We Are At War....And Not Against Flesh And Blood...

I have already shared that my week on Tanna was most difficult. Joel had been sick, relentless rain had washed out the road, and Erik's closest neighbor had asked a Cleva (like a clarivoyant) to come and divine the causes of both a recent death in the village and a death that had happened many years ago. He was also asked to explain why so many people had been getting sick lately in the village. In spite of the weather he spent two days meeting with villagers giving them instructions and guidance.

On Thursday the day of our clothes sale we learned that he had been asked to come. So Erik decided to speak from the translated book of Acts to confront him while he was there.
I had just settled down on my mat to eat my much anticipated laplap when Sierra came running across the field.
"Someone must come quick, Joel has made such a mess," she said in high volume.
"I will go. It is important for you to stay here," I told Erik.

Entering the house the smell was enough to gag a hungry maggot, as the saying goes. Now my young grandson is having trouble getting potty trained, but only partially he can pee without a problem, it is the other he tends to do wherever he feels like it and he felt like it on the kitchen floor. Then he tried to clean it up leaving hand prints pretty much around the room and down the hall wall. I put a screaming Joel in the shower, and began to clean up the mess with cold water and the one rag that I could find.

Sierra poked her head in the door just long enough to say, "Are you okay grandma?"
"Sierra, you go tell daddy that our battle is not against flesh and blood," I said with a chuckle sweat rolling into my eyes as Joel continued to scream.

"What does that mean?" she asked.
"Just tell dad he will understand."
She shrugged and ran off.
Within a few minutes Erik came running back to the house. By then, I had dried and dressed Joel though he was still clearly upset, and I was still scrubbing away.

"Mom, I'll do it," he said.
"Don't worry about it, he is my grandson, I don't mind."
"Are you sure? Sierra said you told her to tell me that it's not my flesh and blood."

At that point we had a much needed laugh, as I told him what I had really said.
I share this story to make my point.

I saw a new that week, over and over, that WE ARE AT WAR, and our battle is not against flesh and blood.
And I saw very clearly the absolute need for me to be praying fervently for my children, their work, and the people they serve.
I've always prayed, but my experiences this week showed me so clearly the need to be more diligent.

Ephesians 6:10-12
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
"for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses, we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."

Sometimes having them so far away I have been lax, not any more.

Meet Baby Grace...

This is baby Grace, she is about 6 months old and a little beauty... She has the biggest brown eyes, and the softest skin.
It took the whole time I was on Tanna for Grace to finally come to me.
She would look at me and immediately cry. When she finally let me hold her I had the kids take this special picture.

I mentioned in my last post that I had a chicken for Sierra to pluck. On Tanna meat is scarce, and since the people are poor a chicken is a precious commodity, so that a chicken is a very special gift.
There is nothing like a village chicken, no matter how long they have been allowed to graze and grow, they are still skinny, and I don't care how they are prepared they are still tough and chewy.

Michele is holding my "special " chicken... Mama Ellen, baby Grace's Mother gave it to me.
When baby Grace was born I sent her an outfit and some yarn. When Mama Ellen learned that I was coming she saved to buy, and then fed for weeks this guy to thank me.
I was blessed and moved by her generosity.
Mamma Ellen and Grace with her little brother.
Sierra loves to watch Grace.

Yard Sale....

I have been so busy that I have not had time to write before now....
Had a birth and wedding in the family over the last couple of weeks.
I thought that I would share with you some pictures of the clothes sale that we had while I was in Vanuatu.
In February Michele wrote and let me know that the translation committee had decided to have a clothes sale to raise money for translation, and they wanted me to supply the clothes since I was coming. .
I know the need for clothes, but because it is so expensive to send them I rarely do it.
I would be allowed 4 -50lb bags on my international flight.
I collected clothes from varied places, and I want to thank those who so graciously gave.
I had men's, women's, and children's clothes in many sizes.

