A New Friend

This is Christina Scheck, from Germany. We had just met her a few minutes ago, but felt like we knew her for much longer. She has two brothers, Heiko and Jens, who came to Micronesia a few years ago as volunteers for our ministry there. When I visited Germany in 2002, Heiko and Jens toured me around their village, Ulm, and we enjoyed great fellowship, even though a German-English dictionary was necessary for much of the time.
Christina, or Ina, as she likes to be called, was also in the States volunteering to do ministry in a local church about three hours drive away. Even though we only spent little time together, our bond in the Spirit was instant.

The Colors of Spring

Spring came, and it was beautiful around here.
We actually have a peach tree (I think - it looks like a peach tree now) outside the front door to our apartment.

Anne could tell you what these flowers are. All I know is that they look very pretty.
And a cherry tree right outside the Guesthouse.

Family!

It's been a little while (OK, a long while!) since I posted an entry. I've just been trying to roll along on my LAST COURSE for my degree!!! Maybe I'll write more about that later. Anyway, I'll review a little bit here. One of the cool things that happened is that our daughter, Amy, visited us here at Schooley's Mountain a few weeks ago. We went into New York City, Philadelphia, visited some of the nearby shops, and thoroughly enjoyed her presence here with us.

One of the things that happened while she was here, Jason, Kristy and Kelsey came for a weekend visit. We can't begin to tell you how great this was. The only one missing was Amy's husband, Matt.

Joe, one of the Retreat Ministries staff, introduced us to the biggest rabbit I've ever seen. It weighed more than 20 lbs! That was more than our granddaughter!

Jason brought along with him Ariel Bautista, one of the members in the youth group of the church I pastored in Guam (10 years ago), who was in the Washington, D.C. area on business. Ariel and his family live on Guam and are among some of our best friends. It was very nice to see how he has grown in the Lord.

An Old Friend Among New Friends

Pictured above is an old (not in age) friend and three new ones. To the left is Christine Volker, formerly Christine Mack, who came to Guam seven years ago from Germany along with three other single girls (whom we affectionately called the 4GG's - which stands for the 4 German Girls) to work as volunteers in the ministry for a few months. They came in the fall of 2001. Those who were in Guam and Micronesia at the time met them, got to know them, and enjoyed them being with us. They left the following year. We never forgot them - Christine, Rabea, Carmen, and Miriam. Now 3 of the 4 are married. Christine's husband, Matthias, is seated next to her. Then there is Tabea and, oh, let's call him Luther, because I can't pronounce or spell his real name. These are 4 of the 10 Liebenzell Missionary candidates from Germany who have been in training in Toronto, Canada, for the past 6 months before heading to the mission field. They came to Schooley's Mountain for a few days to become acquainted with the American side of Liebenzell Mission. Here we are with Johannes, (Anne in the purple coat in the back), Angie, Magume (from Japan), and the 4 you've just met. We're all taking a stroll through Central Park in New York City. One of our privileges was to take the team into New York City and tour them around. Below are another couple, Alex and another Tabea, along with Christine again. We just returned from visiting Ground Zero, the site of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Towers. Of course, I'm the one taking the picture!
A view of the Empire State Building from our tour bus. I have hundreds of pictures of NYC, but neither you nor I want to take the time to see them all right now. The only one missing from these pictures is Elisabeth, who stayed behind at Schooley's for the day. All of us at Schooley's Mountain were greatly blessed to hear their testimonies and how God made them aware of His calling to invest their lives in full-time service to Him in various countries around the world. Jesus asked us to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers into His harvest field, and here are the latest ones to become an answer to that prayer!

