Christmas Special at Youth

So last night we joined the whole church that our youth group belongs to for a Christmas celebration, complete with lots and lots of items (dramas and action songs).

I was in two, we did action songs to Strong Tower by Kutless and One World by tobymac. Q was also in One World.

Some of us didn't really remember Strong Tower, so we were in the back right before our turn, frantically practicing it... it paid off, though, I only missed one line of the song!

One World went awesome, of course; we've practiced that one till we are sick of the song.

After the items was FOOD, which was lovo and wasn't half bad.

Soooooo, I counted and I got only 6 hours of sleep last night. *gasp* ... As opposed to my normal.... *counts* ... 9-10. I'll be drinking coffee today, thankyou.

Design and Dedication

Today I spent several hours updating the design on one of the websites I... uh... webmaster. In today's world, you kind of have to have a new design every few months or you are "outdated," "old-fashioned," or just plain... *gasp* ... "over." If you come up with something good -- a good design, an awesome layout-- well, it will be amazing... for a couple months. Then, it will be finished. And what was incredible and cutting-edge two months ago is now as old-fashioned as last week's spaghetti. I mean... at one point, the blinking marquee was IN.

(for those of you who are not web geeks, the blink and marquee tags are *shudder* very outdated)

Good design isn't enough. Good coding isn't enough. What is necessary is good design... again. A new one. Moving forward. Updating. Trying something new. Fixing the bugs. 

It got me to thinking...

See, week before last I was going through a Beth Moore Bible study. I was quite happy with myself, I had actually stuck with the thing for a few weeks. Something new... something good... moving forward. Good, eh? 

Last week I had a flu. I was struggling just to finish my school work and drop back into bed. So, I skipped the Bible study. And... I haven't gotten back to it. 

The dedication of two weeks ago didn't carry me into this week...  last week's spiritual victory doesn't guarantee that this week will be fine and dandy. As a matter of fact, yesterday's lovely attitude doesn't apply to today. As a MATTER of fact... the good work of the last minute doesn't apply to this minute. The decision to conform to Christ's character has to be a decision made every single minute, in a new way. The last amazing act of kindness I did doesn't earn me brownie points to avoid the next one that will be required of me.

Soooo.... yes, I will set my alarm clock tonight, and do my Bible study tomorrow morning. 

And that's my sermon for today. Just thought I'd share.

-Danielle

Random happenings

Woah... it's been quite a while since I posted a blog! I keep meaning to... and then forgetting to... or deciding not to... or not bothering to... and... well, y'know how it goes. But that doesn't mean my life has been devoid of happenings. Here is some of what has been going on:

1. Last Friday the homeschool group did an action song at youth; we did One World by Tobymac, I think we did pretty well. Malcolm's wife was taking pics, so here y'are, one picture of us doing action song....

2. Last Saturday we had a Thanksgiving get-together over at the Schultzies' place... I think there was over 40 people there. Twas great fun... and afterwards I realized that I had not gotten a single picture. Not one.

3. And this past week mah bro and I have had some kinda flu, so we couldn't go to homeschoolers or youth... although the Sens did come by here after homeschoolers, so Hannah taught me the newest action song... who knows, maybe I can still do it with them next week...

4. Today we put up the Christmas tree, so we are officially ready for Christmas! And Christmas is most certainly in the air as it is getting unbearably hot....

I think that's about all that has happened over the past couple weeks... and now I have finally posted a blog and I can stop feeling guilty about my terrible neglect of my blog!

Afternoon with the Schmelzenbachs and Schultzies

Sooooo, I got my SAT scores back. I got a 1510, which is pretty much what

I was hoping for. Thanks for the prayers, y'all, God really helped me out on that one. 

We were gonna have dinner with the Schultzies ANYWAY, so mum went ahead a decorated a bit, made a chocolate bread pudding, and we called it a party. It was fun.

I uploaded a bunch of photos to my picasa, but the movie refused to cooperate there so I just uploaded it here.

Website!

Well, I spent Saturday glued to the computer screen, staring at pages and pages of coding. I was on a mission. I was going to finish my website! I was unhappy with what I had, so I decided to throw it out and start over, retaining only four files of the original. 

About 15 hours of solid coding and graphic designing later, I had pretty much made what I wanted.... by 9:30 PM on Saturday night, Quinton was getting worried about me... "Aren't you going to go to bed, Sis?" ... but no, once you start on a coding project, it becomes verrrrry difficult to stop. Trust me. It's like stopping halfway through  a Ted Dekker book. Just doesn't happen. 

