I had a hard time falling asleep last night. I prayed a lot so maybe that was what God was keeping me up for. I prayed for many things. I asked for patience and wisdom. I want God to fill me with His spirit and make Casey decrease and Him increase in me. I no longer want my will, but only God’s will.

We thought Sam, Andy and I were gonna be the last flight, but Sandy came across the river and yelled back to the house that we were the second flight and to get our butts over there so Gary could take off. Flying out of the village today was a little bumpy, but it was still fun flying over the island again. Both Sam and I got a little weak in the stomach, but once we landed and got some banana bread and juice in us, we were ok. Caleb (The pilot’s 6-year-old son) talked our ears off while we waited for the last flight to come in. When it arrived, we packed up the bus and headed for Puerto.

I sat near the front of the bus from the airfield to Puerto. It took about 4 hours and 45 minutes to get there. Every once in a while Ike (the driver) would stop to check the bus and his text messages. It only made me nervous when he would do that while driving and passing in the oncoming traffic lane. I noticed that there was a phrase painted on all of the bridges that read “Beat The Odds“. I’m assuming this meant that the odds were against the drivers to get across the bridge. Kinda funny, I thought.

After dinner in Puerto, Sam, Andy, and I went into town looking for an Internet cafe. First we got some Starbuck’s-style coffee at a place called Itoy. The first ‘net cafe we went to didn’t have room for us. The second one was closed and didn’t allow drinks inside anyway. The third and final one had a really slow 50kbps speed but we just accepted it. I wasn’t able to load my website for some reason, so I used mail2web to check my email, then we went home. It was fun hanging out with Sam and Andy.

Today was very slow. We didn’t have much work to do so the work day went very slow and boring. One of the missionaries, Liezel, Carol, and Stephanie flew out with some cargo today so that we wouldn’t have so many flights tomorrow to get everyone and everything out. I took a lot of pictures of the kids (Jiri) today as they were watching a slideshow of old pictures on a missionary’s computer. The older boys wanted me to take some pictures of them by the plane, so I happily obliged them. Then an elder Palawano man insisted on having some younger girls take pictures with Gerry, and it was a very awkward situation. The girls couldn’t refuse because he was an elder, yet they were very embarrassed and shy.

We had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, fried tuna, rice and cucumbers for dinner. Sam, Andy, and I washed the dishes and talked about girls. Andy thought it was so strange how American guys have so many girlfriends and kiss girls before they marry them. Later in the conversation, Sam mentioned that he knew he was going to marry a girl that was already his friend. A female missionary chimed in and said that “she wasn’t eavesdropping” but she knew exactly what he was talking about and it was true for her and her husband also. They “just knew” when they met each other that it was the one God wanted them to be with.

The missionary downloaded all of my photos on his PowerBook and then showed us a lot of the pics from his iPhoto library. It was very interesting to see how he and his wife looked when they first moved here 26 years ago. Their girls are grown now, and look just like their mom.

After dinner and the picture show, Andy and I played a game of chess. I took his queen early in the game (probably on my 3rd or 4th move) but then made several mistakes that led to him winning. I can’t say it was only my mistakes that led to my defeat because he is a very good player. It’s very frustrating to lose when I used to be so much better. It’s only the second time I’ve played chess since I was 13 or so. That’s 14 years ago! It’s clearly an issue with my pride because I feel the same frustration when I try to play basketball and can’t go more than one point without having to stop for air. It’s like, I know that I would be able to beat the person if I were in good shape. However, I’m not in shape so I lose and that’s hard for me because I grew up winning all the time. But what do I expect? I don’t practice, so I’m not good. No surprise there. I just have to get used to not being an athlete anymore.

I have some weather numbers that I wanted to write down. One of the missionaries has an electric thermometer that also measures humidity. On Wednesday this week in the sun it was 107 degrees F with 47% humidity. In the house (shade) it was 92 degrees F with 85% humidity. Quite a climate to work in. That was the normal afternoon climate on days that it didn’t rain or wasn’t cloudy. It made work on the roof less desirable than in the house, but thankfully God gave us a pleasant breeze every once in a while on the hot days, and even a few rain baths that were blessings in disguise.

We went to church and heard some more white testimonies. Even though Sandy and Larry (seated behind me) kept prodding me to get up and share my story, I didn’t feel any leading from God to do so.

After lunch, Jun Jun took some of us on a hike to what we thought was a nearby waterfall. After hiking for an hour and 45 minutes we realized it was farther than we were led to believe it would be. At first it was just an uphill trail, but the last half-mile was dense jungle uphill without even a hint of a trail. The waterfall was ok, but we only stayed there for about 10 minutes because it was getting dark and it would take about 2 hours to get back to the village. I was very bitter on the way up because I kept stepping in water or mud, and then my feet would slide off of my sandals so that I couldn’t get traction to stay on my feet. Then I decided to go barefoot and that worked better while walking on the mud trail, but it was not possible to go barefoot after the trail ended because of the lolo (thorn bushes). The thorns were like an inch-long sewing needle and densely covered all the branches of each thorn bush. They were very painful when stepped on, mostly because you never stepped on just one, you usually stepped on 7 or 8 at a time because it was a branch that was laying on the ground. The hike would have been 100% better if I would have had shoes on instead of sandals. I also had my camera and was trying to “baby” it so my agility was much lower than normal. On the way back I had a much better attitude. Mostly because it wasn’t as hot and humid now that the sun was almost down, and also because we were hiking downhill. I felt like Indiana Jones in The Temple of Doom when I saw this enormous tree in the jungle. Although I didn’t find any golden treasures in the jungle, I discovered that the jungle, itself, is a very beautiful and valuable treasure.

