Our final week

One of the things we were asked to do when coming over to the Solomons was to teach the youth group a musical, Friends Forever. We have been hard at work making this happen, and this week we will be performing the musical on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, as well as on Sunday in the prison.

Most people here have never seen a musical, and have found the concept quite new. We've also noticed that the people here, who are excellent singers, very rarely sing on their own - it is all communal singing. It has been a wonderful thing for us to have seen the singers grow in confidence as we've practised each week. These young people have gone from shying away from singing on their own in front of people, to being able to confidently sing with a microphone. They are using their God given gifts, and it is a pleasure to see them give the glory all to Him.

Practising in the leaf hut at SWIM.

Practising in a classroom at Florence Young Christian School.

This group shot was in the paper today, with an article (written by Geoff) encouraging everyone to come along and see the musical!

So it is a HUGE week for us, as we wrap up our time here.

Geoff has his last day at the prison on Wednesday. The men have really loved the music teaching Geoff has given them, and they are looking forward to presenting 10 songs at the opening of the chapel on Sunday, where the musical will be performed too.

I have my last day with the teachers from the hospital school on Thursday. I have loved getting alongside them - I've been able to share lots of new ideas with reading and maths in particular. My eyes have certainly been opened to a very different system of education here. The lack of teacher training and resources makes teaching so much harder. I've just tried to encourage the teachers as best as I can - three months was never going to be enough time to really help!

Then we have the musical to perform each night from Thursday to Saturday, which will be so exciting. Tomorrow we are doing the final set-up of the stage, to get everything ready for 'opening night'! The youth group are doing this as a fund raiser for a mission trip they want to go on (to another island nearby).

Somewhere in there we will make sure the girls are fed and looked after! They are already talking about how hard it will be to leave, but 'all good things must come to an end', and saying goodbye is part of the experience too. Kevin and Machi took us out for dinner last night, along with Mum and Dad, Michael and Salome, Marty, Susan, Simon and Lydia. They wanted to say thankyou for what we had accomplished whilst being here, and Kevin gave a lovely speech encouraging us in the work we've done. For our part, we feel so thankful for the opportunity we've had to come over here, as a family, and fully experience a completely different life!

We are so much richer for it.