Field Ministry Fun

Today, I joined Shay Mazzei on a Bible Study. It was a unique experience. Allow me to paint a picture for you. First of all, it is pouring rain—not just a drizzle—a downpour. Every so often lightening flashes, followed by a clap of thunder. We arrive at a four-plex apartment. The door opens to a Yapese woman named Janet and her six children. The youngest is sleeping but because the others will not go down for a nap, she suggests we study outside under a tarp pulled over metal framing. We sit on a stack of wall paneling and discuss scriptures that show how important communication is to a marriage. Janet is a diligent student and obviously enjoys the conversation. In the window of the apartment one of the children, a little girl named Billie with huge dark brown pools for eyes, wearing a pink dress jumps up and down on a mattress as she watches us.

In the yard is a Jack Fruit tree. The largest fruit is about eight inches in diameter by eighteen inches long—a very strange looking thing. Janet tells us that one fell on a cabinet earlier and made quite a racket. I don't think I'd like to be under the tree when one decides to fall. Beyond the wall surrounding the apartments are two or three shacks with corrugated metal roofs. Two roosters stand on top. To my right is a kitchen stove that has seen better days and the ground is covered in carpet scraps. When we leave Janet insists I take some clippings off a plant I admired on the way in. A very pleasant experience and in some ways refreshing!