Bush life

Dear Pray Partners,

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. We really appreciate your prayers. On last Sunday, Geoff both girls and I along with the four Youth In mission guys and Jimmy and his wife Feni (they were interviewing for the Pastor job in Iri Iri Pasa Pasa) took a ship to Noro the voyage took about ten hours, the girls did great, and the seas were very calm overall it was a good trip. When we arrived at Noro it was late and we only had about 20 minutes of sunlight. We boarded a canoe and traveled for another two hours in the dark. We finally got to our destination Iriiri Pasapasa. When we arrived there we were treated like kings and queens. They had flowers all over the dock and our house. As we arrived there were lots of people to greet us and help carry our luggage. They had a house just for our family and the YIM team. When we entered the room that was for our family there were mattresses. Not only was there a mattress for Geoff and I but also one for the girls. I was about to cry. I knew that they did not have any extra mattresses and that someone had given up their own mattresses for us. They did not have enough plates for everyone so they made custom plates out of coconut leaves and banana leaves. The next morning they taught me how to weave the coconut leaves into plates and fans, I really enjoyed spending time with the women. The whole time they treated us very well and it was a humbling to be treated so highly.

Monday, we had kids service in the morning and afterwards we made balloon animals and colored just spending time playing with the kids. Another church that is about a two hour canoe paddle away, came and joined us for the evening service. Geoff preached and talked about how God has given us power over the spiritual forces at work in the Solomon Islands. That night one of the Youth In Mission team members was startled wake by a evil spirit. We all woke up and started praying and reading Scripture we battled for about an hour then everyone had peace and went back to sleep. I praise God for the power that we have through the Blood of Christ. Our church members in the Solomons battle spiritual forces and many times they don’t use the power they have in Christ to get rid of the spirits instead the spirits continue to torment their families. Tuesday morning we had another service then a feast, many of the women stayed up most of the night preparing food. After we ate and said our goodbyes we boarded the canoe and traveled to Munda.

That evening in Munda we went to show the Jesus film at a Gibson’s house. Gibson is a new convert really excited about serving God. He just enrolled in Bible College and attended his first class in May. It looks like he may be the pastor at our church in Munda. As we started the Jesus film there were only about 20-30 people there. This is a really low number and we asked why the attendance was so low. We found out that there was a politician campaigning nearby and everyone went to hear him. I don’t know if it was just a coincidence that the campaign was going on the same night or something spiritual but I do know that Satan is working against the Church in the Solomons.

Wednesday we got into a huge dugout canoe (I think that we had 18 people in it) and traveled three hours to the village of Vogi. The canoe was very unstable there were many times I thought we were going to flip it. Vogi is the home town of Rodney. Rodney is also a new believer and the Sunday before we arrived was Sanctified. We traveled with him and his family to show the Jesus Film to his village. When we arrived there was no one to greet us, come to find out that Rodney’s mom was taken to the hospital that morning. We made our way up this large hill to the chief’s house (a very nice house even indoor plumbing but very old). The chief had passed away about a year ago and now his house set empty and they let us use it. Right next to the house there was a Methodist Church and the chief had been the pastor. I was a little frustrating because I had thought that we were going to a CFC (a cult) village not one that already had the truth. As I talked with the people I realized that the church doesn’t have a pastor and the CFC are taking over the village and the whole area. After we arrived they said there is just one thing, the women can’t go in this part of the house because the chief still has some “stuff” in there. Oh, by the way, the restroom is in there so the women will have to go back down the hill to the pit toilet. Geoff thought “This is great how many times tonight am I going to have to take a girl down the hill to the toilet.” That afternoon our team began to pray for the Jesus film and that we could really impact the community for Christ. Churie must have been praying for the toilet issue because they came back and said that the girls could use that part of the house. Some of the men had moved the chief’s “stuff” (it was a very small basket with spiritual significance) upstairs so the women couldn’t go upstairs but at least they could use the restroom. After doing spiritual warfare in Iri Iri Pasa Pasa and knowing that this house had possibly been used for spiritual worship we began to pray and do spiritual warfare before we were awaken in the middle of the night. As we started the service we had a good number of kids maybe 30 and about 15 adults we found out that someone had died in the village and the people were still mourning. Here in the Solomons, when someone dies the family and friends come bury the body and then they will set with the family for almost a week and do nothing. Because of this death not many people showed up and also they had sent word that we were coming but the message was not delivered well. We started the Jesus film even with the small number and then about half way through it started to rain we brought everything inside but most of the people had left we only had about seven or eight kids left. That night as we went to sleep all slept with no incident.

