TERRY and TAMI MORSE
WBF Missionaries to
FRENCH POLYNESIA

Dear Family and Friends,

We made it! Thank you  for your prayers. I thought I would just fill you in on our first three days of being in French Polynesia. We met up with Tirzah in LA. Nine hours later we were greeted at the airport at Tahiti at 5:10 Thursday morning by a woman handing out flower buds to all of the people, a heavenly smelling flower. A nice beginning to another long day. When we went to get our luggage the only one of our twelve pieces there was the box of chalk paper with the fishing rods. Normally when we travel I have a change of clothing for each of us in the carry on, not this time! But they supplied us with a bag of sample toiletries and a t-shirt and disposable underwear that the kids got a kick out of. They told us that the next flight was  midnight, hopefully the luggage would be on that plane. We tried to block out the voice of the man that told us that his father's luggage was lost for five days the last time. Tirzah had her supplies and that helped. Since there was no hurry to get our things put away we took a few hours and took the bus into downtown Tahiti. It didn't take long to see that cleanliness probably isn't the top priority for the people here, but they are friendly and ready to help. There seems to always be a breeze by the water to help deal with the heat. The humidity is high here but the people are happy now because it is the cool time of year, their winter, and it cools at night at least. We are very thankful for showers and find our way to it three to four times a day. The owner of the house that we are renting was kind enough to meet us at the airport in Huahine and take us home. Then he took us to the store so that we could get a few groceries. The family was happy to have a real meal that evening. It is dark by six or so in the evening, we were happy to go to bed early. No problem with waking before dawn, the roosters start crowing before four. Terry was out the door before six the next morning to town, about a forty five minute walk. He rented a car for the day to get set up. We were so glad to see him pull up with all of our eleven remaining pieces of luggage, sent free of charge for the last leg of the journey, that made up for the extra six hundred that we were charged in LA.  Tirzah and Toby were such a help getting things cleaned and put away so that by Saturday evening we were able to rest. Saturday morning Toby went to the lagoon to catch fish, about thirty yards away from the house. Tirzah joined him when we got back from getting supplies and they brought home eight perch for supper that night. Actually four were enough and four are in the freezer. So that was a real blessing for us and him. It will be good to have help with the groceries that is for sure. It has been an adjustment getting used to the prices here. everything is at least twice as much and alot is up to four times as much as the States. We are able to find most things that we need, but would like to find whole grain flour and brown rice.  We did see it on Tahiti at the health food store for six dollars a pound. Tirzah and I went to the food vendors outside and got a few fruits and vegetables: papaya, mangos, green beans that are twelve inches long, and some hairy fruit relative to the liche. They have a lot of Chinese influence in their food, you can even buy bags of monosodium gluclamate. Today we tried some of their pastries made with coconut. The first was a cake with coconut milk that was tasteless and gooey, the second was a winner, a type of custard with coconut. There is a smaller market about ten minutes walk that Terry and I went to today. Bernard, the owner of the house, cut up young coconuts for us to taste the liquid inside. They think it is delicious, we weren't too impressed. It takes about a year and a half for the coconut to fully mature and they use it for different things during the different stages.

We are settled now for the most part. We are waiting for the post office to come and get the phone hooked up and plan on getting dial up in a couple of weeks. Until then we are going to the internet cafe in town. We figure that we need some transportation though. It appears that will be bikes since we are only looking to be here for six months. I told Terry that I wanted one with a basket, so you see I will be in style after all. When we go back to Tahiti to take Tirzah back and get some supplies we might look for a motor-scooter. We rented a car for two days to get set-up and took advantage of it to make the hour trip around the island. It is beautiful here. It's hard to believe that we are really here, until we feel the need to take another shower. This morning early it rained really hard for a couple of hours. The roosters were quiet at least. The crabs are in abundance here, we could live off of them if we had the heart to drop them in boiling water. Thankfully they aren't good for you. There are holes all over the yard that they tuck themselves into when someone approaches. They all crawl out at night. They aren't the only things that crawl out at night. I'm very thankful for my Tupperware and for my little friends that we see in house sometimes, the geckos. I told Toby to go find me some more, now I think that they are kinda cute! Anything that isn't a snake and that eats bugs is welcome in my house.

We didn't go to church today, we had a service here. We hadn't decided which church to be associated with. The Mormons, Adventist and Jehovah Witness were out of the question, that leaves the protestants and assembly of God, who don't have a very good reputation in the village, although they would be the closest in doctrine to us. We will just start passing out tracts and door knocking and see what God will do. Several people have told us that the island of Raiatea is the place to go for a sailboat. Terry is hoping to make a trip there and to the Tuamotu islands asap.

Guess that catches you up on us. We will let you know when we have a phone number. You all are in our thoughts and prayers, thanks for keeping us in yours. I will go to bed now and let the hum of the crickets put me to sleep until the crowing starts. Love, Tami

Dear Friends,

     I will add a few words.  As soon as we can buy a small moto, I plan to start going door to door passing out tracts.  It is the opposite of France here:  most people are churched.  But from my few days here in contact with the people, I don’t believe the percentage of people saved is any higher than France.  On this island of 6000 people, there are all kinds of churches.  There is even a whole village of 7^th Day Adventists.  Bernard, from whom we rent the house, said that when people get upset with their church group, they just go start a church in their home.   

     Well, time will tell as to the response to the Gospel we give them.  If we attend the Temples, we might be able to do chalk drawings there.  I don’t really know how it will work out, but I think I can do them in the villages.  However, there are no local meeting halls to rent like in France, so the various church buildings seemed to be used for events like that. 

     We have only been here a few days.  In a couple of weeks I will have a better grasp of the local situation and thus can form a plan to reaching them.  We need your prayers very much for us, because the culture shock this time was much worse than going to France in 1996.  I don’t care what people think, this is not Paradise!!!!  Life will be much more difficult here for us that it was in France, but at least the people are very nice and much more open than on the Continent.

     We will be in touch soon.  Thank you for your help and prayers!

Terry Morse and family