Juliette, The Incredible Plant Lady

Once we landed in Raiatea, we were met at the airport by Herehia's grandmother, Juliette. I'd met her last year at Tama and Herehia's wedding and she'd said that I needed to come to Raiatea. We'd just celebrated her 75th birthday a week ago and I was excited to see her home. She has literally hundreds of plants. They are spread all around the outside of her home and require a daily watering schedule of 4 hours a day. She is part Polynesian -part Chinese. Her typical routine is -she rises at 4 AM to study her Bible, pray, and have breakfast. When the sun comes up she is ready to begin her work. She waters her plants 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. But Raiatea gets a lot of rainfall -which helps her.
I was amazed at the variety and especially liked some Bonsai trees. There were branches that wrapped around each other like braids of hair. Little by little over time, she bends the branches so that they become flexible and go where she wants them to go without breaking. She weaves them together beautifully. She said someone had asked if she read a book on how to grow these little trees and she told them no...she'd just prayed for wisdom. Now she's got people asking her advice because they look so good. It just makes sense that God would know best how to grow a tree, doesn't it? She's also got some hanging plants that don't even need dirt! She attaches them to some small, dark-red branches.
Of course, there were things to eat as well like cherries and blackberries and something they call a "miracle fruit". It's a tiny little thing that had just a hint of a licorice flavor to it. Immediately after eating it, Herehia handed me a lemon. I didn't really want to bite into that but she was persuasive. The "miracle fruit" nullified the tartness of the lemon! It was kind of bizzare.
Juliette also keeps around 25 exotic birds in a very large cage. Most of them are love birds. They are pretty vocal until the sun goes down. Then -not a peep.
It is quite obvious when you step into her home that Juliette has the gift of hospitality. There are rooms added onto rooms and are probably more than 20 beds in the house. She usually hosts visiting pastors and missionaries.
When Juliette was 12 it became necessary for her to quit school and help take care of her 7 brothers and 4 sisters. Later on, as a young woman, she became convicted that she wasn't living right and gave her heart to God. She proceeded to educate herself. Now she is one of the hardest working people on behalf of the church in Raiatea. When we first arrived, we stopped by a market and Juliette introduced me to the granddaughter of the first Christian on the island. That kind of blew my mind. Then the woman gave us 30 bananas. :)

Off To Raiatea

Last Monday night, at a birthday party for Marc, Mirella's brother, Tama asked if I'd like to join him and Herehia and little Hauareva, (who will be 5 months old Dec. 10th) -on a trip to Raiatea. So the next morning we were on the plane. Tama is a pilot for Air Tahiti. As we were taking off I asked him if we had a good pilot. With a very concerned expression, he quickly said, "No. You should be worried." In case anyone from his company should see this...I knew he was kidding.
At one point he asked if I'd like a coffee -so I took him up on it. It's just a 30 minute flight and everyone just gets a cup of juice. I felt like a VIP...and all the more so when the flight attendant came to my seat and told me to follow her. I didn't know what she wanted at first but then quickly realized that Tama had asked if I could sit in the cockpit. She carried the coffee for me and then, when inside the cockpit, asked the pilot to hold my coffee while she adjusted the seat. I never thought a pilot would be holding my coffee for me as he is flying the plane. But, of course, to assure my fellow 65 passengers, just as there are automatic coffee makers, there are also automatic pilots.
Being in the cockpit was incredible. That is truly the best view on the plane. And when the view is Tahiti and her surrounding islands, it has to be one of the best views in the world! As I drank my coffee, the pilot and his co-pilot went over their checklist before the landing. We flew over water between two islands, Huahine and Raiatea, then did a u-turn. There before us was this incredibly blue water and a tiny little runway coming toward us. All too soon the flight was over. But I'll never forget that sight.

Indiana Jones Speaks French Poorly

Last Saturday we had a birthday party for Yves and Mirella. Their birthdays both fall in the same week. It was really cool to see some familiar relatives and to meet some new ones too. I got to visit with Hirohiti -who was 6 years old the first time I met him. When I brought Lauren over here -he was quite an entertaining tour guide. Now he is 17 and joining the army in January. Wow do I feel old. He's shaved his head already. Those Army people just hate hair, don't they?
That night I had another practice with the youth choir. They are sounding terrific! And they knew the tune of "Joy To The World" -but not the words. That's wild to me when it's such a standard in America. But they all study english in their schools -so learning the words went quickly. We're doing a chorus of that along with "How Great Is Our God" for their Christmas program.

Last night we went to Thierry Albert's home to watch Indiana Jones -the 1st & 3rd films. They are preparing for a youth camp that will be held in December with an Indiana Jones theme. I've seen the campsite and it couldn't be more appropriate. They've even put an add for the camp on one of the church's websites. www.ADDTAHITI.com
They had the DVD on the french-speaking version. So it was pretty cool to see Indy speaking in french. But they had made some mistakes too. When he says, "Dad!" throughout the 3rd film, they translated it as "Pere!" -which people just don't say like that. Also they used the formal way of speaking -as you would to a stranger -when speaking to family members. To say, "How are you?" -one says to a stranger, "Comment allez-vous?" But to a family member, one says, "Comment vas-tu?"
I'm not sure what one does when speaking to a strange family member.

