H Bound!
Week 8 Moments
● Sunday – Easter lunch w/ the Waltons
● Monday – school, visit Two Lover’s Point, sunset
@ Gun Beach
● Tuesday – Pieology & shopping
● Wednesday – Chamorro Village, church
● Thursday – Young Pros Bible Study
● Friday – field trip, HCA band concert
● Saturday – Solid Grounds coffee, Young Pros
beach day, PACKING & CLEANING!
Week 8 Recap
Sunday, being Easter, was a big day! Harvest’s
Easter song service was beautiful! The orchestra was full
and the choir was added and the music all added to the
message of what Jesus did for us. Praise the Lord! Harvest
was also excited to greet many visitors and spend some
time fellowshipping after the service with coffee, sweets,
and a photobooth. Pastor Gary’s main point from his
sermon was that “the beauty of Jesus’ sacrifice cannot be
fully realized without the brutality of the cross.” For lunch,
Kyla and I were invited over to Pastor Gary’s house…along
with 30 other people!😂It was a party!🥳We stuffed
ourselves and enjoyed good fellowship with one another.
Mrs. Walton (Faith) loves hospitality, and for Easter, she
added some fun to the afternoon with a house-wide Easter
egg hunt (for everyone) and dying Easter eggs. After all of
this, Kyla and I and some of the other girls were very tired
and called it a day.
Monday was back to school after a long–and very nice–weekend. Things are pretty much
back to normal. My teacher is very happy to be teaching again (aside from science–I’m still
teaching that). I conducted a lab experiment with them including a balloon, some vinegar, baking
soda, and a pop bottle to demonstrate a chemical change. The kids loved it! With this being our last
week, Kyla and I are really trying to accomplish our bucket list. After school, Kyla and I visited Two
Lover’s Point. This is a very tourist location telling the story of a very common Chamorro legend. It
is a beautiful watch tower overlooking the ocean. After this, we went to Gun Beach (where
Brittany took Mrs. Whitcher and I) to watch the sunset while eating a picnic supper. The sunset
was very beautiful.
Tuesday went by pretty normal. For the students, it is usually one of their crazy days. For
my teacher, it is usually a stacked day for her and her responsibilities. So the school day was pretty
normal and fine. After school, Kyla and I got to do some last minute souvenir shopping and then
met up with a friend for some pizza. It is nice to be able to spend time with people before we leave.
Lately, when Kyla and I have gotten home, we have been finding at least 1 or 2 geckos in our condo!
There is usually 1 in the main room (living-dining room) and I usually have 1 in my bedroom and
lately have been rooming with 2 at a time. We have started to name our geckos (Ricardo, Reynaldo,
Enrique, Rico, Diego) and it is one of our favorite things about Guam–one thing we will greatly miss
when we leave. Also, with the gecko update, I accidentally killed one this week.😬I think it found
some of the ant-roach spray I had sprayed all over the floorboards and perimeter of the apartment
several weeks ago when we were having ant problems. It died and I had to take of it…sad day🥺.
The end of the week came quickly. On Wednesday, Kyla and I went to Chamorro Village
one last time and ran into my teacher and her family. We visited a while, shopped a little, walked
around a little, and soaked it all in before we left for church. Thursday was my official last day of
teaching and I think it went great! My science lesson was good and I am happy I ended with that.
Friday was our official last day of school at Harvest. On my last day, I got to chaperone a field trip!
We went to an outdoors center to go on a hike and identify key native plants and fruits to Guam.
We even got to try some–starfruit, sour pickles, bananas, and calamansi. The hike was very hot and
only long because we stopped a lot and were at a 3rd grader pace. When we got back to school, we
got to eat lunch outside and then watch some Magic School Bus episodes in the afternoon. Friday
night, Kyla and I started the packing and cleaning process of moving out before we left for the
school’s band concert.
Saturday was a day to finish up things. The entire of our college portfolio was due and it
was our last full day on Guam. We had our last hurrah with the Young Pros at the beach. We played
kickball and wiffle ball before eating supper. The youth pastor, Jake, grilled meat and we picnicked
at the beach while watching the sun set. It was a beautiful day to spend at the beach! Sunday, we
said goodbye to our Harvest family, had lunch with the Taylor’s one more time, and got ready to
leave. Josh Taylor was kind enough to take us to the airport and see us off. Harvest showered us
with gifts and goodbyes and have been a true blessing to Kyla and I. We thank God for this
opportunity and will never forget the connections we made in Guam or the things God taught us.
Prayer Requests & Praises
1. Traveling – please pray for safe travels back. We fly out Sunday (4/27) at 5 pm to Seoul, South
Korea–where we have a really long layover before flying back to Minneapolis on Monday
(4/28), landing at 5pm.
2. Health – please pray that Kyla and I adjust back to the
States easily. Several people have told us going back is the
harder direction to go. Many people often get sick and
jetlag hits harder. We are also adjusting from a very nice,
warm, tropical climate back to Iowa’s nice, not very warm
(yet), not tropical climate.😅
3. Graduation Prep – Kyla and I have some time when we
get to back, but we will also have some meetings with our
professors before we graduate. Also, there are a couple
graduation details and a few student teaching finishing
touches that we will have to take care of.
4. **God has been good to me while in Guam. He has
opened my eyes to new things and exposed me to a new
kind of ministry I am thankful to have been a part of for a
short time. He took care of me the whole time and
showered me with his love and blessings through Harvest. The people there really love me and
have made an investment in me to teach that I will bring back to the States. God bless His work
on Guam and God bless Harvest Baptist Ministries!
Thank you for all the prayers, messages, and support you gave me during my student teaching here
on Guam. I hope these letters have allowed me to share some of my many experiences with you. God has
taught me so much during thistime and I am thankful to have gotten to come here. I cannot wait to come
back and share with everyone the stories and blessings of these last two months.
God bless!
“A little while longer and the world willsee Me no more, but you willsee Me. Because I live, you will live
also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. ”
~John 14:19-20 Sending love from Guam one lasttime,
Whitney Holaday