"Take me out to the ballgame!"

On this past Sunday, I go the opportunity to go to Aminawa with Andrew and Rachel. Malasi and another Bible student went with us and preached the services. Aminawa is a church plant that Bro. Matt started, and when he went back on furlough last time, Andrew took over the work. Now it is practically run by nationals! When we were there, a little girl asked for someone to talk with her after the message, so while Andrew and Rachel where talking with her, I sat under the tarp (the church is just a blue plastic tarp on wooden poles) and waited. While I waited, I was taking pictures of little kids and the scenery. I started taking pictures of the kids  and then showing them on my camera what they looked like. That really draws the crowds! Everybody wants to do it. After all the picture taking was over with, everybody just sorta left and went about their day. One little 3 or 4 year old boy was left and he walked over to me and just put his hand on my knee. I was surprised at it 'cause no kid has been that out going before! So I decided to see how much this kid would allow. I reached out for him and sure enough he let me pick him up and set him on my knee. We just sat there without saying a word. He was gonna be content to sit with me for the rest of the afternoon, but my leg wasn't going to let that happen! After we all started to leave, Andrew told me we were going to swing by a friends house named Benjamin. Ben is a crippled man about mid-twenties. He lives in a bush hut with his father and two children. He is unable to leave the hut without assistance but rarely does it anyway. He is a very sweet spirited man and Andrew always brings some medicine by for him to sort out for the clinic. It gives him something to do. He has a window by his bedside and when Matt flies over, he wags his wings at him. He was really a blessing to meet.

When we left his place, we had to cross a river to get to the Mule. It wasn't terribly deep, but it was fast!!! I about tripped several times in the water that was so deep I had to take my shoes off and role my pants legs up to my knees!

After we finally made it back, I noticed that there were a lot of kids playing baseball behind the Allen's house. I didn't think much about it until I started to walk to the room. Then I saw that Ariel, Hannah, and Connor where playing and I thought I would go get some pictures of this. Now the funny thing was, in the middle of a baseball game, there were kids running around with bows and arrows shooting at the players!!! They were dull tips but still hurt if you got hit. Then there were other kids with inter tubes, kicking them around the "field". The reason for the quotes is because this was the most interesting field I think I had and will ever play on. First base was only 10 yards away and you had to run up a hill and jump a ditch to get to it! Then you rounded a tree toward second and then it was a 50 yard dash to third! Not your regular diamond. After I changed and got the camera, I took some pictures and then I got drafted by Hannah to play on their team. It was a blast! The kids really were less shy when we got to playing. I had a really good time and really played well . . . 3 of 3, all were home runs! Haha!  We played to 20 and Hannah and my team beat Connor and Ariel's. We played some after that but it was beginning to rain and get dark. The funniest part about the whole day was when I was sitting on the "bleachers" with my team, I started singing "take me out to the ball game" but putting in random words for the lyrics. Well Connor and the Allen girls started laughing and then the national kids started laughing and they had no clue what I was saying so I started making songs up about them as we went.

On Monday, Bro. Matt and I flew one flight down to the coast to pick up Ben and some other Bible students and then he flew one more out to Manyama. When he got back, he was so exhausted that he got out of the plane and just laid on the ground while we unloaded the cargo. When we unloaded the cargo, we got ready to jump in the mule and head home, but we could not find the keys for it! We looked and looked and then we realized that we had given the keys to Nathaniel (the weather man) to hold until we got back, but when we brought Ben back from Kerema he took over the weather job and Nathaniel went home. So Bro. Matt was feeling bad and we couldn't get the mule started. We walked down the runway to where the cell service is better and he sent an email to Mrs. Becky asking her to have Andrew bring the keys back. I had to stand there with the cell phone held as high as I could to get service and Bro. Matt was still laying on the ground. He said to go to his email and check it to see if she had replied and when I did I didn't find an email from her, but I found one from Jason saying that he was gonna be Skype preaching (he got asked to preach a church's Sunday night service via Skype) and letting us know it would be nice if we all could stay off the internet. I looked at the time he was gonna start preaching and realized that it had been 15 minutes ago and he wasn't gonna be done for another hour! Matt looked up and me and just said "can this get any worse?"  Andrew showed up with a key in the next half hour and said Mrs. Becky saw the text and just didn't reply to it. So we loaded up headed back home. I hopped in with Andrew on the mule he brought. About halfway back, the mule's engine shut off and we ended up coasting all the way down a hill before we got it fixed! It was a crazy day and one I was glad to be done with! When Matt finally drove the other mule back, he still wasn't feeling good and he laid down for a few minutes. He thinks now that he is getting malaria. Please pray that is not the case and that he will get to feeling better.

Last night we ate supper with Jason and Cherith Ottesen. It was good and afterwards we played "Monopoly Deal". It was fun and I ended up winning one game. Since they have a little girl, they were the perfect ones to ask about raising a family on the mission field. They had some good advice that could be valuable in the future.

Today I think we are going to help Andrew build on the guest house. This morning though, I am going on a hike with Jason to the top of the mountain that is going to be the site of the radio tower they want to set up to repeat Bro. Brad Well's radio program. It is hard to believe this is my last week here! It seems like the time has flown by.

-Collin