A group of five from Section Eight Baptist Church of Pound, Pastor Scott & Jennifer Barker, Justin Johnson, Dawn Michalski and Gretchen Kremsreiter, started the long journey to the island of Kosrae on Saturday, December 27th. Kosrae is part of the Federated States of Micronesia and has called itself the Jewel of Micronesia. It is a relatively small, but diverse island with several mountains, rich tropical vegetation and beautiful coral reef formations surrounding much of the island. The group headed out to visit Steve and Dawn Hunter and their family who have lived and ministered in Kosrae for the past 10 years.
The whole traveling process to Kosrae took several hours as the group didn’t arrive in Kosrae until Tuesday, December 30th. They flew from Milwaukee to Houston, then to LA, then to Honlolulu, where they had a 10 hour layover. Upon their arrival in Honolulu they were picked up by Mark Jones, a member of Oahu Baptist Church in Honolulu, who took the group to a nice house on the island where they were able to get 4-5 hours of sleep and a shower after a full 20 plus hours of travel since they left Milwaukee. They were up early in the morning once again to get to the airport and prepare for their flight from Honolulu to Kosrae. Before they left, they stopped and picked up a couple of boxes and other miscellaneous items from the church in Honolulu to take with them to the Hunters in Kosrae. A lady named Holly from Oahu Baptist Church had bought several grocery items which are not easily obtained on the island.
The flight to Kosrae was long and fascinating because of the two stops before they arrived in Kosrae. The 10 hour flight was broken up by stops on the islands of Majuro and Kwajalein, part of the Marshall islands. The island of Majuro was about one tenth of a mile wide and looked almost like an oval ring in the ocean. It extended for several miles but could not have been much wider than one fifth of a mile at any point. It was absolutely amazing that there was an airstrip and a many houses on this strip of land. In fact, the group found out that the population of this island was over 30,000 people. The next quick island stop was on Kwajelein which is strictly an U.S. Military Base.
Upon their arrival in Kosrae, they found that all their luggage came and was intact except for Pastor Scott’s bag. The airport workers spent a great deal of time searching the plane to find it, but apparently it had missed the flight from Honolulu. The airport is a building about the size of a large house in the US and there is only one flight in and one flight out each day. The airport workers for Continental Micronesia work for 4 hours a day 5 days a week.
The group was greeted with 83 degree temperatures and very high humidity that caused sweat to start dripping in just a few seconds. The island was definitely a tropical island. Traveling the road was like driving through a rain forest with an ocean on one side. There were no seatbelt laws on the island. So much of the traveling was done in the back of a flatbed Japanese pickup truck. The island itself was full of broken down houses and little markets scattered here and there along the main road. There are only a few side roads on the island, bust most of the 7,000 Kosraen’s live along the main road. The interior of the island is uninhabited as the islanders live on the flats along the ocean. There are a few nice buildings, but 90 percent or higher appeared to be in pretty rough condition. The islanders didn’t seem to care a great deal about the appearance of their houses and most of the houses just had cages over the windows to keep large animals out.
Pastor Scott and Jen stayed at a small rental house next door to the Hunters and Dawn, Gretchen and Justin stayed at the Hunter’s house. Upon arrival at their houses, the team gathered together in the rental house and they sorted through all the gifts that were given by the Section Eight Church family – over three suitcases full. They sorted them for each person in the Hunter family then went Christmas caroling at the house bearing many gifts. The group was greeted by a humorous snowman thermometer on the Hunter’s door that said, “Let it Snow!” Even though the temperature read 85 degrees. The Hunters were thrilled to open many presents from the States which were things that they were not able to purchase on the island.
Following the presents, Steve, with the help of Justin, started to prepare some of the supper by cutting the Lobster and the fish in preperations for dinner. All of the fish and the 20 plus lobster were caught by Steve in the ocean.
Scott, Justin and Gretchen jumped at the offer made by Steve to hop in the ocean across the street from their house and do a little snorkeling. The ocean had a beautiful reef with vibrant colors and a variety of fish. Zach, Naomi and Wesley (the Hunter’s children) swam out about 50 yards from shore with the group and took advantage of the beautiful underwater sights God had made for them to enjoy.
