On Tuesday Emily and went to Duncanville High School – the school she will attend beginning in August. Duncanville boasts the second largest high school campus in the United States and a student body of nearly 4000 students. Wow! That’s a big school!

We met with the counselors to determine how many credits they would give her for schooling she received elsewhere and we were happy to find out that she has more than enough credits for going into 11th grade. One of the requirements she needs to fulfill is 2 years of a foreign language. We are happy that they have ASL (American Sign Language) which Emily was interested in learning anyway!

Although the size of the school is a bit daunting, they offer a wide selection of classes and we are thankful for that.

This has been an exciting week for our family. We found a house in Duncanville that we love. Here is the outside of 514 Longworth. We saw the house on Wednesday morning, put an offer on it in the afternoon and received word on Thursday morning that our offer had been accepted.

The house has:

3 pecan trees

3 pear trees

an oak tree

about 1/3 of an acre

space for a garden and a dog…

The house was built in 1960. A realtor bought it in October 2008 and has totally refurbished the house. It has a new roof, air conditioner, water heater, stove and microwave.

We are in the Lone Star State – the front door features a lone star.

This is the living room/dining room. The wood floors have been re-sanded and varnished.

All the walls have been recently repainted and all the light fixtures are new.

The sink, fixtures, cabinets and window treatments are all new! The kitchen window looks out on the side yard/driveway.

These double doors in the family room open onto the back yard.

The house has two garages – this one is behind the first one. It must have been designed for a boat or trailer. We think it will make a great office and maybe one day guest room.

This beautiful sink is in the master bathroom.

The backyard is really a good size – room for a dog which Emily really wants. It looks like we may get a 6 month old yellow lab! The yard also has a nice garden – Sarah wants to have a garden.

We thank God for this wonderful house and we can’t wait to get all the paperwork done for the closing. A friend in New Mexico is giving us a refrigerator, washer, dryer, double bed and chest freezer which she no longer needs.

We have found a bed for Tim and I but have no other furniture. Please pray that we will be able to find some affordable furniture.

This week found the Matkzes landing in Dallas, Texas. The last few months have been a blur of activity as we have liquidated most of our assets in the Solomon Islands and prepared to leave the country for at least three years. It’s been a challenging and emotional time as the Solomon Islands has been our home for 11 years.

Tuesday morning in the DFW Airport, the US Immigration officer handed back our passports and said, “Welcome home”. Tim and I looked at each other and tears came to our eyes. Emily and Sarah looked quizical as the USA doesn’t feel like home to them. For all of us, it is going to take a while for us to feel at home in this country.

Over the years I have collected orchid plants from around the Solomon Islands.  We have tied them to trees in our yard where they have taken root and grown and blossomed.

Some of the orchid plants have been gifts from village friends who have gone out into the bush to find the orchids and give them to me.  Others I have purchased from the market.  At first I had to wait and wait for them to blossom, but now it seems like one or two are always blooming which is such a treat.  

The two orchid plants pictured here are ones that are high in a rain tree outside our bedroom where we can see the flowers. What a treat and something I will miss very much in Dallas!

As approach our departure day, May 26, we keep thinking about the things in the Solomons that we will miss – and truthfully a few things that we won’t miss! In that light, this is my initial entry in the list of ‘Things we will Miss’.

Even though we live in the capital city, it really is a small place with a population of about 55,000 people Like any small town, sometimes the ‘big’ news stories are a little funny!

The photo shows a truckload of cartons of peanut butter which overturned on the main road and stopped traffic for an hour. The caption read;’Peanut butter chaos halt traffic for an hour’. I happened upon this scene just minutes after it happened and it wasn’t surprised to see it make the front page of the newspaper today. You can read the article online at:http://solomonstarnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task;=view&id;=7878&change;=71&changeown;=78&Itemid;=26

It really did mess traffic up for a long time because there is only one main road that runs through town. Even though we can read the stories online, we are going to miss reading the Solomon Star!

This afternoon at the National Parliament, we dedicated this special Solomon Islands Bible Display. It contains the Pijin Bible that was presented to the Prime Minister on the 30th Anniversary of Independence in July of last year. On the shelf up above are all (except 1) of the Bibles and New Testaments in vernacular languages that have been published since Independence. Standing in front of the display is our friend Patson who helped make the cover the display.





It was really great to see people walk up to the display and look at all the Bibles in the vernacular languages and try and see if there was a Bible in their own language. Clearly those who didn’t have a Bible in the display were disappointed.

In December, I stopped by the Christian radio station and dropped off a copy of the beautiful new Pijin Bible Story book for kids. I told radio station staff I would leave the book for them if they promised to read the Bible stories on the air. Recently the station has started reading a Bible story each afternoon.

A couple of weeks ago I dropped off a set of cd’s that contain the dramatized Pijin New Testament that was produced by Faith Comes by Hearing. This week the station started playing one chapter a day at three different times during the day! That’s exciting!

Pray that as people hear the Pijin Bible read, they will be motivated to purchase their own copy and read it for themselves.

After a long hiatus I am going to try getting back into blogging. Please forgive my lack of communication!!!

The last few months have been pretty crazy for our family as we have had to make some hard decisions and we feel like the sign above, we have been turned upside down. For more than a year, Emily has been going to school with a internet based curriculum – NorthStar Academy. It’s a great school program, but it has been pretty lonely for Emily at times. So in cooperation with our administration, we have decided to return to the USA in June so that Emily can finish high school in the USA and better prepare to transition into college.

This has not been an easy decision and we are struggling with having to leave the Solomons. We expect to be gone from the Solomons for at least 3 years to allow Emily time to finish high school and get settled into college. In the meantime we will rent out our house here.

In order that we can stay connected with our international offices and the girls can enjoy the fellowship of many other MKs (missionary kids) we will be settling in Dallas, TX. There are many unknowns as we take make this (sometimes frightening) move!

We covet your prayers for this time of transition for our family. We are working hard to sell or give away many of our possesions here and prepare the house for rental. We are in the process of looking for a house to purchase in Dallas with the help of a realtor there.

Monday was the opening of the general meeting of the Solomon Islands Bible Translation and Literacy Partnership – a fellowship of our national Bible Translators. Twenty translators from around the country are gathered for this event.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Derek Sikua came for the opening which was a great honor. In this photo, Tim is showing the Prime Minister the new piece of property that our group was recently able to purchase with the help of Wycliffe Associates for the building of a new training center for our national translators.

A few blogs ago, I mentioned that we sent a Pijin Bible to Queen Elizabeth. Recently we received this special thank you note from Balmoral Castle. Pretty cool!

In case you can’t read it, it says:

Dear Mr. Matzke

Thank you for your letter of 4 August enclosing a copy of the Solomon Islands Pijin Language Bible which I have passed to The Queen.

Her majesty has asked me to thank the Solomon Islands Translation Advisory Group, the Solomon Islands Christian Association and the Bible Society of the South Pacific for sending her such a thoughtful present. I am sure that the Pijin Bible is a very fitting addition to this year’s celebrations of the 30th Anniversary of Solomon Islands Independence.

The Queen has further directed me to send her good wishes to you and to everyone at the Solomon Islands Translation Advisory Group, to which I would like to add my own.

Congratulations on a remarkable Achievement.

Yours Sincerely

Edward Young

The Deputy Private Secretary to The Queen