A Time of Restoration

Although it is the end of the school year, it seems far from finished. This is the 50th year for St. Mary's, so next week is a 3 day celebration starting on Wednesday, and these last couple of weeks have been dance and singing practice for the students, who will be entertaining the guests. Also, the alumni of St. Mary's (called SMOGA) will be coming from all over the world and need a place to stay, so will be camping out at the school (which is basically my front yard). I want to be excited to meet all these wonderful women of St. Mary’s history, but first I need to rejuvenate. It is hard to find a place to escape - a place that I consider peaceful. One thing that I have learned about myself in the last few years is that in order for me to feel renewed is to have plenty of quiet alone time. Because I live on a small island in a city that is overpopulated, and in a culture that is very relationship-oriented, it is hard to have personal quiet time.

So I went to Manase to hang out with Julya, hoping that I could get some peace and quiet far away from Apia. During dinner, the family that runs the place announced that their 9 year old girl was having a birthday. The celebration turned into loud music and dancing until 10 PM. Because the guests were all wound up from that, they continued to drink and hang out after the music stopped, so my hope of having a peaceful stay was crushed. However, I must admit that there is nothing like waking up, taking a few steps to find yourself standing on the shoreline, looking out into what seems to be an infinite body of water, gazing at the rising sunlight reflecting off the crest of massive tidal waves inspires my heart to thank God for sharing His art with me. I will never take that part of my experience for granted and my hope is that each and everyone of you can have a similar experiences. The other things that I enjoyed were the conversations about life in the Peace Corps; struggles and trials that we have gone through and are currently experiencing as believers; going back and forth saying what we are thankful to God for in 2006 and things that we want in 2007; going to the lava fields with a group of Kiwis that gave us a ride to the wharf; and devouring my new favorite book, Mere Christianity.

The LMS church from the lava fields - it was destroyed in the early 1900s by a volcano that errupted for over 10 years