/prison as well as some machine gun emplacements. We also hiked up the steep stairs to Blood Nose Ridge and checked out all of Peleliu. We also went to Orange and White Beach. These were sites were hundreds of American soldiers were mowed down by the Japanese. We visited memorial sites for both sides.
After the history tour, we ate lunch at The Hole, which is a great swimming spot with the underwater cave place.
After leaving Peleliu, we went to Jellyfish Lake. Having been there three times already, I decided to nap on the dock while the group hiked to the lake. When the returned we also went to Cemetery to feed fish. Unfortunately, it was sunset and the fish were all full or asleep so we only saw a few. By that time we were all tired and ready for home. During the trip, Ken said to me "Tomorrow lets go diving, my treat!" I was like "Sure!"

And so that's what we did.

There is a group visiting here from Guam. They are all young Adventist couples with a love of diving. They had all their own gear; two of the guys even had knives strapped to their legs. They had set up the trip and Ken actually knew some of them, so he wanted to dive with them. They were very nice and enthusiastic. They actually had three trips planned plus a trip to Jellyfish lake. The diving was pure awesome. We did a Blue Holes, Turtle Cove, and New Drop Off. We saw a ton of sharks. One was about four and half to five foot long and was about about four feet away from me. Four feet! So cool. We also saw tons of fish, including a Dory Tang from Finding Nemo as well as Nemo himself, the clown fish. While hanging at the edge of cliff watching the sharks, Ken pointed out a large fish that was a few feet in front of us. It had lazily approached and then opened its mouth and gills. A few fish quickly came swimming out from their hiding places in the rocks and began to clean its gills and from the inside and out. Sometimes swimming into the gills and coming out of the mouth. Once the fish was satisfied, he expelled the fish with a blast of water and then moved on...only to be replaced by another large fish. They kept coming, one after the other, like an aquatic car wash for fish. A fish wash? When one large black fish tried to come into the washing area before the other one was done, the other fish turned around and scared him off. It was cool because we were surrounded by sharks but instead fascinated be fish cleaning.

Ken hadn't been diving in approximately ten years, so he was a bit nervous. He did great though and I couldn't even tell he was inexperienced. (We gave him a refresher course on the boat ride) We came up a few minutes before the rest of the group though and apparently they had a very close encounter with an eagle ray. I was jealous, but there will be other opportunities.

Three dives in one day will really wipe you out. I was staggering into bed that night. If it weren't for all the food I put into my body, I would have probably collapsed. Great fun though. I won't talk about the fever I ran the next day and how I wanted to die. haha

Evangelism Update

2006-02-20T10:32:00.000+09:00

I have a few updates regarding the evangelistic series

The power was out on Friday night. We didn't know this until we arrived in Ngarard. We got into a circle and prayed for the power to come back on. Then we began to sing while Peterson played guitar. Someone came by and said the power was unlikely to be restored, but I wanted to wait for Ken before we cancelled and went home. Without the power, we couldn't project on the screen or use the microphones. I had prayed and really wanted God to fix it somehow, but I didn't see a way since the electric company had no plans to finish repairs that night.

When Ken arrived, I left the still singing group to inform him of the problem. He just smiled and opened up his SUV's back door. There was a giant generator waiting to be used. Later on, we found out someone called him just before he left his house and told him that there would be no power. Normally he would have come with us, but he had decided to stay and eat dinner with his family that night. The generator belonged to the Academy and did a great job powering that night's sermon.

Last night (Sunday evening), the church van had a very low tire. We were almost rim riding on the way home. I prayed before we left and we stopped at the police station and a local store but no one had a pump. We made it all the way back to Koror (a 90 minute drive) on the tire before finding a gas station with a pump. I thanked God for his continued protection. The meetings continue, so keep us in your prayers. Pray for the people attending especially. :o)

So far...

2006-02-16T15:56:00.000+09:00

The evangelistic series in Ngiwal and Ngaraard started on Friday evening (Feb 10) and have been going strong. I have been keeping busy shooting video of the Student Missionaries and the locations. Today I purchased the Future of Hope domain names for an upcoming website. I'm also planning to work with Ken on the script. Somewhere in there I should think of the youth too. Other than supporting the youth involved with the evenagelistic series, I've kept pretty low key lately.

One interesting thing is the amount of problems that have crept up since the evangelistic meeting started:

Five flat tires
One stolen wallet
A $430 car-backed-into-a-pole mishap
A virus-infected laptop (an iBook no less)
A stolen bowl of chili
and some problems at the church

Keep us in your prayers. Satan seems to be working overtime on to thwart us. We're praying God blesses the people who have been attending the meetings.

Update: The wallet was returned!

Unh...

2006-01-29T18:29:00.000+09:00

I had a fever last night and the sickies all day today. I hate when your skin is so sensitive and you get the chills and such. Bleh!

I could go snorkeling tomorrow, but I probably won't because I can't be sure I won't be sick. And there are other things I should probably do despite it being my day off. Ho hum.

Pictures are up!

2006-01-26T20:36:00.000+09:00

I added some more pictures to my Flickr account.

Enjoy!

(And many thanks to Jason and Larissa for taking the pics)

Aquatic Activities

2006-01-22T15:20:00.000+09:00

I just got back from my fourth dive since Christmas. I actually skipped out on a church work bee to do it (bad pastor!) The first two dives happened a few weeks ago. I saw tons of new stuff.

We dived at a wreck (the Iro) and also at a place called Blue Holes. A blue hole is a large underwater cavern with an opening in the top. Lots of blue light comes in. I saw a large moray eel, tons of fish and coral. It was a truly wonderful experience. The fish against a wall usually stay sideways facing up and down because there is very little to see that ventures out into the open water. The Iro was a Japanese supply ship that was torpedoed during WWII. There were lots of fish and anemone there. I touched a clown fish as well. They are very aggressive little fish.

Today we dived a channel and a wall. The channel was pretty much boring. I saw a new kind of sea star, which brings my total up to five or six that I've seen here in Palau. The wall dive was much better. We drifted along until the current really picked up. We had been instructed to put our reef hooks in or to hold onto rocks and enjoy the show. That we did. There were several large (4-6 feet) sharks cruising along as well as lots of fish. It was awesome. The sharks are so aerodynamic or aquadynamic or whatever. They go against the current so easily, you often can't tell they are bothering to use their tail. When they turn sideways and back into the current, you suddenly realize how fast the current is for them. Not that you couldn't feel it yourself. I was able to stay under for a fairly long time because it was only forty feet deep and because you don't use much air when you are just holding onto a rock. I'm usually pretty cautious about where I grab onto a rock. Anything that has a lip could easily have something alive hiding underneath. Once we were done checking out sharks, we all let go and went on a sort of tour of the wall/reef area as the current pulled us along at a decent rate.

Scuba diving is awesome. Thanks to my parents and grandmother for sending me money so I could get some dives in. It's a shame that Florida's diving won't ever be this good. The amount of life here is staggering. Expect pictures soon. David brought a camera along. w00t!

Coming soon to a college near you:

2006-01-03T14:55:00.000+09:00

About 18 years ago, a 10 pound baby was born and I was a big brother once more. I've seen him grow into a tall, quiet, strong, funny, smart, and perpetually shy young man. Well, now he's all grown up and heading off to college. I couldn't be prouder and I think he's going to do great! Watch out world!

One more thing...

2006-01-02T16:16:00.000+09:00

Happy Birthday, Lady. I hope and pray this will be the best year of your life.

(and please don't kill me for posting your picture)

I'm glad I don't believe in omens...

2006-01-02T11:14:00.000+09:00

4.25 hours into the New Year and I was violently ralphing up the pizza I paid eight dollars for. Ugh. Happy 2006 regardless.

Christmas Camping

2005-12-30T16:04:00.000+09:00

The day after Christmas, some of the SMs who hadn’t traveled for the holidays had decided to go camping. We didn’t have much time to prepare since the boat was supposed to leave at 1pm and I hadn’t packed before Christmas. I desperately needed to do laundry, but I managed to pull together enough clean clothes, a few that I had just received for Christmas. I ran around in the morning shopping and packing up for the trip. By the time we were ready to leave, I was very excited. Ngemelis is a very beautiful island. It was the place where we first camped out and I was eager to go back there with a smaller group and really enjoy the place.

After waiting forty minutes for our boat driver to arrive, we were surprised to see it was actually the Chief who was going to drive us out there. He lives on the island, and has nice boats, so it was a nice surprise. When we arrived, I set up my new air mattress and got my belongings organized in true obsessive-compulsive fashion. Then I went snorkeling with some of the others. It was difficult because the channel where all the best snorkeling is located currently had a current pushing against us. I managed to get far enough up the channel so that I could float back down the current taking in the show of coral and fish. It was awesome and I saw so many fish and beautiful things.

That night I slept under a palm tree out on the beach with the air mattress. It was so comfortable that I slept fairly well. I would have slept like a baby, but whenever I would drift anywhere near consciousness, the enormity of the clear night sky would always lure my eyes open and I would have to force myself back to sleep. It was awesome sleeping under stars.

The next day, we snorkeled again and some of the guys went spearfishing as well. We also napped and read and ate good food. At one point we hiked around the island, collecting shells and such. I saw a sea turtle at one point and sea stars. Near the evening, we set up a volleyball net using bamboo and some wood that we found for poles. It was like Swiss Family Robinson only we brought the net and ball. We played for awhile and then rested again.

The next day, we planned to walk across to another island during low tide. The water is shallow enough that you only need to swim twice. I brought fins, my underwater camera, and water shoes for the hiking. I was using a borrowed “snorkel bag” to keep everything in and it helped keep my hands free. The walk over was longer than it would have normally taken because Sumi came and she wasn’t a very good swimmer. She was also terrified of fish. Whenever she asked if there were fish, I would ignore her or go underwater. I didn’t want to tell her that black and white striped fish, blue fish, and yellow fish were darting around her legs. Because she was walking, in some areas where there was coral, it was actually a bit like watching Godzilla destroying Tokyo. Staghorn coral isn’t very resistant, even to a tiny, size 0, Asian girl from California. Eventually, we got over there. Sumi was amazed she survived, but I was just glad to be on a new island to explore. The purpose of our journey was to see a bomber plane that was reportedly crashed on the island from WWII. We never did find it, but we had a good time walking the beach and exploring the interior jungle. Once we reached the other side, it quickly turned from beach front property to the all-too-familiar jagged rock cliffs. I was very hungry for lunch at this point, but one of the guys really wanted to do the rock-climbing thing. I went with the group and began to pray that none of us tripped and died. We made our way along the rocks slowly but surely. I went ahead to look for safe paths through the rocks, at one point it looked like we were facing a trip through the razor-leafed shrubbery or edging along a near vertical cliff face forty feet above the jagged rocks of the beach. We found a way for the girls to go through the plants without hurting themselves. MOM, SKIP THIS PART: I however followed the guys and did the cliff face thing. It was naturally fun because of the danger. It wasn’t particularly tricky compared to true rock climbing, although we didn’t have ropes or anything. I am writing this entry, so obviously made it through okay. OKAY MOM, ITS SAFE TO READ NOW. The journey continued and we cut through the island about halfway back and retrieved our gear. I ate some coconut on the way, which relieved some of the gnawing hunger I was feeling. We swam out into the channel and I snapped up a bunch of pictures before retrieving Sumi and literally swimming back to the campsite pulling her. She and I both swam hard against the current. At one point she asked me what the glittery things she was seeing in her vision were all about. I was experiencing them myself and explained that it was from our heavy exertion. She was less than relieved, but we made it back okay. She had snorkel gear on during the return journey and found it much easier. She saw tons of fish, but they didn’t scare her. She said fear for her life put everything in perspective. I snorkeled again in the evening (by myself) and saw a shark. No matter how certain you know they’re not interested in you, it is still chilling to see one.

We were planning to leave the next day around 3pm when the Chief said he would pick us up. Some of his guests came over and played volleyball with us in the morning. A park ranger and some workers also arrived and they cleaned up the island for the next guests, raking the sand and even taking our trash for us. I went snorkeling one last time before we left and arrived shortly before the Chief did. I had everything packed up, so we hopped on the boat as the rain started. We got wet on the boat ride back. Chief took us and two of his Japanese guests on a winding tour of the rock islands. It was very beautiful and you could easily get lost if you didn’t know your way around. When we finally got back to Koror, I was so happy that we had been able to go on the camping trip. It was probably the best one I’d ever been on. (Maybe the Smokey mountain trip was equal in coolness, but who cares)

Christmas 2005

2005-12-27T15:40:00.000+09:00

This year, to ward off any feelings of loneliness and homesickness, I asked the Nortons if I could spend the night at their house on Christmas Eve so I could wake up and be with people I consider family on Christmas morning. This was my first Christmas without family, not counting the two week delayed Christmas we had a few years back when I went to NY.

The festivities started on Christmas Eve. Ken's family is here for the holidays and the Johnsons were coming over for dinner. Ken's mom and Julie prepared veggie burger patties that were truly awesome and reminded me of the Pathfinder chuck wagon at Campmeetings. . Shane and an SM from Yap showed up just before we ate, but we still had enough thankfully. I ate three patties and was quite stuffed and happy. I played Stratego with Eric twice (won one; lost one). And then we settled down to watch Miracle on 34th St, which Trish had brought as a treat. It was fun to watch a black and white movie together. I was amazed, however, how Santa and "the Christmas Spirit" so completely eclipsed and even replaced Jesus in that movie. I mean, I know its a Santa movie, but they try to push him into the role of Jesus in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Some of you will roll your eyes, but oh well. My kids aren't watching that movie.

After that, I opened my Christmas Evening package (thanks Mom and Dad) and then we all crashed for the night, I slept on a cot and a couch, switching between the two a couple of times during the evening when I wasn't comfortable. I awoke around 6am or so by Kenny and Michelle whispering around the Christmas tree. You can't help but smile when you see kids so excited on Christmas morning before their parents are even up. My first present of the day was the sunrise. I took some pictures of it with Ken's camera. It was fiery orange over the hills and ocean. So awesome.

Everyone got dressed and ready for opening the packages. We made ourselves presentable for the onslaught of pictures. We had family worship, which consisted of reading an Advent calendar book through and opening the final door. It was time for presents, so we all arranged ourselves and Kenny and Michelle passed out presents until we each had a pile. Then we opened one each in sequence. The Nortons liked the gifts my mom bought for them. And I really liked my clothes and goodies as well. I also got an air mattress from the Nortons, something that I desperately needed for camping trips. I was very happy with that gift since I would be camping the next day. Kenny and Michelle also got bikes, which was the grand finale.

After the presents were opened, Julie and Ken's Mom got started on the big Christmas dinner that was planned for 1pm. All of the Student Missionaries, some family friends, and some of the faculty were coming. Ken and his Dad worked on sprucing up the yard (mainly cleaning up after the nine puppies). I helped out by cleaning up the living room and running errands and working on Ken's computer. It just wouldn't be a holiday without me fixing someone's computer up I realized.

When everyone arrived, the food situation was nearly out of control. There were so many casseroles and dishes; it was enough to make you weep with joy. I ate two large plates of food but skipped dessert in favor of not-exploding. People began to sit in groups and talk. Others played board or card games. Eventually someone suggested volleyball at the school gym and I was all over that. At first it was 3 on 3 but it quickly grew to 6 on 6 volleyball. I was on Julie and Ken's team again and we managed to win all the games. I had so much fun.

The SMs van had a flat tire, so I had to drive them home in my van after working on Trish's computer for awhile. When I got back home, I called my family and talked with them for 30 minutes. It was a truly awesome Christmas. I didn't get sad or lonely at all, which was a direct answer to prayer.

Travelling backwards

2005-12-19T20:59:00.000+09:00

We had a work bee on Sunday at the church. We managed to locate the key (thanks Angela) to my never-been-used office, so now I have something to work on this week besides the usual.

We had a party on Saturday night to celebrate the completion of the teacher's lounge. We had snacks and games and loads of fun. I taught Pit to some of the SMs and it was quite loud before we finished. The poor Scrabble players kept looking over in confusion and probably with hint of annoyance.

Sabbath morning we sang Christmas hymns and the audience seemed like a morgue. It was hard to sing and smile while they just stare at you, not singing along with some of the most well knowns and loved songs out there. (Yes, Palauans know the Christmas songs) But you just plow through and hope that at least God appreciated it. :o)

Friday night, the AY service was cut short by another power outage. I tried to think of something to do, but it was very dark out and the kids were restless so I sent them home. I stayed up late talking with Donjulie, her roommate, Angela, and Teofi once the power came back on. We talked about our pasts and eventually we got around to the school.

Last week was a great week as far as getting closer to God. That's all there is for now. Still need to get some newer pictures up on the site.

Oh Happy Day!

2005-12-10T22:10:00.000+09:00

Ken had to go to Guam for an End of the Year series of meetings for the Guam-Micronesia Mission. Guam is considered a little Hawaii. (Palau, incidentally, is considered a little Guam) Because it is a little Hawaii, it has a Kmart, other American retain chains, and resturaunts. This includes the one resturaunt that got me through my last two years of college: Taco Bell.

Many of you naysayers out there may feel that Taco Bell is gross. Or an okay place but something to be avoided for health reasons. You are the same people who like to beat baby seals and steal candy from kids. I love Taco Bell. My bloodstream may run nacho cheese orange when I'm 50, but nothing beats a Chalupa or 7 Layer Burrito when you're hungry.

Anyway, Ken brought me back some Taco Bell from Guam, so I was at the airport waiting for my order. It may have been four hours old and growing bacteria, but oh the joy of once more ingesting guacamole from a caulking gun. I had a crunchwrap supreme as well. (Doesn't the supreme usually mean there is a cheaper version of something? ie Taco Supreme, Burrito Supreme?) Teofi took pictures of the event. Shortly thereafter I drove back to Koror while eating my Taco Bell. (To more closely relive the college days of rushing to class while downing refried beans) Teofi was yelling for me to pull over and let him drive. He thought we were going to die. I scoffed and told him that this was nothing compared to eating, talking on the phone, steering, and shifting while pulling onto the highway. Silly Filipinos.

Kayangel…sorta

2005-12-04T20:53:00.000+09:00

Well, I was really really looking forward to Kayangel. Although I was really tired from Campmeeting, I was excited to be seeing an island none of the other SMs had while they were stuck at school teaching. Yes, I’m a brat. I’ve missed a ton of dive trips because of pastoral obligations, so with my day off always falling on Monday, this was a perfect perk. Haha

Senator, Ken, Julie’s dad Gus, myself and Elder Nabuo from the church all arrived at the dock around 6am. I had been up for about 30 minutes and was quite ready for some fishing, snorkeling, and exploration. Julie, her mom, and the kids had decided not to go. (Well, the kids really didn’t get a vote) Mainly they were tired from Campmeeting. I don’t blame them. While waiting for some equipment, we spotted angelfish, skipjack, and even a cuttlefish.

