Almost Happy New Year's Day

So it is nearly "Happy New Year'" time! Tim and I are trying to enjoy the week off, but he's managed to get a doozy of a cold/flu. Needless to say he is resting a lot - and I am relaxing too! Here are a few things we've been up to lately!


To the right is our lovely Christmas tree, waiting for Christmas morning with special gifts beneath it from our children, grandchildren, and from each other!







On Christmas Eve we celebrated "Christmas at the Cave" and then attended a worship and communion service afterward at church. I had the blessing of getting to play my 12 string to accompany the Christmas Carols sung at the 2 services at the limestone caves in Guam's capital, Hagatna. This "nativity" service sets the tone for remembering that first Christmas and what it was like.


The limestone caves on Guam are thought to be very similar to the ones near Bethlehem where Jesus was born. To the right, Scott (visiting student from Biola University in California this last fall at PIU) poses with Mandi, Josh, and baby William who played the parts of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. Behind them are a caribao (water buffalo) and some chickens as well as bales of hay, all of which made for a very realistic setting.



Christmas morning we slept in! :-) We got up at our leisure and enjoyed opening our surprises and having coffee together while a ham baked in the oven.










We were thankful for the love and thoughtfulness in the gifts from our family!


After we opened our gifts, we loaded up a plate of "goodies" to share, packed up the ham that baked all morning, along with some veggies for steaming, and joined a few other missionaries for Christmas dinner at Bill and Christel Wood's house. A great surprise awaited us! Our dear friend, Ethel, who had to return to the Philippines two years ago, has returned to Guam and was there for dinner too! It was SO good to see her again and visit. To the right are, Mo (Tim's assistant at PIU on the maintenance team), me, and Ethel.

Below, Tim and Bill relax after a wonderful dinner and enjoy chatting.








The next day, Sunday, after church, several of us from our church went on a dolphin-watching and snorkeling trip out of Cabras Harbor.







Half of the fun of this trip is visiting with people on the long ride south to the area where the dolphins are. There is never a guarantee that you will actually get to see dolphins, but we were blessed by getting to see a lively little pod of dolphins that merrily chased another boat as it circled ours. Kate, a friend from church who is also a marine biologist, told us that the dolphins were actually "surfing" in the wake of the boat! The best shots I could get are: a photo of the dolphins as they swam near the surface, and below -this close up of a zoomed shot gives a bit of a feel of their joy as they "surfed" behind the other dolphin watching boat. Their leaping in the air was such a delight to witness, but a difficulty to catch on film!





After the dolphin watching, we returned to the harbor and enjoyed 40 minutes of snorkeling to cool off before we called it a day. (Sadly, Tim missed the trip due to his cold!) :-(








So what have I (Melody) been doing since Sunday? Well, since the rain and the sun here cause things to grow in a BIG way, I have begun the annual task of cleaning up the boundaries of our property; in other words, hacking and taming the encroaching jungle! Three hours on two days (it's too hot to do too much on one day) of cutting and dragging limbs have paid off. The trees no longer threaten to knock our power wires down, and in about 3 weeks or so, the ensuing brush pile will perhaps be dry enough to burn!

The brush pile below that I am so proud of is bigger than it looks in this photo - it's about 30 feet wide, 25 feet deep and over 6 feet high. I hope we don't torch the jungle when we light this one off!!!








So this is our New Year's entry, though we are yet a few days from the New Year. We are thankful for all this past year has brought us and taught us, and most of all, we are thankful for God's goodness to us daily though family, friends, supporters, fellow missionaries, and the students of PIU! We look forward to the coming year knowing that He has more joy and labor in store for us - in THAT order, or simultaneously! We pray that God would bless you and grant you joy in your labor, patience in any trials, comfort in sorrow, and hope in the face of any difficult circumstances you face. We maintain our stand on the ministry verse God gave us several years ago: "For from Him and to Him and through Him are all things; to Him be the glory forever and ever. AMEN!" (Romans 11:36)