Saipan, MP Thoughts

Dear friends, family, and readers:

I am back again with a few more things to say and pictures for your viewing. I’m a little behind in sharing thoughts, events, and the like but will stop apologizing now and get to the point. Mother’s Day has come and gone and am not going to lie, but I feel a bit detached from everything. Despite my feelings of detachment I did manage to send a letter to my mom telling her things that a son is obligated to tell his mother. The sermon that Sunday was very interesting and made me think about what to say next year in a letter to my mom. I have lost a little perspective of the world in that not everyone’s mother is really that great or deserving of praise on mother’s day. Strained family relationships, blame, and straightforward evil lead many people to cringe at the sound of Mother’s Day. Perhaps Mother’s Day (like any other holiday) should be a day of reflection and discovery. .. One of the neat things our pastor did was to have a little drawing where he asked me to hand out numbered cards to all the mothers in the congregation in order to draw numbers to see who would receive a surprise gift. Sadly, the gifts he ordered for all the women didn't come in the mail so he had to make due with what he had at the time. He invited married women who were not mothers to come up as well as they would (most likely) be mothers someday themselves. It was a good Sunday and I enjoyed the message.
My brother has graduated college recently and I managed to send him a card in the mail along with some other things I sent to my parents. The other day she sent off the letter to his house in Michigan. I am very proud of Owen and have enjoyed seeing him grow into a talented artist and individual. I know not where my brother’s life will take him or even where mine is going, but I know that the Lord will protect him and guide him and that has given me comfort. In Saipan it is easy to feel as though you are missing out on things back home. In some respects we are missing out, but I’m encouraged by the fact that I am there with my family in the Spirit of Christ.
Tonight was the Ukulele Jam (the second of the year) and everything went well. Some of the pictures are of the afternoon rehearsal during school hours. I enjoy the Uke and am glad that Saipan Community School has a dedicated staff that wishes to make the experience as enjoyable as possible. I pray that next year some of the things that happen around the same time as Uke Jam occur such as Cultural Day and Luau Day. Possible reasons for them not happening this year are many, but next year I should like to experience cultural day.
Kara and I are also taking part in Marriage Encounter’s “Steps” program with a few local couples on the island. Even though I cannot talk about what goes on at these weekly get-togethers I will say that it is refreshing to learn more about my partner and how to communicate. The statement that “feelings are neither right nor wrong” is an important concept I have found more than worthy to explore. It has a biblical foundation and that makes it more than worthy to explore. I will share more about this later if I hit a dry spell in my blogging of life.
Lastly, Kara is excited about her B-day and is making cup cakes for her kids at school frantically flip flopping around the kitchen and I sit here writing to you thinking about whether our car will be fixed in time for me to take her to dinner on her B-day and whether or not I will have time to get her a present for her B-day. Being carless is a strange feeling of helplessness and frustration that I wish were not a part of life as it can become one of the perhaps many banes of existence as an American.
I hope you enjoy some of the random pictures I post from events and random beach walks. The sunset picture is of a tank in the water near our school. One website I found that helps go through the Marine invasion of Saipan is found at this link: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-M-Saipan/index.html

The Pics are as follows:

-Pastor Greg Dickerman getting ready to hand out the last couple gifts on Mother's Day.
-Two Pics from afternoon rehearsal. The whigs were worn because the songs were of a classical nature.
-A WWII tank at sunset
-A hidden crab in the picture can you find it?
-Lastly, all the kids on stage for the final song.