When we got up the next morning we headed back to Munda in the rather large shaky canoe . The driver decided to take a short cut and instead of going through the lagoon like we had came he decided to take the open sea. The sea was not really rough, but there was a strong current and large swells. Every time we went up and down a swell it felt like the canoe was going to tip. At one point we rocked so far that the lip of the canoe touched surface of the water and water splashed all over me. As I looked for the closest escape route if we tip I realized that we were about half a mile to a mile to the nearest shore and that the shore had cliffs that the waves were crashing against them. It was a miracle that we did not end up in the water. I was so thankful for the assurance of a life jacket. About one hour after we arrived in Munda, it started to pour with strong winds and I was so thankful that we were in Munda and not on the sea in the shaky canoe.

Thursday night, Jimmy (the Jesus film Director) and Alick (the Pastor in Munda) took the Jesus film to a nearby village. Alick had made plans to show the film but when they arrived there had been a large fight and they could not watch the film because they were still trying to work out the disagreement. Alick and Jimmy tried to help reconcile the parties and prayed with them then returned home without showing the film.

On Friday, we went down to the market to do market evangelism. We took the Jesus film equipment and used the mike speakers to preach to the people in the market. This type of evangelism has a big impact here in the Solomon Islands. One of our pastors was saved through market evangelism. We sang some songs and then the Youth In Mission (YIM) team preached a little and gave there testimonies. It was very hot to be standing outside and we did not see anyone accept the Lord, but we did here a lot of good reports through the grape vine or through the bush rope whatever it is called here.

Friday evening we went to the church and played soccer and then planned a service afterwards. Alick told us to walk to the church and he would meet us at the church with the lights and generator for service. We had about thirty kids there to play soccer but Alick was held up with other problems and showed up with the lights well after dark. We were a little frustrated because about half of the kids left. We went to one of the church member’s house which had security lights and had the service under the security lights. This was a great time of worship and the teens really enjoyed the Youth In Mission group. On Saturday, we had a service in the morning played soccer afterwards and then in the evening we had another service. There were about 40 teens and kids who attended the services. On Sunday morning, there were a lot of the teens that had come Friday and Saturday. It was very exciting to see all those teen in church. The church in Munda is very new and does not have many teens attending, some of the teens attend other churches but hopefully God will use the time we spent there to grow the Church. Geoff preached on Sunday morning he spoke on the dualism of cultural spirits and Christianity and how the spirits that have controlled the islands for thousands of years have no power over Christ and Christian should not rely on cultural spirit but on Christ. We had one man come forward and pray. Pray that He will use his authority as a son of God over the demonic forces in his life. After Church we had a huge dinner and lots of BBQ fish we finished about 3:00pm.

After church we decided to go on a hike to see a waterfall. This was a refreshing break to the busy week we had. The hike was not very long, but it was very muddy. When we got to the waterfall there was a big pool that was so wonderful to swim in and the best part was that the water was cold and felt great on a hot day.

On Sunday evening the teens that we had met had walked around town and found the house that we were staying at. They came in our house and played some games with us. It was really cool to see these kids find us and want to spend more time with us before we left.

Also on Sunday evening, we had got word that our return ship did not leave Honiara. That pretty much left us to take the slow ship home, meaning that instead of a ten hour boat ride and arrive on Monday morning, we would be on a ship for more than 24 hours, and not get home until Wednesday morning. We started calling around to see if we could get on the slow ship and realized that the slow ship was headed even farther west and would not reach Honiara until Friday morning and our next camp started on Thursday in Honiara. Later on that night we found out that the slow ship had also had engine problems and was stuck at a port(they did get it fix but it delayed them one more day) We called the airport and to fly home it cost a lot more money and they were fully booked until Wednesday. We decided to get up early Monday morning and fly standby to try and get at least Raina, Felicity and me on the plane. I really needed to get home and get things situated before Mom and Dad left on Tuesday. Sunday night to Monday morning it had rained all night. When we got to the airport they had three cancelations. We were so happy to hear that at least the girls and I would get home on Monday. Felicity was able to ride on my lap, which meant that we could get another person on the plane. Before we left we found out that the plane was light so they let Raina set on my lap and Felicity on one of our team members lap and we could get another person on that plane. It was a miracle for us to be able to get five out of the ten of us out on the plane on Monday morning. Geoff and the other two Youth In Mission team members along with Feni finally made it home Wednesday morning. Feni had left her five kids with her cousin and the youngest is under a year old to go interview, we helped her fly home because we were unsure when the next ship would arrive because all the ship that service the area are either having engine problems or broke down. I just got a call from Jimmy and it looks like he will be coming home Saturday pray that the ship does not have any more engine problems.

