Author: edebock

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?

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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!

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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!

Garapan Street Market

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I know where I’m going to be having supper every Thursday for the next month and a half. The Garapan Street Market is held every Thursday evening from 5:00 to 9:00. Many local restaurants have booths offering five selections (sometimes six) for just five dollars. There are Thai, Chamorro, Japanese, Chinese and Korean restaurants all offering a bewildering array of delicious looking dishes. Why cook when you have all these choices for such a great price? There are also several booths that sell smoothies. I discovered that a mango peach smoothie with coconut milk makes a great dessert!

In addition to food, the market features inexpensive locally made jewelry, artwork and knick-knacks and at 6 o’clock, the entertainment begins. Last week we stayed to watch the traditional dancers but this week we left the market after eating dinner and went for massages; 20 minute foot massages followed by 40 minutes of full body bliss. Ah, life is good!

Mission or vacation?

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Looking at what I’ve blogged about so far and the pictures that I’ve posted on Facebook, one could easily assume that we’re here on vacation. There have certainly been many vacation like moments during our first week as we’ve been easing gradually into our real reason for being here on the island of Saipan; missions.

We’re here to fill in for Dave and Helen Ann Bucher while they return to the mainland to spend their summer vacation visiting family and friends but they aren’t actually leaving us on our own until July 4th. In addition to pastoring Living Hope Church of the Nazarene, Dave and Helen Ann are both school teachers. We haven’t actually met Dave yet as he’s been in Nebraska this past week with a school group and will be back this evening. In his absence, we’ve been hanging out with Helen Ann and learning the ropes.

So, other than sightseeing, swimming and hiking, what else have we been doing? What does summer ministry coverage actually look like?

Taking care of the house and the property…

The house, which also doubles as the church, is located on a large property in the middle of the jungle where everything grows at an amazing rate. Richard has been busy mowing and mowing and mowing some more! The grass at the bottom of the drive, which hasn’t been cut since before Dave and Helen Ann moved in in February, is taller than me! I don’t know if Richard will try to tackle that but, in addition to keeping the field in front of the house groomed, he’s been working on reclaiming areas around the edge of the property where the grass was taking over. At the moment, he’s up on the roof with a power washer cleaning off algae, something else that grows rapidly in hot, humid places. I discovered how slippery it is when I took a rather ungraceful fall on the cement the other day. Fortunately, I wasn’t hurt and he has since cleaned that off too.

There isn’t much housework for me to do because the Filipino housekeeper comes once a week. What a luxury! I could easily do the work myself but that would rob her of much needed income so I won’t.

Taking care of the pets…

My day begins with a walk to the end of the driveway with Fiona, the resident dog. It’s about a quarter mile round trip down the very steep hill and back up again. I’d happily walk further with her but the jungle grows up to the edge of the road we’re on and there’s enough traffic that walking on the pavement wouldn’t be safe so we’re confined to the property. I walk her again in the evening.  In addition to making sure Fiona has food and water, I put out food for the little cat that creeps out of the undergrowth to eat. We eat most of our meals on the patio and when the cat stole Helen Ann’s omelet at breakfast one morning, we learned not to leave food unguarded! At the end of the patio there’s an aviary that houses 15 to 20 colourful parakeets. Though I feed and water them each day, I haven’t been able to get an accurate count as they’re forever flitting about or hiding in their nesting boxes.

Loving the people… 

Of course, our main purpose for being here isn’t housesitting or pet sitting. Dave and Helen Ann could easily hire locals to take care of those tasks. We’re primarily here to provide ministry coverage while they’re away. When we first read the assignment description, we were delighted to see that our #1 task would be loving the people! That we knew we could do!

When Dave and Helen Ann leave, we’ll be in charge on Sunday mornings. Richard will teach the adult Sunday School class and bring the morning message. I’ll teach the teen class and assist him with the service. There are also two children’s classes taught by locals, Amor and Malou.

Children are a very big part of the Living Hope ministry. The church has a large van that picks them up for Sunday School as well as mid-week Kids Club. Mr. Richard, as the children call him, has already learned the route and knows most of the children by name. We’ve both been busy the past couple of afternoons helping with a special pre-teen program and on Friday and Saturday, we’ll be involved in a similar program for the teens. Later in the summer, we’ll be doing a week long Vacation Bible School.

Part of all the children’s activities is providing a snack. Many of these children come from very poor homes where they may not get a lot to eat. During the school year, they’re fed breakfast and lunch at school so the Kids Club snack is just that, a snack, but during the summer we want to make sure that we feed them something more substantial. One of my tasks for the pre-teen program was preparing a meal for them. On Monday, we had tacos, rice and beans. Yesterday, we served corn dogs, macaroni and cheese, salad and then finished the day with root beer floats.

            

How could we not love them?

Hike to Dry Grotto

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We hiked to Dry Grotto this morning, a formation somewhat similar to the better known Grotto that we swam in on Sunday. It was an easy hike through the jungle and then along a cliff edge overlooking the ocean. We were able to look across the water to Tinian, the island that the  Enola Gay took off from carrying the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

   

Soon we reached the Grotto and climbed down inside. Surrounded by fascinating coral and rock formations, we stood inside in an open window looking out over the ocean.

   

   

The island of Saipan is dotted with World War II relics. On our way back out of the cave, we noticed a small pile of rusty unexploded hand grenades. Definitely a look but don’t touch experience!