We packed up the boat and started to head out. Senator Whipps said I would drive the boat today. I nodded and said sure. Then he told me “Get over here!” I hadn’t realized he meant right away. So I took the helm and flipped my baseball cap backwards. First we said a prayer for a safe journey and then we began to head out. I had to navigate several buoys on my way out of Koror. Once we were out of the cove that contained the dock, I had even more buoys to keep track of. We had to find the channel to get outside of the reef that pretty much rings the whole of Koror and Baubeldaub. The boat was nice, although a bit slow compared to the church boat. It had a computer on it with a GPS navigation system. It allowed us to see where the shallow areas were an where the islands were. This would be very helpful in the dark. Of course, it wasn’t dark right now. It was quickly growing brighter and soon I would need to worry about sunburns and such.

We spotted a flock of birds and Senator took the helm. The birds were swarming over a school of tuna that had been corralled by larger fish. We set our fishing lines up and began to troll (drag the lines behind the boat). The boat took us pretty much through the school of fish and I was the one to catch the first fish. Soon we were all catching tuna left and right. I caught eight or nine tuna before I was pretty much bored catching tuna. Soon, Gus and Elder Nabuo both caught some very large Mahi Mahi. One of them got off the hook as they were pulling it in the boat. The Mahi Mahi are large yellow and green fish with a cool dorsal fin setup. The fish began to turn brown and dusky. A few minutes later Ken and I yelled out as the fish had turned silver and blue. It finally went back to a muted green/brown and tan. It was amazing to see a fish change color like that.

While we were moving from troll site to troll site, I spotted flying fish. They really do go for very long distances. I was amazed. They were going only slightly slower than the boat as they shot across the waves. We changed lures and started using bigger ones with real bait also attached to them. I watched the others use these while I continued to catch tuna with the smaller pole. They caught some very large fish. When it was my turn, I caught a fairly large Wahu/Wahoo (not sure of the spelling). Everyone on the boat went “Wahoo!” I ended up catching one or two more. We also went bottom fishing for a little while. I caught a fat yellow lips fish That was about the size of my torso. Ken and Gus and Elder Nabuo also caught barracuda, yellow fin tuna, Wahoos, and other fish whose names I can’t recall. It was a big haul.

We never actually made it to Kayangel. The fishing took up a lot of time and then it was too late to go all the way their and back. We were going to troll some more after we realized this but a storm quickly moved in and we had to head back. We all got into rain jackets and hunkered down as the boat sped through the rain and wind. Once it stopped, we did find a spot for a quick troll session on the way back. I took lots of sunset pictures (coming soon) on the way back. We took pictures of some of the fish we caught as well as video. I was way tired when we returned around 6:30. It was twelve and a half hours of fishing. It is something I never thought I’d care to do. I still prefer snorkeling, but it is nice to know that I can do something as crazy-masculine as a whole day of fishing. :o)

Campmeetin!

2005-12-01T20:02:00.000+09:00

Once a year, all the Adventists in Palau are invited to Campmeeting. Usually, all the churches are closed and everyone piles on a barge to go to one of the Rock Islands to camp. This year, the Campmeeting committee decided to hold Campmeeting over Thanksgiving weekend. As Campmeeting approached, I grew less and less excited about going, mainly because I was going to be in charge of the youth and it was seeming more and more difficult a task. Four sermons with an unknown number of youth in an unknown place with limited resources isn’t my idea of a good time. But, this is why I came here and so I did the best I could to prepare.

Thursday morning, bright and early, Teofi and I finished packing up our food and supplies into the church van. We also packed up the sound equipment so that we’d have speakers and music available. When we arrived at the dock, the barge was a bit smaller than I’d thought, but still quite large enough for everyone. Meeting tents were set up so that we wouldn’t have to be in the sun and everyone just relaxed after packing up. We shoved off about 30 minutes behind schedule (right on time) and the tug boat began to pull us towards the island of Ngeremdiu. At first, the ocean was calm but once we got away from Koror, the waves began to ever so slowly cause the barge to rock back and forth. Julie was the first person I noticed to become seasick. I followed. Luckily it was just a gross feeling in your stomach and no one threw up. We just focused on talking and on the horizon so we could get through it.

About two hours into the voyage, it became clear that the last thirty minutes would be spent combating the storm that had snuck up on us. The wind began to whip and the tents would have blown off the barge if not for being tied to sandbags. Even that wasn’t quite enough, so the guys all held onto poles and tied down any thing that got loose. It was exciting and eventually wet. It never got past a drizzle though, so we weren’t completely soaked. The rain stopped just as we approached the shore. The campsite was full of Asian tourists who stared in open curiosity at the large craft full of Adventist staring back. Some of the tourists took pictures and as the ramp came down on the beach, we all joked quietly that we should all scream “Baptize them!” and run down the ramp with tracts.

The tourists cleared out pretty quickly and we began to set up camp. The Nortons had brought an extra tent for me to use and I helped them set up their tent and they did the same for me. The youth set up the tents and some of the men in the church set up the lights while Teofi set up the sound equipment. I walked down the beach to look for a place to hold the youth meetings. I spotted an engine for a Japanese Zero plane. It had washed up on the beach and been there for awhile. After walking back to camp, the Nortons and I took Ken’s boat out and went snorkeling in a nearby cove. I held a starfish (more properly a sea star) for the first time and saw what I think was a black nudibranch among other things. It began to rain again while we were snorkeling. The rain was cold on my back, so I frequently was contorted so that I received the least amount of rain. After snorkeling, I discovered I’d left my tent open during the rain. There was a puddle at the foot of my sleeping bag, but nothing was ruined. That night we had a song service and some announcements before heading to bed. Only I went fishing for awhile instead. I didn’t catch anything and just generally practiced my casting skills and checked out the night sky. When I finally did go to sleep, the night was hot and damp, but I survived.

The next morning we had our first meetings. I woke up around 6am. I was tired and sore from sleeping on the ground, but eager to try out some of the games on the youth. Once it was time for the meetings, I took the youth down the beach to the spot I’d picked out and we all brought chairs. We talked about fellowship and I think it really sank in with some of them the importance of having a real spiritual impact on our friends and family instead of sticking with shallow “how do you dos.” We played some games and had a good time. Teofi steamed broccoli and fri-chik and we ate it over rice. Julie and I snorkeled and saw some more cool stuff. She saw a shark but I was looking the other direction. We scared a large school of fish out of their hidey hole and were amazed at the amount of fish that poured out. I dived off the back of the barge and had fun just talking and relaxing. I took a nap and caught up on some sleep.

A volleyball net was set up, so we played a bit during the afternoon. I kept taking showers in the makeshift shower room. It was a tree and three posts with a tarp around them. There were three new trash cans that held water you could scoop and dump on yourself. Always refreshing but unnerving. There is something about being naked outside in the sunlight with only a blue tarp around you that is jarring. Haha. Yes, this is going out to the Internet. Anyway, add to that the fact that if I stood up, I could see everyone and they could see down to my chin. I stayed hunched over just to feel less uncomfortable. It was fun in a rustic kind of way.

That evening I took the youth out into the dark. I planned on more games, but the darkness made it difficult. I didn’t want to play too close to the adult meeting (where the lights were) because it would have been loud and annoying. So we just talked about what real service was. I don’t think they understood this one as clearly. They’re young and service is foreign to young people (and most Palauans if I may make a generalization). Many Palauans have Filipino helpers, so they are used to being served, at least in the immediate sense. Anyway, afterwards, I spent some time just talking and getting to know the youth. We had fun and snacked on some cookies. Speaking of which, I brought some Hershey kisses to use as incentives. I never pulled them out. The youth and children always had junk food on hand and I didn’t want to contribute to the demise of their health. Even when they were swimming, the kids had lollipops or BAGS OF CHIPS with them. It was startling.

Anyway, I slept a lot better that night. I was able to leave my window and door open in the tent and the breeze flowed right through. Its nice to sleep to the sound of the ocean outside. I woke up and prepared to preach about worship. After breakfast and just relaxing, we got started. This time we went the opposite way on the beach. We talked about the purpose of worship and how God only accepts worship on Sabbath if we do so throughout the week already. We talked about how people have limited worship to just singing, sermons, and prayer. To illustrate the point, I challenged the youth to make sand sculptures to glorify God. I encouraged them not to be ashamed of any lack of artistry. Just try with their heart and God would accept it. And that since the congregation of youth weren’t the audience, they didn’t have to care what they thought of it. They seemed to really get it and we all set to work. I worked with one of the youth on a large “Lame of God.” Others worked on Ten Commandments, a portrait of Jesus, Noah’s ark, and a scene from Jesus’ ascension. We finished up and it was just in time for Sabbath School to end. We’d gone way too fast I guess and although I invited them to go to church with me, they wanted to stay on the beach. I stayed to monitor their activities although I did go and get the video camera to record their creations.

In Palau swimming on the Sabbath is forbidden in Adventist circles. The argument is that the ocean is more like a workplace because they fish. I have long ago reconciled my upbringing with what God really asks us of the Sabbath, so I don’t mind swimming in certain locations. Snorkeling, to me, is as legitimate as taking a hike. But the Palauans don’t like it, so we try to respect that. It is hard though. The church boat was scheduled to take people to Milky Way. Milky Way is a cool lagoon tucked away in the rock islands. It is a place that tourists and locals love to frequent because of the clay/silt/mud bottom of the ocean. I can’t describe how fine the silt-like mud is. It is like watered down clay. People put it on their faces and arms. It smells slightly sulphurous. Although I suspect it smells like the limestone rock. It rained on the way their, so we were all soaked by the time we arrived. We looked around at the water and rock faces, but I didn’t know about the mud yet. Suddenly, Ken had jumped in the water. Everyone on board sort of blinked and then many scrambled to get in the water. If the pastor was in the water, then it must be okay on the Sabbath. (Haha) Someone went to the bottom and got the mud and soon everyone was covered in white silt. It was cool. You had to go down like ten feet to get it. After marveling over the mud for awhile, we headed back. Now I wanted to snorkel badly; I was already wet! Julie and I decided to sneak down the beach with Trish (who had arrived with the church boat that morning) with our snorkel gear in a bag. When we got to the end, the Palauan youth, some adults, and most of the SMs were already secretly swimming. I felt bad. It reminded of stories about the Puritans who would sneak off to do “bad” things that seem like no big deal, yet they were all riddled with guilt and would never speak about the excursions. Some of the youth looked at Pastor James and asked me if I would be swimming and if it was okay that they were. I told them that it all depended what was in their heart while they swam. And I told them I already swam at Milky Way. (I’m not going to hide stuff)

I never ended up swimming down at the beach. There wasn’t really any place to snorkel, and the swimming was more like run-of-the-mill play than relaxing and enjoying the water. I had a long (and enjoyable) talk with Trish (Principal’s wife) and Stacey (one of the SMs).

That night we all met in the main area for a sundown service. We talked about prayer and the importance of devotions, which is one of my favorite topics. It was a nice short service and then I ate some lentils and rice. Then someone made popcorn and the volleyball started up. Soon Ken challenged the youth to play the “oldies.” The team consisted of Teofi, Julie, Ken, and I. Plus two Palauan adults. We wiped the sand with the youth four out of five games. I had so much fun…and bruises. I love volleyball. It needs to be played more. I will lobby for it to be the national sport in the New Jerusalem.

After that, there was a lot of talking around a basket of sugar cane. I tried some, but found the taste not worth the effort. I got to hear shark stories and enjoy myself though. During the talk, Senator Surangel Whipps invited the Nortons and Julie’s parents for a trip to Kayangel (the northernmost island) on one of his boats. They accepted gratefully the chance to see some more of Palau. Ken invited me along too. I was excited. A chance to see one of the islands most tourists never see.

It started to rain in the middle of the night. Luckily I woke up to close the window and door before it was more than a drizzle. The rain continued until late afternoon. We packed up most of our stuff and waited for the tugboat. The Senator invited the Nortons (and me) to go to Jellyfish lake in the meantime. Ken had a funeral in Peleliu he had to go to, so Julie, her parents, the kids, and I all hopped in Senator’s speedboat and zipped over to Jellyfish Lake. I really enjoyed the lake this time. I had no headache and we spent probably 25 minutes in the midst of hundreds of jellyfish. We headed back to the dock just in time. A flood of asian tourists were arriving. When we reached the dock, Senator was just pulling up to take us back to camp. When we got back (after a short rain spell), we finished packing everything up onto the barge. I helped the Nortons pack up (especially with Ken gone) too. Then we took the barge back to Koror. It was a slower trip this time when the tug lost an engine halfway back. I napped aboard and generally didn’t want to go back to Koror and all the responsibilities. But I was definitely refreshed. I prayed more and really had a chance to refresh, even though I was running youth meetings. Yay for Campmeeting.

Waterfall Trip II

2005-11-29T20:53:00.000+09:00

Pastor James took the youth on a trip to the waterfall on the 19th, which was a Sabbath afternoon. It was a pretty decent turnout. We had the church van packed with 13 kids and we all headed out after potluck. We sang songs and cringed while stuck behind a slow tour bus that was emitting heavy black smoke whenever it strained up a hill. Finally I passed the bus, just in time to hit an unfinished part of the road in the other lane. It was more silly than harrowing, but the van seems none the worse.

The waterfall was just how I remembered it. Most but not all of the youth had been there before. The kids quickly took to the falls and enjoyed sitting under the falls and letting the water pelt them. They also skipped stones and frolicked in the creek bed. We even took turns sticking our head under a small rapid and facing up so people could see our faces smiling through the rushing water. It was cool.

One memorable moment happened when one of the Chinese guys slipped and fell while standing in place. People either laughed or shouted in concern. The other Chinese guy stood right beside him on the same relatively dry rock and laughed…until he suddenly succumbed to the same mysterious lack of friction. No one could stop from laughing at that point. They were both a little sore (both physically and socially) but were okay otherwise.

After a few hours of just hanging out at the falls, we headed for the KB Bridge. I dropped off a few youth on the way; they wanted to go home first rather than having me backtrack despite my efforts to keep them on. Once we reached the bridge, everyone snacked on junk food and then we sat under the bridge and sang songs while Fonzie played guitar. Then we joined one of the guys who was staring into the water and I did a small devotional on perfecting God’s love in our lives.

It was a good trip and the youth seemed to really enjoy it. I felt like I’d made a connection with them and raised the awareness of my existence to them. To God be the glory. :o)

What I've been up to

2005-11-14T11:44:00.000+09:00

Well it has a been a while since I updated, so I figured it was time for some news.

I just turned down a job offer as the guidance counselor at the Adventist High School here in Palau. It would have been a great opportunity and I would have loved the extra money, but it would have sucked so much time away from the youth pastoring stuff that I would have felt like I had weaseled out of my previous commitment. It wasn't an easy choice. The jobs are similar and I would have probably gotten more tangible results from that job, but I need to keep working here in Koror and making the best of it. I prayed about it and I think I made the right choice.

Some of the SMs went scuba diving yesterday. I didn't find out until the night before they were going to leave, so I didn't go. They saw a manta ray and now I'm very jealous. I spent Sunday helping Teofi get his lab set up for the DSL we now have. Its not as fast as we'd hoped, but oh well. The wireless will eventually reach my apartment I think, but for now I just hang out in the lab a lot. I also cleaned his desk and gave him some organization. It was fun strangely enough.

I think I'm going to start paying 2.50 for lunches Mon-Thur. The meals are warm, delicious, home-cooked, and most importantly not cooked by me. (One of the ladies in the church cooks for many of the students and teachers, both vegetarian and not) I think they are cost-effective because of the price of groceries etc. I'll do it for a few weeks perhaps and see if it appears to be worth it.

I spent two nights at the Nortons two weekends ago. That was a blast. We went hiking through the jungle and over some ridges behind Ken and Julie's house. We also went boating/snorkeling by the bridge. It was nice to get away from the noise, dirt, and drear of Koror for awhile. Plus Julie cooked and so I got some really nice food. Don't get me wrong. I eat pretty well; though Teofi thinks everything is too processed/boxed/canned. I can't help it if they don't sell the veggies I'm used to.

I've begun to work on a project for my family's Christmas present. If it goes as planned, it will be cool. Teofi is going to help me. This comment is primarily to make my family more curious. haha

Now that I am decidedly single again, I finished reading Tom Sawyer finally and will be starting on another book soon. I gave up onm the THree Musketeers. Too many french names I couln't pronounce. I think I'll read Huck Finn and then the Count of Monte Christo. Who knows. I download them from Project Gutenberg and then convert them into e-books. Mwa haa. Perfect for reading in the dark.

There will be a trip to a waterfall next week for Sabbath afternoon. I hope to connect with the youth that come. I also started a teen Bible study on Wednesday nights. The Friday nights have turned primarily into "Kids Night" and so the high schoolers frequently flee from the horrifying presence of so many kids. Our first Bible study was about Dating (and ultimately Sex). It was frank, biblical, and a lot of fun. I only had four teens, but I hope to have it grow. Or not. Even if its four, that is four people I can connect with more than if I had 30.

There is your update, slave driver!

The Anti-Halloween Party aka Fall Festival

2005-11-01T13:40:00.000+09:00

For me, today is that one day in a life where your ankles are so sore that you wonder if you have the necessary instruments for amputation.

The party was a success. I didn't tell most of you I was planning it. That is because I've had less than a week to plan it and I have been pretty much busy every day since then. Too busy to tell the likes of you. There were over ten games, a talent show, face painting, and balloon animals. Only there was no balloon animal except a dog I managed to make. No one could really blow them up except Julie-Ann and she was busy face painting for all two and a half hours of the party. Oh, and the talent show ended up being me and one other act because all of the SMs couldn't think of anything in time or chickened out at the last minute.

Games included: whip cream pie to the face, (cosmic) balloon stomping, bobbing for apples, bottle standing, ball through the hoops, popping ballons with darts, basketball shooting, ping pong, and annoy the youth pastor by asking him for candy. My mom and I thought up all but the last one. Oh, and Ken decided the balloon stomp should be cosmic. Glowsticks, and flicking the light switch on and off while you try to protect your balloon and pop someone else's. It was a pretty cool effect. The room was deathly hot though because we couldn't figure out the air conditioner.

Pizza was donated by the Chief, who owns Rock Island Cafe. 33 Large pizzas with toppings. Cheese was the most popular and was gone almost immediately. The reciept they gave us was for $492.60 worth of pizza. It came in three shifts and went really fast. We estimated over 200 people. Most were elementary aged, but there were high schoolers and parents (though many came unattended).