The trip had some great times and some frustrating times. It was great to meet and visit with other people. It is frustrating to plant seeds and not always get to see the harvest or any of the harvest.

Continue to pray for use as we travel around with the YIM team. We have a very busy schedule. I think that I sent out a more detailed schedule in the previous letter.

This week we are having youth services Thursday-Saturday here in Honiara. We just finished our first service and it went really well the kids really opened up to the YIM team.

Next week we are going to Malata. We will be there for two week at four different churches. Mage, Nazareth, Kualitutu and Beri. There is a good chance that we will see spiritual opposition at these churches.

When we return from Malata we are going to Macedonia it is about thirty minutes from Honiara. There might be some problems with this church and the youth camp pray that everything works out and we will be able to minister there.

We are trying to get pictures from this trip posted on our blog and it should be done in the next couple of days. If anyone would like to go and see these pictures, our blog address is geoffandchurie.wordpress.com. Thank you so much for all your prayers and support.

The Millers

Upcoming Events for this summer

Dear Prayer Supporters,

 Thank you for all of your prayers these last couple of weeks. Raina and I just returned from Australia a week ago and have hit the ground running. We are in the last week of Bible college class and it is going great. The two classes that are offered are the life and teachings of Jesus and Christian Worship. God is really moving and working in the lives of the students/pastors. God is also moving in the local church the presence of God filled the Sunday morning service and the alters were full. Sunday night four of the Bible college student preached for an assignment and afterwards we had a great time of testimony. The service lasted from 5:30 till 8:30 and many stayed and fellowship till 9:30 or 10:00.

Churie and Felicity returned to the Solomons on Friday. Felicity’s doctor said that her ears look great. Pray that God will keep her from any further ear infections. It is great to have the family together once again.

Please pray for the church here in Honiara it looks like the doors are opening up for us to plant a church in White River it is a suburb. Pray that God will guide and direct us. We have showed the Jesus film in the area a couple of times in the past and there is a lady that has been asking one of our members when we are coming back. She says that she has a tent already for us to worship in. A few of the men are going to try and make contact with her and see if we can have a service there on Sunday nights. We have a few people that live in this area that bus into our church every week, one of them is a Bible college student and has been a pastor. Pray that doors would continue to open and that the Church in the Solomons will continue to grow.

God really provided for us while we were in Australia and we made some great friends. We stayed at the Nazarene Bible College at Brisbane. I volunteered around the campus, mostly I worked in one of the professor’s house that had some termite damage and I laid ceramic tile in the kitchen and dinning room. They had replaced the kitchen cabinets because of termites and the new cabinets were smaller then the original so the old vinyl tiles did not cover the floor. When it was all done they were very pleased with the job. It was a blessing because the college did not charge us for the room or the use of their vehicle. They are also talking to us about working full time for the college next year. Pray for my family as we try and find Gods will for us during the next year.

On my way home, I met a young man in the airport in Brisbane and we started talking. He is working at Munda (one of the churches that the YIM team will be visiting) and is from Roviana lagoon. Roviana Lagoon is a very strong CFC (a cult) community. The pastor at Munda has a real burden for the CFC communities and the YIM team is planning to take the Jesus film into some of these communities around Munda and possibly even into the Roviana lagoon. Alick the Pastor at Munda has made a few contacts into the lagoon but this young man is just another possible entry into that community and area.

Pray for the YIM team (youth in mission). We have four college guys coming on June 2nd and will be here till July 21st. Mom and Dad will be gone most of that time to General Assembly so Churie and I will be directing the team. The schedule is going to be very busy. We will be going to five churches for a three to four day youth camps and then three or four other churches for a one day service. Here is a rough schedule.

• Munda, New Georgia Island from June 7-15, a new church plant. The pastor is Alick Hagi. We will take the Jesus Film equip. and hold youth services. While there we will visit Iriiri Pasapasa Church on the island of Kohigo. We are planning to take the Jesus film to the CFC community {a cult}. We’re praying for a breakthrough there. We will also do market evangelism. The church in Munda just started in February.

• Zion from June16-21, this is the local church here in Honiara. We will be holding youth and children camps.

• We will travel to the island of Malaita

• Mage/Nazareth June 23-24: we will hold combined services at these two churches and try to reach out to the youth in the surrounding community.

• Kwailatutu June 25-28: This is where Jimmy and Miriam Olofisau are now pastoring. We will hold services there for youth, children, and adults. This is a church of primarily young men. We may hike to another church and if so we will be some of very few white people to ever visit and possibly the first white to ever spend the night there. It is a 12 hour hike to Ote village and I am not sure we will do that. This would be primitive! All they have in Ote is the Proclaimer and a visit every fortnight from a young man from Kwailatutu.