Flying between the islands my weight limit went way down so we packed it all in boxes and sent it on the boat. I had a hard time letting the clothes out of my sight after dragging them across the world. How I prayed they would not get lost or stolen. We ended up with about 7 boxes.

The sale was set for Thurs. and that morning we woke to fairly nice weather. That day was a break in a relentless week of rain.

Around noon the people began to gather on the hill.The women were dressed in their colorful best. People sat in groups laughing, talking and waiting. The scene reminded me of what I thought it probably looked like when Jesus taught and fed the 5000.

The women had cooked and we had fish stew, baked fish, lap lap, sugar cane, and a huge pot of cooked rice all for sale.

Joel could not decide if he liked what was going on or not. He had not been feeling good.
This is part of the translation team, Allen, Nettie, and David. They organized and ran the sale.
The people went through everything.
The women loved the baby clothes.
Some could not afford to buy, I can't tell you how hard it was for me not to just give clothes away.
In the end Erik took the time to read from the new translation and teach the people.
They listened intently.

The whole situation truly blessed me. The people were very thankful and they raised around $280 for translation.

His Grace Is Sufficient For Me....

We faced many obstacles when I was in the village, sickness, weather, spiritual blindness, but in all these things I saw the hand of God and his blessings.
Every time that I am with my kids and the other missionaries I am acutely aware of the way God seems to meet their needs. It is a blessing to watch God's power at work in their lives.

One verse that kept coming to mind over the week was in IICorinthians 12:8-10:
"Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.
And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake;for when I am weak then I am strong."

In this verse we see that Paul is longing for relief from his "thorn in the flesh", so that 3 times he asked God to remove it. I am not sure what Paul's thorn was but we see God refuse to remove it instead He tells Paul,
"MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU"
IS SUFFICIENT is a verb in the present tense / meaning that there is constant availability....So for Paul and Us, God's divine grace seen in Jesus Christ is constantly available and is enough. God would not take away the problem, but God would provide the grace to endure it.

"MY POWER IS PERFECTED IN WEAKNESS"
Our weakness as humans allows God's power to be more manifest.

I know for sure that when there was no doctor and my grandson was burning up, when the rain was coming in sheets and destroying the road in and out, when there was no one to call to remove a huge tree in the road, when the people walked in darkness and not light, these were the obstacles that allowed God's grace and power to shine through. He did not take them away, but He gave the grace to work through them.

The next verse is the hard part, I think.
"MOST GLADLY, THEREFORE,I WILL RATHER BOAST ABOUT MY WEAKNESSES, SO THAT THE POWER OF CHRIST MAY DWELL IN ME."

I am ashamed to admit that "MOST GLADLY" was not my first reaction, I came to it, but not my first reaction. Paul says He would not rejoice in the pain of his obstacle, but be content(have a proper mindset) in the power of Christ seen through it.
So it's not about the weaknesses or the insults, or the distresses, or the persecutions or the difficulties, but instead about Christ and Him glorified.
That is a tough call for me. Most times my focus was on the difficulties instead of recognizing that the power of Christ had the potential to be seen through the obstacle. I see that missionaries live with so many daily obstacles that their first reaction is prayer and then they face the obstacles expecting God to give His grace to deal with it, and He does.

With each obstacle God kept reminding me that HE was able. That HE was bigger than all the obstacles.
So as a POM, and a POM grandma I will rejoice in the struggles that my children face, and then I will pray that He will be lifted up in their lives.

Lord I Pray.....
That Your Grace will be sufficient for my missionary family, that Your power will be perfected in their weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in them. Help them and me to be content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, and with the difficulties;for Christ's sake; for when we are weak then we are strong.
so Lord that when each obstacle is gone through and the power of Christ is manifest, then You will be glorified. I Pray In Jesus Name....Amen

Pray...Pray....Pray...

The month before I left for Vanuatu Joel was so sick. He was unable to walk complained about pain, and had a high fever. He was finally diagnosed with a bone infection and it was serious enough that he was put into the hospital for a two week period so that he could have IV antibiotics. He was given another 2 weeks by mouth. Many of you prayed for him, and he came back from this bout of infection with God's healing touch. We were all very thankful.