I woke up this morning at around 7pm and only had a 30 minute lunch. I didn't stop working until 9:45pm. It is 10pm. I'm about to shower and crash. I have to drive a bus in the morning because the driver will be going to a funeral. And I owe the lady a favor. (Though she would probably argue the opposite now)

God came through. There were tons of snags that worked out in the nick of time. The party could have been a disaster but it turned into a good time. Around 7:30pm it started to get rowdy though. Someone set a stink bomb off around 7:45 and I had to shut the party down 30 minutes early at 8pm before it got worse. It was just so many kids and once some of the older ones started to show up wearing goth makeup (some who used to be on my Youth Council unfortunately), Julie suggested I end it early while I still could. I'm glad she told me to. It took at least 30 minutes to get everyone out. There was a long face painting line that I let stay.

The SMs pitched in and helped clean. Annie, Jorge, and a few of the youth members stayed the longest, helping me to the very end. Stacey mopped almost the entire floor. An amazing feat because it was disgusting. We had pizza, popcorn and kool-aid, so there were some stick/crummy/gross spots. Plus the whip cream area and the bobbing for apple puddles.

I apologize for this disjointed recollection. I could save it till tomorrow and fix it up, but I sort of want to show how my brain is on its last leg. I had to walk to Surangel's twice, the hardware store once, and WCTC once. The sun was baking today and it was probably high 80s or low 90s. It felt like 95 or so in the sun. I kept forgetting to buy things, but it worked out and didn't seem thrown together. Which reminds me, Julie-Ann, Annie (Or Su-me as I've just learned), and Angelina helped me SO much in the setup. The SMs helped a bit on Sunday night, but I didn't have everything I needed. So they did a huge chunk of work today while the SMs taught classes. Some of my old students from 6B helped a bunch too near the end of the school day.

Oh man, I gotta stop. I'm forgetting a bunch. I just need take a shower and go to bed. I have to be up at 6:30pm. I will go to bed very satisfied and relieved to take most of the day off tomorrow.

Dive! Dive! Dive!

2005-10-25T09:14:00.000+09:00

This Sunday, we started our diving lessons. We had picked up our books and DVD two weeks before, so we had plenty of time to study. We all waited until virtually the last minute, and I in particular had to scramble because I planned so many activities for the evenings just before the first lesson that I didn't get to study as thoroughly as I wanted. I was confident though, being a pretty good test taker.

Julie Norton was also taking it and we agreed to be buddies. She and I were eager to take and pass the test and start the dives. Unfortunately when we arrived their around 8:45am on Sunday morning we quickly realized that the course was designed for people who really hadn't studied at all. Even though they said we were going to take the test right away, we're actually taking it next week.

While disappointed we were going to have to go through the study work at a slower pace, Julie and I decided to just be happy that we'd have the information ground into our head a third and fourth time by the time we were done.

After going through three chapters of the book, we took quizzes and then headed to the pool. It was so cool to take that first breath underwater. I found breathing to be easy, although after about two to three minutes, something in my brain said "GO UP!" despite my easy breathing. I kept calm and forced the claustrophobia away. Julie went through something similar.

We practices using our BCD (Buoyancy Control Device) which is an inflatable vest hooked up to your tank. We practiced breathing our buddies alternate air source, clearing our mask, and other useful skills.

We spent the whole afternoon in the pool and got used to the gear. After that, we drove home and I had diving dreams that night.

Monday morning was UN Day in Palau, so there was no school and all the SMs taking the course had another opportunity to learn. Luckily, my schedule is flexible too and I usually have Mondays off anyway. This time we took a boat out to do our first open water dive.

It is so exhilirating to hook up your own scuba gear and take off on a boat, cross your ankles, hold your mask, rebreather, and weight belt and flip off a boat into the water. We did a fun/practice run over a nice reef. I saw lots of new types of coral, a few new fish including a stone fish, a very large urchin, many large blue starfish, brittle stars, anemone, and tons of sea cucumbers. It was great. Julie and I took turns leading. We held back from the main group because the SMs were all so close to the instructors and it was a huge mass of fins and bubbles that scared away too many fish. I had a very good time. It was nice getting so close to the aquatic life. Snorkeling doesn't allow that for very long. Being neutrally buoyant lets us hover and stare if we want.

I tore through my air. I was at 500 psi after 51 minutes underwater. It felt like half that time. Julie went through far less. Women always are better than men. Smaller lungs (and usually they are good about conserving their movements). We got back in the boat and I ate my lunch. We then did a swimming test that was long but fun. We also had to do a treading water test for 10 minutes.

After a sufficient rest and plenty of time for the nitrogen levels in our tissue to go down, we switched air tanks and went back to a white sand area and did several other skill tests. Julie and I passed them all easily and spent most of the time just waiting on the rest of the group. The sand was so fine, that soon it was like the water was all an green-white color. We kept moving to different areas to do the next skill because the visibility would plummet to below 5 feet.

Once we finished the skills test, we did a few surface skills and then got back in the boat. I was so thrilled to be learning new skills. I love diving and could easily see dumping lots of money into gear and excursions. You eat like a fiend because it is such an active sport. I stayed very hydrated the second day, which was good since I hate getting my dehydration headaches.

Anyway, I've enjoyed this course so far. We have one more day of training before we're certified. This is worth the money and I am glad that I did it, and at such a discount. I look forward to going out with just Ken and Julie or a few SMs and not having a huge crowd. If you have never had the chance to dive, DO IT! It is worth it. Assuming you get to go to some nice places like Palau of course. So far I've got 112 minutes of dive time logged. We went to 40-60 feet. I'm going to go sit over here in the "Cool people who dive" corner now.

Sabbath Afternoon

2005-10-23T11:14:00.000+09:00

Don't you hate when your brain is in overdrive and all you want to do is take a nice Sabbath nap and all you can do is think about how to train youth to be leaders, how to really connect with the Palauan culture, where you'll be in a year, what does God want me to focus on in my life...you know, the little things.

I slept less than an hour before I woke up with these thoughts. I prayed a lot though and it gave me peace. I was also happy that I didn't set out to have a nice long prayer but I ended up having one.

Tomorrow I take the diving test and I haven't studied enough. It snuck up on me. I plan to study some tonight, but of course I planned a game night for the youth. We'll see how it goes. So many times I plan things and spread the word but then only a few show up. It is discouraging, but I keep at it.

Happy Sabbath, y'all.

My aching elbow, knee, toe, etc.

2005-10-18T22:36:00.000+09:00

I have become the biggest clutz since I've moved to Palau. I can't tell you how many times I have poked, stubbed, and jammed various body parts into various solid objects. After banging my knee against a desk edge just now (for the thirtieth time), I decided I had to share my clutziness with the world. The most spectacular incident in recent history happened on Sunday when I SHUT A DOOR ON ONE OF MY TOES. How does one miss the fact that one of your toes is hanging off the edge of the door jam while closing a door? WHO DOES THAT?!

One answer: Me.

Peleliu

2005-10-18T04:20:00.000+09:00

On Friday, we left for the island of Peleliu. Having already been there, I knew what the trip and the island looked like, although I hadn't explored much of it. It was probably the hottest day yet, so the wind felt great as we headed for Peleliu. The trip wasn't as smooth as last time due to rougher water, but we got there in about an hour. Once we were there and the wind was gone, everyone began to sweat profusely.

We unloaded all the luggage (there was 18-20 of us) using two chains. We packed up our belongings in a van and a truck before heading to the senior center. The center had a large central common area that we all set up our bedding on and arranged the fans for maximum breeze. I slept over by the Nortons mainly because I knew that the other SMs would wake me up more than Kenny and Michelle could. I inflated my borrowed air mattress but a short time later I noticed it was partially deflated. I blew it up again hoping that I merely neglected to actually blow it up all the way. Unfortunately, it was low on air again a short time later. I checked for holes but couldn't find any. I was faced with another night of sleeping on a hard surface. Yuck.

Most of the group went for a walk exploring the neighborhood. We had been greeted by kids having slingshot wars while we unpacked, now it was pretty quiet as it was almost dark. It was quiet and clean: the complete opposite of Koror. I liked it.

When we returned from our walk, we discovered the gas stove wasn't hooked up and that we'd have to use the stove of Nelson and Harvey's aunt. We also went and visited a crocodile. I felt bad for it all tied up. I think they planned to eat it eventually. Some of the SMs touched it, but it didn't really interest me. I've touched reptiles before.

The rest of the evening I spent talking and trying to get to sleep. It was cool once the sun went down, so I only had to worry about the hard surface. Before I turned in, I took a shower using a bucket, a ladle made out of an old bleach bottle, and very cold water. It had been so hot out, that the first pour elicited an "AIEE!," the second was an "eeeeh!," and the third was an "Aaah!" It was so refreshing. If only the bathroom had been cleaner.

Sabbath morning I got up fairly early because of the sleeping arrangements and went on a walk to descend fully into the Sabbath day experience. I saw butterflies, birds, flowers, pigs, and crabs. When I returned, I ate my Raisin Bran and waited around for church.

Church was at a local woman's home. She had built an open-air meeting place for the local Adventists. The temperature was quickly soaring, but there was nothing to do but ignore the heat. The church consisted of about eight members and a few children. They were very nice and we sang hymns to a very complex looking mouth organ played by the host. We seperated from Sabbath School and Ken taught the adult English Sabbath School. We discussed loving the things of the world and what exactly that meant.

After Sabbath School, we sent a few back to retrieve our water bottles and began the church service. I participated in Special Music with some of the female SMs. We picked a song that we all knew and sang it. Then there was a children's story and offering. I forgot to bring my wallet, so I didn't have any money to give (and felt bad). The sermon was great although the heat made me so sleepy that it was hard to concentrate. One moment my mind was whirling with great alertness about what Ken was implicating with various texts. The next moment I would be desperately be trying to form even the words "Wake up!" in my head. I managed to hide it from everyone except Julie, who I think was suffering the same problem. I kept taking deep breaths and trying to sit up as straight as possible. I left with a spiritual high though because of the sermon and Sabbath school. They were a great compliment to each other.

Oh, and they had sea turtles at the house. They were in a small cement pool. I felt bad for them. They could barely turn around. I wanted to sneak back and free them in the night.

I spent the afternoon eating and fighting a headache. The group went off to go to a cave at Bloody Nose Ridge. I wanted to go, but knew I'd regret it if I went. The headache wasn't responding to medication, so I knew a nap was in order. I had hydrated quite well, so it was heat-related more than anything. I was sorta glad I didn't go because there were lots of bats and bat poop and you had to crouch the whole way. I'll do the cave thing another time when I'm more able to "enjoy" such an experience.

For the evening, I ate and skipped vespers. I planned to go for a walk with a friend, but Ken returned from the vespers sooner than expected and it was time to go fishing. I almost didn't go, but decided to stick with the original plan. The trip out of the harbor was fun. The moon was full and the waves were crashing on the reef. We got a bumpy (read: fun) ride through the waters to our first stop. Ken baited me up and gave me a crash course in fishing. We had no luck and kept losing our bait to the small fish at the first stop. We were bottom fishing, which means dropping your weighted hook to the bottom and then reeling it up a few feet so that the large coral dwelling fish of a 50-100 feet deep will grab on.

The second stop was much more eventful. I CAUGHT A SHARK! I will have a picture up quite soon. I also caught a red snapper. I turned my fishing pole over to some of the girls so they could make some attempts. Ken pulled in his biggest fish to date and Eric got a shark too. (You have to throw sharks back because it is illegal to keep/kill/eat them. Nelson and Harvey (two Palauan church members) kept bringing in fish after fish, prompting us to wonder how the fish knew to take their bait instead of the bumbling Westerners.

We took the boat to spot after spot, avoiding areas that had sharks because that is where the fish are. The girls caught a few fish but generally not as many as the guys. A barracuda was caught as well as some other large/ugly/spiney/toothed fish. I didn't bait or de-hook any fish. I'm too OCD to touch something without having a way to thoroughly wash my hands waiting nearby. I did touch the shark but immediately got the jibblies.

We got back around 11:30. Far too soon for the pros, but just right for me. We had to go back because we snapped the anchor line. The boat driver uses a trick to lift the anchor. It works 99% of the time but we managed to hit the 1% and so we had to head back.

I took a shower and slept soundly on three mats. We had found a key to the room that had a stack of them. The SMs who didn't bring any cushioning were all quite happy as well.

I got up early and went walking with a friend even thought it was too late for the sunrise. There was a nice breeze and it was a great walk. When we got back, I ate the last of my dozen doughnuts, sharing some happily. We packed up and then left our stuff to go swimming at "the Hole." Getting there was a bit difficult. It took us around 40 minutes to find it. The roads in Peleliu are full of switchbacks and sideroads with no landmarks other than trees and fields and water that all starts to look the same after awhile. After praying and finding someone to ask for directions we managed to find the corret combination of turns.

The Hole is a swimming hole that is really a cave with a vertical entrance. It is half full of water and gets wider as you go down. The water was the PERFECT temperature and it was about a 7-10 foot dive into the hole with a PVC pipe ladder to get out. We explored the cave with an underwater flashlight. There was another chamber that you could only get to via an underwater swim through a rock channel. It was great fun because of the tiny bit of danger involved. I'd love to go there again. It was a blast. Some of the group played diving games

including jumping from opposite sides and high fiving in the air. After that, we headed back for lunch and then loaded up the boat. By the time the boat left, it was almost 2pm. We got back and I drove the church van with the girls and their luggage back to the apartments. I drove back and picked up the guys just as it started to rain.

The trip left me tired physically, but spiritually renewed in a direct answer to prayer. I am back in Koror and ready to get things moving again. With much prayer and God's power, I know I'm going to get back into the game.

Where I live

2005-10-12T10:36:00.000+09:00

http://flickr.com/photos/isaacjames

I added a cool picture of where I live. Check it out.

Surprise Trip

2005-10-12T10:32:00.000+09:00

Three representatives from the Guam-Micronesia Mission arrived two nights ago. One of them, Gary Johson, was someone I had met at La Sierra University during orientation. Primarily, they were there to take a tour
of all of the church properties to ensure that we were insuring everything at its proper value. And just to get a better idea of the financial situation as well. I heard they had arrived, but on Tuesday morning I didn't expect to walk into Ken's (and my) office and see three guys sitting there. I was introduced and I sat to the side and worked on a goal sheet that I had decided to make for Ken and I so we can hopefully focus our efforts better. I also listened in and learned alot about the different buildings and relationships that exist in the Koror church. It was quite informative. I learned more in that hour than I had in the past few weeks. Then we took the group on a tour of the facilities and I followed along gamely. It was something not part of the usual routine, so I loved it. (Not that I have a true routine) We took them all around the church and school facilities. Then we took off for Airai church and PMA. We tried to call Julie ahead of time so that lunch would be ready for the group, but she was out doing yard work. We visited the Airai church. It isn't as big as Koror, which apparently is the biggest church in the Guam-Micronesia Mission. It has no air conditioners and they sit in metal chairs. But it gets the job done I suppose. I suddenly felt even more like I went to the rich church. Anyway, we took them on towards PMA. We stopped at the pastor's house since it is owned by the Mission. I volunteered to cook spaghetti while they were touring PMA. (A. It would be fun to cook at the Nortons and B. It was the hottest day I'd ever experienced in Palau, so touring a hot campus I'd already seen wasn't for me.)

I rushed around Julie (and Ken's) kitchen, finding stuff as I went and burning the garlic bread in the process. The food turned out fairly well and the GMM guys and Ken and Sherwin thanked and complimented my cooking. It is so difficult to open a jar of Prego properly. I must be truly gifted. Anyway, the meal concluded, we decided that visiting the other church wasn't going to be possible because we still had to make it back to Koror to leave for a trip to Peleliu to see the properties on that island. I quite eagerly wanted to go for the boat ride. Especially when Ken said we'd stop and feed the fish. After we got back to Koror, I changed to swim trunks and grabbed my mask and snorkel. We set off for the church boat and spending the rest of the day primarily in a boat.

The trip there was fast and smooth. The water was very calm except in one spot. I was bucked out of my seat up front a few times before I retired to the middle of the boat. It was so nice having the wind blowing through our hair as we sailed between the green blobs of island. We saw whale island (shaped like a whale) on our way as well as a natural arch and spear fishermen. When we arrived at Peleliu, we realized no one had been alerted to our arrival so we had to walk about a mile or so to the property. There was no building yet, and nothing really to see. I tried not to laugh at the idea of taking the boat out and then saying "Yep, we have land here. Yep, its big enough for a small church." And then heading back. We stopped and looked at an old crashed lane, a Japanese bunker, and a cave they used to store supplies in. Peleliu is very quiet and relatively clean, so I look forward to going back this weekend. After a sufficient lookaround, we headed back to the boat, grateful once more to be in the 400 horsepower breeze provided by our boat. On the way back, we stopped to feed fish at Rose Garden. Another mysteriously named fish-feeding site. The last time I fed the fish and snorkeled I had been enduring a headache from dehydration and the lingering effects of the flu. This time I felt great and excitedly jumped in. Not only was I feeling better, but there weren't a bunch of other people milling about in the water. It was just me and two guys. The beautiful fish swarmed around us and I resolved to learn their names and keep track of what I had seen. I touched a few and marvelled at a large Napoleon Rass and the Parrotfish, Angelfish, and White Snapper. Yes, those were the few names I'd picked up so far. After the fish feeding, we took the boat over to where giant clams sat quietly in the water. We finally started to return to Koror. The sun was going down and the sunset was marvelous. Of course, my camera decided to die the day
before, so I had to memorize it instead of taking a picture. Sometimes it is nice to not be chained to a camera. At the same time, I wished I had a high end one and could take an entire day for a photo safari. There is so many beautiful spots. Of course, I want a great underwater digital camera too. Woe is me. When we returned, I sorta snuck into the apartment. While the teachers had been busy doing their teacherly things, I had been doing my pastorly duties and snorkeling. haha. Of course, they get to chill on the weekends while I'm busy doing pastor stuff, so it all balances in the end. Anyway, I had a blast. It threw my schedule off a bit, but I'll recover. I can't wait to snorkel and fish this weekend.

Oh, and my camera resumed working normally today. Kodak's are retarded.

What is up with Isaac?

2005-10-09T13:58:00.000+09:00

I went out on a date tonight. -gasp- We went to an Indian restaurant called the Taj. I had never had Indian food or been to an Indian restaurant (OJ, you suck). The crispy bread/cracker appetizer thing was so hot I was terrified of what my entree would be like. Especially since I forgot to say no spice. Luckily the spinach and cheese thing I ordered wasn't spicy and the garlic bread went very well with it. My companion's food was fairly spicy, but still edible. Afterwards we went to a local basketball game. Then we went back to my place to play a game and do some mp3 swapping. Although neither of those things ended up happening. Her friend had borrowed Boggle and my computer wouldn't read her mp3 player. So we talked and played in Photoshop. Why am I broadcasting this to the world. I dunno. I just didn't want the blog to get stagnant. So yes, that is what I've been up to.