 • Beri June29-July 5 we will travel straight from Kwailatutu. We might have to overnight on the way depending on transportation. Beri is off the beaten trail.

• Macedonia the week of July 9-12 this is a church on Guadalcanal near Honiara.

• Zion Christian Academy July 13, 17 we will hold chapel services.

• YIM team leaves July 21

Please pray for us during these next few weeks. Pray that God will use this team and touch people’s lives. We will probably have spiritual and physical opposition in many of these places. Pray for safe travel and that we can find transport. Many times the ships cancel or there is no truck or no canoe, so we might wait a day or two to find the next ride.

In the village many times outsiders get sick because of the water or malaria. Pray that we stay healthy so that we will be able to function effectively. Churie and the girls will be going with us to Munda and Kwalitutu pray that they will enjoy the time and be able to minister to the women and the kids. Pray especially for good health.

The Millers

News Letter Update

Dear Prayer supporters,

These last few months have been really crazy we had two and a half weeks of bible college class then towards the end of that Felicity had a bad ear infection and fought it for a few weeks and ended up flying to Australia for treatment for a week.  Then Churie and Felicity were back one week and my uncle passed away and I flew to the states for two weeks.  Then a few days before I flew home Felicity had another ear infection.  I have been home 5 days and it looks like Felicity will be going back to Australia.  There has been a lot going on since our last letter and I want to thank you for all of your prayers during this time they have been very needed and appreciated. 

My uncle Wesley Miller passed away on April 1^st.  George and I flew back to the states for the funeral.  Uncle Wes was like a second father to me since my dad was on the mission field.  The funeral was a very good tribute to his life and to Christ who he served in ministry for twenty five years.  During that time he touched many people which was evident of the 800 plus that attended the services.  We spent a very busy two weeks in the states.  For me it was way too long to be away from my family.  We arrived back in the Solomons on April 22.  Now we are trying to pick up everything that was dropped when we left. 

While we were gone I had planned a fun day for the kids on the Saturday before Palm Sunday.  Churie was left to try and finish organizing it as well as her normal schedule.  She said it turned out good.  She had about 50 to 60 kids show up but she and Nancy were the only adults that were there.  The town owns a huge inflatable and we set it up and had a lot of people come and enjoy it.  One of Churie’s students came and then came to church on Sunday morning and Sunday evening.  We had never seen her at church before.   

We are also working on a dormitory room for Bible college students as well as a storage room for the Jesus film equipment and a few tools that are being stored in the bible college class room. 

The week before I left we had our first Sunday school class on parenting.  During Bible College I saw a need and a desire for a Christian parenting class.  Churie and I decided to teach a Sunday school class on parenting.  We were planning on teaching it during the regular SS hour.  However we had a lot of the SS teachers that were interested in coming so we had to push the time back to the hour after SS.  So our Sunday schedule consists of church from 9:00-12:00 then SS from 12:00-1:00 then the parenting class from 1:00-2:30 then church at 5:30 at least we do still have a little bit of time for a Sunday afternoon nap.  I have been reading a lot of books on parenting trying to prepare for this class and it seems the more I read the less I know.  Pray for us as we try and create S.S.  curriculum to help the Church here to train children to be strong Christians.  As we teach this class we are trying to write a curriculum to use on the district.  It is hard to teach parenting in a different culture that we do not see or understand much of the parent child relationship.  Pray that we can us scripture to show godly principles to parenting that will transcend culture.

Since our Sunday schedule is very long and it is not geared towards kids Raina is having a hard time going to church and sitting still for three hours.  She has done very well with the change in church but it is taking a toll on her.  I think that many of the local kids have the same problem they come to church but usually during the sermon they leave and go play outside.  I would really like to try and start Children’s church but I am not sure if I have the time and energy to start something else.  I would like to try and find someone that would help with children church.  So that Churie and I could train and mentor someone and they could take over children’s church after we left.  

While we were in the states it looks like the school will be getting a grant for a new school building.  This will add much needed space for more class rooms and more students.  I am hoping to use the construction of this new building to teach a class on construction.  Pray that the grant will go through without much red tape.

We have another bible college class starting on May 13^th.  The two classes that we are offering are Christian Worship and Life of Christ.  If we are back from Australia I will be teaching the Christian Worship class and helping with the Life of Christ.  Pray that God would lead and direct us as we teach these young pastors. 