Funny Little Things

One of the things I enjoy so much about my Tahitian family is their sense of humor. There is a lot of laughing to be done here and I guess I'm the man for the job. I've always appreciated funny people.
We were playing poker with some pretty professional looking chips -although with no money. Aimana proceeded to do an impression of an American doing an impression of a French person. Talk about complex! But when Americans try to sound French, they tend to just put a "Z" sound in between all the words. For example, "Ze cardz are on ze table." Actual french says, "Les cartes sont sur la table." Not a "Z" sound to be found there. But he was quite hilarious doing this impression, keeping his pinkie finger on his chin, as he dropped one chip at a time into the pot. When he'd win the pot, his eyes would move back and forth crazily as his arms surrounded his winnings, drawing all the chips to himself. At one point, Tama and I couldn't hardly breathe from laughing so hard.

Aimana's little 5 year old boy, Taimoana, did another impression yesterday that really made me laugh. He was laying in a hammock and told me he was a person watching TV. He then had an incredibly bored expression on his face and proceeded to lift his hand every 2 seconds and make a little beep sound like he was changing the channel. He is truly an observer of life. He doesn't speak english. But at one point he almost fell and my automatic response was, "Careful!" Now he walks around saying, "Careful!" And he does it when it's appropriate. He is beyond his years. We went to the Immigration office to get my visa and he went along. When the lady helping me with the paperwork stepped out of the room for a moment, he whispered into my ear, "Do you want to marry her?"

Tama is also quite funny. You may have heard the old song, "Only You". Tama sings it, "Only Me". He seems to always have a song to sing. We were swatting at flies today and he started singing, "I believe I can fly..." It is really cool to see him interacting with his 4 month old son. He's got that little guy laughing all the time. Tama gave me a fruit to taste that I'd never seen before. He told me to be careful because it's got a nut inside. I said, "Just like your house." Wish I could post here a picture of his face when I said that. Today I noticed a keepsake box in the shape of a turtle. They used to have a pet turtle that has since died. I asked him if he has that box in his house in memory of his pet. He said, "Yes, we keep his ashes in there." :)

Sometimes I've thought that it would be a good idea to keep a journal of all the funny little things that happen to us throughout the week. I saw a movie once that was incredibly sad. But at the end the narration said, "Sometimes laughter can take you by surprise too." (and not just the painful things in life) God sends a lot of funny things our way. It's good to take notice!

Sur La Radio...Encore!

Well, it happened again. We were on our way to church this past Sunday morning, listening to the Christian radio station, and suddenly Bonnie Flores started singing. It was a reggae-flavored song titled, "Think On These Things". I couldn't help but laugh with excitement about it. Tama told me, "They play this one all the time." I thought they might like that one. You hear reggae music often here. So, thanks again Bonnie! Your voice continues to bless my life and many other lives as well.

The song is based on Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."

I'm very thankful for this scripture. It reminds me that the responsibility lies with me. We can't just sit around waiting for heavenly things to come floating into our minds. We have to make an effort to dwell on the good things. It's up to us. And more and more I'm realizing that it's actually possible to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Jesus Christ. God has given us the ability to do this. And more than just sheer will power, I think it's love that motivates the muscles of our thought life to grow. If it's a..."Oh, ok, I guess I'd better do this..." kind of thing, it doesn't usually last. But when you're in love -it changes everything. And that's part of the greatest commandment...to love Him with our minds.

Here's a line from "Think On These Things"...
It's time to go to God's Word and feast your eyes on heavenly things
Anytime or place, take a flight above the clouds, and think about "whatever"...

On Tahitian Airwaves

I just had a bit of a surreal experience. I was enjoying lunch with the Jamets on the deck of their home. They had the radio on in the background. We were talking and without taking much notice I began to think that the song playing was familiar to me. Then I suddenly realized it was Brandi Parson and she was singing a song I wrote- "I Will Wait". I was thrilled!
The last time I was here they told me that the Christian station had played "For All Time" quite a bit on the radio. I thought they might like that one because it features a lot of percussion. Apparently they've been playing quite a few of the songs from my worship CD. The station seems to play an even mix of french worship songs and english worship -with even some Tahitian songs. How awesome to think that our CD is touching people's lives in ways we aren't even aware of. I sure hope Brandi hears that she's been on the air in Tahiti. :)

Ministry In Tahiti

Pastor Richardson, from the Assembly of God church in Faaa, La Bonne Nouvelle, called and asked me to speak at his church. A few years ago he had expressed this desire and I was happy to accept his invitation. So I spoke for their Friday night service -as well as their Sunday morning service. I'd noticed someone taking pictures of me during Friday's service. I was then surprised to see a picture of me in Sunday morning's bulletin!
Pastor Richardson was out of town speaking at the church in Raiatea so his Associate Pastor, Greg, translated for me. Pastor Greg was terrific. I found out he'd just flown in after spending 2 months in Switzerland with family. I'm sure he had jet lag -but he spoke -and interpreted, with passion. We had a wonderful time of prayer with many people afterward. Sometimes I get concerned about the language barrier and if I'm connecting or not. But God knows how to connect the dots. :)

Saturday, Toimata, (Yves's daughter) asked me to work with the youth from their church. They'd been having a camp at the church for the weekend. She wanted me to teach them "How Great Is Our God" for a Christmas program they are preparing. It turns out I'll be here for that! So I gave them -kind of a typical choir practice. But since we were only learning one song, I took a little time to talk with them about worhip. Then we did some warm-ups. I wasn't sure how they would respond to some of those silly-sounding warm-ups, but they sang along. I also spoke with them about some singing techniques. I found out later that they'd never had someone do that before and were happy that I'd taught them some things. They were also teaching me -as I'd never sung "How Great Is Our God" in french before. I had dinner with the youth and then they had an awesome worship service that night. Teremu, the youth leader, led us and it was beautiful.