The Solomon Islands has beautiful postage stamps. For the past five years we have been in talking with the Philatelic bureau about producing a commemorative stamp to recognize the importance of Bible translation in the Solomon Islands.

The churches of the Solomon Islands have declared 2008, the Year of the Bible. With the Pijin Bible coming out on July 7 2008 – the 30th anniversary of the Independence for the Solomon Islands, the timing is perfect.

I guess the Philatelic stamp committee agreed. We are finally getting our stamp and the first day of issue will be on Independence Day. Our colleague, Robin, drew this rough sketch which a professional artist will use to produce the final stamp. We are pretty excited about this project which we hope will honor God’s Word and be an encouragement to our national friends who work so hard on Bible translation.

I honestly never thought we would go back to homeschooling Emily, but here we are again. In December Emily graduated from grade 9 at the international school here. Grade 9 is as high as this school goes, so we had to make some decisions in regard to Emily’s schooling. In this photo, Emily is performing a science experiment in our kitchen.

Emily is now enrolled in NorthStar Academy – a Christian online high school program designed to accomodate MK’s (missionary kids) like Emily. Emily’s classmates are literally all around the world. So far she is enjoying it. We are thankful for an educational solution that works for Emily and allows us to continue to minister here.

We are VERY thankful to a friend who teaches at NorthStar who is donating her salary toward scholarships for MK’s like Emily. In fact, all of Emily’s tuition has been met! God’s people using their gifts and talents to help get God’s Word out to those who don’t have it in their own language. How cool is that?