Anyway, with a few tweaks and final touches on Sunday morning before church and Monday morning before school, the website is up and running! So go take a look at it, at http://antiqueatlantic.com

For those who do not quite get all the gizmos on the home page, allow me to explain:

- My music: an online radio station I found recently, which allows users to tell it what artists they like. It then pulls all the songs from those artists and plays them... and the user can ban songs they don't like, so eventually they get a totally customized playlist. That thingo on the homepage plays my playlist, but there is a link underneath it to make your own... it's free, it's awesome, I fully recommend it. I made a profile for mum, with stuff like Abba, LeAnn Rimes, Kenny G, all that good stuff. 

-My flair: Ok, well, if you have facebook you know what these are. These are awesome buttons which people collect on facebook when they have nothing better to do. You can make your own, or choose from ones others have made. I love them... so I put them also on my home page. As I get more on facebook, I shall add them to my home page.

-my Feeds: well the blog feed is self-explanatory, tells about the lates blogs on this, my blog. The top one, the "friendfeed" might need some explanaition. If you know about twitter or Jaiku, then this is just like them, and now you understand. If you don't know about twitter.... allow me to explain.

This is a lovely way to waste your time and that of your friends. It is a little blog-type thing, only the blogs can only be 140 characters or less. So, the idea, is that every few hours you give this tiny update about what your doing. Now, I can't say that I actually update mine every few hours, but I do update it once in a while. It's kinda like the profile thingo on facebook, only I can't get on facebook from this computer, so this works better for me. It sounds like a mindless time-waster, and it is exactly that... but it's strangely addictive. I mean, you become almost compelled to write "I just ate lunch". ..... Ok, so maybe it's not that bad, but you get the idea. 

Well, now I really must get to school.... so go check out my website, and tell me what you think. Unless you don't like it, then don't tell me what you think. :)

-Danielle

http://antiqueatlantic.com

Learning to Drive with Dad

The other day, Dad walked into the room where I was working, and casually glanced over my shoulder at the screen of my not-so-trusty computer. He inquired as to how my work was progressing. I happened to mention that I was almost done transferring the website to valid CSS and XHTML Transitional from it's former invalidated HTML coding. He nodded, as if that was a given. I thought he really wasn't enthusiastic enough about the whole coding thing. Then he mentioned that when I was done with that, I might go ahead and "figure out the whole video thing." I looked at him intelligently and remarked: Huh?

Dad: Yes, Kiddo, I need you to figure out what is involved in, you know, editing video, and kind of put together a professional sort of promotional video clip.

Self: But... I've never done video... I don't know how to...

Dad: So? You can learn. So yeah, just work on that when you get done with the other. Ok?

Well, I wasn't so very surprised, really. One gets used to these sorts of things. Sooner or later, one discovers that one is actually capable of much more than most people expect. All one needs is someone who expects more than most people do, and is not very impressed with mediocre achievement. Case in point: driving lessons.

Mom tried to teach me to drive. The problem was, two weeks later we were still slowly rolling around that deserted block in Pac Harbour, learning stopping and starting. I could stop and start really well. Even got up to 20 kph! Then I graduated to a shift-stick and learned stopping and starting all over again. Lessons would go something like this:

Mom: Ok, start the car.

Self: *starts car*

Mom: Alright, drive to that palm tree up there.

Self: *slowly rolls to palm tree; stops car*

Mom: Ok, go ahead and drive to that next palm tree. You can go a bit faster this time.

Self: *rolls to next palm tree at the shocking speed of 10 k's*

Mom: Oh, here comes a car, pull over and we'll wait till they pass.

Self: *puts car in park; resists temptation to completely turn the motor off*

Mom: Ok, now go to that next palm tree.

Self: *goes to next........* well, you get the picture.

Then, one day, we were driving home from Nadi, and Dad decided that he would see how my driving was coming along. He pulled into that stretch of road along the front of Pac Harbour... you know, the one they race on... and got out. Time for a driving lesson from the Padre. Now, Dad and Mom differ somewhat.... it shows up in their teaching styles. Mom will teach something until you know it, patiently coaxing you along to the next step. Dad ... doesn't. Dad will teach you something until you are supposed to know it, and then will have you do it, perfectly. Actually, Dad's teaching style fits me pretty well, because otherwise I would just stick with the learning bit until Kingdom Come and never actually get around to the doing bit. So, here we go on a driving lesson with Dad:

Dad: Alright, Kiddo, get in. Start the car. Let's go.