Last time I saw him he was only 18 months old. I cannot tell you how delighted I was when at the sight of me , with a big smile, he said, " my gamma come to visit me", and then he crawled up into my lap.

What a Joy!! We bonded and he was my side kick the entire trip.

I was very happy that Joel had been given the care that helped him to get over the infection, but one of the hazards of being in the field and so far away from good medical care is that the diagnosis was not complete. The blood tests that would have shown the original cause of the infection seemed to have evaporated.

No one can say were they went or why they disappeared. The problem is if the infection ever comes again he will need to come back here for a more thorough care.

For the first 10 days, Joel was fine. He is a happy 3 year old,very active, and eager to express himself. He has a broad smile with tiny little white teeth.

He is strong willed and feisty. If he is not happy he will put his hands on his hips,scrunch up his face, and firmly putting his chubby feet on the ground say, "me not doing that."

he is using the third person right now when he talks about himself,
and then so that you understand just how upset he is he will follow up with the simple statement,
"you no good."

Whoa, I admit that when I first heard him say this I had to chuckle even though I know it is not something I would want him to say often or to certain people.

Michele reminded him that it was not okay to say this.
The problem is that it is common for the people in the village to say "you no good," when they are upset.
Try to explain this to a 3 year old struggling to learn 2 languages.

Once we reached the village, Erik had to turn around the next day and go back to Lenackel to get supplies that were coming in on the boat.
Normally this not a problem, but Erik ended up being gone for 2 days.
The next morning I was woke by the crowing chickens and Joel's mournful howling.

"Me legs hurt," he cried.
Well after what he had been through this simple statement caused us a little stress, but with examination we found that during the night he had broke out with a rash that consisted of big red ugly blisters in patterns of 4.

They were along the tops of his legs and butt.

As the morning went on he developed a high fever.

I have 8 grandchildren so that I am used to them getting sick, but I am also used to having access to a doctor who can diagnose the problem, and good medical care that can take care of the problem.

So what is a fearful worrying grandma to do?
Cuddle, Comfort, and Pray, Pray, Pray.....
having no other choice this is what I did for 3 days.

I came away from this situation recognizing a couple of things.

"God's grace is sufficient, and His power is perfected in weakness."
And My children need my prayers all the time. They are faced with obstacles every day all the time.

Joel got better as the week went on...but...it was hard to watch. Later in the week they took Joel to the doc in town, and he quickly diagnosed him with chicken pox, but this is not what he had. This week he has the same symptoms but from the waist up.

The confessions of a POM who just got back from Vanuatu...

A trip to Vanuatu provokes deep feelings for me, and these feelings usually stay with me for at least a month after arriving home. I think that it is a combination of culture shock, sorrow at leaving, and tiredness.
It can manifest itself in different ways.
I can find myself crying at the drop of a hat.

The fruit at the grocery store made me cry yesterday. They had mangoes and finger bananas just like the ones JohnMark brought in from the front yard.
You never see finger bananas in the USA. I bought two bunches of them for my cereal in the mornings.

A song on the radio reminded me of my flight home. I cried all the way home from aerobics.

I find that I have no tolerance for silly small talk. Okay I admit it. It's probably not silly or small to whoever is doing the talking,but it seems so whiny and trivial to me.
such as....
I don't want to hear about your shopping spree and the new skirt you settled for buying since you couldn't get it in the color you really wanted.
That conversation made me think about the lack of skirts in the village, and I wanted to say how lucky you were to have so many choices , and the money to buy it, and then I wanted to cry.

And....
Please don't complain to me about gas prices its $10 a gallon in Vanuatu if you can find it, and then they pour it into the tank with a cup.

Please....I don't want to hear you say to me, "Well, when are they coming home? How much longer are they going to be there? enough is enough, don't you think?"

Probably better if you don't ask me why the trip was so hard.