After oserving the beautiful fish, they were off to dinner and the seafood feast that Steve and Dawn had prepared. They served a variety of ocean fish along with grilled and steamed lobster – a meal which would have cost a few hundred dollars in the U.S. Bananas that were grown on the island – a shorter type of banana, but very tasty, were served as well. Following the dinner, the Hunter’s tried to keep the group awake as long as possible, but jet lag was starting to kick in and the group went to bed.
The time in Kosrae is 15 hours ahead of the time in Wisconsin and the group crossed the dateline before Kosrae so they lost almost all of Monday in their travels. Most from the group slept alright, though the change from bundling up in blankets to sleeping with a fan attempting to cool them off, the noise of roosters crowing, and the ocean crashing were somethings that interrupted the sleep of some. The noise of geckos scavenging the bedroom walls for bugs also woke some of the group up the first few nights, though by the end of the trip they got used to sleeping with a variety of lizards, geckos and other crawling creatures.
On Wednesday, the group took a day to prepare for the youth camp that would be starting the next day and to recover from some of the jet lag that they were experiencing. For lunch, the Hunters took the group to one of the very few restaurants on the island. It is a designed for tourists (the few that come to the island). It is a bamboo deck with a thatched roof built on stilts in a lagoon. The pathway to the restaurant is about a 100 yard boardwalk that crosses a mangrove swamp and leads you to the open air restaurant with a gorgeous view. You would pay $15-$25 a plate in the U.S. just for the setting but it was about $5 per person. The name of the restaurant was called “Bully Haye’s Restaurant” and was from the story of a pirate near the end of the 1800's that supposedly buried a treasure on the island that has never been found.
Following lunch, the group toured through the ruins of an area that used to be the king’s palace. The ruins dated from the 1400's to the 1800's, made with massive stones brought from other parts of the island. There were several stone walls and several historical markers describing how the kings used to live on the island.
That night, the group went to a church service that was supposed to start at 7:00 p.m., but everything there is on “Kosraen time” which is about 45 minutes to an hour later than the actual scheduled time. That night, the group met several of the local believers from the island and each took opportunity to share how God has changed their lives. The church building itself was not much to look at as they met in a small 500 sq. ft. building that was several years old, but the joy felt inside the building coming from the believers produced a greater awe in the group’s hearts than any magnificent structure ever could. After the service, they spent a couple of hours fellowshipping together, and getting to know the believers and, eating some of the local foods that had been prepared.
The teen camp started at the Hunter’s house on Wednesday morning with 10 teenagers – 5 boys and 5 girls. They spent the first part with little ice breaker games which the kids seemed to enjoy. After lunch, Pastor Scott was able to share with them from Isaiah 40 about the greatness of God. In the afternoon, Justin and Gretchen took the kids on a photo hunt throughout the island. There was a list of things to take pictures of and points assigned for each picture. Justin took the guys and Gretchen took the girls – she even drove around the island in the Hunter’s car. Though they drive on the U.S. side of the road, many of their cars are Japanese so the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. The kids had a great time – meanwhile, Jen, Dawn, Steve and Scott went to the place where they would be all day on Friday and cleaned up the thatched hut pavilion and hid painted rocks for the kids to find. Throughout the day on Friday, the kids were to look for the “treasure of Bully Hayes” (the wreckage of his ship was located in the harbor where Friday’s games would take place). Small rocks were painted gold and silver and over 150 of them were hid in the small 2 acre Utwe Marine Park. They even hid some out on the coral sticking out of the water in the middle of the bay using Steve’s Kayak.
The kids returned back from their photo hunt before supper. Scott played football with the guys and Jen played basketball with the girls. Following the dinner, Pastor Scott was able to share with them from the Bible about the riches found in Christ as he spoke through Ephesians.
Following the message, the kids played capture the flag for a few hours and were just figuring out the strategy of the game when it was time to go inside the Hunters and watch the pictures of the island photo hunt. The kids then started to get ready for bed with the girls staying at the Hunter’s house and the guys staying at a house a few doors down. Justin, Gretchen and Dawn each took opportunity to talk about spiritual things with the teens before they went to bed. It is also a common practice for everyone to take showers before bed to wash off the sweat from the day and to also cool down in order to sleep. Hot water heaters are not common on the island and the “city” water is piped in from mountain streams. This makes the shower water around 80 degrees, which didn’t always feel real warm.