Self: *starts car; forgets to put in the clutch* *engine dies*

Dad: Ok, Kiddo, you can go ahead and start the car now.

Self: *puts in clutch; does things correctly; starts car; puts car in first gear; panics when car starts moving; hits brake; accidently hits clutch instead* *engine dies*

Dad: Alrighty, Kiddo, start the car.

Self: *gives Dad a Glare**looks at the steering wheel and stick-shift in front of me*

The car had humiliated me enough. It was time to end this. I gripped the wheel with one hand, and the gear shift with the other. I took a deep breath; arranged my mind for wrestling. It was the car or me this time. I'm not perfectly sure what happened next... I'm sure that the car almost won, but in the end, I was in the driver's seat, with my foot on the accelerator, in first gear. The car was obediently rolling down the street. Dad nodded as though it was a given that the car would start when you told it to. I thought that he really was not enthusiastic enough about my victory. However, I did not have time to inform him of this, as I noticed a car coming toward us. I prepared for the customary halt.

Dad: What are you doing?

Self: Stopping.

Dad: I see that. Why are you stopping?

Self: *points toward oncoming car with my eyebrows* (my eyebrows were all that I could point with, my hands seemed to be stuck in a death grip on the steering wheel, in the required 9 and 3 o' clock positions, in readiness for the next time the car would try a counter-attack move)

Dad: So?

Self: That's a car.

Dad: So? So is this. This a road. Cars drive on roads.

Self: I don't drive in the presence of other cars.

Dad: Yes you do; drive.

Self: But, but, butbutbutBUTDAD.......

The car passed us. It didn't hit us; I stayed on my side of the road; we were all still alive. I looked at my intact body in wonderment.

Note: The above conversation and actions happened in the course of about 1.73 seconds. Also present, but not included in the above narrative, was a steady stream of agreements and explanations from Mom and Quinton in the back seat.

Dad nodded as though it was a given that cars would pass without catastrophe to either party. I thought that he really was not enthusiastic enough about our narrow brush with death. Well, perhaps not with death exactly, but certainly with bodily harm. Well, perhaps not harm exactly, but ... well, it was dangerous, very dangerous, and that is the point to which I am trying to come. Soon enough, I forgot all about passing that car. You know the old home remedy for a headache? The one where you hit your thumb with a hammer? No more headache. Well, Dad believes in these kinds of home remedies, and I suppose that is the tack we took at this point. Scared of a car? No problem, we can fix that.

I got us safely down the whole road there in front of the post office, and then we reached that stretch of road in front of the Culture Center. The stretch of road which is constantly strewn with cars parked, parking, or unparking; and is riddled with unsuspecting tourists. I began to stop the car once more.

Dad: What are you doing? (at this point a nasty suspicion began to creep into my mind that I was supposed to drive through this stretch of road)

Self: Stopping.

Dad: I see that. Why are you stopping? (This was sounding vaguely and unsettlingly familiar. The above-mentioned suspicion began to grow stronger.)

Self: That's a lot of cars.

Dad: So? This is a road.... (by this point, the suspicion had become cemented in my mind, and I had resigned myself to the gauntlet before me)

Sure enough, I was supposed to drive on. I eyed the road. I took a deep breath. I reached deep down inside myself for the steely resolve that would enable me to endure this terrible ordeal. I gripped the steering wheel, closed my eyes, and pressed forward. Well, perhaps I didn't exactly close my eyes. Before I knew what was happening, we were on the other side of the Culture Center. I gazed with astonishment at the clear road before me. I had passed through the fire and had not been burned! I had emerged alive! I had conquered the Road! I had persevered! I was elated! I ventured a glance at Dad. He nodded, as if it was a given.... I thought that he really was not enthusiastic enough... I had the sneaking suspicion that our driving lesson was not over... but I was no longer scared of passing a measly little car. The thumb-hitting remedy works, too, y'know.

My Dad has taught me never to give in to my first misgivings about my abilities. He has also taught me never to be satisfied with my first measly accomplishment. So, if you will excuse me, I must go... I have to run and "figure out the whole video thing."

