February 4. No rain last night, but rained off and on this afternoon. Was cloudy most of the day.
Opo and Yerontse came this morning.
After Kelly was done at haus sik this morning, he came to get Daddy. Daddy spent the rest of the morning at the airstrip. They got all the string lines put up and leveled so they know where to put stones for the foundation posts. Then Kelly left to go get posts.
I kept busy with packing and cleaning. Also made a “spinach” casserole for lunch with the leftover greens and uxai. Added some egg, cheese, cracker crumbs, and spices and then baked it. We finished up the leftover spaghetti. I had finished eating just when Daddy got back.
After nap, I cut up the watermelon we had gotten a few days ago. After snack, I cut Daddy’s hair, and then packed several more boxes of books. Fixed supper, ate, did dishes, worked a little on the photo album.
“For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Ecclesiastes 7:20
February 5. .1” rain last night. Light rain this afternoon. Turned quite chilly this evening, so Daddy got a fire going. It has been going for several hours.
A pretty busy day. After breakfast, Bible reading this morning, and possibly the last walk and prayer time around the school room, I got all the ingredients prepared for the weekend soup. Then put it on to cook, while I did some packing. By 11:00, I was tired, and worked a while at the computer. Started another doctrinal booklet on Studying the Bible. Worked on it more this afternoon and evening.
David came and worked several hours putting translation into the computer file.
Daddy finished cleaning everything out of the schoolroom and got all the windows taken out today.
This afternoon, after nap and prayer time, I cut up a popo for snack. Our snack got interrupted when Gibson, Stephanas, and Mailin came. I gave Mailin a couple teacher’s books to use for correcting the work the children have done or will do in the workbooks they took home. Need to find the flash cards and a few other things.
Then Javin came, but he talked to Gibson a bit, so we managed to get our snack in between. He is doing somewhat better and thought he could probably start and turn off the generator tonight. So he did.
About 4:30, I started making cookies, but that was interrupted when Tipora came with her new baby. So I got to see the baby and gave her a few little things for the baby. Apekio had given her a blanket.
When she left, I finished mixing up the cookies. Then fixed supper. After supper, I got the cookies on the cookie sheets and into the oven, and made the granola. Then did dishes.
Wan came and talked to Daddy a while. Daddy shared the verses with Wan that he has been sharing with others.
“11Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. 12Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him: 13But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.” Ecclesiastes 8:11-13
February 6. .1” rain last night, which meant about five bucketsful in the drum. We thank the Lord for the water He continues to supply for us. It was quite cold this morning, but turned out to be a beautiful morning.
David came up to let us know that he had made a bench in his house for people to sit on for lotu so we could meet inside. His boys followed him up here, and they went ahead and took our chairs down. A little after 10:00, we went down. There were a few people already there. David hadn’t even told Silvia that we would be meeting at their house. So she was surprised when she came home from the garden yesterday to find that he was building a bench. A couple folks she had seen along the way had asked her about the meeting, but she told them she didn’t know.
We went inside and started singing. David led the singing. The bench he made was rather high so only he and one other person sat on it. There were 22 people there (I think), including Daddy and I — David and Silvia, their three sons, Silvia’s younger brother and her sister Saina, David’s mother, Maro’s mother, Neomi’s mother, Lilian, Tania, Namera, Moqa and a son and the baby, Philip and his daughter and Rose’s brother, Erovi. All the songs were tokples songs. Since many of the people who came did not know why we were meeting there, Daddy explained once again from the Scriptures what God had shown us in regards to our relationship with Owena Baptist Church. After that, he preached on Matthew 5:43-48, encouraging them to have a Christ-like attitude toward those who may persecute us and do us wrong. After the preaching, we talked about future meetings. It was decided that we will continue to meet at David’s house until we have moved into the house on the mountain. We will also meet there Wednesday evenings.
This afternoon, we did a little more packing. Daddy got the schoolroom cleaned up more and ready to be torn down tomorrow. After packing a few boxes, I worked on a doctrinal booklet until supper time. Javin came around supper time to find out when to start and turn off the generator tonight.
“Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.” Ecclesiastes 9:18
“Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.” Ecclesiastes 10:3
“12The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. 13The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness. 14A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?” Ecclesiastes 10:12-14
“By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.” Ecclesiastes 10:18
February 7. No rain last night. Water supply is getting low.
First thing this morning, we heard a lot of hollering, and saw people running down the hill beyond us and shouting. More and more people gathered as the morning wore on. They were clearing ground and putting up the frame for a schoolhouse — community school.
Today, I tried doing some packing and Daddy has been doing some tearing down in Connie’s room. But there have been many interruptions. Toni came while Daddy was sawing up pieces of wood out in the schoolroom.
When we woke up from nap, we heard the crackling of fire. The neighbors were burning off an area of land just down the hill a bit. By the time we finished prayer time, the fire was spreading rapidly. We were afraid it was going to reach David’s house and those around him, but I guess people were there who helped contain it. Soon it was coming up closer this way, and the smoke was filling the house. We started getting some things together to take outside in case the fire got too close. Then we went outside for a while, because there was too much smoke. We were thankful the fire stopped at the top of the hill before it got to our fence.
After a while, Daddy heard the phone ring. It was Gavin Jones. He called to say that our water tank was sold to a man named Jim Farr. Praise the Lord!
With all that was going on, I forgot about washing my hair. Finally remembered about 4:00 so put some water on to heat for washing it. The air turned cloudy and cool this afternoon so it is not drying very quickly.
“13Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13,14