Saipan May 2011

May 2011.    Went to the island of Saipan in Micronesia for three weeks. its actually a U.S territory like puerto rico or virgin islands...though has its own government, so its much easier to travel to if you are american. its like a 2 day flight (i was exhausted) and i was greeted by a crowd at the airport.  My best friends from Missouri went to live there for awhile because they wanted to reach out.   The people were friendly and the island was beautiful.  Its amazing how many races of people live there.  korean, thai, philipino,chinese, japanese,samoan, not to mention all the local island tribes.  weather stays in the 80's all year round.  The response in the ministry is really good.  everyone has lots of bible studies and the congregation keeps growing.    okay I dont know why but i swelled up like a balloon there.  i looked like a big puff ball and my clothes didnt fit.  must be the pressure or heat or something. it was wierd.  so hot and humid.  the island is reverting back to the stone age because the government wont fix or build anything new and wont let new buissness come in.   tourism is drying up too....i saw multi million dollar hotels/resorts overgrown with weeds and the scaffolding still on...never even got done building.
     But the congregations are growing and the society is really concentrating on that area out there.
service, snorkeling, and seeing some neat peices of history come alive was a real thrill.  you can still find peices of fine chinaware on the beach from a spanish gallion that crashed there in 1638.   here are a few links you will like.
http://saipanpictures.blogspot.com/2008/07/then-now.html                                         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saipan     http://ns.gov.gu/galleon/index.html