Friday Night Youth

I look around in the dim light to see hands uplifted all around me. Teenagers are crying, laughing, singing, praising God. The music reverberates through the building, soon the guitar and drums are joined by the sound of teens jumping and shouting on the chorus.
ONE WAY! JESUS! HE'S THE ONLY ONE THAT I COULD LIVE FOR! You are the way, the truth, and the life, we live by faith and not by sight. Take, take, take it all! So won't you break free, won't you break free, get up and dance....

Well, sure we will. And we do! You all have heard me go on about youth, but THIS time I have PROOF! I finally took my camera to youth last night, so I have pictures!

It took forever to get a mere six kids lined up for a picture, seriously. Olli was taking the photo that they are all looking at the camera for, so somewhere there is a photo identical to this one, only with them all actually facing the camera.
Random Fact of the Day.















And that's during worship; we have my bro in the striped blue shirt, then Olli, then Leah, then Jake.














Malcolm, our youth pastor!














Annnnnnnd Priteeka, his wife. She was taking pictures, too.

Now, as always, not all my pictures fit on here nicely, so the rest of them reside at My Picasa Album, in the November folder. Go check 'em out. :D

-Danielle

Puppies

I give in. I must, I repeat, MUST, blog about the puppies. I mean, six little half-german-shepherd fur balls with curly, trying-to-stand-up ears... who could resist blogging about them? Who could resist using up their whole camera card on them? Who could resist sitting in the yard for hours on end playing with them? hm? So I started this month's photo album out with lots of puppy pictures. Those can be found at My Picasa, in the November album. Of course, I shall put some here too.


Click here to see the rest of the puppy pictures.

Taking the SAT (part 2)

Well, I took it today... I think I did ok, but it'll be a couple weeks before I get the scores. Man, that is one tough test... seriously, four hours into it, it's like, what was I thinking to take this on.

But, I certainly felt all of your prayers. I really think God helped me through it, and I know I did my best, so we will see how it turns out.
Thanks for praying!

-Danielle

Taking the SAT

Well... I took the last practice test today and.... didn't do so good. I'm so tired from studying... I'm not going to do any thinking whatsoever from now until I take the test.

For those of you who have absolutely no clue what on human earth I am talking about, I am taking the SAT for the second time in a couple days... I am really trying for a certain score, because that scholarship would SURE be nice. So, I've been studying pretty hard for the past month, and I've improved my average scores on the practice tests by about 40 points... which is about 60 short of the grade I need. So, I've accepted that if I get the grade I need on this test, it will be because God helped me to... like, really helped... so I'm praying hard, and I've been making my friends promise to pray too. Beyond that, I just have to accept that if I don't get the score, it's because God has something else in store. Don't you hate it when you want to pray for God's will to be done, but you have this sinking feeling that His will might turn out to be not what you think you want? But, the truth is, if He has other plans that He wants to have happen at this point, those are really what I want to have happen, not some thing which I have decided would be best.

Ah well... He's in control. And I suppose... He knows the plans He has for me, plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me a hope and future!

-Danielle

Do you know the people around you? Do you know what they believe? Do you know how it affects them, and why? ...

Diwali: The Festival of Lights

There are many legends... the goddess Lakshmi (goddess of wealth) is incarnated; Lord Vishnu as Vaman-avtaara rescues Lakshmi from King Bali's prison; Lord Krishna kills the demon-king Narakaasur; the Pandavas return from banishment; Lord Ram, Ma Sita, and Lakshman return to Ayodhya... stories are in abundance. But my neighbor tells me only one, so perhaps that is the one I should tell. (note: this is the best I understand the story, forgive me if I get some of the details wrong)

In Kosala (now northern India) many millennia ago, King Dasaratha ruled in the capital city of Ayodhya. (yes, your tongue will need some therapy after this blog to get untwisted) King Dasaratha was good and wise, and the country was prosperous and at peace. The king had three queens: Kaushalya, Kaikeyi, and Sumitra, but no children. The royal family held a sacrifice, and begged the gods for children-- four sons were soon born.

Kaushalya's son was the firstborn, Ram. Bharat was Kaikeyi's son, and Sumitra had twins: Lakshman and Shatrughn.

Our story skips forward to the marriages of all the sons: Ram won the hand of the princess Sita, daughter of Janak, ruler of Videha. To do so, he strung and broke the bow of Shiv, which no other man could do. Lakshman married Sita's sister, Urmila; and Bharat and Shatrughn married Sita's cousins: Mandavi and Shrutakirti.