I always come home and decide to clean house. I give away lots of stuff.

I have already sent two boxes to Vanuatu with things I want the kids to have, and I'm working on the third.

I am amazed at what we find important for 24/7 news here in the USA....No wonder I did not miss it. How many different ways can we speculate about Micheal Jackson's death.

I have so many thoughts rolling around in my head and I'm trying to sort through them, and pray through them.

After a while I will calm down, but some of the things that will stay with me..... are

I am thankful to God and my husband for letting me go on this trip.

I will no longer buy stuff for my collections or to just have cause I want it.

I don't need a new outfit for every occasion, what I have is just fine.

I am so thankful for the medical care we have in this country. It is one of the best in the world, and...

I will spend more time in prayer for Erik and the people he serves.

It is good to be home, but It is hard...

For This I Trained....

I have been home a week...

I'm still tired, but last night I went to bed at midnight instead of 2 and slept until 7a.m.

I had the energy to go back to water aerobics this morning.
I had shared with you that I had strengthened my arthritic knees and lost weight for this trip doing this exercise.

Erik was always concerned that I might fall and break something. We laughed and kidded about how difficult it would be having the villagers carry me out, but we both knew that if it happened that is exactly what would happen.
The paths get very wet and slippery after the rain and it rained quite a lot the week I was there. Even when paying close attention it is easy to slip and fall.
A young man in the village made me a walking stick,and I used it constantly. It helped give me the stability that I needed, and it gave the villagers something to talk about. They were quite curious why I needed the stick. .
Because of the rain there was no way to get the truck up the hill so that the day we left Tanna we ended up walking out of the village. It is about a mile down the hill.

"For this exact thing I trained," I told Erik. We laughed, but even with the stick,careful walking, and the training I still fell one time going down the hill.

I can tell you that I was pretty happy to see the truck when we finally arrived.

Home...

Finally I am home... after 30 hours of flying we arrived home last night at 11p.m.

We were delayed in Vanuatu for 4 hours which made for a stressful time because our plane in Fiji a huge 747-400 was to leave at the time we were scheduled to arrive.

I was so tired that there was really no way I wanted to stay another night in Fiji.

An absolutely amazing thing happened because they held the plane until we arrived there.

I can only attribute that to God's gracious mercy. As jet lagged and tired as I am I have been praising Him continuiously all day, but I am still pretty teary. I agree with one of my readers, I will never be the same after having spent time in the place.







Early morning picture of our plane.

I showed this picture to the children in the village and their eyes bugged out and they started to giggle. Most have never seen a picture of a plane let alone seen one. What an amazing blessing to have the opportunity to fly. We really live in a very small world.

I have so many stories and I will share some of them as time goes by, but It always takes me about 3 weeks to get over the jet lag. Gaining a day back and having my days and nights mixed is hard especially since I struggle with tiredness in normal times.

Farewell to Tanna

As I write this I'm on a small plane taking me from the island of Tanna to Port Vila, a 35min. flight.
The tears are spilling and I'm having a hard time stopping them.
I am physically tired and emotionally numb.
We had both a difficult week with many many obstacles as well as an exciting week of fun and happy times, the kind of times that make for lasting memories.
I am well aware of the fact that our battle on this earth is not against flesh and blood, and I know that the enemy wants to thwart the work of God especially with the work my son is doing, but our God is the one true and almighty God, full of power and might, grace and mercy. And I saw this week His hand and care on each obstacle we faced, His hand and care on my son and his family, His hand and care on Sage and me.
I struggle with wanting to say, "Why God do things have to be so hard when it's so hard in this place already."
But I know that it is the obstacles that God uses in our lives to make us holy and dependent on Him.
There were times this week that I wanted to take my son and his family home with me:)
I know that is silly, and not God's will, so instead I left them this morning with lots of hugs, promises to see one another in a year, and much thankfulness for this time we have had together.
We leave for Fiji and USA tomorrow afternoon.

Tanna or Bust....

