Kagman

So for the past week our lives have been dominated by one word and one place: Kagman. Kagman, a village on the eastern side of the island, is about as rural as it gets in Saipan. And it's far--at least what passes for far in Saipan. It's a good twenty minute drive from just about any other point on the island. This bucolic location has been the site of our church's big evangelistic effort, a two week series of nightly meetings. Our pastor and a core group of church members worked hard for months in advance to lay the "groundwork", tirelessly visiting people door to door in the community and conducting Bible studies. The actual meetings began Saturday night, October 20, and most of the members committed to coming out to Kagman just about every night for the next two weeks to sing, greet, assist with the children's program, pray, and even cook! (We provided samples of delicious vegetarian dishes and copies of the recipes almost every night). It made for a long night, and was often physically and spiritually exhausting, but in the end the effort was worth it. Unlike most evangelistic meetings where the first night is the biggest and the numbers dwindle after that down to a small core group, attendance increased each night as positive word spread. And this past Sabbath, twenty-two people decided to get baptized, almost all of them local folks (which is phenomenal since there are virtually no indigeneous people in the Seventh-day Adventist church on Saipan. Or there weren't until now.)

But, while it's easy to get excited about numbers, the real success was individual--for each person that caught a vision of living a healthier lifestyle, for each person that felt that touch of God's love in their hearts, for each person that finally found the answers they'd been looking for, the effort was worth it.

To be honest, the actual execution of the series was a bit disorganized. We started out with a set program of events, an eclectic mix of music, scripture, health talks, and sometimes even drama. That rapidly devolved to a kind of fly by the seat-of-our-pants operation directed by our speaker, Pastor Melvin Duenas, a pastor who flew in from Guam from for this event. The progam came to consist of the health talk, the main message, and music as Pastor Duenas saw the need for it (sometimes to the surprise and consternation of the unsuspecting choir!). Fortunately, God wasn't limited by our foibles and He seemed to work in spite of our gaffes.

My main contribution to the effort was to make sure there was drinking water on site and to lead the prayer operation for the event. Babs boldly took on the task of coordinating the vegetarian tasting samples including special K loaf, vegetarian "meat" patties, veggie chili, burritos and lots of other tasty dishes. Needless they were highlights of every evening. Providing the water was a pretty easy task. As for the prayer, my fellow prayer "warriors" and I would arrive for the beginning of program, then decamp to an out of the way location--usually a nearby home that we had access to--to pray. Our prayer time consisted of combination of quiet, meditative private prayer, group prayer sessions where each person prayed as they felt moved to do so (we call this "popcorn prayer"),and Bible reading followed by sharing scripture promises and specific prayer needs. We'd finish up about 10 to 15 minutes before the program ended, and return to the "big tent" to so that we could be there to meet and mingle with the attendees when the program was over. I think leading in the prayer was the best way for me to contribute, as I'm sure if I'd sat through all the meetings I would have quickly gotten myself all lathered up and distracted by the differences between my new-school theology and the speaker's old-timey take on the message. By praying, I could focus on what God was doing, rather than on critiquing what the speaker was doing.

The "Big Tent" at dusk, not long before the meetings begin. The tent was constructed by several talented church members. One of the answers to prayer for this meeting: In the midst of the rainy, typhoon season, we had great weather throughout the series. There were a few rain showers, but none of the massive downpours or even worse, a typhoon, that would have completely ruined the tent and the event.

The Choir sings. They sang just about every song in their repertoire and learned to sing on a dime, as one never knew when their service might be called upon.

That's me and one of the members of my drama team, REAL Christian Theater. On the first night, we performed a skit about how people relate to the Bible (this particular actor portrays someone who keeps the Holy Book sealed in a plastic container and never opens it, let alone reads it). As the schedule shifted, the rest of our scheduled performances were moved to the following Sabbath morning program.

Me, introducing our first skit on Sabbath morning. For the past two Sabbaths (and also this coming Sabbath as well. They've decided to have a few more meetings this week and extend the series a third week), we've had our church services under the big tent in Kagman. Please note that the screens you see in the background highlight that day's topic and have nothing to do with the skits we're performing.


In this skit called "The Bus" about spiritual priorities, Jesus (played by me). . .

get's moved to the back of the bus. . .


. . .and eventually kicked to the curb. . .

. . .with distasterous results following.


A skit about how we get "stuck" in sin. . .these actors are "stuck" to the "Sin Chair"

This skit, entitled "Molding Jesus" talks about how we often try to make Jesus conform to our image, when in fact what he wants to do is transform us into His image.