Next weekend I'm going to Peleliu along with a group from the church (including the Nortons). It will be a nice break for both pastors. hehe. And the person I went out with tonight will be going as well. I'd say more later, but I'm going to resolve to keep quiet about this as best I can. That means if you're close enough to ask me for details, you probably already know them. or you're lazy. But I love you just the same. OH! And I'm taking free judo lessons starting Tuesday. And I'm taking diving lessons starting Monday. MODERN MAAAAN! Watch out. Someone got a life! Why did I have to fly to the other side of the planet to do it? Regardless, I thank God for His many blessings.

One last thing: I encourage those of you reading to really spend time with God during the week. Worshiping God only one day a week isn't beneficial. It deadens the spirit and makes the worship on Sabbath more about you and playing catch-up than about God and praising Him. Find a way to make your daily devotions a thing of beauty. A time away from the world to be spiritually renewed. It is so important. And I will now take
my own medicine.

Best Wishes

Reorganizing

2005-10-05T09:55:00.000+09:00

Teofi and I were over at one of the other apartments and realized we had no place to sit other than at our desks or the small kitchen table. It was getting in the way of making our place feel relaxing, so I decided to scheme a way for us to get a love seat or couch. AND figure out aplace to put it. Currently, we didn't have any extra space.

The opportunity came quickly the other night. We decided to ask Kelvin and Marie for furniture since they have the most in the Mission apartments. They agreed to give us some, but what they offered was too big for the spot we picked in our place. We did some creative rearranging. We moved the bed 90 degrees, the dresser is now in our closet. And our desks are side by side against one wall. Anyway, we got a love seat from Mitz and Sheila instead. In exchange, we snuck them a bench and two chairs from the church. They weren't being used, and I know where to find them if that changes. (Rampant self-justification) Anyway, we quickly redecorated and suddenly Teofi and I never want to leave the apartment because it feels cozy/impoverished chic instead of ghetto/utilitarian chic. We even printed up some large posters for the room. I've posted pictures of both. Now I'm buzzing for morereorganization. Martha Stewart better watch out.

Friday Nights

2005-09-28T10:41:00.000+09:00

Friday I
In my effort to reach the youth of Koror (and neighboring Arai), I decided fairly early on that I would need to create some kind of weekly event for them. Although there will be Pathfinder and other club-type meetings in the future, I decided to resurrect the recently killed AY meetings on Friday night. (Although I prefer the term Friday Night Worship, I'm not going to fight that battle) I set to work deciding on format and location. I began to collect youth who would like to help with singing and such. As preparations got underway, I began to get excited about the chance to reach kids and bring them to church as well.

The first Friday night program was scheduled for 5:30 to function as a vespers program. I found out a few days before the event that traditionally it was held at 7pm and this was causing confusion. I decided that this would be the only night that we'd do it so early, but sought to spread the word of the current time as best I could. I recruited a young man who was very talented at guitar and keyboard to be our music director. I was hoping for a Rick Metcalf kind of character. I scheduled a practice session for the praise team and compiled a nice powerpoint presentation for the songs and for the program at large. (Black with white text, edgy font, simple titling, and shades of grey used as "word echoing" and some dashed line effect. For the designersreading...)

The practice lasted two hours, which I expected. My music director didn't do much leading. I had one of the SMs, Sarah, helping out. We kept having to wrangle the kids to focus. And with the music director showing off his skills with unrelated songs or sudden deviations from the songs normal rythm, I quickly had to rely on divine patience to makeit through. We had to changes the songs as well because there were so many songs that no one knew.

After the practice, I worked on my sermon some more. At first, I had been worried about the sermon, but after the practice I was more worried about the singing. Teofi reminded me not to worry. I tried to shrug off the worries, but they remained.

The next day, I had scheduled a quick practice 30 minutes before the start of the worship service. We'd even told them to get their 10 minutes early. The one person who showed up on time (not ten minutes early) was one of the guitarists. No one else showed up for practice. I was annoyed, but I shrugged it off. They'd show up for worship though. Iwas counting on them. WRONG!

Fifteen minutes, after it was supposed to start, I still had only one guitarist and no singers. I was in full panic/hate my life mode. Only a few people arrived though. And then the SMs arrived. I recruited Marie and Kelvin to play piano and keyboard respectively and grabbed some SMs to get started singing. We managed to struggle through the songs, having not practiced, it was a bit difficult for everyone to hit the same notes, let alone at the same time. But I smiled through it all, hopingmy face wasn't red.

By the time song service was over, one of my singers had arrived. Luckily, it was the one who had also volunteered to lead out a game. The game went well: charades using the two sections of pews that were beingused as teams. They tied because they were easy Bible stories to act out.

Next it was time for my sermon. I had prepared one on doing the work of God that He called you to do. And to do it wholeheartedly and not give up halfway through. The irony was not lost on me or those in the know as we were without a great deal of the people who had volunteered. The sermon went well. I didn't talk too fast and I didn't "Uh" or "Um" as I tend to do.

Around the end of the game and the beginning of the sermon, people began to trickle in. Apparently the 7pm spectre of AYs past was the reason for the lack of attendance. But I was happy that we got many kids near the end. I announced that next week would have it at 7pm, the normal time.

I was disappointed overall, but optimistic for the future once the time situation was fixed. I mainly worried about having volunteers (including the music director/main guitarist) not show up. How could you planwithout relying on others!?

Friday II
Well, I am happy to report that my singers showed up for the first AND second practice the second time. Unfortunately, I never heard back from my music director, so I was left leading practice. The second practice had some musicians, but it was hard to get everyone to practice
together. I prayed and hoped that it would all go well. After blushing through the last song service, I decided that I would sit in the front row and help direct by singing and they could watch me from there. It came in handy, especially when I failed to catch some powerpoint glitches.

For this service, I had one of the kids run sound and another kid ran the powerpoint. I was able to sit back and enjoy (and still quietly worry, but what can you do). I liked the feeling of sitting back andwatching your efforts work out.

The song service was excellent. People came into the sanctuary in small and large groups, we had more than last week before practice was over. By the time it started, we had a really big crowd. All told, we ended up with 102 people at last count. The songs went well, despite a misplaced slide and Norton Antivirus (may they rot) popping up in the middle of a song saying my protection was going to expire in 4 days. I leaped up and turned it off quickly. Luckily it was during a song that didn't use the powerpoint. God was looking out for me, even as the forces of darkness(Symantec) worked to ruin my fun.

The game went well. We had people milling around, talking, laughing, and enjoying it all. Next came a skit by the Academy drama group. It was pretty funny, but the lines were spoken without projection (and this is with microphones) so we missed alot of it.

For the sermon, I instead did a follow up on last weeks sermon. We handed out questionnaires that you could fill out and then use to calculate what your spiritual gifts were. This, ideally, would help you narrow down what God wanted to use you for in your ministry. I hadn't made enough (only 50) for the large turnout, but it still went well.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Ken played saxaphone for the songs. He decided at the last minute to join in, and it was cool because it added street cred to the event, even though you couldn't always hear him. And my music director showed up and joined with his guitar during the first
songs. It was a motley, throw-together group, but people sang.

Anyway, I left this Friday night on such a high. 102 people! And they enjoyed themselves. And they have friends they may invite. The downside is figuring out what to do each week that could possibly involve so many people. I'm just glad that God is blessing our efforts. I feel like since I've been here I've been sitting on a large creature, slapping the reins and trying to urge it to move. Suddenly, it has awoken and it is bigger than I realized. I just hope I can hold on for the ride andprovide as much direction as possible. (Listening to God's expert guidance)

Now, I'm going to sit here and love my metaphor.

Week of Prayer

2005-09-22T13:02:00.000+09:00

A few weeks ago Eric asked me if I'd like to do week of prayer for the Elementary school. I have always secretly wanted to do a week of prayer. I remember when college students would come and they'd seem so cool. I'd want to be like them when I grew up. Yes, I know, it is a weirdly selfish reason to want to do a week of prayer, but luckily it isn't the only reason. In fact, the closer I got, the more that faded and the more I was focused on the good reasons. I was concerned about reaching kids who had never heard about Jesus and kids who thought they knew everything about Jesus. I was also concerned about writing five sermons with only eight days notice. And I was concerned about teaching two groups, grades K-4 and 5-8, with the same sermon.On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of last week, I began to plan in earnest while also working on my first AYA meeting, which happened last Friday. (I'll write about that later) I decided after a lot of racking my brain that I'd preach about God's love. It is broad but exciting and I can focus on various aspects and benefits of it. I created an outline for the week with some major points to hit for each sermon. On Sunday, I began to work on Monday's sermon. For some reason, I felt myself sinking into the old procrastination habit. Working with kids for so long, I've
learned from at least one of my friends (FAYE!) that you can pull stuff together at the last minute and it will be just as great if not greater. I admired and abhorred her ability to do this when I was younger, but I seem to have sunk into that habit on occasion. You just know how to
blend the right recipes of songs, questions, prayer, and monologue to have a great experience. Sounds sadly formulaic, but it is actually more spontaneous and lively. I didn't want this to happen though. I wanted to be more prepared so that God's message would really get the care it deserved. I started in earnest on Sunday evening, grumbling at my inability to buckle down. But before I went to bed, I was happy with what I had. Monday morning I got up and tweaked it with a fresh mind. The opening song was requested by Eric to be Shine, Jesus, Shine. I had
prepared the Powerpoint along with some diagrams to talk about God's
love. I was set.

Monday
The K-4 set get so excited so easily. They love singing. They are a breeze. I was entranced by how they latch onto my talks and will volunteer for anything, even before I tell them what it is. These are the kids you could preach to for years and never get disappointed. You have to talk like Mr. Rogers sometimes. I love being able to say "Boys and Girls, this means Jesus..." when I'm explaining a verse. They lap it up. They downside is they sometimes sing off key or too fast.
The older group was the one I was worried about. I had some deeper stuff for them. And I had more questions to keep their mind active. Both went really well though. I was able to get my point home with both. With the older kids, it is important to keep it real and occasionally be funny, on purpose or not, to keep their attention. I also had to call out two guys who were too cool to participate. I made them laugh and suddenly
they were ready to play along. I left feeling happy, but determined to
do better with the next day.

Tuesday
Well, doing better was hard. My topic, which was God's love shown through Jesus, was seemingly easy to put together. I had a last minute inspiration to put a bunch of space pictures in the powerpoint to show how much God's Son gave up for us. I should have spread them out or put them at the end, because after all the cool pictures, my talk and the texts seemed boring. I could tell this immediately. I scrambled to make it better for the older set once I figured it out with the younger set. Unfortunately, I floundered with both. It wasn't that I stammered or
lost my place, but I consulted the outline more than I did the day before and my conclusion fell flat. I was disappointed, but resolved that I would make the next day's go even better.

Wednesday
By now Shine, Jesus Shine is firmly in the minds of the kids. They sing the chorus so loud in the lower division that it is beautifully and almost painful. They love singing that song. And I love singing with them. Hearing so many young voices talking about God is inspirational. I try to have an illustration and some stories for each sermon. Today I was going to use my burning the dollar bill trick to spice it up. The night before, I changed my subject near the end of my evening to Prayer because I wasn't able to bring together the "Do unto others" one I had planned for. Everything seemed either too obvious or too corny. Prayer is such an awesome privilege. I was reading Steps to Christ and I decided I'd preach about Prayer and the Holy Spirit. This one went much better. I had some good stories of answer to prayer. And I had the dollar burning trick. Well, both sets paid attention this time the whole way through. (Although there are some eighth grade girls who just can't see to help themselves) I knocked over the plant in front of the pulpit
and then the microphone when I went to fix the plant. That provided laughter and stunned looks. Anyway, so I got around to the dollar trick. With the lowers I used a $20. With the upper division, I just so happened to have a $100 on me that I decided to use. (I think God sent
me to cash the check where I did just so I'd get the 100) Anyway, it was so funny to watch the kids. When you dip the bill in the bowls, they gasp and scream. I said "Guys, calm down. Money dries." Knowing what was about to happen made it even funnier. They watched quietly as I held the bill with the tongs, allowing the rubbing alcohol to drip off some. When the lighter appeared, they all screamed "NOOOOOO!" at the thought of burning so much money. I grinned so much as it burned and they were all amazed. The kids listened to my comparison to the Holy Spirit and temptation and how we can resist. I have to thank Faye once more for teaching me this one. It is always a crowd pleaser. Wednesday went well despite the last minute topic change.

Thursday
Well, today is Thursday. And this morning went fantastic. I didn't get to bed until 1am Wednesday night because we had an SM who was leaving back to the states to get his passport taken care of. Only a few people went, but I wanted to show my support and wish him a safe trip. When I finally crawled into bed and when I groggily stumbled out of bed this morning, I prayed about love covering a multitude of sins. I felt like I had made the wrong choice staying up so late when week of prayer is so important. Sergei would have understood if I had said goodbye earlier to get my sleep. Oh well. So I scrambled to finish the sermon at 6am. It seems like every day I have less and less time to prepare because it takes so long for inspiration to strike. Or is it panic? Anyway, I was going to talk about rejoicing and being happy because of the Good News that God has given us. I figured out a really cool story to use. And even while I slept, I think my mind was processing what to do. I took a shower with texts passing before my mind as I tried to bring it together. I kept going back and forth between the Powerpoint presentation and my outline, trying to bring all the thoughts and ideas I had blurted into the document together into something that someone outside of my head would understand. I ran over to the church (I love living fifty feet from the church...most of the time) and printed out my outline, moving with as much speed as my tired and sore (jogging) legs could muster. I set up the projector and activated the welcome message slide at the exact moment the first teacher opened the sanctuary door with her children. I exhaled mightily and laughed at the crazy morning. I prayed as they trickled in like I always did. I felt despite my good stories, my lack of illustration would cause problems. They had come to expect them. Well, it went great. K-4 loved the story of my Dad taking us up in the bucket of his excavator and nearly dumping us into a lake.
I talked about how we trusted him not to do it even as we pleaded with him not to do it. I wasn't sure the upper division would get as into the story as they would, but in fact they did. Both groups loved my stories. And they seemed to listen attentively. The kids in K-4 requested that
the closing song be Shine, Jesus, Shine, so we sang that a second time. They sang so loud. It was great. When I was preaching in the upper division. Something awesome happened. While I feel that the Holy Spirit has been with me for all these sermons, keeping me calm, clear, and
mostly on topic, this time something different happened. While I was right in the middle of talking about God as our Father and what He has done to save us, whole sentence would spring to mind. I started preaching louder, and faster, and more animatedly than I had ever done
before. My outline was left in the dust and I just hit home on God's love and how important it is to choose Him. The words flowed so freely from my mouth, that I was able to sit back and pray to God while I was speaking. I thanked Him for the Holy Spirit and getting the opportunity.
All honor and glory go to Him. I was so happy when I finished. I couldn't believe how long I preached in both sections. It was very inspiring.

Tomorrow I will be making a call for the upper division. For the younger ones, I plan to have little hearts that say "I give my love and heart to Jesus" and they will get to sign their names. For the upper division, if they are interested in baptismal classes, they will be able to let me
know as well. I'm excited. I pray that I'll be able to have a good sermon and really allow the Holy Spirit to work on their hearts. Even if no one comes forward though, I know that God has been working with these children this week. Despite procrastination and floundering conclusions,
I feel a great sense of satisfaction because of what has been done thus far. This is why I came here and I love doing it. Exhilarating.

Rock Islands Trip (part 2)

2005-09-18T08:53:00.000+09:00

[Author's Note: I've been trying to post this for at least two weeks now but my ISP has been somehow dropping my emails.]

After worship ended, people made smores and there was more singing of praise songs. Ken was so excited because after sunset he had planned to go fishing and wanted to teach Eric and I how to fish. We spent about 30 minutes running around as Ken tried to catch bait with his cast net, but he didn't manage to catch anything. I wasn't sure fishing was for me, but I wanted to get into it, so I ended up running around the shore with a flashlight trying to spot fish. Finally, we gave up and headed over to the boat. We only had a set amount of time before the tide would leave the boat stranded. I had expected fishing to be Ken, Eric, the two Palauan men, and two of the SMs. Apparently all the girls wanted to go and watch. This is actually taboo for the Palauans, but they didn't say anything. I was disappointed because it was going to be loud and chaotic instead of quiet and calm as I tried to catch fish. Ken was reassuring us how easy it would be to catch fish in this area. We headed out on the boat. I sat up near the front with Ken, looking up at the stars in amazement. The haze was gone on this night and it was just unbelievable how numerous the really bright stars were. And the swath of the Milky Way was just something I wanted to take home with me. I feel like I've always loved space more than most. I just kept staring. hehe

We shot across the calm ocean water looking for deep areas for drop casting. In actuality, the boat driver was looking for decent spots for spear fishing. He thought we could both fish, but the shallow areas for spearfishing aren't useful for dropcasting. I kept imagining us hitting a sandbar in the dark and everyone would fall off. But that didn't happen. We found a spot and the two Palauns went overboard with Jorge as they attempted to catch fish with their spear guns. All told, they caught about 20 fish between the two of them. Interesting fish, a bit bigger than a hand. Nelson would toss his fish onto the boat and the girls would scream. Christina started to feel bad for the fish. It was a FISHING TRIP! What did she expect? hehe Anyway, the girls started running away from the fish as they were tossed aboard, which made me laugh. They'd scream also when the speared fish would occasionally start flapping about spastically.

Finally, they quit spearfishing and we headed to different spots. I never even tried to fish, waiting for someone to get a nibble before we invested the effort on me. After trying several spots, it was clear the fish weren't nibbling that night or the spots just weren't good. Ken finally suggested we head back because the channel near the campsite always had good bites. By this point I was exhausted and trying to stay awake so I didn't fall overboard. I think I nodded off three times as we headed back.

We investigated the channel in the boat, but it was going to be about 30 minutes before the tide was going to be low enough to be useful. When we got back, I told Ken that I had to get to sleep. And so I began to pad my bed with clothing and towels and anything I could so that tonight I could perhaps sleep. There wasn't much that wasn't wet, but I prayed and fell asleep fairly quickly.
That night I only woke up three times for very short spells. I felt a bug or maybe a crab run across me. I just brushed it off, looked around with my Indi-Glo© watch, and then promptly went back to sleep. Each time, I'd sigh at the beautiful stars I was able to see from my pillow, but unlike last night, I was too wiped out to stay awake.

I awoke feeling refreshed but still very groggy. I was ecstatic that I had slept. I immediately ate and began the process of packing up everything. A headache formed and I took some meds to get it gone asap. The plan for the day was to leave early and visit several popular sites. Unfortunately, it was hard to get everyone moving and then we had some boat delays, but we finally managed to get moving. We first went around the rock line of some of the islands and spotted sea turtles. Sea turtles are FAST! You always see them moving pretty sluggishly on TV, but these turtles would suddenly shoot off at an amazing speed once you spooked them. We tailed one for awhile with the boat, it kept up for a really long time before crossing in front of the boat and taking off perpendicular to us. After that, we began to snorkel, I snapped more pictures and tried to drink more water to fight the persistent headache of dehydration.

