Two stories about Two very AWESOME couples...

Left to Right....Norried and Doris, Dianne and Pastor Steve

On Friday our Pastor, Steve is going to be having surgery to have a tumor removed from his colon. I had mentioned it about two weeks ago...but now it is surgery time. They do know that the tumor is cancerous, and a fairly good size.

However, he's had very encouraging support from his Dr.'s and I want to again state that they do not have health insurance and as of now...all has been worked out.
Whew!

Please pray that he will do well in the surgery and be back on his feet again soon.

I will update on this as soon as we know what's going on. I haven't said much regarding this the past few days because we have waited to see how things would fall into place...and it all has so far.
We are trusting God for him and for his total well being.

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The other couple in the photo are very GOOD friends of our family. We've known them for years and love them dearly.

They are Missionaries to the South Pacific Island of "NAURU".....

They left the States in June and the last we heard of them was when they were in Hawaii ready to head to their new Island. Then nothing. We hadn't heard a WORD from them until we FINALLY got a letter the other day routed through Australia to here.
Crazy!!!
We've wondered about them like MAD.

First of all....apparently....they sent a newsletter out to everyone the last of 2007and NO ONE recieved them. Once they realized that, they did a new one and stuck in a new copy of the old one to update everybody.

Norried reported this in the newsletter we recieved......

" **The Church has us living in a former phosphate office that they have somewhat converted into a living quarters.

**There is no piped government water supply in Nauru. Everyone must ration water from their own cistern. It has rained only 4 times in the last 3 months. We have one daily bath with one bucket of water. WE save dish water for a small vegatable garden. We infrequently wash our clothes.

**Electricity is on and off in 6 hour shifts.

**It is hotter here than any country we have served in.

**Nauru is extremeely isolated and about 25 miles SOUTH of the Equator.

**Our bedroom averaged 95 in the day and 88 at night. At night when our electricity is off we literally "sweat sleep."

**Our only transport is our legs. Some errands or shopping is as far as 5 miles away.

**The physical state of this nation is 'dilapidated and deserate.'"

**There has not been a bank operating here for over 5 years, a somber handicap and a unique challange.

**There is only one internet cafe here with 6 sometimes operating terminals."

Oh......and on top of all that....they've been ROBBED TWICE.

Yikes!
I can't tell you how dedicated these people are. They are older people than my husband and I and I don't know how they do it especially considering all the hardships they have faced through the years.

Again we have known them for years...they have been working in the South Pacific for a long time....first Norried went over with the Peace Corp...and now they are Missionaries with a major Missions organization.

They have very huge hearts for the people of the Islands...Doris herself is a Marshall Island national.
They both have worked hard to help the people of the South Pacific region for most of their lives.They build buildings, the help the people physically and the work with the people spiriutally.

Norried and Doris have worked in the Marshall Islands, Micronesia (an Island called Chuuk (Truk)), the Solomon Islands for the past 15 years and now they are currently in Nauru.

They have three grown children...that they raised on the Islands. They are close to my older kids ages. Two have gotten married and just this past year while Norried and Doris were home on "furlough" both couples had babies....and one of the couples had UNEXPECTED TWINS...their youngest daughter had a girl and a boy with no prior knowledge!!! They thought they were having one baby. Can you imagine?

So they left three brand new Grandbabies and their three kids (and a daughter-in- law and a son-in-law) when they left the States.

It was very hard for them to leave this time but off they went.
They are the neatest people and some of my heros.