A Wildflower Morning

 Sabbath evening, our last Sabbath on Guam, just before sunset, we went to Nimitz Beach to watch the sun set.   Rob had come home feeling sick the day before.  A high fever caused him to miss church but by evening he was feeling fine again.  We were glad to be together out in the lovely evening  light, so we set up a family photo, to help us remember out time on Guam.  Araya has had concerning health struggles the whole time we have been here, but God is keeping her alive, and we know He is with us, and has a plan, a hope for her of something very good.     Araya took along the mop bucket to be her tri-pod, and experimented with time lapse photography.  (Right now she is composing music to go with it.  Watch her blog for an update.) William set up the underwater camera on his little gorilla pod, tri-pod, right out there, just above the surface of the water, and tried to get some interesting video angles.  Unfortuna...

In Haganta Heights, near the Mission, there is a small park that features some old Japanese caves of WWII era.  Some kind of important Japanese label was stamped above the door, and a Fallout Shelter in English added later.  This entrance area is very sturdy, and does not show it's age of 70 years.   We  went inside.  You walk around a corner to a rectangular room where light was necessary to see.  You walk around another corner, and you are back outside.  We couldn't tell if there were further passages that had been blocked off.    Also at the park was a collection of old latte stones.  Yap has stone money.  Pohnpei has the stone ruins of Nan Madol.  Guam, Siapan, Tinian, and Rota have latte stones.  What were they used for?  They are so ancient, that when the Spanish first came to Guam in the 1600's, the people could not remember what the latte stones were used for.  The sign s...

After campmeeting William went off to spend the afternoon with friends.  And Rob surprised Araya and I by taking us into town for a meal.   A friend had told us that Ruby Tuesday's had the best Salad bars, and we found out that it is true.   It was a real treat in a place where salad isn't very common because lettuce doesn't grow here very well.

One of long ago friends from college and working at summer camp is Tina Wells Robinson.  She and her husband, Dr. Michael Robinson, have been raising their kids on Guam for 14 years.  He is a doctor at at the SDA clinic here.  And in his spare time he cares for his backyard garden, including this great papaya orchard.  I  think they have the nicest papayas on Guam because he dug the planting holes deep and filled them with compost.  Dr. Robinson was working the afternoon we stopped by, but Tina enlisted Rob's help, and a long pruning saw to get a couple ripe papayas down for us to take home.   The neat thing is that Tina has a nice daughter, and now our daughters are friends too.   All these kids on the island are feeling bad because they think that they might not ever see each other again, but I would like them to take a lesson from the friendship of Tina and I.  After all these years we have seen each other ag...

The second weekend of March we had the privilage of attending campmeeting, Guam style.  We met in the academy's open sided gym.  We were informed that a cool breeze always blows in from the left, so that is where we sat.  The academy hand bell group made some beautiful music. Friends that some of you might know sat around the room. Elder Delbert Baker, a Vice-president of the General Conference was the guest speaker, all the way from Maryland.  He is an excellent speaker and gave inspiring messages about the the life of Joseph and the will of God.  Dr. Edwin Supit led a singing group.  Charles Reel gave talks about finances.  Gorden Garner and AWR guys took care of the PA.  Elder Louis Torres, president of the mission, still runs Mission College on island, far away from where Oregon, where it first started.  Ordot Church kids special music.  Enjoying the meetings, and friendship. ...