Sometimes this place surprises me. When I shop in town I always come across cards that have pictures painted by local artist Diana Tam. I have taken the cards and framed them because they portray so well the flavor of Vanuatu.
This week Michele and I had to take Sierra to a local dentist, and in the same block as the dentist was the studio of this woman. It was great. We saw some of her work in progress, and were able to purchase things that she had painted that were not available in town.

My kids always attract attention because they speak the local language and they are white.
Striking up a conversation with Diana we told her that we were off to Tanna because this is were they live and work. She was intrigued and her response made me laugh.

" I have been to Tanna once," she said, White grass resort wanted me to come a do some painting. I was there only 4 days, and at the end of 4 days I told them I need a spot of coffee, and I don't even drink coffee. Tanna is a hard place, it makes Port Vila look like Paris."

She is so right, I say that Tanna is like another planet. It is hard to explain but I will take lots of pictures and try and show you that way. I will not have much Internet access.

We leave early in the morning at 7:00a.m. Erik will pick us up and we will get to go to the village right away because our supplies will not be in port until Sunday.
So we are off to Tanna....

And the Earth shook...literally

How could I forget to tell you all that we had an earthquake day before yesterday.
I was sleeping and thought I was getting sick.
It measured 6.5.
I love this place:)

Turtles in all sizes. ...

We have had a busy week. We have been to the beach a couple of times. Had a Grandma date day. We went into town together for shopping, and lunch at Jill's an american cafe.

Burgers, fries, and milk shakes.

Today we went on a day cruise, that included a turtle farm. The kids were able to get up close and personal with the turtles.

We snorkeled, swam, and had steak lunch on the beach.

Erik leaves for Tanna tomorrow, and the rest of us leave on Friday.

Giving Thanks...

Yesterday Erik gave the sermon at church. The pastor asked if there were any prayer requests or praises. I stood and I found myself overwhelmed with emotion as I said,

" I love being here and I'm thankful that I can be here.

As a parent of a missionary I recognize that sometimes when things such as what happened to Erik and Joel,this last month take place things can go very bad, but I want to thank God for his gracious mercy and grace because Erik is doing fine and Joel shows no damage with his knee. He has been very good to our family and I am thankful."

I could barely get the praise out without bursting into tears.

I must have pushed the feelings of anxiety down, until yesterday when I acknowledged before God what He had truly accomplished with my son and grandson.

"I will extol You, my God, O King,

And I will bless Your name forever and ever.

Every day I will bless You,

And I will praise Your name forever and ever.

Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised,

And His greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall praise Your works to another and

shall declare Your mighty acts.

On the glorious splendor of Your majesty.

And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate

Ment shall speak of the power of Your awesom

acts, and I will tell of Your greatness.

They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness.

And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.

The LORD is gracious and merciful" psalm 145:1-8

Itsy Bitsy Spider...

I have been trying to blog for a couple of days now, but having trouble.
I have to remember that "I'm not in Colorado anymore."
I think that my problem is patience. It takes a LONG TIME to download a picture, I will keep trying.

We are still in Port Vila. We will not leave for the village until next week.
Erik will leave on Thursday and the rest of us will follow on Friday.
Since Erik had to leave very quickly because of his emergency appendectomy not everything was put up and the rats have probably been into things. I know that he wants to make sure all is in order when I get there.

Michele has been shopping for supplies. They will send them out on the boat Tues and they will arrive on Thurs. or Friday.
Shopping here is quite the adventure I will try and write about it at some point.

We have been to the Cascade Falls and the beach to snorkel. The weather has been good, warm without rain. The South Pacific is a beautiful place.

I will end this post with a drama from last night.
I was getting ready for bed straightening out my sheets when I saw a big spider hanging out on the wall.