After dinner, Gerry and Stephanie got into a debate over evolution. Gerry was trying to “shove” his belief down Steph’s throat, which only made her more defensive and resistant. Then one of the missionaries got involved and brought some sound theology to the table but was still “shoving” it in. Steph sounded confused and misled but open-minded for the most part. It seems there is a lot going on in her mind right now and it’s a bit of a mess. Maybe all she needs is some love and support from friends and family while she sorts it all out. I’ve never been in a debate (or even heard of a debate) in which one party is convinced by aggressive arguing to change his/her viewpoint/belief. Therefore, it seemed wise not to get involved in the debate since all it seemed to be accomplishing was division among the team. I mean, it wasn’t like Stephanie’s salvation depended on whether or not she believed evolution was possible or not, but to hear the debate, you’d think the salvation of all humankind was on the line.

Andreas and I finished putting on all the ridgecaps and screwing down any remaining sheets. We were putting about 16 screws on each ridgecap, but about half way through, we realized how short we were on screws, so we cut that number in half. I started looking around in the grass for extra screws and found about 20. It worked out that we got everything screwed in just right. We ran out of ridge caps, so we used a narrow piece of Metalplas instead for the last ridge. It actually looked better than the real ridge caps. It wasn’t like we could run down to Home Depot and pick up some more screws and ridgecaps, so we had to start making due with what we had.

Sandy and Larry built a brace/support on the roof for 3 solar panels. When it was almost done, one of the missionaries came out of the house and looked up to the roof and said, “I don’t think 4 panels will fit on that.” Sandy swore that the missionary told him 3 panels, and the missionary swore he told him 4 panels. It was a classic misunderstanding that was actually quite humorous to witness. For some reason, I get a real kick out of the way people look at each other (especially during a misunderstanding) and how their body language reveals their thoughts and mood. Sandy and Larry cracked a few jokes about it, then joyfully (and quite cleverly) made an extension to fit the 4 panels and all was well.

Before I went on the roof, Gerry and I were working on the shower pan, and he asked me if I had a girlfriend. I said yes, and then he started to share with me some advice about girls and relationships. He shared that God will not bless a person if he/she doesn’t obey Him. If He asks someone to do something (like break off a relationship), then he/she has to do it. God has someone for everyone and if we don’t let Him bring him/her into our lives then it’s our disobedience that is to blame. God takes stuff away from us and it might hurt but it is always because He has something better for our lives. We can’t always see where or why, but He is always faithful. It could also be to purge something from our lives that is standing in the way of our relationship with Him. Gerry also mentioned that as soon as God asks someone to move on from a relationship, that relationship is dead and it will never become pleasing to God. It won’t be “fixed” or ever turn into something fruitful. Gerry’s past experiences gave him wisdom that he has now passed on to me, and I now pass it on to whoever reads this.

We had burritos for dinner and they were really good. After dinner, Sandy made a confession to Gerry and me about the “B52 fan”. It was Sandy who had the loud fan on while sleeping in the room right next to Gerry and Jim the whole time. Sandy said that Gerry and Jim were getting ready to “string me up” and he couldn’t let them do that to me, so he finally came clean and admitted to them that it was his fan after all. Gerry apologized for chastising me for two days and nights about the fan that wasn’t mine, and I forgave him.

Last night was frustratingly hot and I rolled around for probably 2 hours before it cooled off enough to fall asleep I made my usual midnight potty break, which is annoying, but not the end of the world. Gerry and Jim reminded me again that I was not to turn on my loud “B52 fan” because it kept them awake all last night again. I told them that I didn’t have it on last night and it took me a long time to fall asleep because I didn’t have it on.

We finished the roof today, except for the ridge caps. We’ll be done with that tomorrow and I’m sure we’ll make significant progress on the shower pan. I’m not sure what else needs to be done to the water tower but I think it’s almost complete. Andreas, Sam, and Gerry were working together as a team today, and Gerry kept calling everything a “von schnitzel”. Andreas said “schnitzel” was like a steak and it didn’t make sense the way Gerry was using it. Then Gerry started saying “wolfenhousen” and Andy said that wasn’t even a word in German. That didn’t stop Gerry from using it, though.

Sam, Andreas, and I talked after dinner for a long time about churches and denominations. We exchanged ideas about how church unity could be accomplished. I shared my vision for home churches, and Andreas didn’t like it. He really likes his Mennonite church of 400 back in Germany. He doesn’t want a huge gathering. He was very wary of uniting a large body and said it was because Germans have had a bad history of large radical changes. Stephanie flew into the village today and I’m not sure why she came here after being in Menti with the medical team. Maybe it was to help out with any medical needs here in this village.