During that New Years day, the group also was able to experience a unique New Year’s Day tradition of the island. Many of the kids stand along side the road with water balloons and squirt guns dousing those who pass by on the roads. There are five main villages on the island and people from one village would load up (up to 15 passengers) in the back of the flatbed pickup trucks and travel to the other villages just to get doused by water. The kids normally won’t get the inside of cars wet, but since most people travel in the backs of the trucks lots of water was used on that day.
On Friday, we started out after breakfast with making animal balloons. The teens were a little scared of them the first day but now had started to get a little creative with the balloons, making a variety of creations. Following that, the teens divided up with the different adult sponsors and went through the first day of 42 days of God devotional book that Pastor Scott had written. Though Kosraen is their first language, the school classes are taught in English so the teens were able to clearly understand as they read the Bible and answered questions about the passages. Several times during the week following the camp, the teens made reference to how much they appreciated this time of personal Bible study.
After the personal Bible Study, the group loaded up in a couple of trucks and headed for the Utwe Marine Park which is a park/picnic area on the ocean. At the park there is a large thatch roof building and an outdoor bathroom. Though the facility was only built about eight years ago, it is quite run down and seldom used. As with many things on the island, outside grants come in to build nice things, but the islanders have no resources for upkeep so most thing get beaten down within a few years.
The teens at camp, along with the Kosraen sponsor whose name was Joe, loved the American rough games that Pastor Scott introduced to them. They have very little open space on the island for games and have very few chances for organized activities. They played American Eagle – though Pastor Scott changed the name to Kosraen Gecko. The ground was somewhat muddy in spots so it was quite fun tackling in the mud. They then played steal the bacon with an old tire, bicycle tubes and balls. The kids played in an area that was already muddy, so they became extremely muddy dragging the items back to their side. This was a memorable time for the teens, yet they didn’t want to stay muddy so they swam and played in the ocean for a while. Then the boys played football before lunch.
The local Kosrean church women made lunch and though those from the group had to ask what many of the items in the lunches were, they found almost all the food extremely delicious.
Following lunch, Pastor Scott deliverd a message on Ephesians 2 where he really focused on the fact that all men are born dead and that anything any man tries to do to earn God’s favor won’t save them from their sin. The congregational church on the island places a strong emphasis on doing things to please God and keeping your name written in the official church book. Ephesians reveals that it is only by the grace of God that we are saved.
They were then off to play big ball volleyball, big ball soccer and then had water balloon fights. Next, teams went out without paddles in kayaks to collect the most water balloons, tipping a few times as they reached to pick up the balloons. When they came in from that, all 5 guys and all 5 girls on one Kayak to an island about 200 yards away in the harbor to look for “gold” treasure. It was a blast watching all 5 of them on a two person kayak. Throughout the day, they looked for the “gold” and “silver” rocks that were hidden throughout the park. The park itself was made by dumping several loads of coral at the end of a mangrove swamp along the ocean and then covering it with some topsoil and palm trees. During one of the free times, Jen and Gretchen took the kayak and traveled through part of a mangrove swamp. These are on the edge of the ocean and are very strong trees which grow in water. This swamp is one of the largest mangrove swamps in the world.
The teens were encouraged during the evening message as Pastor Scott described how there is no longer condemnation for those who place their trust in Christ Jesus. After the message, they played bowling with coconuts and water bottles. The kids seemed to really enjoy the game since most of them had never seen or even heard of bowling before. They then ate – a BBQ dinner with hamburgers and hot dogs, a unique treat for many on the island whose main diet consists of chicken, rice and fish. Following dinner they had free time where it was enjoyable to see the kids play volleyball together. Then they closed out with another game of Capture the Flag. Upon their arrival home from the park, the guys and girls went again to their houses and Dawn, Gretchen and Justin were able to talk to them about spiritual truths.
As the final day of camp started on Saturday, the teens enjoyed making crazy hats with the multicolored animal balloons. Once again they broke up into groups and went through their devotional books which described the great holiness of God. Next, they traveled to a beach about two miles away named Marsal. There they did a water balloon toss, built coral castles, had a scavenger hunt, and the kids “found themselves”. (Gretchen had taken pictures of all the kids and cut the pictures in 4 different pieces, hid them ina group of palm trees. The kids had to find all four pieces of their picture). The coral castles were amazing as they made some magnificent looking creations, far more than could ever be made with sand castles because of all the shapes and varieties of dead coral that was scattered all over the shore.