The coral was all bleached from El Nino several years back, but there were still a few nice fish here and there. We didnt snorkel long because the reef was relatively deserted. Instead we decided to head on to Jellyfish Lake. When we got to Jellyfish Lake, we had to walk up a steep hill using a guide rope to help us up the rocks. We climbed down on the other side and entered a valley that was filled with green, murky water. There was a small dock with instructions not to touch the jellyfish or use snorkel fins. There were many Japanese tourists in the lake already, and we soon joined them, staring down into the murky depths. The first jellyfish I saw was very deep and tiny. Then you'd see a pair here or there. Soon it filled so that there were dozens all around you. My headache was really getting to me, so I headed back after a bit, actually sort of disappointed that the water was so murky. You could see only 20 feet or so, so it felt dirty compared to the clear ocean. I saw swarms of the jellyfish, but I think perhaps I didn't see the "mother swarm" that the rest saw. Ken later told me that was his new favorite place in Palau, which I found odd since I was sort of disappointed. It was cool, but I think I was too distracted by my headache and exhaustion.

After we got back to the boat, I snacked and drank my water which was very hot from being in the sun. We headed out after everyone got back and visited an island that had a picnic area for everyone. I took a short nap at the picnic area while everyone ate and talked. It wasn't a long stop, soon we were all packed back up and heading out again to the Cemetary.

I had determined by this point that I was just too wiped out to attempt another round of snorkeling. When we reached there, the Nortons pleaded with me that this place was too good to pass up and that I had to least take a lookaround underwater. I finally conceded and got in the water. I am SO glad I did. This was THE spot. The spot that made Palau the tropical paradise I had heard about. Swarms of exotic fish swirled all around you. You could reach out and touch them if they didn't dart away at the last second. It was like swimming in a billionaire's saltwater tank. Or sneaking into one of Sea World's habitats. It was hard to believe there were so many brightly colored fish species living together. The Cemetary is actually all about feeding and swimming with the pretty fish. There are no graves. The rumor is the rocks looked like gravestones, but I didn't see any resemblance. We started tossing our food into the water. Rice, bread, and anything that was vaguely edible for fish. The fish would swarm around you, take food from your hands, and generally just be pure awesome. Yellow and blue fish, black and white striped, rainbowed fish, shimmering fish, and black and yellow fish were the most prominent. There was also the "Rass." It was a huge fish that lurked far below but was still visible from the start. Ken took eggs, dived down twenty feet or so, and lobbed it at the fish. The Rass would suck the egg in, and spit out the shell a sort time later. This fish was HUGE. There were a few other large fish that would hang out lower than the surface level and try to catch the food that fell through. They weren't as fast, or at least not as interested in being fast, so they just took what they could get. The place was spectacular. My underwater camera was made for this place, but about that time, the batteries died. I was disappointed, but I just enjoyed the experience too much to really care. I'll definitely go back when I can because that place is a photographer's delight. In the meantime, we finally left Cemetary, everyone happy from the experience.

It was time to head back to Koror. I was more than ready, being happy with the experience but fatigued from the erratic sleep and exhausting activities. I talked to Eric's 5 year old son Blake on the way back before drifting in and out of sleep. We reached Koror very quickly since all of our stops had been on the way back. We unloaded everything fairly quickly and then waited on our rides. I got back and I had a real shower and a real nap, collapsing into my bed in a state of total surrender to exhaustion.

That was the trip! It was awesome. This place is gorgeous. I'm so glad I came. The day after we got back was Labor Day, so we got to relax all day. I napped off and on. My flu kicked back in. I think God held the rain back and my flu back for those three days. I'm so grateful for that. And grateful for the day to recover after the trip. And the fact that He made a place like this. If you ever get a chance to come to Palau, you should. The reefs and islands are magnificent.

A Palauan Funeral

2005-09-16T09:31:00.000+09:00

Last Wednesday, Ken told me he would be speaking at a funeral the next day. He suggested I come as well to observe the Palauan funeral customs. I personally avoid funerals, but my curiosity was piqued at how another culture would handle someone's death.
So, bright and early the next morning, I walked over to the church in my cool-dude black pants and grey shirt. Ken had said I didn't have to dress up, but all of my dress casual was in the laundry basket (and beyond rescue). Ken was going to meet us there, so for now I was going to ride with pastor Sherwyn from Airai church and several other Palauans from church, including my adopted mother, Mengyur. I helped them load up a keyboard into the church van and off we went. I read an e-book on my PDA while the Palauans chatted in their native tongue. I felt perfectly at home with them, because these were the older Palauans who always greeted me warmly. And my "mom" would punch them if they were mean to me. hehe. After awhile, I put my book aside to look out at the view. I commented that I didn't think I'd ever get tired of it. This seemed to be the right thing to say because all the ladies murmured appreciatively. I felt my old powers returning. You know, the power to make any old lady want me to marry their granddaughters. It is a fearsome power and not to be trifled with.
I also asked them about cable television and how long it had been on the island. I found it ironic that I had grown up without cable because we were too rural while the island of Palau had been cabled since the seventies. I commented that it felt strange that all the children knew more about pop culture than I did. We spoke a bit more, but we had to cut our conversation short as we arrived at the funeral. I asked if we were passing a market, but it was actually the funeral.
There were several tents surrounding an A-frame building. The building is called a bai, and it is a traditional meeting place for Palauns. It was made of concrete and painted with various scenes from Palauan culture. There were people sitting in tents outside and many young people milling about. People were chatting. It didn't seem very sad or somber. The church group headed in with the keyboard in tow. The owner of the keyboard set it up and began to play hymns.
The funeral was set to last from 9am to 2:30pm. I was in it for the long haul and sang songs both in Palauan and English thanks to a hymn book that someone shared with me. The songs went on forever and Ken told me to save my voice after awhile. We talked and shared insights and observations. We were handed little trays with breakfast when we first walked in, but we didn't eat them because of the abundance of meat in them. I had already eaten as well, so I slid it under my chair. After an hour or so, Ken got up and spoke, preaching about salvation and God's love for man. After that, another church group came in and sang up near the body. I also had a program with a picture of the man who had died. He was 93 and had been deceased for 11 days. At one point, the body was perspiring, so a lady used a cloth to remove the moisture.
At some point, chanting began. An older man would grab a microphone and start chanting with a smile. At certain points in the chant, everyone in the bai would say "MmmmmmWAY" in response. After the chant was ended, people would give the man money. And they'd grin all the more. It was interesting. I wanted to chant for money!
Around noon, lunch arrived. Larger trays with taro chips, meat, and M&Ms. The Chiefs, which were lined up along one side of the bai all got larger versions of the lunches wrapped in red patterned cloth. We also got ahold of some water from a church member. The ladies who would bring bottles of water around on occasion managed to miss our area each time. Ken and I held our lunches and spoke for a bit. One of the men from the church, Johnson, came over. He was apparently the equivalent of the MC and he told Ken that the rest would all be in Palauan so we were excused and allowed to leave. Pastor Sherwyn decided that the Adventist contingent would leave together so it didn't make Ken and I look bad. (I think they just wanted to leave too?) Anyway, we departed and I had lunch at the Nortons. Ken also told me that all the clans that are invited (many of the clan women wore identical dresses) contribute money for the family of the deceased. They use the money to pay for catering and the funeral expenses. Each time a clan is invited, they give a little bit more money than they were given by the inviting clan at the last funeral. So now the money given can be around thirty thousand dollars. And the funerals get more extravagant and expensive and it is apparently getting out of hand. Especially with many funerals taking place all year.
I found the funeral to be an interesting experience. It was alot of sitting and observing since I never understood the speakers. Now that I've experienced it though, I think I'll go back to avoiding funerals as a rule though. :o)

The Rock Islands Trip (part 1)

2005-09-06T07:38:00.000+09:00

Title: The Rock Islands Trip

Thursday and Friday I managed to get everything packed up and ready to go. We left for the dock at 2pm sharp with everyone excited and in good spirits. When we got to the dock, we had to wait an hour and a half for our second boat driver who was apparently on "Island Time." It was a bit annoying since everyone had worked so hard to be ready quickly so we could maximize our time on the islands. Finally he showed up, no one saying a word about it to him, and we took off for the Rock Islands.

The boat ride there was very breezy and cool. I was one of the ones who opted to stay under the boat's canopy, although there was a lot of shifting of people as we tried to make the boat balanced both port to starboard and fore and aft (Argh, thems be naval words). We even moved people to the cargo boat thinking we were overloaded. In reality, one of our engines had never been on. hehe. I spotted the half-sunken ferry boat from a few nights back and took a picture of it as well, marvelling at the quarry in full daylight. I sat beside Mithe and we made terrorist jokes all the way there. It was sort of mocking Bush and sort of just insanely inane humor, but I laughed so hard. Anything that was annoying was either a terrorist or a terrorist's fault. When the boat hit the open seas, the front began to bounce over waves giving the "cool types" who had snagged the "sweet seats" a bit of opportunity to rethink their greed. I smirked from the back as they continued to groan at the bigger bumps. Donjulie had been moved up front to try and balance it out, but after awhile, she started to look pretty ill and we made her come and sit more in the middle (and put on a life jacket). I snapped pictures greedily and tried to breathe despite my clogged nose and the constant wind of velocity.

Once we left the open seas and entered the Rock Island area, we were once again zooming through large blobs of green islands, zooming over clear water that varied from white to green to rich blue. One of the Filipinas, Sheila, concluded that only God could have made a place to beautiful. We came around a corner to a place that showed the first beach I had seen since taking off. It was the High Chief's island and our destination.

We came to a stop in the shallows, a dozen feet or so from the beach. We immediately began offloading the masses of coolers, crates, and backpacks that we had brought along. Once that was finished, we began to organize the stuff and stake out our claims for places to sleep and places to store our food. We had to keep the food away from the inside of the longhouse because it would attract the rats inside. The longhouse was a large, green building with the ground for a floor and three raised floors for sleeping on. The windows were just open squares in the walls and there were two large grills constructed on each end. Having packed pretty compactly, I was set up in less than 5 minutes and began to look around. In front of the longhouse is an area shaded by large coniferous trees that have needles that droop more like willows than Florida's pine trees. The cones were the size of a thumbnail and always underfoot, but never painful enough to swear. (NOT THAT I WOULD HAVE!) The island was connected to another by a sandbar. While Chief's Island was flat and triangular in shape, the other island was another giant hump of green that went high up into the sky. The water was quickly ventured into by the kids and SMs. It was only up to an adult's waist as far as they went out. I wondered if you could actually walk to one of the islands on the horizon because the decline was so gradual. By the time we got there, there was little time for play as darkness was fast approaching. I prepared a supper of cream cheese and olives and a root beer, eating it under the trees and staring out at the magnificent view. I decided this place truly felt like what an Eden would be like. The breeze was constant and cooling. There was no bugs that I could see. After eating, I finally ventured into the water as it got dark. Unfortunately, sunset was on the opposite side of the island, but I enjoyed venture nearly a mile out into the ocean, barely reaching my soldiers. I forgot to pack a swimsuit. YES, I KNOW. A beach camping trip and I forgot my swimsuit. I felt like such a dweeb, but I grabbed a pair of shorts that I thought would work best and just made the best of it. When I returned, I was offered enchiladas by the Nortons, which I ate gratefully.

I noticed there were hermit crabs in the campsite. At first you can't tell because they were moving so slowly. They all had white shells and you stepped on them occasionally because there were so many. After a bit, we moved into our Friday evening worship, which consisted of several testimonies by some of the SMs. We sang and prayed as well and loved the peaceful feeling of the Sabbath. While one of the testimonies was offered, Ken put a hermit crabby on Kenny's bare stomach after playing with it in his hand for awhile. Kenny watched it for about 8 seconds before flinging it off in horror. I managed to stifle the laughter, but it was so hard. Kenny's marvel had shifted to terror so quickly.

After worship, the people who had played in the water began to stake out beds. Teofi asked me if I wanted to sleep with him under the stars. I was hesitant, but that voice that has been telling me lately to "live a little" overwhelmed my fears. We staked our claim to an area under one of the trees where bench-like structures had been built. There was plenty of room for us, and soon several other SMs and even the Palaun faculty joined us. I was excited about sleeping outside, but also concerned about sleeping on a hard surface. Whenever I camp, I have problems sleeping because my pelvis or ribs will quickly become sore no matter what position I attempt. I walked out and looked at the stars from the sandbar. I couldn't recognize any constellations. I couldn't figure out if it was because I was on the opposite side of the planet (which didn't make a lot of sense) or if it was because there were so many new stars that the old constellations were rendered indistinguishable. I grew up in a very rural area, so I was used to going out and marvelling at the starscape. Unfortunately, the sky I grew up has nothing on what we saw that night. Even with a slight haze from moisture in the air, I was able to see so many stars. There was a purple cast to the blackness, and even more thrilling was the fact that I could see the band of the Milky Way in a way I had only seen in artwork. I loved that night sky.

Once we turned in for the night after talking a bit and marvelling again at where we were, I made my best effort to get to sleep. My nose immediately clogged up and I could tell it was going to be a bad night because of the hard surface as well. I prayed for intervention and decided to have a good attitude about it regardless. I woke up every hour or so and gazed at the stars before trying to drift back to sleep. I had left my watch in my crate so I wouldn't become obsessed with how much sleep I was missing, but I longed to be able to know how many hours I would have to endure. Teofi had complained of bug bites before we went to bed, but I had yet to feel a single bite. I only had one bug try to bite me the entire time we camped, and I swatted it before it managed to get me. Finally, I found a position that althought it was cutting off circulation to my arm, it relieved my hip-bone of being jammed into the wood (despite having long ago gotten on top of my sleeping bag to give me more cushion). I woke up around 5:30 because the light of day was arriving quickly. My arm was completely useless and I stared at it as if it were a cadaver arm that had been sewn on while I slept. The burning and tingling quickly rushed in and I was completely awake now because of the sensations.

Knowing sunrise was on fast approaching, I changed into my makeshift swim trunks and grabbed my friend Jorge and my camera. We headed around the large hump of an island to take pictures of the sun as it rose in the distance over some far away island hills. Although the tide was still in, we easily made it to where we could shoot pictures unobstructed by the local island and still were only chest-high in the water. We held our cameras over our heads or in front of us depending on how annoyed our arms got. We snapped a bunch of pictures. Jorge's batteries went dead and mine did a short time later. I knew my camera likes to lie about battery life, so I wasn't concerned. I continued to turn the camera off and on, snapping pictures until I grew bored. There were birds flying in and out of the shrubbery on the island we circled around. The birds were white with long, flowing tail feathers. They were very exotic and perfect for the setting.
The Chief made an appearance in his boat and Ken, already up and ready at 6am left on the boat to go preach back in Koror. He waved to us as he passed us in the water.

When we returned, I made myself some cereal and enjoyed the children frolicking in the surf. I changed out of my swim shorts and put on some casual wear for church. Church was 30 minutes of Sabbath school and 30 minutes of singing and a sermon by Sergei. It wasn't the best, but no one cared because we were happy to be there.

After church, Julie, Teofi, and I decided to go snorkeling near camp. The beaches I had waded in thus far had been completely white sand with an occasional group of silver fish flitting around. They assured me that the dark areas farther on would have stuff for us to see. I borrowed fins from Julie and we set out to see what we could. When we got to a sufficient depth, I attempted to put my fins on, but the clasp was difficult to snap into place one handed and I fell twice, much to everyone's delight. Finally, with some stabilization from Julie, we managed to get them on and we took off. I was very slow because my fins were diving fins rather than snorkeling fins and they are more suited to being underwater rather than along the surface. Julie and Teofi soon left me behind as I struggled to figure out if I was just doing it wrong or what. I came across a small tuft of coral with some fish and began to take pictures. The next attraction was a large blue sea star. I finally reached where Julie and Teofi were milling about and began to snap picture after picture. There were plenty of coral and fish. I'd find a neon blue fish and work to get a good shot and then move on to find a whole school of them. Julie and Teofi spotted a balloon fish, but it left before I reached them. The current was strong as tide was heading out through the channel. The closer we got to the channel, the faster we moved and Teofi and I were having a hard time stopping to look at anything (he also had the longer fins). We finally made for shore, landing about 20 feet from the channel's mouth, where we would have been swept out of the cove, forcing us to walk back along the quickly forming shore line.

We walked along the smooth but rocky shoreline heading back to the campsite. I spotted brittle stars, and hermit crabs of varying colors. There was a "regular" crab that ran out from under a rock when I ventured to close and gave me quite a shock. It was so ugly. It stopped as if to glare at me, before running under some other rocks. We saw an eel of some sort in the shallows that also swam quickly away upon our approach. Finally, we also found a small sea snake on the shore line. The sea snake is supposedly the third most poisonous sea creature, but you would never know it looking at this small, black and white striped animal. It was about three quarters of a foot long and very slow moving. We moved on after awhile; I can't recall if I took pictures of it.

When we arrived back at camp, it was time for lunch. All the other food we had to provide for ourselves, but the school purchased supplies for haystacks. And they were very good. We had more than enough for everyone to have seconds and I was so ecstatic to be eating my favorite Sabbath meal on Sabbath on an exotic island with a nice breeze. After that, I decided to take a nap. The previous night plus my snorkeling adventures had left me very tired. I could have gone snorkeling again with the group, but I decided that it was my vacation and if I wanted to take a nap with a cool breeze, than so be it. I gave out my snorkeling supplies to one of the SMs in exchange for her hammock. (Not that we weren't willing to share alreayd) I took a nap with the older Palauan faculty members talking quietly in their native tongue nearby. It was very nice. The breeze was coming from the direction of the longhouse, so it occasionally got hot, but I was too lazy to move, so I just went to sleep.

When I awoke, several of the people were returning from their snorkeling. Others had hiked up the other island's large hump, so I asked Mithe if she wanted to go scale the island with me. We grabbed our water and headed out. It was very steep in some areas, but the trail was well worn and relatively easy to traverse. We met a large green lizard who lazily climbed up the rock face away from us. We finally reached the top and could see what Chief's Island was like and also the surrounding area. I took pictures and then we waited for Teofi and Sheila who had decided to join us. We took the trail back down and then decided after a short rest to walk around Chief's island.

Several others wanted to join us, but took forever (women!) to get ready. Doing their hair, on a camping trip, to take a hike, around a deserted island (not counting Chief). We finally left, allowing them the pleasure of catching up, because the tide was swiftly coming in and would make passing some of the shorelines impossible without wading or in some cases swimming. Julie had given me a warning look before we left, insisting we would have to swim, but Teofi assured me that there were paths that would make it a dry journey. The sun began to get lower in the sky on the opposite side. I had left my watch in the crate, firmly hoping the day would last forever if I never checked my watch. When others asked for the time, I would cover my ears and hum. The day did seem to take on a very long feel to it, because of all I had done. I later remembered I had been up since 5:30, so the day had several more hours than I was used to.