Tongue-twisting names now for the most part taken care of, the princes and their wives lived in Ayodhya with King Dasaratha and his three queens. The king was growing old, however, and decided to appoint his eldest son, Ram, as regent.

Kaikeyi (mother of Bharat) was convinced by her evil maid, Manthara, that as soon as Ram became king, he would become jealous and would remove her as queen and kill her son. She panicked, and decided to take drastic action. Many years ago she had saved the king's life, and he had promised to grant her two wishes. She decided it was now time to use a wish. She requested that the king send Ram into 14 years of exile in the jungle. The king was broken-hearted, but he could not recall his promise, so Ram was exiled. With him went his wife, Sita, and his younger brother, Lakshman.

When Bharat learned what his mother had done to his half-brother, he was furious. He ran after Ram, and begged him to return, but Ram insisted on honouring his father's promise. Bharat returned to the city, but refused to be king. King Dasaratha died, however, and someone had to rule the kingdom. Bharat consented to rule Ayodhya in Ram's name, but would not sit on the throne. Instead, he placed there a pair of Ram's shoes, to remind the people that Ram was the true king.

Ram, his wife, and his brother lived in the forest for many years. They faced many trials, fought with demons... at one point, Ram's wife, Sita, was kidnapped by a demon named Ravan. Ram and Lakshman had to find her. All the animals in the forest helped them, as well as Ravan's brother, who disapproved of what Ravan had done. Together, they assaulted the castle where she was held prisoner. Ram and Ravan fought for ten days, until Ram shot Ravan with a special arrow given to him by the gods and succeeded in killing him.

Finally, the 14 years of exile were over. Hanuman the monkey (who was also the son of the Wind, with power to fly) preceded the trio to the city, announcing that Ram, Sita, and Lakshman were returning. The city of Ayodhya was decorated with lamps and flowers, and when Ram arrived, he was crowned king. He ruled long and well, and many thousands of years later, his coronation is remembered and celebrated as the Hindu festival of Diwali.


Outside, the fireworks are bursting; I can hear them. My neighbors are getting ready for the prayer tonight. People are shouting, and laughing at the fireworks.

-Danielle
"Father, it is my desire to love You, the Lord my God, with all my heart, and with all my mind, and with all my soul.... and to love my neighbor as myself."

(right: my neighbor)

Youth!

So, as most of you know, last night was youth group. It was awesome, as always.

We had a guest speaker, from the west, a former Math and Physics teacher, and also a former Hindu firewalker. He was talking about deciding for yourself who Jesus is, rather than just following the crowd... that your relationship with God has to be a personal thing. Well, as he was talking about how easy it is to follow the crowd, he started off the service with a bunch of games, in which many of us made fools of ourselves by "following the crowd" ... such as the one where he says, spell "silk" ... say it five times... spell it again... say it another five times ... silk silk silk silk... what do cows drink? .. and everyone says : MILK!! ... no wait.

Moving on from there, he quoted CS Lewis' famous logic about Jesus from Mere Christianity: That Jesus was either a liar, or he was a lunatic, or he was Lord... his claims to be the Son of God make those three choices the only ones.

He also talked for a while about exactly who Jesus said that he was, and who others in the Bible said that he was, and ended with an altar call. Course, we wrapped up the service with a rousing rendition of "Forever" ... we have some awesome singing at youth!

Now, in case you all were thinking that Malcolm must have forgotten about his order to memorize the books of the Bible, he did not. Those of us who recited them in front of everyone got a big bag of cookies to share.... yum. Course... we shared them with everyone else, too.
Quinton also won a coke by reciting a memory verse up front... and the kid would not share it with the rest of us! No wait... I take that back. He did offer me some, I admit. Those who did not win goodies (and some of those who did) headed for the snack bar after the service. One of these weeks I need to take a camera to youth and get some pics... I was going to this week, but my camera is quite dead. I need to remember to buy new batteries. What are the chances I'm gonna remember THAT?!

-Danielle

Homeschoolers and Youth Blog

Well, as today is Thursday, we went to homeschool group!

At homeschool group, some of the kids played volleyball outside (Q did that for a while), some of the kids watched Lord of the Rings III (Q did that for a while, too), and SOME of the kids (namely, me and Hannah) worked at the computer in the corner.

