Letter – Guam – March 14, 2013

Guam is a beautiful island, but it really is in the middle of nowhere!! It took us five hours flying over the Pacific to get to Honolulu and another eight to get here. The amazing thing is that, after thirteen hours in the air, we are still a long way from solid land. The Pacific Ocean is huge.
Today we had a tour of the Island. It’s six to twelve kilometers wide and I think they said it is forty-eight kilometers long. Like Hawaii, it was a place of action during the second world war. The U.S. forces had a base here but they realized it was undefendable, so they moved most of their people off before the Japanese actually attacked.
Seems like they had already taken the Islands to the north and used them as a launching pad to take Guam. It wasn’t long after that they took the Philippines and it seemed like they were unstoppable. However, they didn’t calculate how fast their enemy could rebuild and soon they were on the run back to Japan.
There are wonderful spiritual lessons for us in all this. We, too, have an enemy that would love to take us down before we can defend ourselves. He knows that if he finds our weak points and, keeps working away, he will likely be able to overcome us.  It would be a hopeless battle were it not for the power of the one who can help us.
We were taken today to one of the two places where the American forces landed when they returned. The very first day they fought their way 2 kilometers inland but at a very high price. Thousands of men lost their lives.
There seems to be about 25-30 friends here on the Island. Almost all of them are Philipino or have Philipino blood. We all gathered for a gospel meeting last night at the convention grounds. It was so nice to see them come in and a couple who are not yet professing among them. They visited for a long time before going home.
I relived the feeling I had as a child going to convention. It was our only convention. There was no possibility of a second one or even a weekend. You could just see they were so anxious to get started. These folks have had workers on their island recently but often they go for months without even a visit.
There is an interesting thing about Guam in that they have almost no birds. They used to have many. Some years ago, a snake was brought onto the island accidentally and nothing was done about it. It soon multiplied. It lives in the trees and loves to eat birds eggs. Several varieties have gone extinct because of it. Just now, they are starting a program to see if they can eliminate them but it will be too late for many species.
Again, we have a picture of our enemy. If we can get him before he gets a foothold, we stand a much greater chance of victory.
My thoughts have been in Saskatchewan these days so much, with Karen’s passing. We had the good fortune of having her in our field a lot in the last couple of years. She was a wonderful, wonderful lady and we are so glad that her life touched ours. Before I left, I had a good visit with her and was quite aware that it could be my last. By then, we knew her tests were all coming back very negative and the future on this earth did not look so good. However, we also knew she had a wonderful treasure awaiting her in heaven.
I’ll add on our speaking list here. You’ll notice that they keep us busy. It runs until next Wednesday as some of us don’t leave for Saipan until Thursday morning.