Wednesday morning I was back to tutoring, but I didn't make it out for walking. I am definitely on this time zone now and popping out of bed won't be quite as easy as it has been for the last two weeks.
At lunch time I was glad to relax for a while. Tutoring for four hours in a row takes more effort than you think it would.
In the afternoon I went over to Amy's to get her to massage my arm and shoulder. They have been bugging me since the end of August when we went backpacking. I don't know if it was because of sleeping on the ground, but that is when it started bothering me. I kept thinking it would get better. So far in life, most of my injuries have done just that. But this one is different. Amy recently had a similar problem in the same place in her shoulder, but her shoulder froze and she couldn't straighten it. She had great sympathy, and since she is a massage therapist, she knows just what to do, and gift me with a free massage. It is too early to tell if the massage helped, but I sure hope it is better soon.
Amy asked if I would help with Kid's club that evening at the Agat church. It is part of their church outreach to the community kids, many who are quite poor and from very large families. They needed someone else to bring food tonight. Amy was taking vegetable soup and rice. So I went over to Payless Grocery Store, just out of Agat and got some apples on clearance, and some spaghetti. The jared sauce was too expensive so I got large cans of tomato sauce and then went home and got cooking. It is easy to make spaghetti sauce from tomato sauce, just add some oil, onion powder, garlic powder, and herbs. I happened to have basil. I personally don't like my sauce and noodles mixed, but that seemed the best plan for all the kids that needed served. They were expecting around 40 kids.
Pathfinders happens at the same time, in the church. They have activities in other rooms, and even in the parking lot. To be in Pathfinders you have to be at least age 10, and have to have someone sign you up at the beginning of the year, and you have to commit to coming regularly. The regular attendance is difficult for some kids.
Most of the kids in Kid's Club are less than age 10. They start the evening in the Fellowship Hall for supper. Imagine 40 energetic kids in an echoey cinder block and tile room. It can get pretty loud. But most of them seemed to appreciate the food. I saw only a few plates go back with as much food on them as they started with. Not sure if the kid had already eaten, or didn't like anything on the plate, or they were too distracted to think about eating. Someone stood at the door and only let them go to the bathroom one at a time, so they didn't go out and start bothering the Pathfinders.
After supper they were lined up at the door and taken to the sanctuary for singing. They do like to sing, but even then there were kids who were not focused. The Bible story was about Joseph. There were some verses to read, a puzzle to put together in small groups with a memory verse on it. And then there was a short video about the life of Joseph and how God helped him. Prayer time included prayer requests and a clear explanation about position for prayer and why we fold our hands and close our eyes. It appears that church behavior is completely new to many of those kids. But there were enough who had prayer requests to make a good prayer. The prayer lasted a whole 15 - 20 seconds.
My shoulder was feeling old and tired by this point in the day, so I went home a little before they let out for the evening. I relaxed a while, worked on my blog, and then fell into bed. I was very tired and decided to turn off my earliest alarm so I could sleep longer if needed.
Thursday morning I was glad I could sleep longer. I didn't have any shoulder pain during the night, a first for quite a while. I missed walking, but hopefully this won't be a pattern. I tutored as usual after breakfast.
I had an appointment to meet Marseni, a 59 year old Chuukese woman, who wants to have her driver's license so she can drive around to visit people and minister to them. She hasn't had a license before and needs a licensed driver to take her out for driving practice. I was glad to volunteer to help her with that. I thought I was going to meet her at noon at the church, but the church was dark and locked. I wasn't getting through to Mareni at the number I had for her. So I called the woman who had originally asked me. She called Marseni's daughter and found out they were still in the city. We would meet at a gas station halfway between us. I got there and still waited for a long time. I had forgotten about island time. Thankfully Guam has at least a couple nice, Christian, FM radio stations and I enjoy them both. We got driving around 1:00. I had been told that Marseni had taken the driving test recently and had not passed. It was clear why she had not passed. I just think she has not had enough driving time to make good judgement calls. She was nervous and uncertain on which way to turn her steering wheel when backing up. We drove for over an hour and just before we were done, she had problems making a left turn and hesitated on the larger road when she was in the turning lane so long that the person behind her made a crazy decision and turned left behind her crossing diagonally to the road they were turning onto. Poor Marseni was now befuddled and confused and turned into oncoming traffic, and then rather than moving right into the lane she wanted to drive on moved left onto the shoulder and almost into a ditch. Thankfully nothing bad happened. But at that point we had a discussion about driving and we both agreed that she was not ready yet to take the driver's test. I'll try driving with her again this next week. Pray that we all survive and that she can reach her goal of having the freedom to drive around and visit the elderly and sick in the area. I believe God has given her a special gift here and that she is making a difference even now when she has someone to take her visiting.
