A couple of months ago I went to a yard sale where there were antique kitchen linens for sale for cheap.  I couldn’t resist these old pieces of hand-stitched pieces of art, stitched long ago by women who had a lot less free time than I do.  Many looked like they had been carefully made and never used. I can understand their hesitation in risking their handiwork being stained.

I was wanting some curtains for our breakfast nook area and started playing around with the linens.  Some friends came and gave advise on what I could do and this past week I finally got around to putting them together.  Emily says it looks like there is a big fat woman in our window and is threatening to make some legs to hang down from the curtains!

It was a lot of fun to do something creative for our home and I am happy to have found a practical and pretty way to use these old linens.

Last week while in a Hispanic grocery store I bought some sweet potatoes very similar to the ones we ate in the Solomons.  We cooked a couple of bundles of greens in coconut milk and added a precious can of Solomon’s tuna.  The greens on top of the sweet potatoes made for a delicious island dinner.  Food for our bodies and souls!

Recently a colleague returned from a visit to the Solomon Islands.  He carried back with him a package for me from my friend, Lucy, a dear friend who attended our church in the capital city. She is also the mother of one of my friends, Junija Martha.  (Junija added Martha to her name when she was about 4 or 5 because we were special friends!)

Just before we left the Solomons last year, Lucy told me she had asked her brother to send some shell money jewelry to the capital city.  Lucy is from the island of Malaita where this these handmade beads are made and used for brideprice and settling disputes.  Lucy was very sad that the necklace didn’t arrive before we left.

So it was a wonderful surprise to hear that Lucy had sent a small parcel back to the USA.  Inside was a lavalava (sarong) with my name on it, the necklace and the longer necklace which is worn by brides when they marry.  What an amazing gift.  I never thought that we would own a piece like that.

When I brought the shell money home, Emily said, “Olketa no fogetim yumi yet.” (They haven’t forgotten us.)  Indeed.  While these necklaces are expensive pieces in the Solomon Islands, the real value is the relationships of which they remind us. Holding these beads in my hand, a wave of memories floods my soul and warms my heart as I think of fun times with my friend, Lucy and her family.  They are indeed a treasure of immeasurable value.

I don’t usually buy bananas here in the USA.  After eating tree-ripened bananas for years, the bananas picked green and hard as a rock in Central America so that they can be transported to the USA and chemically ripened, just doesn’t cut if for me. American bananas are pretty tasteless compared to the wide variety of bananas in the South Pacific.

But yesterday as I walked through the produce aisle, these cute little bananas caught my eye.  They are similar to my favorite variety in the Solomons so I bought some and took them home.  That’s when I saw the instructions on the bag that made me laugh – “PEEL BANANA FROM BOTTOM”.  I always peel them from the bottom – a trick I learned from Pacific Islanders.  They are easier to peel that way and you can hold on to the stem while you eat them.  I think my Solomon Islands friends would think it humorous to find bananas sold in a bag with instructions on how to peel them.

And the taste?  They are not as good as the bananas in the Solomons, but still better than your average American banana.

Tim is in Minnesota this week.  His alma mater, Concordia University is having an alumni reunion/homecoming weekend.  He’s never attended one before but we decided it would be a good chance for him to try and connect with old friends in Minnesota.

The trip seems to be coming together for the trip and he has speaking engagements lined up for both Sundays.  He will be getting together with family and friends during the week and will look for opportunities to share with them about our ministry and how people can become involved.

Please pray for ‘God appointments’ and open hearts as Tim shares.  We are encouraged to see pledges for our support start to climb and are trusting God to lead more churches and individuals to our support team.