 

Prayerfully yours

 

Geoff Miller and Family

News Letter 4

Dear Pray Supporters,

Before we left for the Solomon Islands my sister-in-law had given me some very valuable advice. She has small children who are in Bible quizzing and they were talking about Moses. The question asked was: “What was God’s reaction when He called Moses? A) He said you can do it; B) I will be with you.” I thought this is a great point. She told us that there would be times when we would think what in the world are we doing, but God would be there with us. These past few weeks have been hard for us and it has been the time in our life that God has had to carry us through.

It has been a little while since we have written. We have been really busy trying to get everything ready for school to start. We made it through the first week and are well into the second week of school. Churie went to teacher’s orientation the week before school started and she had a rough week and felt out of place. She went on the teacher’s retreat the weekend before school started and got to know the teachers a little better and felt more comfortable.

Churie is teaching 5^th grade. She is having a very hard time and the girls are having trouble adjusting as well. We have found a wonderful lady by the name of Caroline who is taking care of Felicity. She helps us clean the house and she does not always let Felicity have here way. Geoff came in one day and Felicity was yelling at her and she was insisting that she gets to paint Caroline’s toe nails. Caroline did not give in and I was so glad. Felicity is starting to get along with Caroline and she has started to ask for her to come over. Caroline only speaks Solomon Pijin and Felicity is learning to talk in Pijin. Continue to pray for us through all these adjustments.

Geoff has been working on some construction projects for the school trying to get everything ready for school. He got a lot of projects done but there are always more. We finished the bathroom block for the classroom down the hill and set a water tank, now we have to hang the gutter to collect rain water for the bathrooms. The bathrooms do have city water but the water only comes every few days if that. Our neighbor came over yesterday to borrow some water because the city water had not come for three days and they were out of water. When the water is on they fill all of their buckets and jars and anything that will hold water so that they will have water till the next time the water is on. Water is the most needed resource and we have no control of it. We have been thinking and talking about possibly digging a well. With the well it would assure us that the school would have water all day. Students go to the bathroom all day and at the end of the day one class goes and uses a bucket to flush the toilet. With a well it would sure solve some of our problems.

One of the next projects that Geoff will be working on is to build tables/desks for the high school deputy principle and teachers. Also he will be adding a wall between 4^th and 5^th grade. Like any school there are more projects then money. So we will see how far we can stretch the money.

Tomorrow Geoff is going to go and meet the man in charge of Kokonut Pacific to see if we can work with them to help develop some of our bush churches. Kokonut Pacific produces organic coconut oil and they do it on a local level and it is more profitable then copra (dried coconut). They also train people on how to use other by products of the oil extracting process. We didn’t realize that you could do so much with a coconut. You can make flour, chicken or pig feed, lamp oil, you can use oil in a diesel engine without any modifications; burn the husks to heat the coconut dryer, and many more. Pray with us that if this is a ministry our church should be involved in that God would open up doors in this area.

Today was one of the most eventful days since we have come to the Solomon Islands. School was out and I was sitting in my room working on lesson plans. My children had come over to visit me and I heard them playing outside. Raina said that daddy needed to go back to town and I told her to go home and tell daddy that mommy wanted to go with him. As she was heading toward the house I heard a car come roaring into our drive way. This is unusual because most people do not have a car and very few can make it up our driveway. I looked up to see the white car and asked the other teacher, “Freda! what is that car?” I was almost sure of the answer, but before I assumed I wanted to make sure. Freda immediately ran out of the classroom without answering my question. It was a cop car and behind the car was a huge line of people. I thought where are my kids? I heard Felicity and grabbed her and grandma saw Raina walking over to the house and grabbed her. I was so glad to see both of my kids. The cops came all the way down to the house where we live at and stopped in the driveway, parking right behind our land cruiser. The police jumped over our fence and took off after the rascal (suspect). I thought, Geoff is down there and the more I thought about it I decided he is a big boy, he can take care of himself. The cops’ car was stopped at our house for a couple of hours and needless to say we did not make it to town. We could not get out because of the car. Some of the girls were laughing at me because I grabbed my kids and would not let them leave my side. I also asked the girls if any of them might have an extra bed for the night. When all the excitement had calmed down we took a picture of the car to share with you all. The cops finally came back and told us they caught the guy. I guess the rumor was that they were trying to search him and he took off running. We also heard that he knifed a guy. Who knows what really happened, but it makes me sleep better to know that they caught him.

