Getting Home!

That was a marathon run. We didn't arrive home until 6:30 Thursday night, 62 hours after leaving Raro. Our flight was cancelled in LA, so we finally arrived in San Francisco around 10 p.m. and got to stay in the oh-so-tacky Red Roof Inn. No extra clothes, but the airlines did supply a toothbrush, yeah! Back on the road again the next morning to catch the flight to Portland. We arrived there around noon and after two delays in our flights to North Bend, they finally got another plane for us and got us home. But, alas, our luggage wasn't there. It came in later that night. Boy, are we glad to be home. Our kids (except Jason who chose to go skiing instead of meeting us!) and granddaughters met us at the airport and made our day.

It was a great trip, but a long, long time getting home. Maybe, hopefully, the next trip will be better.

This Ain't Paradise!

Wow. It's now 10 p.m. Wednesday and we're in San Francisco. We left Rarotonga at 3:30 am Tuesday morning and arrived in LA on Wednesday at 10:15 a.m. We were supposed to fly out at 4 p.m. but the flight was cancelled and we finally left at 7:30 only to get this far. They put us up for the night and we're supposed to get on another flight to Portland at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow and arrive home at 5 p.m. For some reason, we weren't supposed to be home tonight because nothing we did could get us there. It will be a 60 hour trip by the time we arrive home. That's a record! And we're tired and so ready to be there. Oh well, it will soon be over.

The Last Day in Rarotonga

We spent our last evening in Paradise with Nancy, Murray and Kerry at The Tamarind House, our favorite Island restaurant. It was a beautiful evening, not too hot this time and we stayed until it got dark and the lights came on in the trees. A lovely restaurant, great food and great company. Who could ask for anything more? And Murray paid.

Isn't this beautiful?! The atmosphere and views almost make up for the cost of the meal here. Almost!

Save Now

Ron and I posed in front of the restaurant and the deck where couples can get married right over the water. He even asked me to dance with him! But he was just kidding, neither of us know how to dance! We got a few hours sleep before getting up at 1 am to get to the airport. We left at 3:45 am Tuesday morning and arrived in Auckland at 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning, only 4.5 hours later. We got a nice motel near the airport for the 12 hour layover and got to rest and shower and eat a nice lunch before heading back to the airport. We had a scare there. Ron left his wallet bag with our credit cards, money and passports laying on a table in the coffee area and we didn't even know it until our names were paged. Then we realized what he had done and we went running. It took about 30 minutes to actually find the right people who had it and everything was still there. Praise the Lord! We were so thankful, and a little sick at our stomachs too.

I'm sitting at the airport and with this picture just realized how burned my nose is. I need to even this out with a spray tan when I get home. Which is soon now. We'll be boarding in about 30 minutes or so for our flight to LA! Yeah!

Day 18, Rarotonga

We went to the market again this morning. It's not very big but 3 of the people in the church have booths there. Two sell Black Pearls which are from one of the other Islands in the Cooks, not Tahiti! My mother-in-law bought a Tahitian Black pearl in Hawaii, little did she know it either came from the Cooks or Japan. Tahiti doesn't have them! Anyway, the other church guy sells hydropondic lettuces and such. Lots of crafts and island made things. i bought a great purse here last week.

Sunday service went really well. A few less than last week, but about 80 or so, includng the chldren. This is Murray praying for them during ministry time. They are kind of quiet and not very demonstrative, but they received ministry very well.

This is me and Josie. Josie is one of the girls in the church who is competing for Miss Cook Islands. Another girl, JoyAna Meyer, is also competing and is the favorite for the title, but she is still in Auckland at University. Josie is a very sweet natured girl and loves the Lord. I'm excited to see how the competition turns out.

Sunset on Sunday evening. It sets on the other side of the Island but we could see the residual effects from the house. It was stormy most of the day Sunday and very humid, but during the night it poured rain. Pretty cool all day today and no more storms.

I just got out of the lagoon, snorkeling for the last time. It was great. In fact, it was like snorkeling at the fish tank in Captain Choice! The same fish. Beautiful. I was chatting with Chloe at this time. She wanted to know what I was drinking. It's only a fruit smoothie, don't worry. Shortly after, we returned our scooters and walked a ways to a little restaurant for lunch and blogging. Our day is almost over. We're having dinner at a favorite restaurant tonight, The Tamarind House and then it's a few hours sleep before leaving for the airport at 2 a.m. Leaving Paradise is always sad, but we're really ready to get back home and back to work. God has been so good to us, getting away like this really allows Him to speak clearly and we're ready to busy again. It's been a good two weeks in a really beautiful and peaceful and slow paced place.

