Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Capitulo Uno

From high in the air the eleven year old boy looked out across the vast ocean; the water was so beautiful, “Who wouldn’t want to live here?” he wondered aloud. Jonathan was active boy with an easy countenance and slender limbs, blond hair, distinctive angular facial features, and alert greenish-blue eyes—green interiors rimmed in azure blue. It had been a long two days for Jonathan and his family (minus one sister) who had flown out of Seattle two days earlier on their way to Micro Indonesia. They had stopped in Hawaii for five hours as they waited for their connecting flight to Guam. He had only been able to see the airport, but he knew he loved Hawaii if the rest of it smelled as wonderful as the airport.
This trip held a lot of firsts for Jonathan—first time in Seattle, first time in Hawaii, first time off the continent; it was even his first time flying that he could truly remember because that flight at age two didn’t count. But most of all, seeing his oldest sister in Chuuck, the capital of the Federation, was what he was looking forward to the most. She had left six months early to be a student missionary teacher. The notion of living on an island for nine months while doing mission work seemed to be the greatest adventure anyone could have, at least that is what he thought.
“Please fasten your seat belts; this is going to be a rough landing,” boomed the captain’s voice.
The plane landed with a jerk and catapulted off the runway. Then, with a resounding thud the plane remade contact. All of the passengers were pitched forward against their seatbelts as the plane screeched to a halt.
“My apologies about the landing, but this is one of the shortest runways you’ll ever see; please enjoy your time on the beautiful island of Truk,” said the captain over the intercom.
It was a beautiful day in mid-March as the frazzled family climbed down the stairs and were handed their luggage off the trolley. Jonathan peered around looking to see where his oldest sister, Shonna, would be waiting with a big smile on her face. As the crowd at the gate jostled a little he saw her, the great adventurer, with a grin fixed on her face.
Dad, mom, Shonna, Laura, Julie, and Jonathan loaded the bags into the back of a truck that the school had supplied. In the wink of an eye they were off with Jonathan, Dad, and a couple people from the school sitting in the bed of the truck. Through bumpy roads they twisted and turned until they arrived at the school’s compound. Jonathan had never seen such a beautiful place with all of the palm trees covering the earth and blue lagoons surrounding the island.
It was a fun filled two week for Jonathan playing with Shonna’s third graders and the older fourth graders. They had spent their days catching hundreds of toads, plotting ways to catch the rooster that ran around the compound and then chasing it through the yucca swamp, swimming in Blue Lagoon with the turtles, following Dad around as he did medical house calls, and snorkeling off of a private island. The days were ones he would never forget, but most of all Jonathan was impressed with his sister working for a year doing mission work. No matter what happened in his future he knew that he was going to be a missionary somewhere someday.

2 comments:

  1. We will pray for you and follow you eagerly as you follow your dream. It's a good dream to have.
    Love you and miss you. JoAnne

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  2. Wow! What a blessing - to realize how much of an impact/influence we have on each other. Thank you so much for sharing. This was a window into something very beautiful; a fresh reminder of how God uses us even in the moments, words, & situations we don't recognize or have any cognition of. Praise God for that! He truly is Good - all the time! Thank you again, for sharing. My heart is so grateful - made me cry (in a very very good kind of way). You are certainly in my thoughts and prayers daily. Please keep in touch when you have time...and don't stop writing! I promise you will treasure what's written later. : ) So much love! Shonna

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