At lunch time I was glad to relax for a while. Tutoring for four hours in a row takes more effort than you think it would.
In the afternoon I went over to Amy's to get her to massage my arm and shoulder. They have been bugging me since the end of August when we went backpacking. I don't know if it was because of sleeping on the ground, but that is when it started bothering me. I kept thinking it would get better. So far in life, most of my injuries have done just that. But this one is different. Amy recently had a similar problem in the same place in her shoulder, but her shoulder froze and she couldn't straighten it. She had great sympathy, and since she is a massage therapist, she knows just what to do, and gift me with a free massage. It is too early to tell if the massage helped, but I sure hope it is better soon.
Amy asked if I would help with Kid's club that evening at the Agat church. It is part of their church outreach to the community kids, many who are quite poor and from very large families. They needed someone else to bring food tonight. Amy was taking vegetable soup and rice. So I went over to Payless Grocery Store, just out of Agat and got some apples on clearance, and some spaghetti. The jared sauce was too expensive so I got large cans of tomato sauce and then went home and got cooking. It is easy to make spaghetti sauce from tomato sauce, just add some oil, onion powder, garlic powder, and herbs. I happened to have basil. I personally don't like my sauce and noodles mixed, but that seemed the best plan for all the kids that needed served. They were expecting around 40 kids.
Pathfinders happens at the same time, in the church. They have activities in other rooms, and even in the parking lot. To be in Pathfinders you have to be at least age 10, and have to have someone sign you up at the beginning of the year, and you have to commit to coming regularly. The regular attendance is difficult for some kids.
Most of the kids in Kid's Club are less than age 10. They start the evening in the Fellowship Hall for supper. Imagine 40 energetic kids in an echoey cinder block and tile room. It can get pretty loud. But most of them seemed to appreciate the food. I saw only a few plates go back with as much food on them as they started with. Not sure if the kid had already eaten, or didn't like anything on the plate, or they were too distracted to think about eating. Someone stood at the door and only let them go to the bathroom one at a time, so they didn't go out and start bothering the Pathfinders.
After supper they were lined up at the door and taken to the sanctuary for singing. They do like to sing, but even then there were kids who were not focused. The Bible story was about Joseph. There were some verses to read, a puzzle to put together in small groups with a memory verse on it. And then there was a short video about the life of Joseph and how God helped him. Prayer time included prayer requests and a clear explanation about position for prayer and why we fold our hands and close our eyes. It appears that church behavior is completely new to many of those kids. But there were enough who had prayer requests to make a good prayer. The prayer lasted a whole 15 - 20 seconds.
My shoulder was feeling old and tired by this point in the day, so I went home a little before they let out for the evening. I relaxed a while, worked on my blog, and then fell into bed. I was very tired and decided to turn off my earliest alarm so I could sleep longer if needed.
Thursday morning I was glad I could sleep longer. I didn't have any shoulder pain during the night, a first for quite a while. I missed walking, but hopefully this won't be a pattern. I tutored as usual after breakfast.
I had an appointment to meet Marseni, a 59 year old Chuukese woman, who wants to have her driver's license so she can drive around to visit people and minister to them. She hasn't had a license before and needs a licensed driver to take her out for driving practice. I was glad to volunteer to help her with that. I thought I was going to meet her at noon at the church, but the church was dark and locked. I wasn't getting through to Mareni at the number I had for her. So I called the woman who had originally asked me. She called Marseni's daughter and found out they were still in the city. We would meet at a gas station halfway between us. I got there and still waited for a long time. I had forgotten about island time. Thankfully Guam has at least a couple nice, Christian, FM radio stations and I enjoy them both. We got driving around 1:00. I had been told that Marseni had taken the driving test recently and had not passed. It was clear why she had not passed. I just think she has not had enough driving time to make good judgement calls. She was nervous and uncertain on which way to turn her steering wheel when backing up. We drove for over an hour and just before we were done, she had problems making a left turn and hesitated on the larger road when she was in the turning lane so long that the person behind her made a crazy decision and turned left behind her crossing diagonally to the road they were turning onto. Poor Marseni was now befuddled and confused and turned into oncoming traffic, and then rather than moving right into the lane she wanted to drive on moved left onto the shoulder and almost into a ditch. Thankfully nothing bad happened. But at that point we had a discussion about driving and we both agreed that she was not ready yet to take the driver's test. I'll try driving with her again this next week. Pray that we all survive and that she can reach her goal of having the freedom to drive around and visit the elderly and sick in the area. I believe God has given her a special gift here and that she is making a difference even now when she has someone to take her visiting.
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