Swimming in the Grotto

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We definitely crossed one off our Saipan bucket list today. We went swimming in the Grotto! I’m almost at a loss for words when it comes to describing how fabulous it was.

The Grotto is an amazing natural formation on the northern end of the island. Thousands of years ago it was an underwater cave but at some point part of the roof caved in and it became accessible from above. More than 100 stone steps lead down to the water’s edge. There you wait for a break in the waves before stepping across a narrow opening and climbing up onto a huge flat-topped  boulder. Many swimmers like to jump or dive into the water from there but I chose the easy climb down the side of the rock.

The water is a brilliant blue, very deep and crystal clear. The Grotto is one of the island’s prime scuba diving spots and at times we could see divers deep below us! We could also see light entering the pool in three spots where tunnels extend out to the open ocean. One of these forms a deep narrow cave at the back of the pool. We swam to the very back of it.

The water temperature was perfect; cool enough to be refreshing but warm enough that we could stay in for as long as we wanted without becoming chilled. Being ocean water, of course, it’s salty and we floated easily. It truly was a fantastic experience and one we’ll definitely want to repeat while we’re here.

   

The last shall be first…

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“The last shall be first, and the first last.”  Matthew 20:16

That’s certainly how it was when we went through immigration and customs at the Saipan airport shortly after midnight last night.

Almost 30 hours into the very long day that took us from Edmonton to Seattle to Tokyo to Saipan, Richard and I both fell asleep on the airplane. While we were snoozing, the stewardess handed out the various forms that would be needed upon arrival. Assuming that we were American citizens, she left only one form for us to fill out when we actually needed three. We awoke as the airplane began it’s descent into Saipan and I suddenly realized that we had not done the necessary paperwork yet! Yikes! The steward on board responded to our call but he was hurried and unsure of which documents we needed. We ended up with the correct ones but they were in Japanese rather than English which wasn’t of much help to us! By this time, I was feeling a little panicked and sent a silent prayer upward asking the Lord to smooth our path. His answer was nothing short of miraculous.

As we deplaned, we exchanged the Japanese forms for English ones but that meant that we had to stop to fill them out after we entered the airport putting us at the very back of the long line of people waiting to go through immigration. In our very tired state, we were also unsure if we had filled them out correctly and were definitely feeling a bit intimidated by the whole situation. It was at that point that one of the immigration officials noticed the family with a small baby just ahead of us in line. He took them aside so that they could be processed more quickly and be on their way. As he did so, he asked where we were from and when we told him Canada, he turned the family over to another official and dealt with us himself. He was friendly and courteous and we were through in no time leaving everyone else still standing in line!

As soon as we knew that we were coming to Saipan, I began to research visa requirements. As far as I was able to determine, we would likely be issued a 30 day visa on entry and then, because we’re actually staying longer than that, we would have to have it renewed for another 30 days. We had been advised, however, that we should try asking for a 60 day visa at the airport. I thought it was worth a try. Imagine my surprise when the agent told us that, as Canadians, we are actually eligible for a 6 month visa! Though we don’t plan to do so, our passports now say that we can stay until December!

Passing through customs was just as quick and easy. Within minutes, we were out the door of the terminal where we were met by Helen Ann, her daughter and her son-in-law who welcomed us with beautiful floral leis that smell absolutely heavenly. Our Saipan adventure had begun!

Beautiful feet

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“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”   Romans 10:15

This is the verse our pastor used this morning as he commissioned us to carry the gospel to the people of Saipan. He then proceeded to tell us that we have beautiful feet and I know he wasn’t referring to the fact that I was wearing my bright red shoes!

Over the past few days, we’ve been asked many times “Are you excited?” Of course, we are! Once again we’re stepping way outside our comfort zone but we’re doing it with peace and confidence knowing that this is God’s direction for us and that we go with the prayers of many behind us. As our pastor pointed out, each one who gathered around and prayed for us this morning and many others who weren’t able to be present are part of the mission that we’re going on. Ours may be the feet that go but theirs are the hands that hold us up.

We’ll be taking these beautiful feet to bed soon. We’re tucked into our hotel room across the highway from the airport and have a wake up call scheduled for 3:40 a.m. The airport shuttle will pick us up 45 minutes later and some 28 hours after that, our feet will step onto the island of Saipan.

Today was the day!

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Before our first grandchild was born, we decided that I would be called Gram to distinguish me from his other grandmother who was already Grandma to his three cousins. I was delighted when, at 15 months old, Drew first called me Am. As time went by, however, and his speech didn’t improve, we learned that this was actually a symptom of a severe phonological disorder. He dropped the initial sounds from almost every word making his speech virtually unintelligible.

As Drew began speech therapy and he and Melaina worked diligently at home, we began to see a marked improvement in his speech. I was confident that the day would come when he would finally call me Gram and today was that day! My heart nearly burst with joy! The r isn’t quite clear yet but it’s there and the G is as clear as a bell.

Each time we’ve seen Drew over the past few months, we’ve noticed progress. Not only is his pronunciation so much clearer now but he’s also speaking in simple sentences and using lots of descriptive words… “big white garbage truck” “Drew’s sandals on”  “play train games” and “baby ducks swimming” are a few of the phrases that we heard today. Life must be much less frustrating for him now that he’s able to express his feelings, ask for the things he wants and tell Mommy when something hurts. It’s definitely a delight for us to be able to carry on a conversation with him!