October 8. We were thankful for Bonita’s and Peninnah’s help today. They both stayed all day (except during our nap time) and took care of people coming and going. We had to be out there now and then to talk to people or answer questions, but we were able to get a bit more done in the house even though it doesn’t look like it. All the office shelves above the desk are now cleaned off, plus we started going through the file cabinet and papers that are still on the bookshelf. Threw a lot more papers away so will probably have another big burning in a couple days.
John and Margaret came this afternoon and got all the books and also the bunk bed. They are both going to town tomorrow. Tomas will also be leaving tomorrow to be with Philemon. One of the college staff had called for him to come.
“And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.” Acts 18:8
October 9. No more rain for several days now.
A lot of people around today so Peninnah and Bonita were quite busy this morning. Some of the men started early this morning cutting grass on the airstrip, or I should say, cutting down the tall weeds - not much grass growing. Later in the morning, there was quite a number of men working together, and they finished about 2/3 of the work. The community had met together yesterday, and one thing they decided was to cut the airstrip today. David said the weeds are very tough and hard to cut, and his hands were hurting.
Many other people were around because SIL was scheduled to come in today with a load of cargo for Tomas and somebody else. It was after noon when the plane finally came, and he had a hard time when he landed because of the winds. Tomas went out with a load of coffee. The plane was supposed to come back for John and Margaret and more coffee, but the winds were much too strong so they are going to try to come back on Monday.
The first thing I did after breakfast and quiet time was make some chocolate chip cookie bars for Daddy. I wanted to do that before the day got too busy. Next I cleaned out all the bilums, tote bags, and such like that were in the storage closet. Most of them had rags in them so I just set the big rags in a pile on a shelf and put the smaller rags in a plastic bag. Then I put the bilums out on the sale table.
Finished cleaning out the top drawer of the file cabinet (there wasn’t much left to do) and then Daddy brought out the three boxes (one by one) of papers they were filed away in the storage closet. We spent most of the day going through those and threw tons more papers away. There are now two large garbage bags full of papers waiting to be burned. Papers that were blank on the back were put into the scrap paper box; and this afternoon, Daddy sorted those into piles of same size papers. I divided them into small stacks and put each bundle into a clear plastic bag for give-aways on the sale table.
After supper, I also started cleaning out the bottom drawer of the file cabinet, and cleaned out a couple boxes that were under the desk. Those two boxes didn’t take long to clean out as they just had spiral notebooks (small and large), note pads, and filler paper, all of which were put out for sale.
As I was finishing up that job, Dallas and the four girls came to talk to us. At first we couldn’t figure out what they wanted. As we continued to question them, they said all they wanted was for us to give them our blessing like we gave to the church and to remember to pray for them.
“9Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: 10For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.” Acts 18:9,10
October 10. Just a little rain during the early morning hours.
Mike continued teaching this morning on the role of husband and wife, but emphasized the importance of always doing the will of the Father, just as Christ did.
I got busy right away with the sorting, cleaning, packing business. Rolled the rest of the suitcases into the guest room and got them up onto the bed with the others so they are all together where we can easily reach them and more easily pack them evenly. Today I concentrated on the kitchen area. Rearranged and cleaned the tall cupboard to make the best use of space. Moved a lot of things off the cupboard above the sink and put them into the tall cupboard. Some things went onto the sale table. As soon as I can get the rest of the stuff off from there, we can take that cupboard down and give it to Elijah and Sera. Cleaned out much of the lower cupboard space, got rid of some things, and moved the pots and pans off the rolling cart and into that cupboard so we can sell the rolling cart.
This afternoon, I also washed my hair and made tortillas.
For sit-down time, I went through a few more files in the bottom drawer of the file cabinet. Just a few files left to go.
“And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.” Acts 19:10