The Children's Program Before: The kids program shifted around a few times, starting out in their own tent behind the main tent, then moving to the parking lot of Roshi's, a variety store alongside the lot where our tent was located, before finally the good folks at Roshi's invited the us to have our kids programs inside the store itself, where they could sing and play and learn as loud as they liked without worrying about distracting those in the main tent. The Roshi's manager and staff were beyond generous, clearing a whole section of their floor space for us to use.

The Children's Program After, in Roshi's Store.

Potluck Providence: The potluck on the first Sabbath was a miracle--at least for our church. Sadly, potlucks at our little church in Saipan are known to be pretty sparse, and here we were going to feed a whole army of guests and a strictly health-friendly menu too! Well, God moved, and the church responded, providing more than enough healthy and tasty food.


The Baptisms
After two weeks of meetings, 19 people--including a whole family of eight-- decided they wanted to be baptized and join the Seventh-day Adventist church (a twentieth person was the son of one of our members). So this past Sabbath, November 3, after church under the big tent in Kagman and another potluck we came back to our side of the island to hold the baptisms on the beach near our church (the waves were too high on the eastern side of the island).


"Wade in the water. . ." The baptismal candidates get ready to take the plunge.


The candidates were baptized two at a time. That's our Pastor Eliki on the left and Pastor Duenas, the evangelist from Guam, on the right.

Back on the shore, we sang hymns intermittantly between baptisms. (If you look carefully, you'll see that my shirt is wet up to my chest. I'll explain why in my next entry!)

Having baptized 20, the pastors make a final call to for anyone else who wants to be baptized and. . .

. . .two more step up.

Our new family members.

Here's Babs and I with Ricardo and Rosemary and all their kids--all of whom got baptized. We met them last Sabbath at lunch and I had no idea they were considering becoming members. I'm looking forward to getting to know them better. And here's a big prayer request: We want to find away to offer to enroll all their kids at our school! It'll take a miracle, but miracles are God's business, right?


The two Barbaras. This woman, Barbara, has an infectious smile just like my lovely wife Babs. They hit it off right away, maybe because they have the same name. An interesting side note is that the beach area where Barbara was baptized belongs to her family. She grew up on the shores of this beach and swam in the very waters where she was baptized. I thought that was really beautiful.

Though the evangelistic effort is wrapping up, the friendships and fellowship that will grow from it will hopefully last a lifetime, and beyond.

For a critical perspective on the evangelistic series, and on "God's work" in general, check out my lastest entry at my faith issues blog, Faith Journeys.

October Overview

Okay, get ready for the Sears catalog of blogs. This thing is HUGE and very pic heavy. It's as full as the month of October has been. It was a very busy month and as you scroll endlessly down the page, you'll see why.

October 1-5, Week of Prayer

The kids sit listening attentively as Pastor speaks and. . .

. . .leap to life during song service.

"M" breaks it down from the Word. Almost looks like he's preaching doesn't it, rather than simply reading the Scripture.

Actually, there was very little preaching and a lot of praying during our fall of week of prayer. Pastor Eliki decided to focus on actual prayer, and so every morning after a brief thought from Pastor, we'd divide the school by class and meet together to pray. My favorite memory was on Thursday when we prayed "popcorn" style, with the kids in grades 7-10. Their prayers were so spontaneous, authentic, and faith-filled. It's funny, because I don't recall being particularly spiritual when I was their age, yet they never fail to move me with their storied "faith of a child."

Jessica Lee's Birthday, October 14 (I think)

Jessica celebrates her birthday with a new skateboard!

I believe our ESL and Bible teacher, Jessica Lee's birthday was on the 14th but I'm not sure because her birthday was more like a "season" than a specific one-time celebration, with several birthday moments throughout the weekend. The picture above was taken at her birthday dinner at the SM's apartment on Friday, October 12.

On Sunday, October 14, we finally began our confined water dive classes, with a full day in the water at Sugar Dock. It didn't really "all come back to me" despite my previous certification in Chuuk, but it did come fairly easily and I found I was able to accomplish all of my required skills without too much difficulty. I find that diving seems to heightens all aspects of sensory experience and bodily function. I don't know what it is about it, but I find during and after diving everything my body does feels more richer and more intense, from breathing (of course) to hunger to, yes, even going to the bathroom! (yikes!)


One of our dive instructors, Dennis Chapla.

Here I am with my dive belt on and my scuba gear ready to go!

Divers Before

Divers After: Here we are, newly baptized, after our first time in the water on scuba.

After our first day of diving, Jessica, Judith, Mai and me headed over to Big Dipper to celebrate our accomplishments and the ongoing Jessica Birthday Season. I didn't have a dry shirt, as the one I'd planned to use after diving got soaked by a passing rain shower, so I fashioned a rather flamboyant "shirt" (or really let's be honest, blouse) out of Barbara's favorite pink beach towel.


Jessica celebrates the big Two One by indulging in some ice cream.

