Finally from the silence . . . a word!

Well, at last a word from us! Sorry to have been "silent" for so long - perhaps mute testimony to the level of work that's been going on here since February when I logged our last post. So once again, I find myself prepared to "catch up" any who might log on to see what we have been doing! This first photo from early March is Tim and our stove. Nothing being "easy" over here, we thought we had the right part to fix our oven (out since late November) and it was the wrong part! Now the entire stove has been incapacitated, awaiting arrival of the right part . . . which is back ordered - until MAY! Okay - so I have a microwave, electric skilled, barbecue and a rice cooker! We're not exactly roughing it! But pray our part comes in!

In March, we also went to the University of Guam where our students help with UOG ministry outreach to college students. Our church's worship team came, brought food for the starving students, and led singing. This was a great evening of fun, food, fellowship, worship, and we were blessed by a great message too, presented by Austin Evers, the missionary who leads the UOG ministry.



UOG ministry also held a retreat over Easter break where many of our students were involved in taking time apart with God as well as serving doing ministry and outreach into nearby communities on Guam. The next photo shows Sophie Jonie, and Esme sharing in chapel recently about how God worked in their lives through this retreat experience. We are blessed to be able to see students grow and change (and testify to that growth and change) as God pours more of Himself into them. Pray for our students to continue to be drawn closer and closer to God and to desire to do His will.


Just before Easter break, we celebrated PIU days. The school, staff and students, were divided into three teams where we play games and each group takes a turn leading devotions. We all had team t-shirts too! Tim and I enjoyed watching the games (too much running for us!) and participating in chapel. The chapel times were amazing! They were student led, with students sharing, doing the devotional lesson and choosing and leading the music as well. We were very impressed with how well the students took charge of things this year! (Here we are in our team t-shirts at the first night of chapel.)

During spring break, we had the opportunity to get a few projects done at the house. We thought painting the office would be an easy, maybe two day task at best . . . we were wrong! First of all, though we picked a vivid color, we found out the room would need two coats of the "Home Depot Orange" we selected for the walls. (The closet and ceiling were to stay white.) Painting the walls went very well, as you can see here!





As I (Melody) began to treat the ceiling with primer, the paint began to peel away. And upon closer inspection, we noted that the plastered surface was pulling away from the solid concrete roof! What a mess! What should we do? Well, I started scraping while Tim headed out to get patching plaster. Hmmmm - okay - so maybe it'll be a THREE day project! So Tim mixed the plaster and got to work - ah! PROGRESS! That looks better - I wonder how it will look after painting? After considering this question, we trekked back to Home Depot the next morning in search for a "heavy-textured" paint that might hide the patching, which was rather noticeable. Perhaps FOUR days?


However, this plan was destined to backfire! As Tim carefully followed the directions on the can, it didn't take too long that afternoon to discover that this was NOT going to work! (We later learned that this sort of finish is really tough to apply in humid environments - so why would they sell it on GUAM?) Yeah - you can see how well it worked here to the left! Can you say FIVE days on this room? Hmmmm - it's kinda looking that way!

Well, to shorten things a bit, we just painted the ceiling white without texturing it - and you know what? It really doesn't look bad at all! Tim loves his orange office; he says it's "very cheerful!"


Lest you think that is all we got done over break, you should know Tim got a lovely new light installed in our master bathroom (one that we can see through so the light is brighter) AND a new service sink in our laundry room to replace the other one that had a corner broken off of it. (It was snagging my clothes whenever I moved between it and the washer to do laundry.) We also got the laundry room painted the same soft green that's in our kitchen AND I painted the small cabinet in our master bath and put new knobs on it. All in all, it was a productive week and all of this work really, truly refreshed us! It was great to do something that was not just sitting (Melody) and for Tim, it was great to get a handle on fixing some things that he's not had time to fix.

To finish up our week off campus, we took some of our favorite bbq to the beach at Tumon Bay and ate at the edge of the Philippine Sea. After stowing our chairs and leftovers in the car, we took a nice, long walk up the beach and back, snapping pictures of the setting sun as we walked.

"Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind,
therefore I have hope. The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness. 'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul,
'Therefore I have hope in Him.'
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
to the person who seeks Him.
It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the LORD."
Lamentations 3:19-25