A Micronesian in Boston

A few days ago I drove six hours northeast to Boston and spent a couple of days with Delight Suda, the husband of our Chuukese daughter, Evelyn. Evelyn, as you will remember, is a student at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, and will be graduating this summer with her Master's degree in Professional Counseling. But that's another story. Her husband of two years, Delight, also from her home island of Puluwat, is in training to be the PIBC Financial Aid Director. He flew to Boston a few days ago to attend a U.S. Department of Educaton Financial Aid training so he can be better prepared to do this job. He has never been to the States before, so I thought I'd spend some time with him showing him how to get around. We had a great time of fellowship together, riding the subway.....doing some sightseeing in a cold drizzling winter rain....

OK, so maybe we didn't enjoy the cold drizzling rain so much. It was not only Delight's first time to the States, but also my first time to Boston. We were both impressed with how nice Boston was in spite of the weather.

A New Martin Guitar

One of the things I enjoyed recently was visiting the Martin guitar factory, only about 35 miles to the west from here. I had a motivation. I was thinking that not only did I want to see how Martin guitars are made, but also to get my own Martin 12-string guitar, a gift from dear, dear friends, repaired because it was cracked and breaking. Martin guitars come with a lifetime warranty, so theoretically all I had to do was take it in and have them repair it for free. So, again, while Anne was in California visiting with Amy and Matt, I called them up, and took it in. While I was waiting for them to look at my 12-string, I took a tour of the Martin factory.

All I could say for hours was, "Wow!" They hand-make every single guitar. From cutting the wood, shaping the wood, gluing the wood, sanding and varnishing the wood, every step is designed to achieve perfection. They even play every guitar when they're done, and then again a week later, to make sure they are absolutely perfect in every way - even the sound. They employ 650 people at the factory. It takes about three months to make one guitar, from beginning to end, and they produce about 250 guitars a day.

Do you mind if I show you a few pictures?

Here is the station where the wood is being soaked in water, then bent and glued into the standard guitar-looking shape.After the glue dries, they glue to the inside edges with a wooden binding so they can eventually glue the tops and bottoms on. It was amazing to me that the basic clothes pin was their "clamp of choice" to hold the binding in place until the glue dried!Here are a few guitars in various stages of sanding and varnishing. Each guitar undergoes multiple sandings and varnishings, and from this point on until they are completely finished, they are never touched by human hands because the natural oils in a human hand can show up after a varnishing, and they would have to sand it down and varnish it all over again.. They have special wooden "holders" which they screw into the bottom of the guitar to assist them in handling the guitars.Here is a rack of guitars awaiting the installation of their necks!After the tour, I get the word on the repair of my guitar. It is beyond repair, so they gave me another completely brand new 12-string guitar! Having just witnessed the process and care with which these guitars are made made me appreciate so much more the Martin guitar that I now have! You can't really see the new guitar here because it's in the case, keeping warm, much like it's owner is trying to do.

Bill and Barb Schuit

Bill Schuit is the new Liebenzell Mission USA Global Missions Director. He and his wife, Barb, moved into the apartment upstairs from us last month. Bill is was a missionary kid born in Africa, joined the missionary staff of Liebenzell Mission in the early 80's, and served in Palau, Micronesia, when we were with Campus Crusade there. They have also served in Papua New Guinea. Bill most recently served as a Missions Pastor in a Pennsylvania church about three hours to the west from here. Bill has been learning his new position for the past month.

We celebrated their arrival a couple of days later by eating together at Charlie Brown's, a local favorite around here. In the picture you see me, Jane and Mike, Hilda and Norman Dietsch (retired missionaries), and Barb and Bill Schuit. At this time Anne was in California visiting with Amy and Matt.

Mike and Jane Galley

I've mentioned Mike and Jane Galley several times. Here they are. They have been Liebenzell missionaries serving here at the headquarters for a long time. They are the backbone of the Global Mission department. They are the people that keep us missionaries on the field, making sure we get our paycheck, communicating important information to us and our supporters, handling special requests, just being servant leaders.

They also helped start a Saturday night worship service at their church designed to reach the postmodern crowd in the nearby town of Hackettstown, NJ. Mike leads worship, trains others in leading worship. He's a dynamic keyboard player, and anchors the worship band as they play on Saturday nights.