Month: July 2011

Hike to Forbidden Island

/ edebock / 3 Comments

Yesterday’s long walk was a good warm up for this morning’s hike to Forbidden Island. Hiking in Saipan’s high heat and humidity can be pretty draining but it’s well worth it. The views are so spectacular!

Forbidden Island from the viewpoint

The sign at the trailhead, a short distance from the viewpoint, called this a strenuous hike and said that it would take 45 minutes in each direction. It was a fairly steep climb down through the bushes, across a ridge and down a dry watercourse but the only reason it actually took us 45 minutes is because we stopped so often to enjoy the views and take pictures. I’m super glad that I bought a brand new pair of Merrell walking/hiking shoes just before we left Canada and brought them with me. They’re really comfortable and I feel as sure footed as a mountain goat wearing them.

 

   

Woohoo! We made it!

When we got to the bottom, the tide was out and we enjoyed exploring the tidal pools. They were full of all sorts of sea life including lots of tiny vibrant blue fish.

  

Richard found some stepping stones and crossed over to the island. I told him that if the tide came in and he was stranded, I’d come back for him tomorrow! I took my shoes, socks and pants off and went wading in one of the larger pools but I didn’t let him take any pictures of that!

Can you see him?

We even saw a hoodoo.

Eventually, it was time to climb back up to the top. Though we had to stop from time to time to catch our breath and the sweat was dripping off us by the time we got there, it only took us about 25 minutes! Boy, were we happy to climb into an air conditioned car when we got there!

Our first weekend

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With our first week on our own here drawing to a close and our first busy weekend of ministry behind us there’s no question that the Lord is with us!

The big church van rumbled up the driveway shortly after one o’clock on Saturday afternoon and ten energetic children piled out. The eleventh arrived a few minutes later with her mom who is a leader. Mr. Richard started them off with a game of ball tag. Next we sang some actions songs before dividing into younger and older groups for their Bible lesson. I had the older group and Amor, the younger. They’ve been using children’s Bible quizzing material to study 1 Samuel and boy, do these kids know their scripture! This week was a review of their lesson entitled A Good King Goes Bad from 1 Samuel 15. Can you name the king of the Amalekites? They can. Do you know why God rejected Saul as king? They do.

Following the lesson came their favourite part of the afternoon; the snack! There’s no question that some of these kids are hungry. We suspect that the food we provide is one of the main reasons that some of them come. During the school year, they eat breakfast and lunch at school but that’s not available to them over the summer. They quickly devoured the ham and cheese sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies and topped them off with pink lemonade.

Yesterday, we had 24 children, teens and adults for Sunday School. Richard taught the adult class, I taught the teens and local women, Malou and Amor taught the children. Again, Richard picked up many of the kids with the van which is a very vital part of the ministry here. Without it, most of the kids wouldn’t get here as it’s too far for them to walk and very few of them attend with their parents. We’re hoping that we might get some of the parents out for a family fun afternoon later in the month and for the Vacation Bible School wind-up next month.

   

There were 25 of us for yesterday’s church service. The open porch across the front of the house serves as our sanctuary as well as a Sunday School room (above). Though the house has a formal dining room, we also eat our meals out on the porch so it definitely serves many purposes.

What would worship be without music? Neither of us plays an instrument but our many years in the classroom taught us the art of being flexible and making do, skills that we’re quickly learning transfer well to the mission field! We sang along with hymns and choruses on CDs which worked just fine. We also watched a short video clip about what the church has been doing in Haiti since the devastating earthquake hit there early last year and Richard preached a message from 1 John entitled “Believe”.

Afterward, when Richard had delivered the children to their respective homes and everyone else had left, it was time for us to kick back and indulge in a little R&R. I hadn’t been off the property for a couple of days and though it’s spacious, I was beginning to feel a little claustrophobic so we decided to walk part of the beach path that skirts along the lagoon on the west side of the island. Other than my two walks up and down the steep driveway with the dog each day, we haven’t been doing a lot of walking since we’ve been here and it felt very good to stretch our legs. We figure we must have walked at least 4 miles.

   

How did I end up here?

