Tonga!

Tuesday, April 22nd

We had a devotional this morning and then headed into the office. We found out today that the shipment of medical supplies from Australia that has arrived in Tonga has been put in storage and now we have to pay a storage fee on it. We needed to get it out of storage and over to our office. We can store it here! While Alan was working on that, Lord Tulivia, the Governor of Vava’u came to our office. He wants our help with purchasing a boat for the outer islands of Vava’u. While I was talking to him about that, I told him that Alan was trying to take care of these storage fees for the equipment we were sending to the hospital in Vava’u. He knows all about our project, we have talked to him about it in the past. He about had a fit! He got right on the phone and called the Dr. at the hospital and then started making calls to the Minister of Health. He said that we should not have to pay any of those charges, the ministry should take care of them or just wave them. This is a humanitarian donation to their country and they are making us pay to store it???!!! He was really upset. He told us not to pay the bill and not to worry about it, he would take care of it. When he left, I had to smile. It was not a coincidence that he showed up at our office today and that when Alan went to pay the bill they had raised the charge so he didn’t have enough money to pay them. It really is amazing how the Lord works his little miracles. But I love seeing them happen and I will truly miss being a part of them.
When we got home we met with Taimani one last time. (I love her name!  It is so musical.  We should have a grand daughter named Taimani.  Just saying ---)  She is leaving on her mission to the Philippines tomorrow. She will be on the same plane that the Johnsons fly out on, so we will see her at the airport tomorrow. We just wanted to give her some money for her mission and I made her some hot pads that she can use when she comes home and gets married. It was fun to work with her at the office and she really helped us with some computer issues when we first got here. We will miss her but she is so ready to go. She has had her call for 4 months and she just wants to get started.

After dinner we were able to go for another walk. It doesn’t cool off enough until it gets dark, so we can’t walk very fast, but at least we are getting a little exercise.