Another News Letter

“The Lord is good a refuge in times of trouble; He cares for those who trust in Him.” Nahum 1:7

When we left for the Solomon Islands we had bought a Kids Connection Magazine from the Nazarene Publishing house for family devotions. This memory verse was the first verse for this month. We can all just about say it; Felicity still has a little bit of trouble with it. It is amazing to me how God send or reveals the right words at the perfect time. This trip has already made some big changes in our family. Some of the things we’ve seen have been very different for us, but we know that God called us here and He is good and He cares for us.

The things that we have scene has been amazing. At first, the culture truly shocked me. The first day we got here I was really surprised to see the way the people were living and the trash everywhere (paper, plastic, pop bottles). In the Solomon Islands, it is ok to throw trash on the ground but you do not through a banana peel on the ground. My father-in-law was looking for us a house to rent and I told Geoff I was not sure that I felt safe being in our own house. I also gave Geoff a hard time about not preparing me for this trip at all. His response was he was not prepared for it either. The longer we have been here the more comfortable I am getting. However, the other night we went out to take someone to the ship and this was our first time out at night. I was truly surprised at what I saw. All throughout town there was tables with little candles lit on them and my father-in-law told me that you can buy beetle nut (chewing tobacco) cigarettes and sometimes whiskey. He also said that they were sometimes in exchange for sexual favors. I was grateful that we are staying with them. Their house is off of the road a ways and feels a lot safer.

There are numerous ways that God has shielded us and showed us the little things when we were ready to see them. I think that even though they are little things, if we would have seen them all at once it would have made this adjustment a whole lot harder. One of the small things was that after I had been here about a month while I was cleaning out the store room a HUGE cockroach came in the room (huge being the size of a mouse). I was so proud of myself, I did not even jump, but I did watch it closely. Later that night when we got home from church there was one flying around in the house and my mother-in-law was trying to spray it as it was flying and I was just laughing. It was quite the scene. Then when we woke up this morning there was a rhinoceros beetle on the porch, they are huge and a little scary as well. They hiss when you push them on the back. While, Felicity thought that was great fun.

I know we have been complaining about the heat and I even told my mother (who lives in Oklahoma) that I would be willing to trade the weather with them. I guess God decided to give me my wish. We have not had snow, but we have had rain everyday this week. The temperature has been about 80 degrees instead of 97 to 100. However, after this week I have decided that I like the hot weather. We have a solar powered hot water heater and when the sun is not out no hot water. That means you have no hot shower and have to boil water in order to do dishes, which is a long process. The good thing is we are not in need of water and we can do as much laundry as we need to, but there is no sun to dry the clothes.

I have never had trouble making friends. It seems to me like I have had a little bit of trouble and I think part of it is the language barrier. I was telling my family, how making friends is one of the hardest things for me. On Sunday morning, one of the ladies (Joann) stopped me and she was talking to me for a very long time. She works at a hotel and she told me to bring the girls down and take them swimming. I was very grateful that she reached out to me. She was such a blessing. Felicity had an accident during church and she left a puddle on the floor. I was at a total loss and completely embarrassed. What do you do when your children leaves a mess and there are no towels, or water to clean it up? As I was trying to find a way to clean it up, Joann came to Felicity and took off her panties and told me to leave the mess. I felt terrible but everyone understood and by the time we left church the puddle was dry. The church might smell a little funny now.

This is my last week of freedom. Please pray for me and my mother-in-law as we are getting ready for school to start. I am a little concerned about how it is all going to work out. In America, I would consider the day a huge success if the toys were picked up, the house clean, dinner on the table, and the laundry done. Here it is imposable to get all that done. Just cooking the meals is a full time job. We make everything from scratch. I mean everything, tortillas, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, and yogurt. There is no Wal-Mart and it takes all day just to get the groceries we need. We buy are flour and sugar in these huge red trash cans. Geoff assures me that it is like the old general store. We have to go to about six or seven different stories in order to get what we need. Most of the time I sweep at least three times a day and everything is still very dirty. Laundry takes all day and you have to make sure and listen for rain. Even when mom and I are working the house work will still have to be done. Pray for all of us during this time of adjustment. Please pray that we find the right person to take care of Felicity as well.

Geoff has been very busy with the church and the school. He has been teaching the boys that work with him a little about construction. They have been working on building some toilets for the school, putting in a ceiling for some of the classrooms, and rebuilding the back wall of the church. Geoff had to make his own extension cord so he could run the air compressor for the nail gun. The boys really liked using the nail gun, were surprised at how much time it saved them, and how heavy the gun was.

Geoff and his dad are preparing for a trip out west towards the end of January. They will be gone for about two weeks. Please pray for their safety and the work that they need to accomplish.

I would like to apologize for the letters that I have sent out. I typed them in a hurry and with two little helpers. Geoff said he looked over them and made changes, I assumed that meant that he proofread them and they were ready to go. I did not realize until this week that he did not proofread them. I am so sorry for that.

