Craig Rayner

Hafa Adai: Welcome, as they say here in Guam in the Chamorro language. December has been a great month here in Guam , with a lot of activity and fun. Hafa Adai is actually pronounced as hafaday, or as the local wag (character) stated: the amount of work you are likely to get out of a government employee. Some things do not change. Some of you may have been keeping up with the Face-Book updates, and for those of you who have not I will add some more photos on the site.

Guam is a beautiful location. It is no wonder that many Japanese come here to be married and enjoy their all too short holiday on the island. Our task on island has been to bring the rule of the MD into the lives of the people we meet. We have been spending Saturday morning at the flea market, an early start to beat the midday heat, being on site at 6am. Our transport has been a little stretched, and we are often forced to make two trips to our destinations, so we find ourselves leaving very early to allow the truck time to do two trips. The flea market is about 20 minutes away, one direction, and it is one of our closer destinations.

We have also visited a number of clubs, especially on Sunday. In some, we have taken a active role in the meeting. This has included running the entire meeting, or various parts of the program, such as singing, sharing parts about our lives, having fun with the youth and children and giving a message. We have been across some cultural borders as well, leading the youth at a Korean club last Sunday. We then performed our skit in the meeting, which has been a big hit each time we have performed. The entire meeting was given in Korean, so the fact that our skit is performed without words fitted in very well.

We have also been visiting a number of other institutions. These include: a prison (men,) a youth prison (mixed,) a old aged (geriatric care) peoples home, a hospital, a local village, a women's shelter (the girls) and a number of the tourist places on island. We have been talking to people about the MD, asking the MD to look favourably on the people, performing our skit, singing Christmas carols and eating a lot of barbeques. The work at these various institutions has been shared around. I spoke at the prison and at the old aged home, and have also shared at some of the youth meetings.

We have also been the recipients of a number of gifts. These have included an afternoon on a cruiser in the Bay of Agat . We have also had an early start for a morning outrigger canoe paddling, as well as invitations to a number of barbeques on the beach. We also had a day at the local water park.

On Monday we head off to Saipan for three weeks in another tropical paradise. Once again I am not sure of what is going to happen, but that is a daily occurrence here in the island paradise of Guam , so no real change happening.

I hope that you have all enjoy a season of reflection on the gift that the MD made for us. Catch you all next month.

Pictures in this Newsletter.

1. Craig at work in a club.
2. Sunset over the base.
3. The cruiser for an afternoon on the Bay of Agat .
4. The skit at a Sunday evening meeting.