Island Travel

While running around the island to hand out invitations to the cultural experts for our upcoming big weekend, we got to stop in and visit with our next-door-neighbor's daugther and grandchildren (the 3 on the left) who live about 60 km (3 hours... uh, 37 miles?) away--plus a few extra neighbors (the 3 kids on the right). :)

Then, we found a neat place to eat where this guy has built a sort of pool into his beachside property and you can pick out your live meal of fish, lobster, eel, whatever you fancy. For less than a dollar, we shared a "fan" lobster. It was some melt-in-your-mouth goodness! Plenty for 2. Didn't know I liked lobster. Now I know. :)
At least this fresh stuff is good...

Upcoming Craziness

Next weekend we are gathering a bunch of local story-tellers together here at camp. There were over 100 people to choose from, so it was a bit scary trying to decide which 8 to invite. We went with names that have come up repeatedly over the past 6 months in surveys and such. Our plan is to have these 8 guys (hopefully they all come!) choose about 10 stories that they feel best represent the history and culture of the island, and then we'll record them telling those stories in the local language. Those will be the stories we'll use for the cultural handbook we're making for the schools here. We’ll also ask their advice on what other items they think would be important to include in this book. Talk about an important weekend!

Last week C and I were running around the island, delivering invitations to these guys. Several said, "as long as my health is good, I'll be there." :) By very nature, the folks who know these stories best are gonna be older and may have health issues.

So this week we've got to rig up a "recording studio" at camp, buy groceries and plan the "catering" of meals, get the camp ready for the overnight guests, clue everyone in on the schedule and who is helping with what, etc. Just to name a few logistics. :) I'm really, really excited about it but also super nervous! These are important guys we're gathering together, and our project pretty much depends on the success of this weekend. Yikes! Pray for us, that everything goes smoothly!

THR3E, by Ted Dekker

Spent all day reading this book yesterday. The last time I remember wasting a whole day on a book was in Haiti (a Francine Rivers novel). I'm sure there have been a few other times since, but they're not coming to mind at the moment.

If you like mystery/suspense, give it a go! I'm actually not really sure what genre it goes in, I think some compared it to John Grisham, but anyway, I really enjoyed this. I'm dying for someone else to read it so I can talk about it. It's too easy to spoil the story, so I'll just have to wait. :)

Family

Have I mentioned how great it was to be with family? I can't say it enough. We met up in my supply town and were able to stay at a friend's house as she is in the U.S. Tremendous. We shopped; relaxed; ate; cooked Mexican; ate out; ate in; cooked more Mexican (mom and dad are amazing cooks!); shopped; sipped tea; shared about books we've been reading; discovered I have an ulcer; prayed; ached for mom when she got sick; watched the complete first season of The Nanny, laughed uproariously, and repeated several episodes; watched High School Musical, Hi-Tops, and Empire Falls (don't bother if you haven't seen it--which you probably haven't); took goofy pictures; had friends over one night to play telephone pictionary and mafia; cuddled; sang; played fast scrabble; had a couple singing recording sessions; interviewed mom and dad on their marriage (started out like the newlywed game); soaked up being together; etc, etc...


One day the girls left dad at home cooking while we did a little shopping and got manicures and pedicures. We bought new shoes, too. The sorts of things I think are probably pretty normal for women to do, but we have never done together.


Well, how did you think we got our feet lined up like that for the picture? :)

Pictured above: the 4 of us together all wearing our sarongs, a traditional outfit worn at home here.

The Shack, by William P. Young

I read this book recently, and it gave me food for thought, new considerations about God, some surprising as I read, but so far I can't argue them with scripture (like ideas on hierarchy, the trinity, relationships, responsibility, expectations...) I enjoyed a lot of the quotes at the beginning of chapters as well. So, below are a smattering of quotes, slimmed down considerably from what I had down originally. My favorite is Sophia's: love is just the skin of knowing.

Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets.

-Paul Tourneir

The soul is healed by being with children.

-Fyodor Dostoevsky

No matter what God’s power may be, the first aspect of God is never that of the absolute Master, the Almighty. It is that of the God who puts himself on our human level and limits himself.

-Jacques Ellul, Anarchy and Christianity

So many believe that it is love that grows, but it is the knowing that grows and love simply expands to contain it. Love is just the skin of knowing.

Sophia

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.

-Blaise Pascal

Once abolish the God and the government becomes the God.

-G. K. Chesterton

The darkness hides the true size of fears and lies and regrets. The truth is they are more shadow than reality, so they seem bigger in the dark. When the light shines into the places they live inside you, you start to see them for what they are.

page 174

“Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.”
-Jean Jacques Rousseau

...those who are afraid of freedom are those who cannot trust us to live in them. Trying to keep the law is actually a declaration of independence, a way of keeping control...” even worse... “It grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle experssions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty…. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse.

Sarayu (pg 203)

An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.

-A. W. Tozer

I want to do as Mack began doing: learn to live loved (pg 175).

Bringing in the New Year

On New Year's Eve we enjoyed our home-made pizza that was left over frm lunch, and Charis made us big salads. We sipped tea, played jenga, and soaked our feet. Then we massaged our feet into the New Year!

It was awesome to have my sister with me on the island for a couple weeks. Everyone loved her, and it was great to have her there long enough to experience life with me, rather than just see it.

Goodbye 2008!

Dec 31, Evening, Living Light

I haven't learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be....

learn to put aside your own desires so that you will become patient and godly, gladly letting God have his way with you. This will make possible the next step, which is for you to enjoy other people and to like them, and finally you will grow to love them deeply.

My prayer for you is that you will overflow more and more with love for others, and at the same time keep on growing in spiritual knowledge and insight. No mere man has even seen, heard or even imagined what wonderful things God has ready for those who love the Lord. There is a full complete rest still waiting for the people of God. Your eyes will see the King in his beauty and the highlands of heaven far away.

Phil.3:12, 2Pet.1:7, Phil.1:9, 1 Cor.2:9, Heb.4:9, Is.33:17.