Moving Forward

Can you believe I have been here in Saipan for six months already? Not continuously. I spent several weeks in Iowa packing for the move this fall. Still, I did arrive here June 13th, and today, December 24th, I am sitting on the church porch just like I did this summer, watching the dogs, listening to the birds, cars, airplanes, and wind in the trees marveling at the beauty of God's nature. Or is it the nature of God's beauty?   My daughter sent me a picture of her Christmas tree. I had an idea of using it to send you all Christmas cards, which didn't happen. I wanted to thank you for your ministry partnership last month and tell you that your gifts directly touched the lives of 20 children and 6 adults, some as compassion ministry (food and such) and some as friendship ministry eating with new friends. Words cannot express my sense of awe that people would want to help me like this. You and I were able to contribute to a Christmas present event here at the church, where...

What an interesting day this has been! It's Wednesday here in Saipan. Monday and Tuesday I was in Guam, a short hop by airplane into another world. Guam is big, busy, and...I can't think of another "b" word, so I will go with beautiful. I stayed with beautiful people, that is! The military Reserve unit here on Saipan was unable to renew and update my military ID card, so I had to make a trip to Guam to get it done. I had been procrastinating because I couldn't perfectly imagine how I was going to get from the airport to the Air Base and back to where I would be staying the night without any idea of Guam's layout. When I go new places, I study and memorize maps well before I arrive on the ground. Yeah...they don't make maps anymore. You have to study Google maps, which just isn't the same as a good, old fashioned paper map you can make notes on and draw marker points on. Red Curry Thai Soup But I made it there and back, and had a GREAT time with n...