August 22. It was 10:30 last night before Daddy turned off the generator and later than that before we got to bed. It took him longer to finish teaching the last Bible school lesson than he thought it would. Then the students went out to get the food they had prepared for the Bible school closing. It was probably another hour before they had brought all the food in and also some of their family members to enjoy it with them. Phinehas brought in three platefuls of little fish -- 97 of them. He and Dallas and Sosthenes had gone down to the river Thursday night to catch fish. They fished all night instead of sleeping and then were back here for school in the morning. Besides the fish, there was a huge dish of greens with Maggi noodles, four or five kettles of rice, a cuscus (similar to possum) in a dish of greens, some pig meat in a dish of greens, and a huge kettle of kaukau (sweet potato). You should see them eat! They don’t just eat platefuls or bowlfuls of food, they eat basins full and kettles full.
We were looking forward to a good night’s rest last night after getting rid of that rat the night before. At 4:30 a.m., however, we started hearing banging and clanging. Another rat! Daddy got up and put out the glue trap, but this one didn’t go for it so he’ll have to put some poison out tonight. Neither of us ever did get back to sleep. I might have if I hadn’t gotten all congested, but it was hard to rest when I couldn’t breathe well. Finally got up about 5:30 so it was a short night’s sleep.
After we got the clothes hung out, I had my breakfast and quiet time. Then I fell asleep in the recliner before lotu started.
After lotu, I did some sorting and throwing away in the guest room for about an hour. Then we decided to go for a walk because it was already starting to get hot out. When we got back from our walk, Mata was here with some bananas. It has been quite a while since we’ve had any bananas so we were very thankful for them. Then I had an Emergen-C drink and sat down to get journal notes from this past week ready for Christy and Connie.
By the time I finished that it was lunch time. I was going to warm up yesterday’s dinner, but I forgot that I needed to cook a veggie so we just had sandwiches. Cooked a veggie for supper tonight and had the leftovers for our supper.
Around noon today, the winds started getting very strong, and wild gusts were picking up dust and rubbish and carrying it across the hillsides. A loose end of a piece of roofing iron was picked up by the wind and put back down with a loud bang. At first, we thought a piece had blown off the roof. During our nap, the winds settled down, dark clouds came up, and a few drops of rain fell from the sky. It wasn’t long, however, before the dark clouds were gone, the sun was shining again, and the winds were blowing, but not quite as violently as before.
I was very happy for a nap. Afterward I washed my hair and then did some more sorting and getting rid of stuff. Then I was ready to sit down so wrote an e-mail to C&C and then transferred the pictures from last night into the Kodak file and got those all fixed up.
“33O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 34For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 35Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 36For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” Romans 11:33-36
August 23. The Lord was gracious and gave us rain today. It didn’t rain hard, but it rained steadily a good part of the morning. The sun came out for a short time this afternoon, but otherwise it has been cloudy.
After breakfast and quiet time this morning, I put all the students’ books in the cupboards (the ones we had graded last night) and locked the cupboards. Then I sent the e-mail to C&C that I forgot to send last night, and Daddy turned on the generator. While the generator was on, I printed out the game plan for fun day and then worked on the Discipleship lessons until lotu time.
This afternoon, David preached on “Why Do We Come to Church?” He used notes he had gotten in Bible school a few years ago and did a good job.
Made pumpkin-onion soup for supper. Practiced keyboard while supper was cooking. After I did dishes, Daddy and I worked on a shopping list. Then I printed that out, plus a song book for Matusa. Also got a certificate planned up for the Bible school students.
“11Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; 12Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer….” Romans 12:11,12