"Sierra, is that spider real?"
It was so big that I thought it might be one of those fake ones.
"No grandma, it is real."
Hmmm.
"ERIK," I shouted loudly.
He slowly walked into the room.
"I really would be more comfortable with that spider gone. He is close to my head."
"That is a wolf spider and it will not hurt you, he eats other bugs."
Not comforting...I want him gone.
Erik comes back into the room, with a broom.
He swats at the spider before I get my camera.
It jumps, I scream ,and it disappears.
Questions is where did it go? It was not dead so
it is under my bed, across the room, or in my bed.
Erik shrugs.
Sierra laughs, " In Tanna, there will be spiders bigger than that in the bathroom."
And that is why I do not turn on the light I think to myself. What I don't see will not hurt me.
At that point I shook my sheets, and went to bed I was to tired to worry over one little spider.

South Pacific Time...

The people on this side of the world go by their own time. They call it "not white mans time."
Being on time doesn't matter to them and they don't seem to mind when a 10 minute task takes a hour or two.
Since I'm the opposite in this area, I find that I have to ignore when things don't go according to my time schedule and instead go with the flow of whatever is happening because my stressing over it will not change it.
So that when we were leaving Fiji yesterday and because the line was so long that it took an hour to get to the counter, and then when they were printing out our boarding passes the computers went down for another hour, and then our 11:10 flight was moved to 12:40 and 1:30 until it got cancelled completely due to computer failure that I decided to be thankful and meet some of the interesting people that were missing the flight with me.
At that point they decided that in order to get to Vanuatu they would take us to Honoria which is in the Solomon Islands almost to Papau New Guinea, and then from there we would fly back to Vanuatu.
And without further ado we flew for 8 hours, with two meals, and lots of seat changes, that
Sage and I decided to look at it all as an adventure.
I was very thankful though when we finally arrived in Vanuatu around 8 p.m. and my whole family was waiting.
I have spent the day marveling that I'm actually on the other side of the world, that we made it here on the day we were scheduled and thanking God for this time.

What Day Is This?

We just crossed the international date line. This means that it is now Monday morning, and we just lost Sunday.

They are collecting money on the plane for the "Poor" in Fiji. They have never done this before. I wonder if it has become a very bad problem. \
And so it begins...The poverty of the countries that we will be staying in.
This part is really hard for me, I just want to help, I have so much. \

I love this trip. I love Vanuatu. I can't explain it but sometimes it feels like I'm coming home. It may be because part of my heart lives here. My son, his wife and 4 wonderful grandchildren.

Now I am starting to get excited. Feels like Christmas morning!! :)

Where The World Meets...Bradley International Airport..LA, California

Its Been a Long Day and I am tired so I will keep this simple...

• Had a early start
• I was tired /I didn't sleep well
• went to post office
• had to go back home and get what Sage forgot
• 4 checked bags, all the exact weight :) yahoo
• 4 carry on
• Sage hungry /Panda Express
• Good flight/ slept/ finished book,The Soloist
• Los Angeles/ 75 degrees/nice
• walk/ wait
• Sage hungry/ Mexican meal/ french fries/ smoothies
• wait
• Sage watching movie on I Pod
• Check in , international flight at 6:30/4 underweight bags/ x-rayed bags
• Security Check in
• walk/ wait
• Sage bored and hungry/ McDonalds mcnuggets
• found Internet access /that will help Sage to sit still
• many people going on this flight, speaking many languages
• tired/excited
• leaving on time 11:30 p.m.
• See You In Fiji..
  

The Trip....Update

WELL.....
Tomorrow is the day of departure. It's been a long couple of weeks trying to put it all together.
I have been collecting clothes for the village. In the last week clothes have been rolling in.
I have 2-50lb. bags with village clothes.
I have clothes from infant to adult skirts and shirts. I am very excited and happy, but a little
stressed over getting it all there. Thanks to all who have so graciously donated.
It is a good thing that Sage is already 6 foot and strong. We would be in so much trouble if he was
8 and little. I only have a small concern that he is 14 and sometimes completely in his own world.
I am sure he will step up and be taking care of grandma on this trip :)

We took typhoid pills as part of our drug regime.. Last time I took shots, but the pills are cheaper and they last longer, 5 years instead of 2. I think that they made me sick over the last week that I took them. I had migraines and aches and pains, and more tiredness than usual. Art says I am just stressing, but I think it was more than that, Sage handled them just fine.

