World Famous in Bougainville

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

This morning started out with a nice compliment.  Joe told us before devotions that he had heard from the wife of the President of the Autonomous Bougainville Region that her husband had heard that they had a very good preacher at Joe’s church on Sunday.  The President had heard of the topic of trusting in God instead of our own strength and wanted to come hear it this Sunday.  It won’t be happening because we are on our way back to New Zealand that day, unless, of course, the President pulls strings and won’t let us off the island.  (Just kidding).  

The new president is a strong Christian and has just taken office.  Still, to be noticed by someone of that stature is quite an honor.  Apparently, someone from the church here works in the parliament house and was talking about the principle of the message on Monday.  While this is a great honor, at the same time, I couldn’t help but think, “Who am I that anyone would notice me or what I have to say.  Only because the Lord has blessed me with the possibility of doing the things I get to do.  How the Lord has led!

The class went very well today.  The topic today was delivery of the message.  I felt like the teaching was right on target with what I needed to tell the guys and they were very engaged.  Jairus came in late because he has a bad tooth that is causing him a lot of pain.  Raymond also had a migraine today.  Today is also Lesly’s 29th birthday, so he was a bit distracted, but it still went well.  

We have been invited to Lesly’s birthday party.  They have killed a chicken and Jonathan has pulled enough ingredients to make a couple small cakes - banana cake of course.  We are bringing along the fresh fish and rice we were planning for dinner.  So it should be an interesting experience.  Details tomorrow.