Day 17, Rarotonga.

We stopped at Black Rock and watched the fish for a while. We saw several long black and white striped fish that looked like a small eel. Never had seen that one before. We hear people snorkel here, but the currents looked like it would throw you into the rocks. It's a very beautiful spot. Then we went on to the Edgewater Resort to blog and facebook. The storm started brewing and it was getting very dark and windy so we thought we could outrun it to the next resort for lunch. We didn't. As you can see.....

We got caught in the downpour, kept riding thinking it would end soon. When we couldn't see any more we pulled off to wait it out under this awning. We were both soaked! It let up after a good while and we continued on to lunch. It's good that the resorts are all outdoors and people eat in the restaurants with swimming suits on, wet and sandy and all, because we fit right in.

This was the Friday night service. There was about 50 people there. I thought it was pretty good group, since they are not used to non-Sunday morning services. There were some visitors too. This is going to be the best church on the Island, no doubts. It's got great bones, a strong foundation. I got my turn at the pulpit and I just spoke a little about worship. I was nervous!

There's Ron in his shorts! He preached on the imagination, it was a great message. He wasn't nervous at all, he was funny and anointed. What a combination! Classic Ron.

This morning after breakfast we went to the market again. It's a fascinating place. Everything is different than at home, which makes it oh so interesting.

One of the guys in the church, Colin and his employee. He runs a hydroponic lettuce farm and was at the market today.

This is a view of the mountains in the center of the island and of the market stalls. We really like going here. It's fun to people watch. We're having a great time here, but the countdown is 3 more days till we leave for home. We leave on Tuesday at 3:30 a.m. and arrive home Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. That's a lot of hours in the air, and a lot more in layovers. We'll be ready to be home with our kids and granddaughters and our church family. Can't wait.

Kia Orana, from the Cook islands

Day 16, Rarotonga

Today was interesting. We saw a storm coming in while we were at the beach and thought we would outrun it. Bad mistake. We got caught in the worst rain we've seen here. We were soaking wet, like we'd been swimming! It was so funny. We finally pulled over and stood under an awning for a while till the worst of it was over, then continued on to lunch at The Rarotongan. We're here right now, still sopping wet. The first revival meeting starts tonight at 7. We'll send pictures later, probably tomorrow. We're excited about the next few days. There was a nice writeup in the paper this morning about the new church and the services. Nancy and Murray are busy getting things organized before leaving in a few weeks to get ready for conference. They will be sending some guys over to preach on Sunday's here until they return after conference. Then they will stay here until August when they come to the US. We've taken on a project here, they need a set of drums for their worship team. They have a borrowed, very rusty set and really need their own. So get ready, we'll be asking for an offering when we get home. We mentioned it to the team, and they are so excited they are already looking for what they need. IT'S ONLY 2 PM SO MORE TO COME AFTER SERVICE TONIGHT.

Day 15, Rarotonga.

Ron meditating on the Friday night message

Blogging at the Beach!

. Internet is sketchy now, we've overused Murray's account so we're having!! to go to the resorts to get online. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights we had Men's and Women's cell groups here at the house. Good groups, both. I gave a brief testimony and Nancy spoke a little on the Book of Ruth and then prayed for the girls. They are gearing up for the revival meetings that begin tomorrow night (Friday). Today the local television station came by the church to interview Murray and Ron and Kevin Iro, who is a Rarotongan who played professional rugby for the Warriors but is now retired and living back on the Island, he's one of the founding members of the church and is well known around here and actually carries a lot of weight with the locals. He's the church worship leader and is actually very shy but is willing to do interviews and such to promote the church. It was on the local news tonight and the newspaper will come out tomorrow with a large editorial on the church, so we're expecting an even larger group come Sunday. Ron and I went to The Rarotongan Resort today. We had heard it was a great place to snorkel, and was it ever! It was fantastic. The water was clear and warm and the fish were plentiful and very colorful and large. Blue fish, yellow & black striped fish, green fish, yellow fish, black fish and the list goes on. I even saw one black one with a green stripe around it's body. Beautiful. We swam for a long while and then went to the pool and chatted with our boys for a while on Facebook. I love Facebook. It has been a life-saver on this trip. We've been able to chat with many of our friends at the church. It has kept up connected. We went to Indian food tonight for dinner. We love Indian food and have decided somebody needs to open one up in Coos Bay. we'll do our best to keep up with the blog for the remainder of this trip, but it might be a few days in between. No worries, though, we'll be home next week and make you all look at our pictures and home movies! It'll be great.