Friday, May 17th
We got an email that Alan read when he went over to the Service Center to update the I pad last night. Steve Stebbings, our big boss from New Zealand is coming on Monday. He sent a list - two pages long - of things he wants to do while he is here. A lot of it had to do with previous projects that we will have no time to research before he arrives. Things that were done before we arrived and we have only heard about. Needless to say, I had one more reason for not sleeping well last night!
We had a meeting set up with Sione to come into the office this morning. He and Alan were going to see the man who will be building the stand and supplying the tank for our project. Sione was still smiling ear to ear when he came in. He didn’t tell anyone in his village about the approval but he told his wife. She was one of the election judges in their village. She whispered it to the town officer when he came in to vote and he told EVERYONE IN THE VILLAGE!! Sione told us that they are all so thrilled and excited. Most of the village just hung around the voting area talking about it all day long, especially the older people.
When they got back we had a party. I made a cake last night and we bought some ice cream so we could celebrate. Once again, Sione was overwhelmed. Alan said a few words about how happy we are the project can move forward now and then Sione gave a tender and humble reply. He once again said that this will save a poor village and that we were the answer to many, many prayers. He knows Heavenly Father sent us to help them and they are so grateful. How we love Sione. If meeting him and helping this village is the only thing we do while we are here, it will have been so worth it!!
When our celebration party was over we went next door to Waves, to have lunch as an office. We planned it to welcome Gina Nui to our Welfare Team. She is our new Employment Specialist and we are thrilled to have her. She really knows her way around a computer so she will be a great help to those of us who don’t! Plus, she is a lovely lady. She is the wife of Howard Nui, the Service Center Manager that we work with. We are hoping that when she complains about the internet maybe something will happen. We’ll see.
