Last week I was part of a workshop entitled, “Arts for a Better Future” in Dallas.  While ‘arts’ is not something I am actively  involved in, I was asked to attend the workshop along with a group of students who are traveling to the Solomon Islands as part of a Wycliffe Discovery Trip.   The students will use the training they received to conduct workshops in the Solomon Islands during the 2012 Festival of Pacific Arts.

A Solomon Islander, Malcolm, came to Dallas to attend the workshop with the students and help lead the team back to the Solomons.  Malcolm recently completed Bible school in Australia and is interested in using the arts in ministry.  We didn’t know Malcolm before he came, but he was a great addition to the group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malcolm was excited to find his language name on this display in our offices, so very far from the Solomon Islands.  (The board has all the language names of the world.)

 

 

During the workshop, Malcolm lead devotions and taught the group a song in the Kwara’ae language.  It was beautiful.

 

 

 

 

Malcolm arrived early for the workshop and stayed at our house until he moved to the guesthouse on the SIL center with the other students.  It was fun to have a Solomon Islander visit us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another friend from PNG, Lizzie, stayed with us too. We adopted her into our family a couple of years ago when we met her at a workshop. It was too fun to have a Pijin speaking household for the week – even though Lizzie’s Pijin from PNG is a bit different, we all understood each other.