Kwajalein Liberation Day

First day teaching with some of the 6th grade girls. I'm still a pretty jetlagged as you can see in my eyes.

By the basketball court on the way home.

Our apartment

Our room. Bunkbeds on the left. This is the whole room.

It was a nice short week. Because of Kwajalein Liberation Day, our weekend started at noon on Thursday. We were supposed to have the parade in the afternoon, but around one it started pouring rain, so that got postponed until Friday. The water was warm, so a few of us went to Beach Park to snorkel. Underwater I saw some interesting stuff: a football, a ladder, a pair of jean shorts, and three fish—even underwater you can tell it’s Ebeye. Friday, we headed to Beach Park for the parade, activities, and the race. We were told to be there at 10:00, so we were. The parade didn’t start until 12:30. I wasn’t too excited about it in the first place, so waiting two and a half hours for the ten-minute parade was a little frustrating.

Waiting for the parade to start. Kwaj is in the distant background. So close, yet so far away!

The parade

Ebeye SDA "float"

The float

Around 4:30 we got on the bus and headed out to Gugeegue, one of the islands connected to Ebeye. It’s about a six mile run back to Beach Park. This wasn’t a normal six-mile run, though. Some of it was sand, some had rocks the size of softballs; there was trash to run through and around, huge puddles covering the whole width of the road, and lots of wind. I haven’t run in a while, so it was rough. When I finally got to Ebeye, there were crowds of people all along the road cheering and clapping for the runners. It helped so much! I really just wanted to lie down on the road and never move again, but they were so encouraging.

There were fourteen women runners: Lonnie got first place, Emily got fifth, and I got sixth. There were bigger cash prizes for the first, second, and third, but the first ten all got $20! It was pretty unorganized though. No numbers, no timer, just running. When I went to get my money, they had given it away to someone else. He said he would give it to me that night at the game, but I told him we wouldn’t be there and asked if he could just give it to the SDA principal. He said he would, but I really don’t see that happening. Oh well, would have been nice. I’m not sure who, but a wonderful person bought Subway for all of us from Kwaj, so we were pretty happy after the race. Even though I kind of wanted to die while I was running, I was glad I did afterwards.

The barge arrived Friday afternoon. The barge goes around and supplies all the islands with food. The other SMs talked about how great it is to see the barge. So after dinner, we went to see. It was pretty magical. The boat is enormous with two giant cranes lifting the shipping boxes. It was nighttime too, so all the lights reflected off the ocean. It looked so peaceful.

I realized the other day that I have already had lots of firsts being here:

• I opened a coconut with a machete
• I’ve lived almost a month without a phone
• I ran a six-mile race
• I ran a six-mile race with no makeup on
• I’ve taught 5 classes to junior high students—this is quite a first

God has definitely been taking care of me since I’ve been here. I’ve had to trust Him more than I ever have. Every day is hard; teaching is stressful, frustrating, exhausting, and I’m really glad I’m not an education major. But getting through the day trusting in God is better than having the easiest day without Him. I’m learning every day how much more I need Him.

I rediscovered a verse a couple days ago that I really needed to hear. In English class, we are taught to stay away from the absolutes: never, always, every… But this verse lays out the absolutes in a promise.

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work.” –2 Corinthians 9:8

Such an extreme promise! I am so thankful that God has brought me here to Ebeye. There really is nowhere else I would rather be. I haven’t even been here a full month and I’ve learned so much. I still miss my home and my family, but since I’ve been here, the SMs and other missionaries have welcomed me into their Ebeye family. I feel very at home here.

Emily and I after a silly serenade from James, Phillip, and Lennin

P.S. I went to Kwaj again on Tuesday, so I posted pictures from both trips onto my Kwaj post!