Anyway, the hike went smashingly well at first. We passed the Chief's house, talking quietly out of respect as we had been asked to do by the Palauns. Teofi and I talked about the social structure of the area and we wondered what kind of pressures the chief faced as a cultural symbol of the past living in the relatively modern world of Palau. Sheila was collecting sea shells in a bag. We helped her by keeping an eye out for nice shells. I wanted to add to my collection as well, but I didn't want to carry a bag on such a nice hike. (LAZY!) In some places, the shoreline had receded to nonexistence by the incoming tide, but we managed to wade through knee deep water or find a path further inland. Once we reache the opposite side of the island, the inland areas were largely inaccessible because of large, jagged limestone cliffs. They usually were about 12 feet high but sometimes gave away to trees again or would go even higher. As we neared the end of the hike, we came to a spot that was deep enough that we needed to find a path because Sheila and Mithe were wearing pants. I didn't particularly want to get wet either, since I was short a set of shorts after forgetting the swimsuit. After finding an opening, I looked for a trail of some kind for the women and I. I found only deep drop offs that would be impossible to cross as far as I could see. I came down to the shore to tell the others it wasn't possible only to find that everyone but Sheila, Mithe, and I had gone on through the water. I wasn't pleased with this turn of events, but I just shrugged and told them we wouldn't be able to use a path inland.

Mithe wanted to see for herself, so we walked back up and tried to find a path. We couldn't, so we headed back to the shore and decided to try and wade through. I knew we would eventually have to swim before we got to the mouth of hte channel, and I assumed my two companions did as well. We set out through the water, Mithe and Sheila laughing as we stumbled and slowly got wetter and wetter. The water began to creep higher and they laughed more and more nervously as the waves gently beat against the jagged rock face that we were walking beside. They kept saying "It's getting deeper" and I nodded and pointed at where the channel opening was. Explaining that it would wisk us inward because the tide was still coming in and the current was quite strong. I don't know if they were distracted or if the language barrier was too great, but they didn't seem to understand that we would be swimming. And I didn't understand that Sheila COULDN'T swim until the water had reached their shoulders and they both lunged onto me, nearly pushing me underwater. As I struggled to maintain my balance with both women holding my shoulders and upper arms, I asked them "Are you okay? Can you swim?" I first looked at Mithe, and she nodded although a bit fearfully. I looked at Sheila and she shook her head very fearfully. I took a moment right then to compose myself. I had been left alone on the opposite side of an island with someone who couldn't swim as the tide was coming in. I was annoyed, suddenly worried, and my mind began to race. I sent a silent prayer upward and smiled calmly. "OK," I said, "Well, we'll just have to go back."

With both girls holding on, we headed back, Mithe letting go after a few moments and then Sheila after the water had grown more shallow. I held both of their hands so they could keep their balance. With my head already aching from dehydration (I had water with me, but I had neglected it out of distraction) and now stress, we finally got back to where we had first tried to find a path. We tried again to find a path, this time I was more willing to pass through dangerous areas as our situation had changed. We still didn't manage to find anything that was passable, so we headed back along the shoreline which was getting smaller by the minute. I was in full "danger man" mode, trying to analyze my way out of the situation and mentally take charge. It was hard to be in charge when Mithe kept rushing ahead of us. I stifled my annoyance, trying not to be chauvenistic and believing that she could take the lead and not rush herself into injury. I chose to stay with Sheila, she was older and had recently given birth, so she was still a bit weak at times she said. We had to find paths inland on several occasions, scaling very sharp and jagged rocks that normally I would never have attempted. I was glad I was wearing water shoes instead of my sandals. I kept worrying that one of the women or I would stumble and impale ourselves. Mithe in particularly was moving at a pace that we could not match. Sheila because she simply couln't, and myself because it would have been dangerous. Sheila kept calling out to her when she would push ahead and we'd lose sight of her. I was trying not to be annoyed, thinking that her speed was reckless and that we should stick together. Sheila finally said "Please slow down!" Although by that time we had made it out of the rocky areas. It was such a relief. Several times the rocks broke off or would wobble unexpectedly. There were also bushes that had razor sharp fronds. When we caught up with Mithe, she was now barefoot, having ruined one of her sandals on the rocks. I kept imagining my own footwear being punctured by the rocks, but luckily that never happened.

We walked along the beach and had to wade through waist deep water in some areas. We reached one area and I had to help the women around a corner where it got very deep. After helping Mithe across, I had to walk against the strong current back around the corner of the rocks to return to Sheila to help her across. When Sheila and I reached the other side, Mithe was already out of sight again, walking along the beach at a pace that we could now at least match easily. We passed Chief's house again, then moved on, sticking to the low palm trees at the upper shore line. When we finally spotted the campsite, I was so relieved. I had been drinking the water and then gave the rest to the women, but my head was pounding nonetheless. When we arrived, Mrs. Wong said they were just about to send the boat for us. I smiled and said "I'm sure." Since we had taken over an hour to return when it should have been like ten more minutes. She replied, "I'm serious. We were going to send out rescue teams!" I was like "I believe you! I would have sent them out too!" I think she thought I was being sarcastic and making light of the situation. The situation had felt far too serious for me to have made a joke about it.

The Nortons fed me a Chik Pattie and some apple juice. I took some acetomenaphine (your favorite medicine) and tried to calm down. I was annoyed at the people who left us. And annoyed by Mithe going so fast. I realized of course that no one was to blame for the situation and Mithe was probably just desperate to be home. So I prayed and gave up the emotions. Ken, Julie, and I talked for an hour or so about carnality and other spiritual stuff. It dovetailed quite nicely into the evening worship service, which Ken preached.

Ken spoke of how Satan's primary attack is the one-two punch of Temptation and Accusation. Satan comes from a word that means "Accuser." He tempts us and then when we fall he loves throwing it in our faces. He pushes thoughts into our head in the first person. Things like "You are worthless," "You call yourself a Christian," or "How can God take me back after I did this." We think these are our own thoughts, but really the Devil is pushing them onto us. Making us miserable and feeling disconnected from God's love. We feel unloveable and unforgiveable. This is not so. Ken read from the Bible where a prophet had a vision of Joshua standng before God and Jesus and Satan. He was in filthy rags (representing our sinfulness) and Satan was like, "How can you accept this person?" Satan loves to throw at Jesus the fact that we humans are guilty of the same sins that he is and yet God gives us Salvation. But in the vision, Jesus says something that is so awesome, "The Lord rebuke, Satan. I have plucked this brand from the fire. I have written his name on My hand." Then he says, "Bring forth new robes." And then angels give Joshua clean, white robes to wear. Ken stressed that Satan tries to get us down and have us not believe in God's forgiveness. We all fall, but God asks only that we ask for forgiveness and believe in it. We are not bound to sinfulness any longer because of Jesus' sacrifice. It was a powerful sermon. I could tell it really hit home with the people listening. It certainly helped me.

I’m going to end it here and talk about the fishing trip and the awesome Sunday stuff in the next post. I’m already at seven pages and over four thousand words. Peace out.
After worship ended, people made smores and there was more singing of praise songs. Ken was so excited because after sunset he had planned to go fishing and wanted to teach me to fish.

Under Pressure

2005-09-02T11:11:00.000+09:00

So the past few days have been pretty rough. I have had the flu and the symptoms have included runny nose, sore throat, cough, head and body aches, and even my skin felt hypersensitive. Today was the first day I felt like I was back to having just a cold. I managed to keep busy throughout though. I worked for Ken and Eric (the principal) doing stuff so I didn't feel like a complete waste of space.
Eric came over yesterday and asked me to put together a report for him that he would present to the Palauan Senate's Educational Appropriation Committee. Eric was due to present at 1pm today. They had originally scheduled it for a few months from now but called him and rescheduled for today. So I had about 24 hours notice. I waited on the accountant to get the spreadsheets together and then I created a nice "theme" for the cover and the headers. I modified the sheets to look more clear and gave them easy to follow titles and such. I was frantic this morning trying to get it done. We had a dinner to go to at the Higgins' residence (Vice Principal) and when I got back I was too tired from my cold to work on it. We got back from the printers with about 15 minutes to spare. It felt like the old days at Santa Fe running around with your heart in your throat.
The dinner at the Higgins' place was awesome. It was real food. I ate as much as I could before moving to the dessert. They had ice cream, cheesecake, and cookies. I ate cookies for dessert since my Mom, er roommate, insisted I stay away from the other stuff in my condition.
Eric got back from the committee presentation and said it went well and that they were really impressed with the reports. It cost $68 to print btw. Which is cheaper than it would have been in the states. I was happy with it except for an image on the front page and a problem with one caption. Not bad for such short notice and insane scrambling. Eric took me out to Rock Island Cafe to say thank you. We discussed school stuff. I feel like I'm more a part of the administration than a former teacher since I've been sort of on the inside since the beginning with various problems that have almost derailed the opening of school. But the school is doing well now and hopefully no more crises arise. Eric is still under a heavy workload, but hopefully he'll find ways to delegate. His wife, Patricia, is in Guam with an eye infection. It could have caused permanent damage, but they flew her out and now she'll be fine. The faculty prayed for her at the Higgins' house and I felt glad that everyone was willing to do that. Speaking of spirituality, some of the SMs really seem to be maturing spiritually, which is a miracle in the making. Our Bible Study is only on its second session, but it already feels like great things will come of it. We are learning how to connect directly to God and know Him and get power from Him. I'm very excited about it.
Finally, I just want to mention that I am about to start packing from the Rock Islands trip. We leave tomorrow at 2pm. I have to go grocery shopping and contact my host family for a sleeping back and cooler. I may buy a hammock instead so I don't have to be on the ground where the rats can crawl over you. No, I'm not kidding. I can't wait though. I wish it was going to be a full moon this weekend, but it will still rock. Get it? ROCK Island. haha. Oh wow. I'm sick, yeah, sick. That's it.

Oh, and pray for the people devastated by Katrina. And the Muslims affected by that awful stampede. This world can be so sad. I am glad though that I am away from the media overload. Stay close to Jesus, everyone.

THE Haircut

2005-08-29T08:58:00.000+09:00

So I have been putting off a haircut for awhile now. I was ready for one when I got here, but I always dread getting one. I have never met anyone who gets a haircut for fun. Haircuts are boring. And they can be scary if it is a new stylist or even worse, a new place. I finally screwed up my courage today because I had entered the hat zone. My hair was still obeying with the right amount of gel, but no one likes waking up in the morning feeling like they could by pass for Don King. It just isn't the right way to start the day. And I could never financially back Mike Tyson.
You can see a hair place from my porch, but it was obviously closed for Sunday, so I asked Teofi if there was another one nearby. He told me to walk across the main road and go up the stairs above a smaller grocery store. I did and found a hallway with no lights and a glass door to the stylists. The placed looked close so I stood there wondering if I should knock, then I saw someone inside. They didn't seem very hairstylist-ish and they didn't seem very "getting my hair done"-ish so I stood there again, cursing my indecision and hating the fact that the hallway was dark and I could be kidnapped at any moment even though it was noon.
I opened the door and went in. They asked what I wanted; I said a haircut and sat down, pulling off my hat to reveal hat hair. A Filipina woman asked me what style I wanted and I went into my finely tuned speech that I had perfected in Gainesville over the two years I was there. She scoffed at the idea of using a #3 and said a #2 would look better. I humbly said we could try a #3 and then go shorter if it didnt' work. I never found out if she used a #3, but she can use whatever she wants in the future.
She started with the clippers and got rid of the Wings and the back. She then pulled out this long clip type thing that I vaguely recall having seen before and clipped some of my hair up to get at the sides better. I looked like a mushroom at that point. Ridiculously long hair up top and a nice, clean #3(2?) on the sides. She began to blend the sides, slowly working up to the top in a way that can only be described as impossibly meticulous. She cared more about my hair than I did. She did the other side and then trimmed the top down to a nice length. She trimmed the edges and sideburns like normal and then pulled out a razor blade. You know, like you'd use to open a box or scrape old tape off a desk. I couldn't tell what it was at first. I saw her put powder on it, and then she went the edges of my hairline. Then she shaved the edges in a show of precision that rivaled the finest surgeon. I had never encountered this method of hairstyle polishing, but I was content to let her practice the artistry. If she wanted me to be her David, then sculpt on, Michelangela! She finally finished, stopping several times to cut a single hair here or there, and asked if I wanted gel. I said yes and then she proceeded to gel my hair. Suddenly, she pulled my hair, slowly letting it come out of her fingers. My eyes flew open at this sudden change in routine. She began to give me a scalp massage, and although I was suddenly ready to bolt, I managed to close my eyes and let it happen. It was only for like 30 seconds, and then she finished styling my hair and smiled once she was satisfied. She thanked me and I thanked her. I paid, gave her at tip, and headed back here to tell my adoring fans. I like how it looks. Teofi does too. Now that my full studliness is on display, I wonder if Palau is ready for it.

Adventure on the high seas!

2005-08-29T08:56:00.000+09:00

Sabbath was an interesting day. Before church, I went online to see if my family was also on. They were and we set up our first Skype conversation. I got to talk to Mom and Andrew before I had to go to church. The sound quality was good. Every once in a while it would glitch out. And towards the end we had some connection lags, but other than that, it beats the crazy phone rates. The sermon was given by the Youth Ministries director for the Guam-Micronesia Mission. It was primarily a sermon trying to push for a Pathfinder club to be restarted here. I am all for it, but I can't commit to leading Pathfinders with so many other projects going on. I felt resentment towards the guilt/strong-arm tactics being used, but I know he's a good guy and just very passionate about Pathfinders.
After the sermon, I taught the youth Sabbath School class again. This time I was a bit more prepared and it went pretty well. Thanks go out to Sarah and Jorge for their help in keeping things flowing. I still want to do alot more to the Sabbath School room. It is ugly and depressing.
The potluck was pretty good. I tried some more new foods and they were all good this time. I wanted to take a nap because I was getting closer to being sick and could feel my body wearing down because of the silent battle within. I couldn't nap, however, because the Youth Minstries director had asked those interested in working with the youth to come at 2pm for a special presentation. So I took a 30 minute nap in Ken's office while he worked (and I think also took a quick nap). Then we went to this meeting. Which had nothing to do with the youth. I kept waiting for it to swing over to the youth, but all he talked about was evangelism boot camp stuff. It was great, but it was also false advertising. He didn't even get to Pathfinders until the evening service. If they hadn't let him take choir time and vespers time, he wouldn't have been able to even cover that. What did he cover about Pathfinders? Well, he covered a possible calendar of events we could follow. That was it. No training for dealing with youth. No revolutionary ideas about how to bring them back into the church or keep them in the church. Pathfinders would solve everything. The universal panacea. And he insisted that next Friday night (I will be off island), that the youth meetings resume. The meeting ran for four and a half hours. I was tired and frustrated by the end. Teofi wanted me to say something. To grill him on youth-related stuff. But once I had realized he hadn't brought any ideas or material for us, I just glazed over and waited for it to end. I kept trying to fight my disappointment, but I was completely disaffected. I'll email the guy later perhaps. I hadn't been warned this guy was coming, so I didn't have my hopes up anyway. I would have planned questions and meetings and such. OK, enough on that topic.

So the adventure happened after vespers. I was stuck in church all day, so I had a fair bit of Saturday night fever, which is strange because I rarely get that anymore. I wanted to go out to eat, do something. No one wanted to walk though. Teofi's friends called and wanted to visit the beach. I was up for that, so I through on some "cool dude" clothes and was ready. It took them a while to get here from Arai. I was about to make a meal and give up on anything else, but they arrived just as I had opened the refrigerator.
We piled into the van, Teofi, Sarah and I. Along with Deena, Frederick, Maimai(?), and Nerlin. We headed for this beach, going farther South(?) than I had ever been. It was exciting and a bit scary. You know how sometimes you get into situations and you suddenly wonder "how did I get here?" Well, I had a flash of that. Especially with everyone but Sarah and I talking and laughing in a Filipino dialect.
We pulled into a small road and there was a big yellow gate locked that said Authorized Personnel Only. It seemed very industrial in the area. They tried to open the gate, but couldn't, so they went after someone. Of course, I didn't know what was going on, whether we were picking someone up or almost to this "Restricted" beach. It was very dark out. Overcast and moonless. Finally, Frederick returned with a guy (who I later found out was Johnathan) and a flashlight. We were told to exit the van so they could park it at the office. I finally got Teofi to explain that we were going to a quarry that was right at the ocean's edge. We went through the side gate and walked in the dock, avoiding potholes. I smelled hydraulic fluid and deisel and felt like I was home, only everyone was still speaking Filipino. We arrived at a little, tiny shack that was Johnathan's quarters. He works at the quarry and requested the little place so that he could be away from the other workers. The quarry was dark and quiet, the water's edge was right beside the shack and the light from the shack shone into the clear water. After looking at the water for less than a minute, I noticed a school of a dozen fish shoot around, on the prowl for food in the cone of light. The water was calm with just gentle waves lapping at the rocks. There was a small sea wall that shot out at a ninety degree angle from the shore and against the sea wall was a scuttled ferry. The ferry was a bit rusty, but completely intact. I could see rock islands across the water and a line of rock with only a slight gap in the cove, feeding out to the ocean. The Filipinos began cooking immediately, although it was somewhere around 9pm. The women begged Sarah to change into some spare shorts and a tank top they had and go swimming with them. So they got in the water and began to swim, just as the rain started. I was tucked under the edge of the shack's tin roof and watched as the women swam, soon joined by two of the guys. I was still hoping to avoid a cold, plus I hadn't brought swim trunks, so I declined the invitation to swim. Food was pancakes and a noodle/vegetable combo that Gainesvillians would all recognize from the montly Mananquil potluck offerings. I was past being hungry, so I didn't eat too much. I then decided once the rain had stopped that I should visit the ferry since others already had. Sarah was my tour guide, and then Teofi caught up with us just as we were getting on board. The boat was at a 15 degree angle, resting in the shallow water with only an occasional and ever-so-slight list from waves.
We climbed up inside, barefoot because to get to the boat required crossing the slipper sea wall where sandals would actually cause more harm than good. Yes, I went aboard an old, sometimes rusty boat barefoot. Oh and broken glass. haha. I pictured my Mom freaking out, but it was cool to explore and old ferry. We went up to the bridge, that is where the glass was. Jabes, one of the guys who arrived a short time later, let me use one of his sandals. So I hopped around, holding onto the rail and feeling goofy. We went out in front of the bridge and felt the cool ocean breeze blow on us. The Filipinos sang some Christian songs and I sang along when I remembered the words.
After awhile, we went back to the shack. There was also fishing and horseplay and my replacement teacher was there. She is very loud and funny. An instant life of the party in a confident way I admired and marvelled at. Once things wound down, we had a prayer and thanked Johnathan for hosting us. He kept telling me if he had known I was coming he would have taken us to a better spot, had better food, etc. and I kept insisting that I had had a good time and thanking him for it. I couldn't figure out if he was just very polite, was worried because I didn't swim, or maybe because of the "Pastor" title? Or maybe a mixture. I dunno. I have run into the Pastor thing a couple of times now, so who knows. Anyway, that was my adventure on the high seas. Or the shallow seas. And an old ferry. And Filipinos. And fun.

