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.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

We have just returned from an Easter Sunrise Service. Our church holds this service each year at the American War Memorial perched high above Honiara with a commanding view of the sea. We had over 100 in attendance this morning which is great for an event that was scheduled for 5:00 am. (In typical Solomon Islands time it actually started at 5:45 am.)

Tim was asked to preach the message at the service this morning.

Afterward we enjoyed hot cross buns and coffee together as we enjoyed the fabulous view from the memorial.

It was a blessing to again be with some of our favorite people to celebrate Easter today.

Today is Sarah’s 10
th birthday. It was extra special to be able to celebrate it with our missionary family today. This photo of Sarah with all her missionary ‘aunts and uncles’ reminds me of this promise that Jesus gave:

“

And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life.

Of course there are the
real aunts and uncles in the United States, but it’s a blessing to have Australian, Dutch and Finnish ones as well to help fill the gap on special days like this one.

This is Joshua Lui, a national Bible translator from the Western part of the Solomon Islands. Joshua is the chairman of the Solomon Islands Bible Translation and Literacy Program (SIBTLP), a group of Solomon Islanders dedicated to Bible Translation and Literacy. Joshua is currently translating the New Testament into his mother tongue, Simbo.

This afternoon Joshua gave a biennial report for SIBTLP at our conference. We are very blessed to work who have the dedication to help bring God’s Word to their own people. Often they work alone and their efforts are not always understood or supported by people in their community.

After each personal report, we all gather around the person or couple and spend time praying for them, their family and ministry. It’s truly a blessing to be surrounded by friends and colleagues and be lifted up before the throne.

Today at church I got to meet my namesake, Martha! Isn’t she cute? Her mother is Priscilla, my friend that taught a number of women to read here in town. We also worked with Priscilla to help her produce a reading book in her language of Baelelea. Martha is a little over one year old. The Pooh bear was one of Sarah’s stuffed animals which we gave to Martha this morning.

When we were in the USA last year, we had the pleasure of meeting up with Solomon Islands friends in Virginia where we camped together. Alphaeus, Tiani and their kids are in Virginia where Alphaeus is finishing up his PhD. Check out this amazing article about Alphaeus in the Washington Post!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR2007012601371.html

One thing we have been looking forward to has been reuniting with our friends at our church here in the capital city. I was thrilled to be with my women friends at church. Here we are after church. (Boy, do I feel pale!)

My only disppointment – I didn’t get to meet “Martha”, my name sake who just turned one last week. Martha stayed home because she has a cold, but I hope to meet her next week and I will be sure to include a photo of the two of us! : )