JLH and TIS: Life in Samoa

I'm adjusting to life here in Samoa. Some things are just like home (JLH) and some are quite different and make us say our new favorite abbreviation TIS (This is Samoa).

Here is a bit of both, things that are JLH and things that are TIS...

JLH: Things are slow here just like the leisurely, lazy pace of a Southern summer afternoon. BUT, even in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, things aren't quite this slow ;)

Yes, that says 5mph

Though that isn't the case everywhere on the island, the speed limits are pretty low here (the highest being 30mph) and they pretty much have to be with winding roads, large pot holes and lots of unfinished roads.

It's probably better with low speed limits anyways since TIS: seat belts aren't required here except for in the front seat and...

TIS: People can (legally) ride around in the back of a pick-up truck. I LOVE IT!!!!

Me, Sam (my neighbor the nurse!) and Tim (a boy who lives on campus) off to the beach one afternoon

JLH: Summer showers appear out of nowhere and the bottom drops out of the sky, but just for a bit and then the sunshine returns :)

 I looked like Sam at first with my eyes pelted by raindrops until someone had the great idea for me to put on my goggles ;)

JLH: Palmetto trees blowin' and waves crashin' in those summer showers :)

 TIS: Mountains right beside the beach - so incredibly breathtaking

TIS: Back home we have fresh tomatoes on the roadside; here it is pineapple :) That whole big plant produces just one at a time!?!

JLH: Baking cookies for a church picnic (and eating cookie dough!) in my pjs with good friends... Only, next time we won't bother with the baking because TIS with no AC and our room was about as hot as the oven for hours afterwards!

Me and my co-missionaries/roomies, Bekah and Jenn

JLH: Saturday mornings are spent around the sports field. For me growing up, it was soccer but here I went to a softball game to see Rachel (the little girl who lives on campus) play first base :)

BUT, TIS: I wasn't kidding when I said dogs are everywhere. This dog just chilled on the sidelines and walked onto the field but no one paid him any attention. He didn't seem to have an owner :(

JLH: Kids love peek-a-boo!!!

 Brandon (one of the other missionaries) playing with Tim and Rachel's brother, Demetrius

TIS: They eat bananas hot... either cooking them on a fire like below or boiling them. They end up tasting kinda like a baked potato. 

But, most everything I end up eating here is cold because TIS: we store almost all our food in the fridge (even bread and chips and peanut butter) because, if not, the ants will attack. My roomie Bekah wrote about it in her recent blogpost.

JLH: Kids love VBS :)

We have two more VBSes starting this week. Please continue to pray that students not only come out but that they also connect with us and Christ.

We've recently been looking to the woman at the well in scripture and she is a great inspiration. We don't want to get caught up in hoping huge numbers come out to VBS; instead, we are seeking to focus more on connecting with who God brought us here to love on, even if that is just one child or one adult. One new believer is definitely a praise and can be a powerful influence, just like the woman at the well. Because, TIS, they have villages here instead of neighborhoods and that makes a great parallel with the woman at the well. She connected first with Christ and then shared her experience which led many others in her village to believe:

Many of the Samaritans from that village believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”          - John 4:39

So that is our prayer. For these children to connect with Christ and then share their experience with their families and villages and that God would use that to draw others to believe in him.

Lastly, JLH, I appreciate your prayers and you reading my blog! Thanks!!!