I am the second grade teacher here in Ebeye,
at Ebeye SDA school.
I teach all subjects for second grade.
Come to her house.
To go where?
-To her house! -To her house.
Ebeye is a small island in the Pacific Ocean.
It's part of a chain called the Marshall Islands.
More than 15,000 people live on this small piece of land
and half of the population is under the age of 18.
Ebeye is very small,
very populated,
lots of children running around.
They are very friendly. They will tell you ‘Hi,
Want to touch you, want to touch your hair,
give you a hug
And then also, there’s not that many trees,
not that many flowers, just a lot of buildings
because of such a high population.
Ebeye Seventh-day Adventist School plays an important role on the island.
It educates children from preschool to grade 12.
The school relies heavily on Adventist volunteers to function.
Student missionaries, especially,
come every year to fill the empty teaching positions.
Elisa was a hairstylist in the United States,
but she believed God wanted something else for her life.
So, she began praying for direction.
Someone suggested that she consider volunteering her time for God’s work.
I had no idea where Ebeye was,
but there was an available opening,
so I applied, and I asked God to open the door
if I was supposed to go or shut it if I was not supposed to.
Since she arrived, Elisa has grown close to her students.
They frequently hug her and want to spend time with her.
The bond she’s formed with the people on the island
has motivated her to put her best effort into her job.
But there have also been major challenges to living abroad.
Since Ebeye is an isolated island,
getting fresh food here is infrequent,
and healthy living can be difficult.
So some of the struggles on Ebeye have been getting sick
and also not getting enough nutrition
just because the food is very different here.
There’s not a lot of fresh produce.
So, my first sickness was chikungunya.
It’s a mosquito-borne virus.
And then I got a dislocated kneecap
from teaching the boys soccer.
And so, that was a struggle. I had to return to the US.
And when I had to return home from dislocating my kneecap,
I was very angry.
I felt guilty for leaving all my kids and my fellow missionaries.
And I was angry at God. I blamed God for it.
And I told all my family, "I’m never coming back to Ebeye."
And then I drifted away from God a little bit and then I prayed.
I started praying.
"God, I need to come back to You.
Tell me what to do with my life. I need my purpose.
I need to know what it is."
And as I prayed,
God showed me that I was supposed to come back to Ebeye
because in the first place, who was the one that led me to Ebeye?
It was God.
When Elisa’s knee was better,
she returned to Ebeye for another year of teaching.
She feels even more dedicated and closer to the students than before.
What I like about being here is being able to provide
that kind of support for the children,
and a nurturing experience for them.
And most of all is Jesus Christ.
Telling them about Jesus and His love,
and showing that love to them.
Not just telling them, but most importantly
showing it in my own life to them.
One of the biggest obstacles the school faces is maintenance.
The salt concentration in the air is so high
that everything deteriorates at a fast pace.
Something that would normally last 20 years in other parts of the world
might only last three years in Ebeye.
The staff and students are grateful
for your contributions to the 13th Sabbath Offerings.
Yes, most definitely the money is needed for our school.
There are many renovations that are ongoing.
We constantly, with the saltwater, it affects the building structure,
and then also right now we have termites in the wood.
So, I think we're trying to turn the school
into mostly concrete so we don’t have the termites.
There’s a lot to do.
And things are always falling apart, just again with the weather,
the saltwater,
and just a lot of kids maybe being hard on the school.
Please consider how you can help the Ebeye Seventh-day Adventist School
in the Marshall Islands,
as well as other schools throughout the North American Division.
Education has a huge impact on future generations.
Thank you for supporting the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church!