Happy Sabbath

2005-08-27T08:26:00.000+09:00

I am no longer teaching. Woohoo! I love the kids, but it was exhausting. Now I can pop in during recesses when I want to see them and then leave them to their new teacher. hehe. Anyway, Thursday was my last day. I went over everything for several hours with her and we graded the papers together. I think she'll do well. She already hired the problem student to be her assistant. Forward thinking. I hope she does better than I did with them. I warned her about all of the problems that had already crept up with me, so hopefully she can forestall most of them under her regime.
Today I worked on the school newsletter with Tiofi. It isn't a masterpiece, but it was much nicer than the one they had last week. After that, I went over to Ken's office and tried to sink myself back into the pastor mentality. It was hard because it was Friday and I couldn't start my plans until Sunday/Monday. Oh well. God will help me get it all together. We went to Rock Island Cafe for lunch. Three tacos.
I AM COMING DOWN WITH A COLD! I am so not happy about this. It was fairly inevitable. The students are sick, the teachers are sick, and my roommate was sick. Hopefully I won't run the high fevers all night like Tiofi did, but I know I will wake up with a sore throat. I can feel it starting. It is not the end of the world, but knowing it will take days to get over it is depressing. I hate being sick. Anyway, I have Sabbath School tomorrow again. So I need to figure out that tonight and also what to do about how the youth seem to be shy and uncomfortable singing. I keep feeling like if I wasn't there they would be singing loudly. I dunno. We'll see. Maybe I won't be able to teach. Maybe I'll ask Jorge to do it since I'm getting sick. Ooh, what a great idea. Wait, this is a blog post. So anyway, I took a bunch of pictures and I will be uploading them quite soon. It is sort of a "walking tour" of my tiny apartment, the church and school area, and the main street in Koror. I may snap a few at church tomorrow morning. Next week is Rock Islands. That is when I'll have the jillion pictures I hope. I can't wait. Even if it rains all weekend, I'll be excited to be there.

Byee

The Little Things

2005-08-23T21:52:00.000+09:00

Bad
- Waking up at 3am to another wild dog fight near your window.
- Frequently getting left behind as your friends switch to Degalo (the main Filipino dialect).
- Spending afternoons grading papers while being located on a tropical island.
- Pulling your clothes from the dryer and seeing powdered laundry detergent or red clay stains that survived the wash cycle.
- Having to rush through all your favorite sites to conserve internet time.
- Having all but four students in your class fail the Bio quiz you went overboard preparing them for.
- Not having gone to Rock Islands yet.

Good
- Having a kid's face light up as they realize how an algebraic expression works.
- Feeling decedant when you buy yourself some generic yet expensive ice cream.
- Connecting with the youth and being called "the coolest SM in awhile."
- Getting a care package from the coolest family ever.
- Hiding my face behind a book when my favorite student says something funny. For example:
- "Why you kick my dog!?" after assigning a lot of homework.
- "Shellfish!? What is this, shellfish you speak of?" after I start talking about Jesus not being selfish.
- "Give me your laptop or the orange gets it!" while holding part of my lunch hostage with a stapler.
- Accepting free meals that you didn't expect after popping in for a visit.
- Looking forward to a long weekend in the Rock Islands.
- Resting in the fact that you're where God wants, doing what he wants.

Progress?

2005-08-21T21:09:00.000+09:00

This Sabbath was a busy one. After a Friday where I felt like I had been zapped of all energy, I managed to attend worship service at Kelvin and Marie's (and get a free meal!). Sabbath morning, I was thrown into an impromptu praise team when it was realized that the praise team leader was off-island. Julie, Sarah, and I did our best. I smiled through the bad notes and cracking voice. It gave me an adrenaline boost. I thought up my Sabbath School topic during the sermon. (When you have a translating going on, it gives you plenty of time to think) We discussed worship and church and various other issues pertaining to those things. It was strained and I was nervous the whole time because everyone was so quiet and hesitant. We got through it okay. I have to figure out how to make it more lively.
Sabbath afternoon, after potluck, I visited a family with Ken. It was a great experience. I got the feel for doing visitation and I made several contacts for the upcoming youth programs. We left the family feeling exhilirated. We went back to the church and slept in our chairs for about 30 minutes before leaving for the jail. Ken taught a Bible Study in sermon format (with questions from the crowd). It was my first time visiting the jail. The people there seemed normal. They all seemed into the Bible Study. (After all, they had chosen to attend) The study was on the wrong and write way to keep the Sabbath. I pray that it took hold of their hearts. We left the jail and went back to the church for vespers. I changed into my "cool youth pastor" clothes because there was a pizza night planned with the youth afterwards. At first I was nervous because I didn't see any youth. They were hanging outside though, so they piled into the back of the church pickup and I drove (nervously) to the Rock Island Cafe. We had a good time, talking about cartoons, video games, and a bit about the cafe/youth chapel project. We ran into more kids who had quit coming in the past at the RIC and they pulled up chairs and shared in the pizza. One of the kid's mom came by to pick him up and they paid the pizza bill. Quite unexpected, but what a blessing! I went over and introduced myself to the mother and thanked her. I was disappointed to learn that the kid was leaving on Sunday for a Hawaiian boarding school. He would have been great to have in the group. Anyway, we drove back to the church to drop of those kids who didn't need a ride home. The guys decided they'd rather ride in the back as I dropped off the two girls. So off we went to Airai (sp?) which is across the large bridge built by Japan for the Palauan people. Once I dropped off the two girls, I drove back with no one in the truck with me (they all opted to stay in the back, though I could hardly blame them). I sped up a few times when it seemed safe, which did a great deal to endear me to my passengers. When we arrived back at the church, we talked for twenty minutes or so about music, school, and whatever came to mind. One of the kids pronounced me "the coolest SM in a long time" and they all agreed that they would be willing to help me clean out and set up the church basement. (It is called The Dungeon locally, so if I start calling it that, you'll know what I mean)
The night ended with the guys walking off into the night. Walking is apparently what they do every Saturday night. I can't wait to give them something better to do. I went to bed excited at all the new youth I had managed to meet and connect with. All glory to God. I just hope I can hurry the fundraising, renovation, and completion of the projects. These kids need something. And when its done, it will be /the/ spot in Koror (and Palau in general) for people to hang out. Keep it and me in your prayers.

Day Two

2005-08-17T02:48:00.000+09:00

Well, I've managed to survive the second day. I went into this day having not looked at my lesson plan and not really having a clue what we would do for worship. I managed to pull a nice worship out of thin air. Of course, thin air was really the Holy Spirit. I think a few kids actually were paying attention. It was nice. The day went well. Between lunch and 2nd recess is the worst part of the day I think. That's when all the names and checks go on the board. Four people sat out of recess. Two were kept after school for a talking to. I tried to hold eye contact with them. Both seemed to recieve it with the same quiet solemnity that you expect from a kid held after school. The tougher of the two said that their previous teacher had never talked to them but sent them to the principal's office. He said that he had a bad temper. During the morning, the twin girls marvelled that I was always smiling and seemed so happy. They kept asking me "Don't you EVER get sad or mad?" It was funny. I was actually happy that I'd been such a nice but firm teacher to them. I had to raise my voice (commanding, not angry) really loud today at one point. And I said "When the teacher is talking. NO ELSE ONE SHOULD BE TALKING! I am SICK of repeating myself." They listened well after that. (Until the next recess reboot) I still feel like I'm better off than most of my contemporaries. Two teachers said they lost it today, yelling at them angrily. I don't feel like I'm close to that, praise the Lord. I am still tired. And the last thing I want to do (it is 3:30pm) is work on tomorrow's lesson stuff. I don't see how teachers do it. I have no newfound respect for teachers. I always knew it was tough and a lot of work. I just never wanted to do this, so I can't wait until I no longer have to. In the meantime, I will cheerfully fulfill my obligations.

I haven't had time to do devotions in like 4 days and that is bugging me. I feel close to God, but I want to keep up on my Bible Study. Youth Pastor's need to know their Bible. I didn't get any emails yesterday. How weird is that!? I know people love me. I know they're reading too. Jerks. I'm waiting for one or two care packages. And I'm about to email someone for a third. I need to make copies, plan tomorrow's activities, figure out what I'm going to do for one of my student's birthdays tomorrow, and several other things. My host-mother made me guacamole and I had it on a lettuce and cheese sandwhich today. The little things make you so happy in Palau. Oh, and Taco Bell, don't worry. I'll see you in 50.5 weeks or so. I haven't forgotten our date. Peace and Love to all.

Saturday, Sunday, and MONDAY!

2005-08-17T01:28:00.000+09:00

OK, so you should have already read about my Sabbath afternoon and such. That evening, we had vespers like normal and then the school principal called us into one of the church rooms for a meeting. On the way in, I saw Ken and slapped him on the back, playfully chiding him for skipping vespers. He gave me a look of exhaustion. I knew he'd been meeting with someone about something, and I suddenly realized it wasn't just a normal meeting. I told him it'd all work out, whatever it was and took my place in the meeting room. After looking at Eric's face, I knew immediately something serious was up. Eric's voice cracked as he said he immediately prefaced what he was about to share with us, saying he just had no choice.
One of the student missionaries was caught with a prohibited item and was being sent home that night (it was around 7pm at that time). Ken and Eric had confronted him and after the SM admitted it was his, they had had no choice but to send him back to the U.S.. (He was apparently already on some form of probation with the Mission) Some of the other SMs were crying and very upset that they were sending this gentleman home. I felt bad for the guy and for his friends, but I was also concerned for the SM group as a whole and Eric as principal. This wasn't an easy choice to make, and as I later learned more details, there really wasn't a choice. On a small island where everyone knows everyone's business. The beliefs and policies of the church and school have to be upheld so that the message of the church can be conveyed in a complete way. The SMs immediately split into two groups, generally those who knew the departing SM and those who didn't. Those who knew him were very upset by the decision and tempers started to flare. It was compounded by the departing SM changing his story when talking to his peers. Things got generally straightened out by the end of the night. It was very tense and the ride to the airport was fairly quiet. We all waited around in the terminal while flight arrangements were made. Then we shook hands and wished him the best. Those who didn't know him had already had a prayer session before we left to the airport, praying that the events wouldn't form a rift in the group and that Satan wouldn't be able to make anymore inroads into the group. It felt good to be praying amidst the turmoil. God's peace did really come I think.

Sunday: With his departure, the principal was short one teacher with no one in sight to fill his slot as 6th grade teacher...except me. Julie was alreay filling in the third grade class, so there was truly no one able to take over. He started to ask me, but I told him I would do it before he even finished. I didn't think about it until the next morning and then I was in a panic. I had 24 hours to read over the guy's lesson plan, clean and decorate the classroom, and mentally shift the giant gears from Youth Pastor to 6th Grade Teacher. AIEEEEEE!!!!!! I worked 13 solid hours on the classroom, stopping only for food, which thankfully was provided by first the school registrar and then the principal and his wife. I got a few pointers from my fellow 6th grade teacher, Ona. When I arrived early Sunday morning, the floors were scuffed and black in some areas. The mop wouldn't get it up, and the buffer was currently out of commission, so the floor had to stay gross despite sweeping and mopping it. The walls were bare, one of the departing SM's friends came in and stripped out the posters that had been put up and raided all the stuff. I didn't say anything to him because I knew he was hurting and angry and I had enough problems to deal with. Even though that was a big problem in itself. I had to find other posters and make stuff myself for the walls, which took awhile. The principal talked to the people who raided my room, but nothing came of it unfortunately. The lesson plan was hard to understand because I hadn't read over all the texts yet, and I found it hard to concentrate because the place was so dirty and undecorated. Everyone was so busy with their own preparations that I didn't have anyone to help me. I prayed and listened to music on my laptop while cleaning, decorating, and planning the lesson. When I left the room at around 10pm that night, the moon was out and shining at half strength, lighting the tops of the banana fronds and the root crop next to the school. It was such a beautiful site that I was a bit saddened that I was too tired to hang out in the moonlight. I suddenly felt like I'd been in Palau too long without enough opportunity to enjoy its beauty. I just realized that I am finally released from the Eastern time zone, so now my days seem normal. Of course, I'll be exhausted until they find a replacement, so it doesn't mean much just yet. Eric says he will have a replacement in 1-2 weeks. Anyone reading this should pray for me. I need strength, wisdom, and patience as a teacher. And I need Eric to get me a replacement quickly.

MONDAY!
Hummana Hummana! So I get up at 6 and figure out what to do for worship for the students. I got ready and packed a lunch then left for faculty worship. Worship was nice; I found a book in the library for storytime and then headed out to the mass of students lining up for flag raising. I wasn't nervous. I had prayed enough and I was certain that there would be problem children and that I was going to have a hard time putting their name on the board. I met the students as they lined up in the hot, early morning sun. They checked me out up and down and I looked immediately for the problem children. I had already quizzed Tiofi on Sunday, showing him a list of names and asking him which ones were going to be problems. I placed those kids up front. This came in handy because right away they were testing me. I kept smiling and giving them warnings. I ran out of things to say very quickly and started to mentally go into the panic mode that is so familiar from Sabbath School, client presentations, and such. Your thoughts are just barely faster than your speech, but its mainly because you start trying to talk really fast out of nervousness. I calmed myself and just let things continue to be a bit free and I showed them Photoshop and Illustrator. I talked about Graphic Design, my family, Florida, and other stuff that they found interesting. I have two twin girls that so enjoyed testing me with questions and interjections. After lunch, I clamped down and started doing real work. The fun for them was over. I couldn't think of things that 13 kids (2 were absent) could safely do in a room full of desks. Some of the students like homework, so they asked for it. I gave a reading assignment and a Social Studies assignment. I should be grading it right now in fact (It is now Tuesday lunch, but I started this post on Monday evening). Anyway, I got excited because Science class was about cells. I went way past what the text said, explaining cell organelles and their functions. Some of it might have been over their head, but one kid knew the answers to most things, he was lapping up the new information. I immediately liked him. I have three main problem boys. One is just antsy, but a good kid. The other two are more out for pushing the limits for the sake of pushing limits. Luckily they are sitting right where I can give them the glare. By the end of the day, four people had their names on the board and two of them had checks (which means they miss a recess). It seemed to settle them down. Once I clamped down and got serious, they started realizing boundaries. I felt bad giving homework and making a kid miss recess on the first day, but it has been drilled into our heads that discipline now means they'll respect and love you later. If you're their friend, they can tease you and ignore you like they would a peer. Anyway, there are two really quiet kids who I feel bad for. I can easily forget they are there because they are so unobtrusive. One is very behind in his reading/writing. There is another child who acts like he's mentally retarded, but I can tell he's really just smart and either lazy or struggling. I can see the intelligence in his eyes, and he lets it slip on occasion, but he has thoroughly hidden behind this "dumb wall" and its a struggle to get him to come out. He won't do work. I asked the students today to swap papers and grade them as I called out the answer. He didn't grade the classmates paper because "He didn't know how." Its strange, because when I said to put X's beside the wrong ones, he said "Oh!" in a very insincere way. But at the same time, why go to all this trouble. I keep wavering back in forth. Is he slow? Or super fast? Grr.

After class, the SMs all walked to Rock Island Cafe for decompression. I had grilled cheese and french fries. Cheap and filling. They give you lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onions for your sandwhiches even. Then we had to be back in class to meet our student's parents. I had about 5 parents, either just the mom, or both mom and dad. I mentioned to some of the parents that had problem children in a very nice way that they were already acting up, but that I was sure I'd be able to work with them. I praised one mother for her daughter's excellent abilities. That went over very well. After the "open house" they had a meeting with all the parents as the principal, Eric, introduced himself and went over the new rules and plans for the futures. It was very well recieved and I felt good for the new school year. Then I went home and read my students' "What I did last summer" paragraphs. Tehy wer offully fuh-knee. Spelling is a serious issue. Punctuation is near indecipherable. I promptly fell asleep after that.

**I had to go back and omit all the student's names because I decided it probably wouldn't be ethical to broadcast them to the world.

Time to catch up

2005-08-14T22:35:00.000+09:00

Thursday: Laundry. More shopping. Running more errands with Ken and trying to figure out how I'm going to do this stuff. We tried to find a dehumidifier but the only one on the island was $319.00. And we realized that the basement needs an industrial dehumidifier and we can't afford that at all. I'm not a fundraiser, but suddenly I am. I know we'll get the money, but I want to start NOW and I want to know where everything I need is NOW. Impatience. ::sigh:: Anyway, it was sunny again. No rain. Cancelling Rock Islands was still a good idea because all of the teachers are still trying to get their lesson plans going. But we'll get their eventionally.

Friday: We are working on getting a master set of keys for me to use. Ken needs one too. We have a new secretary and she's been in charge of finding all the keys and getting them copied. It is very surreal to be on the other side of the fence, watching a new church secretary try to figure everything. I keep wanting to jump in and take over, but that won't help anyone long term. I have too much of my own stuff to do. I helped her prepare the bulletin and did a few light tweaks to the design elements (it's a curse). I worked on designing a logo for the cafe and compiling a pricelist. We have to do a major fundraising push in phases to get the money for the cafe. One figure thrown out was about $15,000. Ken likes to think big. I just pray that we can do it. There are alot of wealthy people on the island. And the Palauns raise money through family visits. I am eager to see how God works it out. At around 3pm, I
borrowed the church van with Tiofi and we took some of our friends out to snorkel at the bridge. I was expecting just to swim. Luckily, Julie insisted I go buy some water shoes to protect my feet from the rocky coral bottom. I would have been a mess otherwise.

We arrived under the bridge and Tiofi and I got in pretty quickly. I was quickly overwhelmed by the insane amount of tropical fish. Rainbowed and Neon fish alike were swimming about. Tiofi found a Lionfish. I spotted genuine wild angelfish. (Black and yellow with long, graceful fins) I can't wait to get some film for the underwater camera my Uncle Mike let me borrow. I kept freaking out and heading back to shore because I wasn't used to snorkeling. AND because there were so many scary looking fish. I know about half of my readers will laugh and Isaac the scaredy-pants. I'm serious though. It was just overwhelming the amount of life. And when I was floating over it and unable to stand up when I wanted to, I got claustrophic and would quickly swim back to shore. hehe. I'll get the hang of it though. I just felt like such an intruder. I saw a seahorse type creature that was shaped more like a snake with a seahorse's head. I saw many many types of coral. The part that gets me is that it was a relatively dead reef. And the sun wasn't out. So it will be all the more astounding when we go to Rock Islands and see the real deal.

