Friends and Family

Today was my third full day in Samoa, as most of you know. We did even more visits to Samoan homes and learned even more about the culture. Today I learned: 

• When invited into a Samoan home, do not expect furniture. You can sit on the floor.
• When sitting on a Samoan floor, sit "indian style". 
• When sitting "indian style" on the Samoan floor try not to fidget too much. You can move if your leg goes to sleep but really only because you are a "palagi" (white person).
• When fidgeting while sitting "indian style" on a Samoan floor, try to be discrete and not let them know that you are uncomfortable.

Needless to say, the visits with the Samoan families were very interesting. We went into two houses and sat on the floor for a grand total of probably one hour and forty-five minutes. Let me tell you as an inflexible (for the most part) palagi, this was difficult.

We also had church tonight for the first time since I have been here. It was a small group, 12 people total (including Marci, Melinda and myself) and we met in the Pacific Horizons High school classroom. Right now, an issue in the church is how to talk to family members, friends, and other non-believers about the Gospel. The Samoans in the church are finding it hard to approach people and actually brave enough to talk about that fact. I know that more American Christians struggle with that then would probably say that they do. Tonight we addressed the question of proving the existence of God to someone who does not agree that the Bible is the holy, inspired Word of God. I was impressed with David (my missionary father and preacher of the Tafuna Church of Christ) for even messing with this question at all. We looked at Paul's sermon to the people in Athens in Acts 17 and verses in Romans 2 about the existence of God being plain and obvious. We came to some good real conclusions about why people, Samoan and American, can come to the conclusion that God is not real or that no "higher power" exists. Tia (an elder) and Pua (his wife) gave some very good answers about why Samoan people might reject the thought of God. The blend of the American and Samoan influences, even in church, is quite interesting when you stop to think about it. 

Tomorrow we are going to go to the Hospital to pick up medicine for David. The only pharmacy on island is in the hospital. Being that the island is about 18 miles long and 5 miles wide, it's not so surprising that the only doctors on the island are employed at the hospital as well. I am really interested to see what medicine looks like in a different country.

Tonight we had fresh, chilled, coconut juice (it wasn't quite ripened into milk yet). It was not at all what I thought it would taste like. It actually had very little flavor. I do not think that I will make it a regular staple on a drink, but for the one time only kind of experience, it wasn't half-bad. Today I also had some of the best Chinese food I have ever tasted at David's favorite Chinese place on island. 

Tomorrow, we are also going to visit more families that have children in the age group that I am going to be teaching on Sunday mornings and that we are going to be planning activities for while we are here. Today we met about 2-3 that might come to our outings, and we are going to meet more tomorrow. I think that Samoan children are some of the most beautiful children I have ever seen. When we start getting to know them, I am sure that I will be getting lots of pictures of them. 

Speaking of pictures, I am working on getting a presentation that would flip through the pictures for you up on the blog soon. I hope that this has been a worthy update. I am sorry that it is so long. I pray that all of your summers are going well, and that you will continue praying for the children and the people here in Samoa that have already stolen my heart and are not about to give it back.