The message after lunch focused on God’s powerful deliverance for King Hezekiah and helped the teens understand what a powerful God they had. The next treat was a short journey to a fresh water river that comes down from the mountain. Swimming in freshwater is much more enjoyable than in the ocean because there is no salt in it. They jumped off the bridge about 20 feet down into the river and much of the group played football in the river for much of the time.
Upon arrival back at the Hunter’s house, they cleaned up and headed to the church for dinner which had been prepared by the church people. This time, they had some pieces of raw fish that are a staple of their diet, though not necessarily liked by many in the group. The last challenge from the Bible that they had at the church was on Romans 12:1-2 which challenged the teens to live sacrificially for God as a result of His great mercy towards them. During the campfire testimony service which followed, all of the kids expressed deep thanks for the camp and how much God taught them.
Sunday was the groups time to meet the whole church. The nationals were excited to have them there. The Kosreans singing was wonderful and they had a great spirit of love about them. Their pastor spoke to them in their own language and occasionally spoke some English so the group could follow a little of what was being said. The church is self-supporting with the Kosrean’s making the decisions, Steve and Dawn attend and help out. Steve officially turned the church over to the local leaders a little over a year ago and now Steve and Dawn are living in a village about 10 miles south attempting to start a church in that region.
Following the service, the group once again ate together with the nationals and they were able to try some more of the Kosrean food. During the dinner and fellowship time, Dawn made several animal balloons for the kids and some of the adults. After the dinner, Gretchen had a chance to take the family pictures of the church members. They look so good, almost like the background was fake because it was so beautiful. Most of the people have never had a family picture before, even with a cheap camera. Since Gretchen is a professional photographer, the pictures were great and greatly appreciated. Pastor Scott then spoke in the afternoon service and all from the church listened intently. During the middle of the service, one of the animal balloons popped and the little boy who was sleeping with it jumped. It was quite humorous to everyone.
On Monday, the group was able to sleep in a little and relax and recover from the busy week before. Justin spent some time doing some repairs around the house while Dawn, Gretchen and the Hunter’s daughter, Naomi, went to the clinic a few miles down the road. Dawn was able to work with some national nurses, giving out immunizations.
After lunch, Justin and Scott helped Steve cut down some small trees to use as posts from the Mangrove swamp behind his house. The swamp was very muddy and had some sink holes so they had to watch where they stepped. They took the pieces they cut and debarked them by pounding them with another piece of wood, just at the nationals had done for hundreds of years.
That night, Scott and Justin went out on a boat with Steve and Songro (the pastor of the Kosraen church) and a man they have been ministering to. When it got dark they went into the water and went spear fishing. This is done by taking a flashlight in one hand and a 5 foot long pole with three prongs on the end in the other hand. Attached to the pole is a very strong rubber band that releases to shoot the spear at the fish or lobster. Scott managed to catch two lobsters and a little fish, though he missed several others. Steve and the locals caught quite a few fish and over 20 lobster. Songro even caught a four foot eel. Songro said he also saw a shark, but it was just a small one and he scared it away. Spear fishing was enjoyable, but very tiring after snokeling and diving in the water for 3-4 hours while fighting the currents and the waves trying to push them into the coral. The ladies stayed at the house and played games with Songro’s wife.
After a late night of spear fishing, it was a little tough for Justin and Scott to get up Tuesday morning for school, but they all got up at 6 a.m. to prepare for their skit and speaking time in the public school. except for Dawn who went to work at the clinic again. Steve teaches public speech in the high school for three different hours. The group decided that they would do the skit of the paranoid person who thought he was catching everything from the person who came into the doctor’s office. It ends with a pregnant lady coming in and he gets scared and runs out. The skit went over quite well in the three classes they did it for. Following the skits in each class, all of them took turns sharing things about themselves and things about Wisconsin and then Pastor Scott presented the Gospel using some rope tricks. It was great for the group to be able to present a clear message from the Bible in a public school classroom with no fear of what the ACLU might do! Because their classrooms do not have windows, several others who weren’t in class during those times stood outside the windows watching and listening.
