Yesterday evening I had the opportunity to say hello, and good-bye to some very close friends here.  Kevin and Machi Rietvelt came to live in the Solomon Islands almost at the same time we did.  They built up a ministry here, essentially from scratch, that involved a wide variety of things; spiritual teaching, leading retreats, organizing the construction of school classrooms and local clinic buildings, organizing Bible studies in the prison, training local pastors in preaching, starting a disability center, starting a small school in the local hospital for children under long-term care, and on, and on, and on…..

Kevin and Machi were also very special friends to us over the years.  We enjoyed many hours of wonderful fellowship with them.  And received a lot of strength, encouragement and good advice from them. Now they are heading back to their home country of Australia to supposedly retire.  And while I know their schedules will slow down, I also know that they will never really quit ministering to others.

They have had an incredible impact here in the Solomon Islands, in the way they have strengthened churches and other organizations and through the hundreds of lives they have touched.

Kevin and Machi, we will miss you greatly.  Thanks for your years here.  And may you Fare Well in God’s hands.

Back when we lived and served here in the Solomon Islands, I was heavily involved with the Literacy Association of Solomon Islands (LASI), helping them grow in management and strategic planning, and in the production of literacy materials. I had heard good things about the work they had been doing since we left, and I wanted to see for myself, and catch up with some of my friends there. So I stopped by their office one afternoon.
What a thrill it was to have my friend MIchael show me the various books they had produced. With continued help from other colleagues, they have produced a number of books for people who have just learned to read, books to help them practice and build their reading skills. And they have continued to produce reading primers, basic reading instructional books, using the method that I taught them. The picture below is the collection of those primer books, each one in a different language. Of the 17 books there, only two of them existed when I left. The rest were produced by LASI after we had gone.

Yes, the investment we made, and that you, our partners made with us, is still bearing fruit in the Solomon Islands.

After a long night in the air to Australia, 4 hours in the Brisbane airport, another three hour flight to the Solomons, I finally arrived yesterday. All went smoothly.
It’s definitely good to be back. I woke up this morning to parrots chatting with each other as they flew from tree to tree. There was that strong sense of the familiar as I looked out over the calm sea to the ships just off shore and Savo and Nggela Islands further off in the distance.
But the best part so far has been seeing colleagues and friends, greeting each other with joy, and starting to reconnect. Yes, it’s good to be back.

Because the Solomon Islands is a small and relatively isolated country, there are many niceties (and sometimes necessities) of life that are not easily available. So whenever word gets out that someone is coming to visit, the traveler invariably gets asked to hand carry a variety of things.
And so I have a rather substantial collection of things to pack into my suitcase and take with me to the Solomon Islands for other people. You can see from the picture that my suitcase is going to be rather full, and I haven’t started packing my clothes yet.

In fact, one of our colleagues has referred to us travelers as “Pack Mules of the Pacific” because we do this so often.
While it certainly limits personal space for packing, we have had many friends hand carry various items to the Solomon Islands in the past for us, so I don’t mind doing the same for others.
I leave for the Solomon Islands tonight, 16 hours to Brisbane, Australia, 4 hours in the airport there, and then 3 hours to Honiara. I’ll be there for 2 weeks, then back to Australia to attend meetings and connect with people in Cairns, Melbourne, Then on to East Timor to work with colleagues to prepare education materials.