10th Grade Field Trip to Tinian, October 16, 2007

Our transportation. Imagine getting into your car, driving really, really fast and then slowly lifting off into the air. That's what riding in a plane of this size is like. Many people find it very frightening--after all you feel every bump and sway--but I found it exhilarating.

On Tuesday, October 16, 2007 I took my 10th grade literature class to Tinian to visit historic North Field and the site of the atomic bomb pits. The Enola Gay,as well as Boxcar, took off on their respective atomic missions to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan from the airfield in Tinian in 1945. The student's had just finished reading Hiroshima, John Hersey's riveting account of six survivors of the Hiroshima bomb, and I thought that this trip would provide a unique glimpse of this historic event from the American perspective. Historic Preservation officer Carmen Sanchez took us on an informative and insightful tour of the key sites, and went the extra mile by dropping us off at a good restaurant for lunch and then taking us back to the airport (after a detour at the ferry dock. We had planned to fly over and float back, but Coast Guard restrictions require all ferry passengers to have ID with them and one of our students didn't bring any ID so we were forced to fly back).

Here we are in-flight. That's "The Vice President" in the co-pilot's seat, "The Treasurer" in the back. Our pilot just happens to be a Seventh-day Adventist who's been assigned to fly in Saipan for a month or so.

Some views of Saipan from the air. That's Lau Lau bay above, and the southern end of the island, where we live and work below.

Tinian's North Field from the air. During the tail end of World War II this was the busiest airport in the world, with planes taking off constantly on bombing runs to Japan. Now it is unused, with the modern Tinian airport decidely more sleepy and located further south.

"Violet", "The Treasurer" and "The Vice President" pose in one of the old Japanese bomb shelters on Tinian.

The atomic bomb pit for "Fat Man",the A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki

Here I am posing with a full-scale replica of "Little Boy", the bomb that leveled Hiroshima. The bomb seems pretty big, but when you think about the amount of destruction caused by this one object, it's seems "Little" indeed. Below is a shot of the replicas of both bombs. They were located, strangely, in an out-of-the way empty lot behind the employee's barracks for Tinians single modern attraction, the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino. Carmen says they were put there instead of at the historic sites because they were painted the wrong colors. And they do look awfully cheerful for being weapons of mass destruction.

The flight back. This time, I got to sit in the co-pilot's seat!

Here we are just before take off. They keep the door open until right before take-off as the plane has no air conditioning and would get very hot in the cabin while taxiing on the tarmac.

Spirit Week, October 15-19, 2007

Our annual Spirit Week was lots of fun, as always. Unfortunately, I didn't participate personally this year very much as I had field trips on two of the days and didn't think of a good costume until it was too late on a third.

The winner on Monday, Bad Hair and Pajamas Day

Tuesday was Cartoon and Superhero day. The winner for that day was the girl dressed like Mickey Mouse on Mai's right.

"Violet" and Judith represent peace and love Sixties style on Wednesday, "Decades Day"

This young fifties guy was the winner of Decades Day

This is Thursday's winner, in a gorgeous cultural outfit, on "Dress up Day"

Olympic Game Day (Part 1), Friday, October 19

Once again I was in charge of the Gray Team for our annual game day--which this day stretched over two days, with the team games on Friday, and the track and field events the following Thursday afternoon. The Grays didn't win this year, but we did place third!

Giving it the Gray Gusto, we pull for our team in tug of war.

Team games on the field. I love this picture because of the fellow in the white's dramatic pose during the skittle-carrying game.

Olympic Game Day (Part 2), Thursday, October 25

The 100 yard dash.

That's me taking a turn at the hurdles (I lost to one of my 8th graders), and, below, using the bullhorn at the starting line. I loved talking into that thing! Probably a lot more than people enjoyed hearing me.

Check out how far these boys hurled their frisbees during the frisbee throw. All the way across the field and then across the street!

One of my 9th grade boys during the jump rope contest.

Kagman Evangelistic Series, October 20 thru the end of the month

Under the big tent.

This was the event that by far took up the most time during the month of October. Every night from 5:30 to 9 or 9:30, by the time you took into account travel time. It was so big that it deserves it's own entry, which will be coming up next.

With so much to do this month, some things, like cleaning up the kitchen, fell by the wayside. Barbara made a vegetarian dish for the attendees to sample almost every night, but there wasn't much time to clean up and still get enough sleep to make it through the next day. So eventually, the kitchen devolved to this:

I find, however, that neatness really soothes my soul, and so I knew that we would have to have a haven from all the chaos that's engulfed our house for these past few weeks. So the Friday before the evangelistic meetings began, I took some time to clean up our bedroom, so that when we came home exhausted from a very long day, this was the sight that welcomed us:

And with that, October is Over!