Thanksgiving Sunday 2008

Jeff writes:

Last Sunday the CLTC community celebrated our thanksgiving to the Lord for all that He has done for us this past year. The students really did a fine job presenting their offerings of garden produce. This year's offerings will go to the inmates at Baisu Prison. As you recall one of our employees (we believe) has been wrongly imprisoned there while pending her second trial. So this food will help her and the other inmates enjoy a special meal.

This year the students marched/danced in by church group. We have students here from over 20 different denominations. This first group is from the United Church, and they are predominantly from the island of Bougainville. These are some of the darkest-skinned people on the planet.

Can you see the offerings this group of Baptist students are bringing? They are carrying huge cabbages on their shoulders plus other produce in their bilums (string bags).

These offerings are truly from the heart. This is our dry season, and the people here call it taim bilong hangri (the hungry time) because their gardens do not produce well. The students do get a basic ration of food from the college plus a fortnightly allowance, but they depend on their gardens to provide variety and to add to their diet.


This young lady is part of our Pentecostal student group. She is wearing coastal dress while she dances.














The men as well as the women danced. Notice that the men dance with the men and the ladies dance with the ladies. This group of Solomon Islanders really stole the show! Here the men are enjoying themselves. It looks like they are really having a good time.










These are the Solomon Island ladies. This group of students belong to the South Seas Evangelical Church.














After presenting their offerings, like an island Pied Piper, this student leads his group out of the service.















This young lady is wearing the dress of one of the tribes close to the CLTC. She also happens to be in my Introduction to Computers class. Of course in class, she wears western clothing, but underneath I must remember that her worldview is anything but western. Pray that Sue and I would continue to grow in our knowledge of the customs and cultures of our students so we can continue to relate God's timeless and cross-cultural truths to these wonderful folk.