Jan. 24th, 2013
We ran into the office a little early today to meet the boys from the hospital. They were coming to pick up 18 more wheelchairs! We have really started to move them out now. We can’t do a press release until the Minister of Health will meet with us and sign a contract that the church has in place. He just doesn’t see the need to do that so we are getting them out now by word of mouth. We have already run out of one size but we have to give out every chair we have and have orders for 270 more, before they will ship us any more. Every person has to be evaluated and fit for the right chair and then we can order more in. It is exciting to see them going to people who really need them. Some have been waiting for up to 7 years.
After lunch I made some brownies for the party tonight. Then I helped Tara get some of her laundry done. We let her do her laundry here and she gives us stuff that she can’t take with her. It’s a great trade off for us! Today she gave me a pizza cutter and a Pampered Chef pizza stone. Wow, I don’t even have one of those at home!
The party tonight was lots of fun. It was just for the people who work with Tara or go to church with her and her family. Not all of the senior missionaries know her all that well. We had pizza, garlic bread, fruit and desserts. We just visited and then gave her some small funny gifts. We hate to see her go but she and her husband are ready to move on. We heard tonight that the name for her replacement has been turned in so hopefully that position will be filled by the time we get back next week.
We are leaving on Monday to fly to the outer islands and then take a boat to a smaller one out there somewhere. We will be gone until Saturday. We will be doing Zone Conferences, checking the missionary housing and looking for possible humanitarian projects. In our spare time we plan to find the beaches and do a little snorkeling. Alan is really excited about this trip. He spent most of his mission on the islands we are going to visit. He didn’t dream that we would get to see them this soon. The Lord is really blessing us. The office couple is going home in March and the Mission President will be released in July. He wants us to know as much as we can learn about the mission before he leaves so that we can help the new Mission President get started. We are so grateful for the experiences that we are having.
