Ebeye

Kids in Ebeye LOVE taking pictures

Yokwe! Ejet am mour? ("how are you?" In Marshallese) I had the most amazing, crazy, interesting, awesome, crazy experience this past week in Ebeye. This island is only 1.5 miles long and about 300 meters wide, so the total land mass is .14 square miles, and yet thousands of people live here. So it's really packed, and many people live in really small houses that only have rain water, and some don't have electricity. Kids are everywhere!! They run around the entire island without supervision, and create their own toys out of trash they find at the junkyard. It's really cool! They are all so funny and happy and love when visitors take their picture. They yell "picha!!" when they want you to take their picture. In fact, once I get a stronger Internet connection, I'm gonna make an entire Picasa album of just children of Ebeye haha. The island is so different at night as well. It comes to life! All the kids go out and play on the streets. There's actually more people awake and out and about at night then there are in the day! It's pretty interesting. I even told some of the younger sisters here that at night in Hawaii, everyone is sleeping, and they were shocked! It sounded so strange to them haha.

Field service on Ebeye is all on foot. We walk everywhere, and never use a car. I got a lot of exercise, walking miles each day. The sun is really hot too! So I actually had to bust out the sunblock, being that I'm haole and all haha.

You would think that on an Island that is so crowded and difficult to live, people would be grouchy and hard to preach to, but that is hardly the case. People in Ebeye are so nice! When you preach to them, they are very hospitable and many will invite you to sit wherever possible and talk to them. Of all the people I got to witness to, not one of them turned me down or weren't interested. They all listened, read the scripture for me (since I was using a Marshallese bible and couldn't read it myself) and welcomed literature. It was really great! There are many many great bible studies being started. You can tell that there is a lot more work to be done because although the publish count is about 40 publishers, 321 attended this years memorial!! Amazing right?!

We were able to room in the new missionary home/kingdom hall. It is so beautiful!! Shout out to the construction crew who did an amazing job on that.
Antonio and Erica (missionary couple living there) as well as Chad and Lia (newly assigned special pioneers living there as well) hospitably took us in and made our stay sooooo nice. Troy and I slept in the shared kitchen, which I really enjoyed because I got to hang out with everyone as they came and went. We would have morning worship every day at 7:30 and do the text, eat breakfast, and read either a portion of the bible or the year book. It was a great experience. I learned so much from all four of them, and I came to love them very much. I hope I'll be able to see them again.

On sunday was the circuit assembly. It was great! Emman tata!! (very good) The attendance was 125, and I'm sure everyone benefitted from the great information given. 2 of our new sisters got baptized. That was an experience for me, since it was the first beach baptism I have ever been to. As a whole the circuit assembly was a great success, and Jehovah's blessing was very evident.

The congregation is amazing. The brothers and sisters have beautiful smiling faces, and love to laugh. It's so faith strengthening to see these brothers and sisters, who go through so much trials, but continue to serve Jehovah.


















During this past week I got really really close to the young ones in the congregation. I had so much fun with them in field, playing volleyball, swimming, or cleaning the kingdom hall. Although I was only in Ebeye for one week, I felt like I was part of the congregation, even though I knew only jitik (a little) Marshallese. The kids are so beautiful and friendly and playful, and they made me feeI like part of their family. This made leaving Ebeye this morning very hard. About 30 of the friends came to see us off at the dock at 7:00 in the morning. Many gave me gifts that they made, and letters that they wrote, that I will cherish forever. Honestly I was really emotional when leaving, knowing that all these beautiful ones, and especially the kids, I may not see for a very long time. It's amazing how after only one week, you can get so attached to other loving brothers and sisters. They all occupy a special place in my heart. I love them and will miss them so much.

Kimi and Ko. Two cuties :)