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.

Kathryn Boswell, one of the participants in the trip to the Solomon Islands this past summer shares her experiences. Kathryn Boswell's Solomon Report 2012

It’s hard to roll all the exciting things that happened in the Solomon Islands on my recent trip, but this newsletter will give you some of the highlights!

Click here to download this pdf file: August 2012 Matzke Messenger

 

Enjoy!

Martha

Thursday was my 53rd birthday.  I didn’t think anyone here knew, but thanks to Facebook, they did.  The morning started at the Language booth and a steady stream of visitors. About mid morning, a friend (who also taught Emily and Sarah at the International School) turned up with a chocolate cake and candles!  That was a fun surprise.

Later, some of the ladies from our mission group here and the 3 lovely young ladies from the Discovery Team took me out to lunch. We went to the restaurant by the sea that has the dolphins. We had a nice lunch and enjoyed some of the chocolate cake from earlier.  (Karen, who organized the lunch is trying to keep the candles from blowing out.)

After lunch, I asked to be dropped off at the bank where we took out our mortgage. A bank officer checked on the balance of our mortgage and then I called our rental agents and asked them to come down with a check.  A few minutes later, I was able to pay off the mortgage and walked away with a receipt.  We OWN our house in the Solomons.  Anyone for a Dave Ramsey shout?  (We aren’t debt free because we DO have a mortgage in Dallas….) What a sweet way to celebrate my birthday.

We bought the house in 1999 – 6 months before we were evacuated and left the country for a year.  We continued to make the mortgage payments through that year we were in the USA, wondering if we would see the house again. The house is full of happy memories and a few headaches of termites and months went we didn’t have a renter.  So it is with great joy and thankfulness to God for his provision.  We look forward to living in the house again and in the meantime are grateful for great renters.

By mid afternoon Kit, one of the Discovery gals, and I headed back to the dorm where we are staying, while others stayed at the booth.  Our dear friends, Patson and Judy, were heading down to the Festival to see the panpipe group group from their home village and we went along as well.

One of the features of the Festival Village is a custom style house from each of the Solomon Islands provinces.  Patson, Judy and their kids are standing in front of the house from their province of Makira  along with a custom style canoe.

 

 

 

 

 

As always it’s fun to see the cultural groups.  This man is from the Solomon Islands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And these beauties are from Fiji.

After being at the show for a couple of hours, a friend picked me up and we went up to their house for another birthday celebration.  I woke up thinking no one would know it was my birthday, but in the end, felt loved and celebrated!

 

 

 

 

Except for singing American the Beautiful on the way home this evening, there was little to make it feel like a holiday.  This morning I worked at the Languages of the Pacific booth.  We are getting quite a bit of traffic and interest. Each day we are asking people to tell us how they say a particular word in their language.  Today it was ‘paddle’.  The words are written on the whiteboard along with the language name.  People are very interested to see the words in the different languages. We also have maps and ask visitors to sign the map where there language group is located.

In the early afternoon my colleagues came down to take the afternoon shift, freeing 3 of us to go see the Festival.  First we went for lunch at a new restaurant by the sea where they have a few dolphins swimming in a small lagoon.

Then we went to the Festival Village.  It was great to finally see some of it.  There was dancing from Malaita Province and other places around the Pacific.  The Festival Committee has done a wonderful job.  The Village really is well done and amazing.  I’ll include some photos.

I hope that I sleep better tonight.  I’ve had trouble falling asleep each night and am feeling pretty tired. Enjoy the photos.

 

 

The day started early with a 4:30 am departure from the house to head toward the far end of town where the cultural welcome for the festival began.  We and many others arrived in the dark with a light drizzle falling.  The various country delegations were sitting on the beach in their native costumes and took turns singing as everyone waited for the Prime Minister to arrive. 

Shortly after the Prime Minister arrived, the MC told everyone to look out to sea.  A few lights could be seen on ships off shore.  Soon the sky exploded with the thunderous noise of fireworks.  In a country where fireworks are very rare, for many this would have been their first experience with them.  The crowd went wild.

The fireworks subsided and a Solomon Islands ‘warrior’ in traditional dress, paced the beach looking out to sea for ‘enemies’.  As dawn broke, a line of traditional war canoes dotted the horizon.  Silently they came toward the beach with the ‘warriors’ paddling right and left on alternating sides of the canoes.  Just as they almost landed on the beach, they reverse paddled backward only to once again come charging for the beach.  It was amazing and glorious to watch their synchronized arms glide the canoes almost silently across the water.

Next came the Polynesian boats which had come from their home countries.  It is fascinating to think about these boats navigating across the Pacific all the way to the Solomons.  There was calling, blowing of the conch shell and dances like the New Zealand haka as the boats came close to the beach.  It was an amazing morning!

 

After that exciting morning came lots of work.  We began putting together the Languages of the Pacific stall.  It’s starting to take shape and really look good!

We put up this huge “Languages of the Solomons” map and it was an instant magnet to Solomon Islanders who came to find their language name.  We will be keeping track of how many languages we identify at the festival and have a counter to keep track.  (Thank you, Carey!)

We worked on the booth until 7 pm and since the morning started early, I’m super tired.  Another busy day ahead for tomorrow.  The Language booth should open and we hope to start seeing people come through!  You can pray that we connect well with people and pique their interest in Bible translation!

 

This weekend has been a little slower which has been nice.  Yesterday we went down to the museum to check out the place where the language display will be set up.  It was almost cleaned up and we were told to come set up on Monday. The museum is getting renovating and won’t open until Thursday.  The renovated museum will feature a permanent display on the history of Bible translation in the Solomons.  Pretty cool!

Today I went to the church we attended here – it’s always good to see our friends there.  After lunch we headed to the combined church service for the festival. High ranking Solomon Islands dignitaries came as well as many others.  The program was long, but full of nice signing and praise to God.

Tomorrow, a group of us are heading out early – at 4:30 am for the official arrival of traditional canoes.  Traditional gifts will be exchanged with the Solomons.  It will be fun to see the special canoes.  I’m off to bed soon, so I will end here and try and upload some photos from the weekend.