Guam!

So, I am in Guam, alive and well! We had plenty of adventures getting here, including: losing the fan cover (?- I’m not actually sure what that means) of the van I was driving to the airport in New Zealand on the road, which gave us a 45 minute detour (not bad, all things considered!). We did make our plane almost exactly (punctuality is my super power, after all), and then flew it old school to Korea. We actually flew directly over Guam, and then continued for another 4 and a half hours. Yes. All to save a few hundred dollars. So that was a long flight. With not much entertainment, but at least we had each other. Also, I never did actually figure out during that flight that there are two audio channels on the plane, one in Korean and one in English, so during the movie, I was pretty sad that it was only in Korean. And then really embarrassed when I figured out on the next flight what had happened.

Anyway, after a brief stop in Seoul, we came back another 4 and half hours to Guam. And now we are here. It’s sticky here. Kind of hot, too, but mostly just sticky. The YWAM base we’re working with is in the part of the island that is mostly populated with Micronesians, which is really cool. (A lot of the population here are not actually from Micronesia.) The base has been going through some tough times, so there is not much power—it’s only on in half of the base—and all the internet and phones have been turned off, so we’re trying to get creative with that. It was definitely an adventure when nobody picked us up at the airport and we couldn't reach the base by phone! Or at all! They eventually showed up 4 hours late, after a nice air force officer bought us breakfast.

There seems to be a lot to do here—just walking through the neighborhood, there are tons of kids who want to hang out, and lots to do to help the base here get back to running order, and a lot of churches who want the team to help out with different things. I’m trying to wrap my mind around living here a little longer than this two months and what that will look like when I’m the only western person on base, and how to run a DTS that is suited for islanders, not westerners. I think I have a lot to learn, so I’m glad to have these two months to figure things out a little more and really pray and find ways to continue the things that this team starts while they are here. I’m really excited about the possibilities, though! I’m pretty sure that there are some ridiculous stories coming up, so stay tuned!