What would be so very important as to keep us working for three hours at the computer in the corner? Well... last week at youth we promised Malcolm that we would set up a blog for Vital Connection youth group, so that he could post upcoming events, stories about what's happening, prayer requests, etc. So that's what we were doing! It was actually fun, and we got it all nicely set up, and the first post posted about what's happening tomorrow. The site is (in case you want to keep track of what's going on at Vital Connection youth group) VConnectionFiji.blogspot.com.

Having completed the blog, we have also been working on our books of the Bible. While doing the dishes the other night, Quinton and I recited them to each other.... did you know the prophets work best when memorized in groups of three? If you get into a rhythm you can get through all 66 books of the Bible before you lose your train of thought and forget what you were doing....
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy...which reminds me I forgot to read the passage in Deuteronomy for Economics class... oh I really need to check on my schedule in that class... I think I'm behind in British Lit... that last stupid book... had to look up the Cliff Notes to understand it... got sidetracked by the browser update I had to download... which reminds me I really need to get the new version of iTunes... and before you know it, the books of the Bible have faded in the far away background... Joshua, Judges, Ruth... there's a Newsboys song about those three books... it's quite funny.... I need to get that new music video... what was I doing again?..........

-Danielle

Kavala Bay

What a weekend! We left home early Sunday morning.... as in, 4:30 am. We cast off from the dock at about 6, and headed for Kadavu.

Most of you who know me know what/where Kadavu is, but for those who don't, it is an island about 60 nautical miles south of the main island where we live. We have had church work in Kadavu for several years now, and it is expanding every time we turn around.

There is new church in Kavala Bay, Kadavu: 6 weeks old. That was our destination. We arrived, hiked in to the new shed church building, and sat down for the service. That was at around 10 am. By 10:15 or so, the people had arrived. This 6 week old church has 62 people attending! We had a couple hours of items (dances) .


So, Pastor Aseri is speaking away in Fijian, and I am listening very carefully and following pretty well. It is very tiring to listen and understand a language that you do not know very well, and although I could understand most of what he said, if I lost concentration I would immediately lose track of what was going on. At one point in this process, Pastor was merely announcing each upcoming item, so I relaxed a bit, and looked around at all the people crowded into the little shed. Suddenly, the flow of words from the front stopped. I looked up, starteled. Pastor Aseri was looking in the direction of our family. I scrambled to reconstruct in my mind the last few words said. Something about Mom... me...song...now. hm. This was sounding like something that might require some kind of response on our part. I struggled to look intelligent. Fortunately, after a very long few hundredths of a second, Pastor Aseri translated into English.
"We are just wondering if maybe Radini Cindy and Danielle might have a song for us?"
I looked at him, and then looked at Mom. We were obviously both thinking the same thing. We had just gotten over a fairly severe cold... no voice, the whole bit... and had only recently re-aquired the fine art of talking. Neither of us were at all sure we could croak out a song... but hey... why not?

I quickly leaned over and whispered in Mom's ear the name of a Fijian song that we both knew very well... this was no time for fancy newly learned productions... and headed for the mike, Mom close behind. This particular song, "E na Mata i Jiova" calls for immediate singing by both parties of the duet. I began enthusiastically and heard not a sound from my side where Mom was standing. I checked to make sure she was still there... sure enough, there she was. I casually wondered for a while why she wasn't singing, until finally after a few eons, certainly comprising the space of at least half of the first word, she joined in.

Mom later explained that she had only heard the last two words of the title I had whispered to her, "i Jiova"... unfortunately, those two words refer to a different song, one which calls for the second singer to jump in on the chorus! ... so she was somewhat confused when I started a different song than I had declared... yes, very confusing, I understand completely. All worked out for the best though, we completed the song in a semi-croak-free manner and resumed our seats.

Dad preached, and Pastor Aseri translated... I really love listening to translated sermons. Everything is run by you twice, you get to hear every point from a different angle, you are given time to think between sentences, it's great. And it was a sermon worth listening to twice... of course the story of great-grandpa and the cobra in the fire was at the end, as this was a new group of people who had never heard that story before. I do love that story.

After the service... which ended at around 1pm... we had lunch. Oh such a lovely lunch it was... good Fijian food is... very good. I won't say hard to beat, because Mum's cooking can beat anything else on earth, but it is certainly worth consuming.

