I’m in Brisbane, Australia! My flight leaving Dallas was late so I had to be put on a later flight to Sydney.  The trip to Sydney took longer than the scheduled 14 hours 20 minutes due to head winds so my flight to Brisbane was delayed.  Without an Australian cell phone, it was tricky getting in touch with my friend, but we managed and now I am enjoying her hospitality.

The friend I’m staying with is a Solomon Islander who attended the same church we did in Honiara.  The family immigrated to Australia several years ago.  It’s been fun to catch up and speak Pijin again.  This morning we hope to go visit a boat that is being refitted for a medical ministry in the Solomon Islands. My friend Katie is a nurse and is interested in helping on a missions trip to the Solomon Islands.

I woke up at 2:30 am wide awake.  I’m sure to pay for this later today, but it’s great to be on this side of the world again.

“The Gravy Train is coming next week.”  It’s something we hear every few months here in our missions community.  It’s a site to see, really.  Some generous folks in Michigan collect donated food from a restaurant supplier.  When they get enough, they load up several trailers that contain chest freezers along with frozen meats and boxes of dry goods.  At their own expense, they bring everything down to Dallas.

Yesterday, Tim and others helped unload the food into the dining room at our center.  The dining room staff takes what it can use for feeding the students and staff.  This morning a group of us parceled out large bags of flour, jars of mayonnaise, mustard and A1 sauce into smaller containers.  The dining room table were laden with food and things like aluminum foil and coffee filters. There were also bags of sausages, meat patties and shrimp.

This afternoon we went back to the dining room and had the opportunity to pick up things that we could use for our family.  Our freezers and cupboards are full. We will be enjoying these goodies for some time.

We are so thankful for these friends of Wycliffe in Michigan who generously give of their time and resources in order to bless us all with these items.  (And of course I am proud they are Michiganders!)

2011 International Mother Language Day: The information and communication technologies for the safeguarding and promotion of languages and linguistic diversity

Yesterday was International Mother Language Day – a day that the UN has set aside to recognize the importance of preserving languages.  You can read in our attached newsletter the work Tim has done in the Solomon Islands to help promote learning in the mother tongue.   Tim’s new assignment will help give people access to practical helps in mother tongue education practices on the internet.

Double click on the link below to open the newsletter.  Thank you for taking the time to read our latest news.

Blessings,

Tim and MarthaMatzke

Messenger – February 2011

“Dad, Safari isn’t working on this computer!” “I’m out of memory space, Dad. This computer is a dinosaur!”

With computer problems coming more frequently, it was time to look for a ‘new’ computer. So the past few days we started to look on Craigslist. Today Tim found a Mac computer similar to one we had in the Solomons for $350. It had been listed for $500 last week, but he had reduced the price. He contacted the buyer and then he and Emily drove an hour up to north Dallas to look at it.

While they were en route, the seller looked up our family website. When TIm arrived he started asking Tim about Wycliffe and what we do. The man is a Christian. He told Tim that he wished he could just give us the computer, but they needed to get some money out of it. Then he said, “How about if I sell it to you for $250.”

Wow. Very cool. We are so thankful for the way God provided for our needs!

To all of you who pray for us and financially support us, we want to say thank you and Merry Christmas.  This video expresses why we do what we do.

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!
Tim and Martha, Emily ad Sarah

Read our latest newsletter:

Thanksgiving Newsletter

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.