Following school, they picked up Dawn from the hospital and took the afternoon to rest. With the continual heat, it was difficult to keep up energy all day. Following dinner, the whole group went out with Steve’s family on a boat in the local harbor where they all snorkeled together and went to an island to see fruit bats flying around and landing. The group was able to capture several fantastic pictures of the bats and the beautiful scenery of the island. Upon arrival back at the house, they were able to feast on the lobster and fish that were caught the night before.
On Wednesday morning, all of the group except for Dawn, who worked at the hospital again, were up at 4:30 a.m. to head out and do some fishing in the ocean with Steve, Naomi, Wesley and one of the men from the church whose name was Larson. They ran into some waves that were quite high, and though some found it quite fun riding the waves, some from the group didn’t seem to be having as much fun. Steve turned them around in a different direction and they had been trolling for a few hours when they saw some birds start swarming. The birds will follow and feed on schools of fish that have been driven to the surface by bigger fish. While they were getting close to the swarm of birds, they got a bite and Justin started to reel in the catch. It took almost 15 minutes to get it close to the boat and when they did, it started to become clear that it was a SHARK! They got it in the boat and when they got back they weighted it and it was about 60 pounds and about 5 feet long. Steve then gutted it out just like you would a deer. It was a once in a lifetime experience for the group. The Hunters don’t like the taste of shark, but some of the men from the church really like it so Steve gave it to them.
After lunch they headed to the church to do some work. Justin was able to get their bathroom faucet working again and they were able to paint the inside of the main meeting room. The pastor’s son, Songro Junior, stopped by after school and decided to help the group, along with Larson who had been fishing with them all morning.
After the work was done at the church they had dinner and then headed back to the church for the service. Each one from our group took an opportunity to speak about what God had done in their hearts during the last week. Then they had the opportunity to show the camp video. The kids loved seeing themselves and the parents loved watching. Following that they had some finger foods and also a birthday cake for Dawn since it was her birthday. The time of the fellowship after the service went past 10:00 p.m.
On their last full day there, Steve wanted to take the group to some final sights before they left on Friday morning. They headed towards Tufansak (the northernmost city of the island) and hiked about an hour to a 75 foot high waterfall. To get there, they had to travel through the river that came from the waterfall. It took them through several little waterfalls and through narrow passageways with 100 foot walls on either side of the river. It was beautiful and they jumped into the little pool that was at the bottom of the waterfall.
Upon returning from the waterfall, they grabbed some lunch and then met one of the church members to do some net fishing in the ocean. The men extend a 100 foot net and the group walked in the shallow water to scare fish towards the net. They only caught about 10 fish in that hour, though the islanders say if they go at night in calm water, they can catch over 100 fish at one time. One of the most interesting things about this type of fishing is that when they make a catch, they bite the head of the fish to crush its head and kill it.
As soon as they got home from that, they went out on the boat once again and helped Steve scrape the algea and other unwanted creatures that had attached themselves to the bottom of the boat. They went snorkeling one last nigt over a reef that was only about a foot below them and was filled with amazing underwater sights.
That night at the Hunter’s home, a community man who was not part of their church, wanted to come over and play games with the group. He brought ribs and chicken and BBQ’d them for the group, which was a great treat and a great expense. This man is a business owner on the island and makes much more than the average $2-$3 an hour wage that most of the islanders make. He and his wife stayed and played Sequence with our group and the Hunters. Some of the church families also came over to the Hunters. They stayed well into the evening as we enjoyed laughing and talking together.
On Friday, the group packed up and headed to the airport. It was a very special time for the group as all but one of the camp kids and several of the church members came to the airport to say goodbye to us. The girls made some leis for the group to wear as they left and all said their teary final goodbyes and gave their final hugs before they embarked on the two and a half day journey home.
Their arrival home after several long flights and a layover in Honolulu, where they were able to tour the Arizona Memorial and visit Wikiki beach, was a shocking one going from 80+ degree temperatures to the mid teens and a week that was to be the coldest of the winter. Upon reflecting on the trip and the amazing events that took place, every one of the group members view their time on the island of Kosrae as precious and will never forget the relationships built with the people and the memories from their visit.