I collected and packed Michele's list. I have hot sauce and chocolate chips in my carry on.
I added two more books to the Kindle this morning. I cringe at the Kindle bill, but Michele will love me cause she can inhale a book in a very short time.
For those who don't know a Kindle is an electronic book that can be downloaded it is a perfect way to travel. Art surprised me on my birthday.
Check out Amazon.com if interested.

Sage is excited, like I said it is a good thing that he has grown 5 inches in the last 6 months so he will be able to lift those bags, but the boy eats constantly.
"Can I bring snack?" he asked last week.
"If they don't weigh to much:)"
We couldn't carry enough snacks to keep him going for three weeks.
Maybe he will fall in love with sour sop or yams, coconuts maybe?

On the Vanuatu front, Joel is doing better. His leg appears to be healed. At one point last week
Erik considered just coming home and having me cancel the trip. I will not tell you my reaction to that suggestion. Thank Goodness God understands me.
After the docs saw him this week and the x-rays they determined that he is fine.
They are still not sure what caused the bone infection, and I know that troubles Erik, but we are thankful for healing.

And last but certainly not least. Several months ago I shared my struggle with getting off 20lbs. for this trip.
I am excited and thankful to God that I have accomplished it and strengthened my knees with exercise. I should be able to handle the long bouts of walking. I am taking the walking stick just in case though.

So As I take leave I ask for your prayers.
Pray we stay safe and well.
Pray that the trip goes easily with all this baggage.
Pray for Art he always misses me lots when I am gone.

I will try and keep the blog updated with pictures at least while I have Internet access.
Karen

makin a list and checkin it twice...

I'm making a list and checkin it twice,
I'm trying to be patient, and keeping it nice.
I am a list person, so don't get me wrong,
It's just that I have many not just 1.

As you can tell I'm not a poet,but
just a little humor will help me keep it all in perspective.

Over the last few months Michele has given me, in e-mail, quite a few things to get and bring along. I'm afraid to miss something so I really need to STOP and make one list.
I am collecting clothes for the people.
I have prescriptions and over the counter medicine.
I have a box of small toys for the village kids.
Clothes for my grandkids.
A modem for the computer.
DVD's and CD's.
Food, chocolate chips, and hot sauces, and
I would really love to get the tent in that I bought for Erik and boys.

Oh Yes, I have my clothes and Sages to pack.

I have 4 -50lbs bags that I can take without paying on Air Pacific Airlines.
I am going to have to start packing real soon so I can see were I'm at,
But for now its all sitting in a pile in the living room.

It's Worth A Pig...

Erik and Michele live on the island of Tanna. The airport is in the small town of Lenackel, and the village is about a two hour drive from there.

To get to the village we have to head up the mountain into the bush with Erik's small 4 wheel drive truck. As we move inland the vegetation becomes lush and dense. There are twisted banyan trees, ferns and coconut trees,wild orchids, vines and flowering plants.

Erik calls the road 4 wheel drive, but I call it the nightmare road.

When the road is dry it is mostly passable, but the muddy holes are still a challenge to navigate through.

When this road is wet it is almost impossible to navigate. It is slick. It is easy to fall into the muddy holes , and it can take hours to dig out. No tow trucks here.

Usually I travel this road with my eyes tightly shut, praying all the way.

Last month Erik got stuck about a mile from home and had to walk it carrying boxes and bags.

Last time we talked I had this brilliant idea,

"Erik, will you have the men in the village cut a new road in the bush when I come? I will pay them to do this."

"Mom, they will not want money, but they might do it for a pig."

"Hmm, excellent idea, I will buy a pig, " I responded.

I hope that he knows that I am serious.

Erik left a comment on the last entry about his health scare, check it out....