We thank you so much for all your prayers and everything you have done for us. We love you all so much.

The Millers

P.S. If you have not already looked at our blog it has some funny stories and different pictures. The address is: geoffandchurie.wordpress.com

Updates from the Solomon Islands 12-18-08

Picture #1 raina with new friends

                #2 WWII Japanese transport ship

                #3 The school that Churie will be teaching at

                #4 a Christmas tree (because it blooms in december)

 

Dear Prayer Supporters,

We had our first church service on Sunday and it was very interesting. Church went from 9 am until 12 noon and that did not include Sunday School. They also did not have children’s church. The girls had to sit through service the whole time. I took a toy bag for them and they did ok. There was one little girl who kept coming up and playing with Felicity. I gave them some stickers from the dollar tree and they loved them. On Sunday night after service I was reading a toddlers book to Felicity and before I knew it there was about 10 different children all around me. I told them that every week I would bring a book and read it to them. The children here do not get book read to them most of the time.

On Saturday, we took the day off and went to the beach. That was a blast. Daddy and the girls tried to collect shells that had hermit crabs in them. We ended up with about fifteen of them and we have a cage for them to live in. They are one of the girls’ new pets. Our other pet is the 20 lizards that live in our house. The lizards come out every night at supper time and Felicity looks for them at all times. She is finally learning that she cannot pet them. While at the beach Geoff and I were able to get away and snorkel by an old Japanese ship from World War II. The water was very cloudy and hard to see, but was a fun experience. We took a lady from the church with us and Raina has become very close friends with Mairy. She wanted to invite her over for lunch on Sunday and then again on Monday night.

On Monday, we went to the dump and that was quite an experience. People here do not waste anything and the dump was truly trash. There were families that lived in the dump and had lots of houses made out of cardboard. The people would meet you at your car and they would help you unload that way they could go through your stuff. The dump was constantly burning and hot. There were flies everywhere. The people had stacks of cans that they had collected to get a little bit of money for. We had a child help us unload our car and he was very quick to collect our tin cans from us. It was very sad to see people living like that.

Things here are very different. I think that just living hear wears you out. It is so hot. I feel like I do not get much done before I am exhausted. We get to bed most nights before 9 and wake up at about 6 or 6:30. We would never have gone to bed before nine in the states. For the last three to four days the electricity has gone out and the electric company said it would last all week we have lost electricity for about four to five hours a day. It shuts off in the middle of the day and then we do not have any fans When this happens we also do not have any water because we have a electric water pump. The power seams to go out right at lunch time, which then leaves another challenge trying to prepare dinner.

Just living here takes a lot of time. No one seems to move very fast. I thought that the US government was slow but it is nothing compared to the Solomons. We spent a couple hours a day for three days to finalize our work permits. We also spent three days to open a bank account and they don’t move any fast then the government. However I think that we are finished with red tape for a little while. Washing our cloths takes a lot longer because we have a cloths line and we can spend hours trying to get our clothes to dry on the line. We took them out early this morning and hung them up, it was a little cloudy. Then about an hour latter it started to rain so we had to go and get the clothes quickly. When it stopped we headed outside to hang the clothes back on the line. Just as we got them all back on the line it clouded over and looked like it was about to rain again but it did not and most of our cloths are dry we still have a few things we need to hang out in the morning. That was a bit frustrating, but what can you do.

It is hard to think that this is Christmas time because it is to hot to be Christmas. This holiday season we have decided to count are many blessings. There are so many things we take for granted. One of the things that I am most thankful for is sunscreen. And electricity every day that we go without electricity I begin to appreciate it more and more. We are very grateful for the clean and cold running water (running most of the time).

Felicity has had a very hard time swallowing the chloroquine pills. (these pills prevent us from getting Malaria) The first one in the states I was able to put in yogurt and she took it. The next week she did not want to take it and she threw up all over me, so I gave up. Then when we arrived here my mother in law helped me by holding her nose and stuffing the pill at the back of her throat and making her swallow. That worked one time. This last week she would not let us do that at all. She would keep her teeth closed. The pill is very bitter tasting. Felicity has tons of bites from the bugs and she has to have the medicine. Yesterday we were able to finally find a pharmacy that carried the liquid form. She came home and said she would take it. The medicine was a little expensive so I was praying that she would actually take it and we didn‘t waist the money. She took it just fine, we all clapped and high-fived her. That was one of the greatest blessing this week. Pray that she will continue to take the medicine and that we will not have any more fights from her.