After lunch, we sat for a while and then had tea. Don't laugh. This is a former British colony, we must have our tea. After a few years, it becomes addictive and an afternoon seems somehow incomplete without a good cup of tea.

At around 4 or 5 we headed back out to boat, had a round of Rook (which Dad and I won, of course), and folded down our bunks for the night. We spent a little while examining stars... there is really nothing quite like stars in the outer islands. No city lights... no clouds... the Milky Way stretched from one horizon to the other... some planet hung low in the sky in front of us, so bright that it reflected in the water below...truly incredible. Makes you feel so small... and God seem so huge and majestic.

Finally, we all went to bed... well, no, not quite all of us.

I slowly drifted off into oblivion, settling into the soft rocking of the boat, listening to the gentle creak of my bunk, when SUDDENLY I hear this yelp. After the yelp came the peculiar sound of Fish On Deck. It's kind of a flappy metalic sound... hard to describe... comes from the frantic flopping of a fish that has been jerked up out of its watery abode and onto the metal deck of the boat. WHAP WHAP WHAP. Small sounds from Quinton as he scrambled to control his catch. Bright blinding light as he flipped on the lights and held up his trophy for all to see. Held it up... as in, oh hello, please get the fish out of my face if you don't mind. Finally the fish disappeared from view, the light went off, and I went back to sleep, thankyou very much.

I slept awesome... but then... I sleep awesome all the time. At 7:30pm, it's like, watch out, I am going to sleep wherever I am. Yes, 7:30. Don't laugh. I get up early, too.

Monday (yesterday) the seas were lily-pond flat for the trip back, but we caught not one fish, no not one, not even a small one. How sad. A moment of silence, please, for the fish-less voyage.

When we got back to dock, Mom and I took the truck and ran up to the butcher and Cost-U-Less for some groceries while Dad and the Q cleaned up the boat. We finally got home and I ran for the shower... something about salty ocean air, just makes a hot shower seem absolutely wonderful.

I have put a few pictures into this blog, but of course they don't all fit, the rest of them are in the october folder of my Picasa album

And so we reach the end of this delightful post, those of you who are still reading, congratulations, you have persevered through to the finish.

-Danielle

I guess I should post a post...

Well, this is my blog... I guess I should go ahead and post on it.

Today is raining like crazy, but that's just living in Navua. Navua gives the word "rainforest" a new meaning... it rains like a foot a day here, seriously. The rice fields around our house are more like rice ponds at the moment, and the rain is still merrily coming down. If you drive 10 minutes east toward Suva, the rain clears up. If you drive 15 minutes west toward Nadi, the rain clears up. It is just our own little pocket of the world that sits in a perpetual downpour. It's a good thing we live on the top of a hill, or we would have to build our house up on stilts like some of the other people on our road.

Today mom and I are stringing cots for the boat. I have blisters on three fingers from trying to pull the ropes tight... see, there are these aluminium frames and these rectangles of canvas with gromets in them, and the idea is to use the rope and wind it through the gromets and around the metal and pull it tight so that we can put the cots up in the boat and sleep on them and end up with something more like a cot than a hammock. Myself, at this point in the pulling-tight-ropes process, I'm thinking hammocks would be just fine with me.

Last night we went to youth group, Q and I did. That is one awesome youth group, I like it more every time I go. I don't quite know what it is about it... maybe it's Malcolm, the youth pastor. He so obviously cares about all the kids that come. I mean, really, he's pulling out 100+ teens on a Friday night to come sit for an hour and half to listen to... preaching! And it's good solid Christian teaching, too, awesome stuff.

He called out a few Bible verses that were a wee bit difficult to find... books like Amos (right after Joel, and before Obadiah, in case you were wondering)... hm... and he took note of the fact that some of us were wandering through our Bibles, a bit lost... and so he told us to all memorize the books of the Bible in order before next week. I think I shall have to brush up a bit... couldn't remember if 1&2 Kings came before or after 1&2 Cronicles... and I may have gotten Zepheniah and Haggai out of order in my mind. Nahum... is not right before Revelation, actually, that's Jude. And... yeah, we shall take another look that table of contents and get those straigtened out for next week.

Alrighty that was a very long first post for this blog, but I'm bored today, it's a rainy Saturday, what am I supposed to do other than ramble on? hm? But this lovely post has come to an end now, as I really have to go string another cot. *looks woefully at blisters on my fingers*

Later people, God Bless, and learn your books of the Bible before next week.
-Danielle