/ edebock / 4 Comments

I’ve been wondering lately how it is that I am where I am doing what I’m doing. As a child and even a young adult, I was intensely shy. I was scared of my own shadow and just about everything else. I was the little girl in class who never put up her hand to offer an answer and who, even when she knew the correct answer, practically trembled when the teacher called on her. I was the little girl who once stood paralysed at a busy street crossing on the way home from school until a lady actually came out of her house and escorted me across!

Looking back, it seems a bit bizarre that I chose teaching as a career. Me, who was terrified of getting up in front of people! It’s also a wonder that I didn’t give up that dream during my first year of university when one of my professors told me that I should choose a different profession. I was too soft spoken, I was told. I’d never be able to command the attention of a classroom full of students. I might have been shy but I was also stubborn and I was determined to prove him wrong. I realize now that long before I knew him, God designed me to be a teacher. It was part of his plan for my life and I’m sure that my many years in front of a classroom helped bring me to the place I now find myself.

Somewhere along the way, I also developed an interest in drama and I know that my forays onto the stage helped push me beyond my initial shyness. At first, stepping out onto the stage was a giant leap outside my comfort zone but when I discovered how much fun it was, I was hooked! On the stage, shy introverted me became someone else, someone who could do things I would never do like appear in public in a micro mini jungle girl costume!

Stepping outside my comfort zone; that was the key. As my blogging friend, Donloree wrote recently, “So I am going to be afraid, but do it anyways. It means I am doing something new, bold, and exciting and maybe just possibly changing the world.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

So the little girl who was afraid to cross the street by herself has crossed the world. She isn’t always as confident as she might seem but she’s learned to push herself out on life’s stage and grab onto all it has to offer.

If I can do it, anyone can!

Senior citizen? I think not!

/ edebock / 2 Comments

I absolutely love being retired and all the wonderful opportunities it affords us and when I’m at home during the summer months, I enjoy seniors golf on Wednesday mornings but I certainly don’t consider myself a senior citizen! I’m very happy to take advantage of senior’s discounts whenever they’re available though.

I’ve carried a bright green and yellow Humpty’s card in my wallet for the past couple of years. It entitles “mature customers” of 55 years and over to 10% off all regularly priced meals. Every Tuesday, the discount doubles to 20%. Humpty’s calls its cardholders the Emerald 55 Club and that title appears discreetly on the front of the card. Not so with my brand new Joeten discount card!

Joeten is a family owned retail company which has been doing business here on the island of Saipan for over 60 years. Everywhere we go, we see Joeten… Joeten supermarkets, Joeten One Stop Shopping, Joeten Motors. J.C. Tenorio Enterprises (Joeten) even owns a Costco! The warehouse store operated as Price Costco from Dec. 1994 to Dec. 2009 when the trademark name expired and the name was changed to Joeten Superstore. Ownership and the licensing agreement stayed the same, however, and it’s still clearly a Costco carrying merchandise from the US including Costco’s Kirkland brand products. The only difference between Costco here and Costco elsewhere, other than the name, is the fact that it doesn’t require a membership.

When we exited the store on one of our first visits, we were asked if we were seniors and told how to go about getting Joeten seniors cards so that we wouldn’t have to show our ID every time we went through the till. Off we went to the office at the Joeten One Stop Shopping Center to get our Hafa Adai cards. Hafa adai (pronounced half a day) is a native Chamorro greeting which is used much the same way that aloha is used on the Hawaiian islands. Like Joeten, it’s seen everywhere including on license plates. Unlike Humpty’s Emerald 55 cards, Hafa Adai cards do not announce our senior status discreetly. Instead, SENIOR CITIZEN appears in bold red print on the front of the card!

Will that audacious pronouncement keep the card hidden in my wallet? Definitely not! It’s worth 5% off any regularly priced grocery item and 10% off other merchandise including anything we buy at any Ace Hardware, also Joeten holdings. Not only will it benefit our pocketbook but it will also assist the church that we’re here to serve as the discount applies to everything we purchase whether it be for our own use or the church’s. That definitely appeals to our frugal nature even if it does mean admitting that we’re a little long of tooth!