The church has asked Geoff to preach on Christmas Sunday and I think that he is going to. Pray for him as he prepares this special message. Geoff has been helping some of the men build a bathroom for the school down the hill. I had a teaching interview and got the job. I am not sure what grade I will be teaching yet, but it should be a lot of fun. Please pray that we are able to find a really good care taker for Felicity. At the current time the school is having trouble and I have been cleaning house at the school. There are a lot of old work books that have been completely used that are still setting in a pile and some where as old as 2004. I have been helping clean out the books and trying to get them organized and ready for school this coming year. My mother-in-law Nancy is the new principle and she has a lot of work to do before school starts. I hope we can get it all done.

We have been working with Felicity for about 6 months on getting potty trained because we knew that we would not have diapers over here and she is two year old. She is not taking to this very well. Her new nickname is puddles. Every night when she prays at bedtime she thanks God for the diaper. We on the other hand have been praying the God would lot those diapers multiply like the fish and bread when Jesus feed the five thousand. We are also praying that she would just get potty trained. Yesterday we broke down and bought candy for her when she goes and today we have not had any accidents (praise the Lord). Please pray that she figures things out soon.

Last night we experienced out first earth quake and it was kind of neat. It was late at night and the girls slept through the whole thing. We were sitting at the dinning room table and Geoff said is that an earthquake and I thought he was just shaking the floor with is leg and about that time we had a pretty good little jolt. Nothing to scary.

We have been having trouble with our old blog that was posted on the back of our mission cards so we decided to start a new one. The new address is geoffandchurie.wordpress.com

Thanks you so much for your support and prayers. We have attached some more pictures. We have some of the beach and the tree with the red flowers are called Christmas trees because they only bloom in December.

Churie Miller

 

We made it

Dear Prayer Supporters,

I thought I would write you a little and let you know about the Solomon Islands. We made it! Thank you so much for all your prayers. We had to really rush to make our connecting flight in Utah. We got off the plane and ran with the children to the next connection and when we got there they were almost done boarding the plane. Our connection in LA was the same case, but we made it. Both girls slept most of the flight from LA to Fiji. The girls really did great traveling. The only problem we had was when we got off our last flight, Felicity did not want to get off she wanted to get on another plane.

Our work permit is still not finalized. We should get it tomorrow. Even though we did not have our work permit, we got through immigration they called the main office and cleared us for entry; we did not have any trouble going through customs with the food items that we brought. Thank the Lord that we made it into the country. When we arrived we were greeted by some of the nationals that go to the Church of the Nazarene. They helped us load our bags and carried the girls and loved on them. It was a great feeling to be welcomed that way.

The girls have adjusted really well so far. Raina got the soccer ball out and was down the hill playing with a couple of new friends within 30 minutes of arriving at the house. She woke up at about 6 this morning and has been asking grandma where the kids are. Felicity has been running around with no shoes. We have a big bunch of bananas (they are little apple bananas) on the front porch and felicity keeps going outside and picking them, she loves them. She also likes star fruit, also known as five corners. Raina is not doing so well with the new food, but she will get there. I told her that she would have to try everything and then she would begin to like it. Felicity has found about four geckos that live in the house and has tried to catch them. She was sad last night that she did not get to pet the gecko.

Geoff is very excited to be here and cannot wait to get to work. He is having trouble sitting still.

I am doing well. It is very, very hot, but we are adjusting. Felicity keeps telling daddy to stop crying because of the sweat. We have to put sunscreen on about three to four times a day. The island is very pretty, but I was really surprised. I was not prepared for how poor the people are. As we drove down the streets I was really surprised to watch the people. To me it was almost like those commercial that you see on TV. Some of the markets that we drove by were in grass huts.

Shopping is going to be a new challenge for us. The money exchange is very different and food is very expensive. We got 1000 dollars (about 120 us) from our account and that bought us three bags of grocery. I checked out the cereal and it was 85 dollars for one box. That is about 12 to 13 us dollars. We will not be buying that. However, I was at the bulk shop and found rice crispies and they were only 26.50. (about 4 us dollars) I bought two bags and thought I hit the jackpot. This year will be a new experience for us and we are excited about what God has in store for us.

Thanks to everyone for there support and prayers. We know for sure that God is with us especially as we traveled and how well the kids did. We love you guys and are already starting to miss you.

Churie Miller

Prayer request

Please pray for Zion Christian Academy they are in the middle of changing principles and they have a lot of teachers that are not returning this next year. Pray that they hire the right people.

Pray for Geoff as he tries to make connections with the right people and know the right path to take for the vocational school

Pray for our family as we adapt to this new culture.