After heading back to the apartment, we showered and ate. Tiofi made me tofu, noodles, and chinese cabbage. It was delicious. He didn't believe I liked it, but I ate two plates. Then I was told that I was in charge of Friday night worship at Kelvin and Marie's place. I thought they were joking when they first told me, but they weren't so I had little prepared. We sang and gave testimonies and praises. It was nice, but it would have been better had I had a chance to prepare. Sabbath: I got to give my first children's story here in Palau today. It was exactly like the ones in Gainesville and Orange Cove. I lit a 10 dollar bill on fire but it didn't burn because I'd first dipped it in the Holy Spirit. The kids silently stared, but didn't gasp. I don't know
if I got through or if they just thought I was nuts. But I had fun. Sabbath School was good because I got to meet some of the youth. There were several older Palauns who were 25+ that I also got to meet. One of the visitors got paired with me for a question/answer session. We shared our testimonies. He asked me if I was one of the teachers. I said I was the new Youth Pastor. He almost dropped his Bible. We'd been really excitedly sharing our testimonies and sort of bonding. Suddenly he was freaking out because I had a Pastor in front of my name. Odd. The bulletin also featured "Children's Story: Pastor Isaac James." That was a bit surreal. When I saw it on Friday, the secretary had put my name in a larger font than Pastor Ken's name. I had to go back and help her fix it. Ken and I laughed about it later.

After church we had potluck again (I'm bringing food next week), and I ate with the Johnsons and Nortons. After potluck, we all changed and left for a waterfall. We drove about 30 minutes on dirt and asphalt until we reached the waterfall. We were at full capacity with the school van and the Norton's SUV. We trekked a short distance through the jungle to a nice, squat waterfall. The SMs quickly scaled a dead tree and then rocks and the finally everyone was just in the water and waterfall. We had fun trashing our feet on the sharp rocks. Those who had the sandals lucked out. Those who had flip flops just made do. There were fish in the pool below the waterfall and the white noise of the falls made everyone yell to be heard. I decided to get wet despite not having worn trunks. Note to future self. Don't wear khaki shorts and then suddenly go swimming. At least it was solid underwear and not plaid. Haha. ANYWAY! I got to go under the falls and then behind the falls. I prayed my feet wouldn't be broken. It was so easy to step into a hole in the rocks thinkg it was a flat surface.

Sarah found a thick vine that appeared quite sturdy and soon everyone was swinging out over the water and jagged rocks from the shore. I watched the vine carefully to make sure it was safe before I risked it. When it was my turn, I went out twice and had pictures taken of me. There were only two people left who wanted to swing after about ten minutes. Shane and David. Shane is the largest member of our group and I watched him swing with some trepidation. He went three times and on the third I had turned away and then I heard people go "OH NO!" I turned to see the vine and Shane slowly falling into the rocky water below. Praise the Lord, Shane fell into the one part of the water that was semi deep and absent of rocks. He went almost under completely, but he did hit one
foot on the rocks underwater. His foot already had a gash on it from walking around the falls, now it was severely bruised. I immediately began praying before he was even out of the water. He looked very pale and was having a hard time getting out of the water. That pretty much ended the trek into the jungle. We had a short episode where Kenny's sandal was lost into the river, but a prayer and some sharp eyes found it caught on the only stick hanging into the water. This is where I'm going to end the entry. There will be a second entry for Sabbath later.

Pictures

63 and counting

2005-08-10T07:39:00.000+09:00

Well, I have compiled a list of all the things I need to do to get the programs, activities, and construction of the youth chapel completed. 63 items ranging from getting a CD from my roommate to tracking down a dehumidifier to stop the plaster walls of the basement from melting while we try to clean it out.

I still have to go around taking pictures. I'm waiting until the Rock Island retreat this Friday before I start compiling pictures in earnest. Ken just told me that of all the Rock Islands, the Chief's island is the most idyllic and beautiful. I can't wait. We are just praying that it doesn't rain much, which is a problem this time of year. And of course, I'm looking forward to hearing the rats on the roof once it gets dark. That will be fun. haha

Mentally, I'm in a great place. Its like I'm in the U.S., only I don't get to see all my friends and family and I pay too much for food. I got to talk to some of my family yesterday evening. I also got to finally get my Internet set up. It is very expensive, but that can't be helped. I'm eager to find out how much food for a month will be. Ken and Julie have been feeeding me and I have a host family that will give food from time to time, but I don't want to wear out the generosity of others. Ken and I hired a new secretary and we gave her the ropes today. (Only I was getting the ropes too) It was weird giving her the jobs that I used to do for Ken. (And a relief) Hopefully she will work out well. Ken and I have also trekked all over town, running errands and showing off the new youth pastor. Last night, there was a reception for a local couple's 25th anniversary. Someone called out "pastor!" and I looked. It wasn't for me this time, but I realized I had progressed that far in my
mindset. I've already done some light counseling and prayed with the other pastor's for a guy who was struggling with addiction. I beat the russian SM at chess. I stopped in during lunch on a whim and he asked me to play. I sat down and promptly was annihilated. I was down to a knight, rook, and my king. Somehow, against his larger force, I pulled a checkmate off and we were both stunned for a second. He shook my hand, insisted we would play again later, and left. (He had to get back to planning his teaching stuff) That was fun. I had almost given up several times because it seemed hopeless. I like the Filipino group here. I know more Filipinos than Palauans I think. They are more outgoing than Palauans in general. The youth are going to be a challenge, but God will pull off a miracle. Sorry for the rambling. Those are the thoughts for today though. My eyes are heavy and its only 5:22pm. I can't wait to be fully adjusted instead of half-adjusted.

Settling In

2005-08-08T11:44:00.000+09:00

The plane trip from Honolulu to Guam was 7.5 hours long. I’m glad I won’t have to do that again for a year. It wasn’t too bad, but the people sitting near me were annoying. I kept praying for patience. The landings in Guam and Palau were both rough. We’d hit the ground about double the speed I’m used to. Being a now-seasoned traveler, I can say that. Hehe. My travel agent said she got me vegetarian meals, but they had no record of this, but I made do with pretzels and macaroni salad. (Blech)

Arriving in Palau was a bit intimidating. I had no idea what to expect going through customs. One of my fellow student missionaries is Russian and he actually got pulled into the back office. I breezed right through. After much prayer, they finally released him. We left and entered the tiny main area of the Palau airport. I saw someone who looked like Pastor Ken at a counter. I could only see him from behind, but he fit the profile for Ken. I started running with all my bags, intending to maul him with a large hug. I slowed down quickly when I realized it wasn’t him. I hoped no one noticed. Welcome to Palau. Haha

In fact, our ride had given up on us being on the plane. Apparently they weren’t entirely sure we were coming that day anyway, so when my friend was delayed by customs and we didn’t go outside, the principal who had come to get us assumed it was another flight and was getting in his van to leave. He circled back by the pickup curb one last time and saw us. We had been getting worried after seeing no one, so we were quite happy to see him.

We were taken to the church/school/dorm compound where I was introduced to my new roommate, Tiofi. He is a computer teacher at the elementary school and we had fun talking. He went to hang out with some friends while I completely unpacked despite a never before experienced level of exhaustion. I had to have everything unpacked that night because I couldn’t go to sleep thinking about it.

The next morning was Sabbath morning. I was getting ready, just finishing up, when I heard another vehicle pull up to the church (I live 100 feet from the church). It was the Nortons in their van. I washed my hands of hair gel and flew out the door, off the porch in a flying leap and ran to hug Julie, Ken, and Kenny. Michelle was back to being shy around me (this lasted about 4 hours). We talked for a tiny bit but Sabbath stuff took precedence, so I went to finish getting ready and they went inside to do pasturing stuff.

Well, so far I have been overwhelmed by names. I have been well received as far as I can tell. I have someone who gave me food which came in handy since it was Sabbath when I arrived and would have been without. I had bread, fruit, cereal, milk, and even some Hershey’s minis. I have yet to go shopping because they piled more on me after potluck.

The other SMs have been busy preparing for church while I have been visiting with Ken, Julie, the kids, and slowly learning about the state of the church, the school, and the youth in particular. I must say that I am starting to feel this sense of awesome responsibility. Ken has complete faith in me and is putting me completely in charge of the youth programs and overseeing the children’s division as well. There is a great deal to do and I am trying to figure out where to begin. He even has a dream for a second service for the youth, with me preaching that sermon. He is treating me like a real pastor instead of a student missionary, and it is exhilarating, terrifying, and wonderful all at once. It has brought me suddenly very much in touch with the Power of God because I am 100% sure that I could never do this without His leading. I am suddenly a youth pastor in need of tons of prayer and grace and guidance.

Well, it is Monday and I am planning to get my shopping done finally as well as tour the church and discuss the renovation of the youth chapel/café. There is so much to do here that I couldn’t sleep last night. I kept thinking about how I was going to get the programs figured out and have time to make them great programs. I also need to figure out a schedule so that I can keep myself busy and also find time to relax. So far I have relaxed but worried the whole time about getting things done.

I miss everyone and love them. This place is so awesome, but I’ll save that for the next post. I haven’t told you about the landscape, people, or any of that.

Waikiki etc.

2005-08-05T01:32:00.000+09:00

Hey everyone,

Yesterday was awesome. Since it was my full free day in Honolulu, I was determined to make it a great day and figure out what to do here. Well, it was a bit slow going. I was ready to leave around 7am for adventure, but things were slow around here and we had to move our luggage to a new room and some other logistical stuff. I had already found my buddy for the day. A german fellow named Florian.
We had wanted to go to Pearl Harbor, but the odds of us getting a ticket at so late in the morning were slim. We didn't really want to do the tour though. Mainly just see the place. We're doing it today instead. So we were dropped off near a bike shop. Florian wanted to check on some stuff there. Everything is very expensive here, so that didn't work out. Next stop was Wal-Mart for some last minute supplies. I bought shaving cream and a notebook for keeping a spiritual journal. One of the other SMs was keeping one and I have resumed devotions to give it another try.
After Wal-Mart, we headed for Waikik beach to see what all the fuss was about. After walking the streets of Honolulu for a bit, we finally decided we'd rather walk to it on the beach itself so we could walk in the water. We both had backpacks with water and I had a change of clothes.
Finding a place to change into my suit was a pain, but I finally slipped into a hotel's outdoor restrooms and got changed and covered in sunblock.
20 minutes later I was pink. Haha. I kept reapplying. I have a tiny bit of a burn mainly on my face. But there is zero pain. Just an awareness of something different about my face. Anyway, we walked all the way to Waikiki. And then a bit past it because we couldn't believe that such a boring beach was such a big deal. Don't get me wrong. It had green/blue/clear water and was the perfect temperature. But there were no waves for us. Only for surfers past the swimming barriers. I now know that Waikiki was about surfing and not swimming. We still had fun swimming and enjoying being in Hawaii. I know there are better beaches somewhere for swimming. But we had fun walking along the beach for such a long time.
After we realized we were done with the sun, we walked back up via the main stretch. Filled with hotels and designer stores. Way expensive. Way overpriced. I'm not sure how much we walked, but it was a lot. I liked it though. We survived on bread and Nutella until we finally made it back to the Ala Moana mall for Taco Bell. (The cheapest place is still the best in Hawaii) We ate it in a park near the beach. Parks in Hawaii are so beautiful.
Florian and I ate in the park and discussed out pasts and out futures with God. We talked for several hours, enjoying the scenery and really getting excited about what God has planned for us. We prayed together and then went to the beach after having missed the sunset. (doh!)
The beach was still beautiful. The park/beach area had games of soccer and some group aerobic exercise routines going on. I found myself falling in love with the community feeling. I felt like I could walk up and just start playing.
After the beach, we headed back to the Academy. We were both feeling very good after all the spiritual talk and the great exercise we'd had all day. The breeze kept you feeling so great. And the sun felt good too.

I smacked Florian on the head this evening while we were both on our laptops. I told him that I didn't plan on making a fast friend that now I'm going to miss. He was bewildered at first. I had to clear up my ambiguous English. I enjoyed helping him learn new words. He speaks English really well, but apparently I use alot of words not in his vocabulary set. He says I have a great German accent; he was pretty amazed because most Americans can't do it. As if there would be any doubt (Thanks Nick/Andrew/Simon). It made me want to learn a new language all over again.

It's 6:30am or whatever right now. I need to pack up and be ready for our departure to Pearl Harbor at 9. I downloaded every episode of Strong Bad, Teen Girl Squad, and a few other toons so that I could have a bit of mindless humor on occasion. This is just a ramble now, so I'm going to go upload my photos.

Photos

Love to all. God is so good. Talk to Him in good times and in bad. Learn how He relates to you.

Greetings from beautiful Honolulu

2005-08-03T20:15:00.000+09:00

Aloha,
We got up at 3:10 yesterday and packed 70 people's luggage in two large buses along with ourselves and left for LAX. I'd like to say before I talk about LAX that La Sierra has some really awesome people there. Linda especially was very dedicated to taking care of the SMs. Keeping us entertained, fed, and helping us get to Wal-Mart.
LAX. The airport that may disprove the Adventist view on hell. The place is huge. Which is to be expected. But it was a madhouse at 6am. Complete chaos and we were there over 3 hours before our flight left. Lugging luggage around is definitely on my bottom 10. Although I finally figured out I could have my two giant suitcases attached and have a little train of belongings instead of one in each hand. So much easier.
As luck would have it, I was like the fourth person to get checked in. After dumping our baggage, we went through security and managed to find our gate. Because they were checking us in as a group, we (after waiting over an hour) had an agent assigned just for us which sped things up. Everyone still had to trickle in. Some not getting there until after boarding started. One girl apparently didn't get the boarding pass from the agent and was left behind. I bought a severely overpriced "Vegwhich" from a greasy spoon in the airport. It was good despite the price, and came in handy because I didn't get a vegetarian meal on the flight (despite what the travel agent affirmed). Once we finally got on board the 767, it was more chaos getting everyone stowed and sitting. But we left only 20 min behind schedule.
The plane ride was uneventful. Reading, a movie, pillow fights, horrible sleep attempts. I didn't get a window seat, but I managed to catch glimpses of flying over water(!) and then the islands once we got near Hawai'i. The winds were gusting at 20 knots at the airport. I seriously thought we would have to make a second attempt because the plane was jumping around so much as we were landing. It wasn't scary but it was very tense for a bit. The Honolulu airport is very corporate 80s but with open air concourses that show off the breeze and flowers.
We waited another hour for the U-haul and bus. Apparently they kept circling the drive ways trying to spot us. How hard is it to spot 70 kids with 140 suitcases and nearly that many carry ons sitting on a curb. Oh well. We made it to the Hawaiian Mission Academy and the girls got this huge music room while the guys squeezed into a health classroom. Some slept outside because there was such a lack of space. By the time I got to sleep, it was crazy late for eastern time, but I was not all that tired. I'm getting ahead of myself though.
After we unpacked our stuff, we were given free reign with the island. We could walk or take the bus. Several groups headed out. We stopped to eat (i was very hungry) at Taco Bell and Subway. The place is beautiful here. It feels very tropical. The breeze is killer. There is mist at the top of the mountains. We spent time in the mall (GIRLS!) and finally managed to pull them away to a beach (in Hawai'i!) I'm being snotty and spelling it Hawai'i. After all, I've been here now. I can't butcher like my old inexperienced self did. Anyway, the beach was waveless for the most part. There was coral/rock after swimming out a bit and then waves beyond that. The water felt great and some of us kept laughing and marvelling. WE WERE IN HAWAII! So we were lounging in the ocean, not too many people around, (It was a small beach/park area that wasn't too crowded because of the late afternoon hour) and then the rainbow broke out. Huge and all across the sky. It even went through the blue parts of the sky. Me and a german friend kept laughing and yelling out "Look at it. We're in Hawaii!" I thanked God about a dozen times. I know I couldn't have gotten here without Him.
We stayed for the sunset. It was about an 8/10 of what Hawaii I'm sure can produce. We had some clouds that interfered. It dropped pretty fast but was well worth the wait. And the rain that was slowly creeping across the island. As soon as the sun went down the wind turned cold and the misty rain made us head pretty quickly for the mall (which is right behind the beach). Some of the group grabbed ice cream and then we walked the long way back to the Academy.
Now I can talk about sleep. It took forever to maximize the floor space. (one kid had fallen asleep in the exact center of the room and cut the amount of beds we could have put down by at least three.) The school gave us foam pads to sleep on. I'm still a little surprised that they apparently charged the SM leaders for letting us stay here. Maybe because it is more expensive here or something. Whatevs.
So today I get to spend the day doing whatever I like. Beaches, touring, anything. I leave tomorrow at 2pm. I don't know what to do there are so many options. I've considered splurging on a dolphin encounter thing, but its very expensive. I may just stick to Waikiki beach and maybe find a nice sunset spot later. Heck, its 4:30 am. I should jump on the bus and find a sunset. (Not gonna happen)
Shout out to all my peeps. All my family. I miss everyone already. I'm very excited and eager to get started in Palau. Hope all is well. You can leave comments here or email me. If you want a response, the email is probably a better choice, but I definitely like hearing from you guys. :o)
Love,
Isaac

Greetings from La Sierra

2005-07-31T23:22:00.000+09:00

So far it has been fun but a bit lonely. Most of the kids are from Adventist schools and already have groups formed. I can hang out with them, but it is weird because we're all leaving on Tuesday. I've only met one other Palau person, although I was in the Palau group shot and there about 12 of us going. I just didn't get a chance to introduce myself to any of them before they dispersed.
Today we're having classes on teaching and such, so I imagine we'll be seperated by which islands we're going to so we can finally start bonding. I've made a few friends here and there. Seth's brother has a friend here and said Hi through him. (Having met his brother only once, I thought that was cool.) And my team won first place in a bible skit competition. I was the screaming monkey who jumped on Noah's wifes back. (Played by a large 20-year old dude in falsetto voice) At the end of the skit we all linked arms and did a show stopping version of The Lord Told Noah to Build an Arky Arky. It was a blast.
The spiritual side of it has been great. The sermon we got here just in time for was good. And you really sense a feeling of everyone being eager to go. And everyone seems nice and open and such.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll post my earlier blog comments when I can figure out how to access the net without spending a fortune.
--
Isaac

Hey everyone

2005-07-29T11:39:00.000+09:00

Well, t-minus 2 days until I head out to Palau. I'm starting this up before I go, so I don't have to worry about it there. I think this will be a good place to keep everyone up to date on what I'm doing. You can post comments in response. Or you can of course just email me. If you're reading this, you should know my email. :o)

I have one more day to pack. I have myself about 42% of my stuff packed. And I still have to design a menu for a local resturaunt, finish up some animation work, and write thank you cards to all the people who helped me get the money for Palau.

The orientation is at La Sierra University and then I leave on August 2nd from LAX.

That's a good enough update for now. I'll miss all you guys.