Goodbyes...and a Surprise Guest Speaker

Recently we received a casual invitation to a going away party for our friend, John Gideon, who is moving to another Kokopo, PNG with his job. He is the Worship Leader in a local town church as well as the youth leader. He has been a good friend and has blessed our family with several evenings of worship at our home, sharing his vocal and keyboard talents.

By "casual invitation" to his going away party, I mean that we were passed a verbal message 2 nights before the party through our friend Romela who attends youth group with John. Having a previous engagement, we texted our friend John to let him know that we would come but could not be at his 6:00 party until 7:30. He said this would be "No Problem." And we knew it wouldn't...after all, PNG time is often loosely followed.

We arrived just before 7:30 to find that not only had the party not begun, but the guest of honor hadn't even arrived. This ended up being a good thing as we had a few moments to mingle, greet and meet others and, oh yeah, peek at a copy of a program left on someone else's chair. I laughed as I saw the name of one of the guest speakers for the night....my husband. I quickly let Tim know that he was on for the night. He laughed, hurriedly organized his thoughts, and hailed our friend well when the time came to share, which ended up starting after 8:00 p.m. We have learned to always prepare for the unexpected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(With a start time at 8:00, Weston did not make it very long. But his big sis was more than happy for some tender cuddle time.)