Yap, Part III (Christmas Eve)

On Sunday morning, Christmas Eve, we attended the Christmas program at Yap Baptist Church. As soon as the service was over we went to Faith Baptist Church for their Christmas program. After the feast there (where I had taro for the first time), we returned to Mark and Diane's for Christmas caroling and food and games at their house.

The Christmas program at Yap Baptist Church began with the little ones singing "10 Little Angels" led by HBBI graduate, Clara Yirimyad.



Several of the teens put together a play called "A Gift for Mother" in which the mother pawns her pearl necklace in order to buy Christmas presents for her children. But the children work at the pawn shop after school to buy the pearl necklace back for her. It was a nice little play and the kids did a good job with it. I know Diane put in a lot of time directing it as well.




Johnny, Caleb, Mark and Diane Zimmer enjoy the play.

Some more teens and young adults presented a story about a young shepherd who visited Christ in Bethlehem and another lazy shepherd who fell asleep and missed his opportunity to go with the other shepherds to see Christ.

Some views of the inside of Yap Baptist Church:


The Zimmer's house from the back door of the church:

Roland and Sensarina's house (HBBI grads who help Mark with various things at church) and the workshop:

Paul and Sherry Zimmer loaned us one of their vans so we could drive to and from Mark and Diane's more easily. Even though the Yapese drive on the right hand side of the road, many of the cars are Japanese models, so the steering wheel is on the right as well. It was an unusual experience, but I loved it! Here's a picture of me driving up to Paul and Sherry's church, Faith Baptist, for the afternoon Christmas program.

Sherry Zimmer narrated the Christmas program which was about the lost sheep. The children were the shepherds, villagers, and sheep. I had fun helping Sherry get all of the kids into costume!

Pastor Paul giving the challenge:

Christmas Eve is also Paul's birthday, so Polly surprised him with a cake. He's pictured here with Sarah and Paulie.

Erika, one of the ladies in the church, made flower wreaths for us (I don't remember the Yapese word for them, but I'll check my notes for it).

Polly handed out gifts to all the adults, which we had wrapped on Friday while the ladies were decorating.

The children enjoyed opening their Christmas presents.


Me and April with an outer islander dressed in traditional clothing called a thu.

After the Christmas program and feast, the Whitmores, and April and I returned to Mark and Diane Zimmer's for Christmas caroling and a Christmas party. We caroled to some church memebers, unsaved Chinese storeowners, and some of the American Peace Corps. We ran into a little trouble with the police--they were definitely keeping an eye on us--because they didn't understand the American custom of Christmas caroling. Someone had been sitting up on the side of the truck because it was so crowded, but we got away with only a warning.

The following pictures are from our game of Mafia, which Mark narrated. Some of us met rather unusual ends--April was beaten with a flute, I was attacked by boonie dogs, and Mark was cursed by a voodoo doctor!

Bob tries to deflect accusations of being one of the Mafia.

Polly protests being killed in the first round, especially since she was the doctor and not one of the Mafia!

Sensarina's laugh kept giving away that she was the Mafia.