James and Tess Arendt

On May 5th I flew to Guam from Osaka, Japan, to meet my bride Tess for the first time! She met me at the airport together with her father, her neice and nefphew, and her brother Joey and his wife. I put an engagment ring on her finger at the airport in public, and strangers applauded us!

The first two nights we had to stay at a hotel at $75 night. The place we intended to stay for free turned out to be a closed door!

On May 6th. Sunday, I attended the local church with Tess. It was a blessing to see so many Christians together in one place, hundreds of them! The pastor was so sweet and gave a message of love and hope.

I didn’t bring all that much money from Japan. It was $360 USD and 80,000 Japanese yen which I exchanged for $696 USD. At $75 a night plus money for food, that money would not last long! We were told apartments are expensive.

On May 7th, Monday, we moved to an AirBnB place at only $35 a day on the tourist hotel street right by the beach on Tumon Bay! Walks along the beach in the evening were great! I talked to Japanese tourists in Japanese and had them take photos of Tess and me!

On May 8, Tuesday, Tess and I saw an offer in Chriaglist for a house at only $570 a month, fully furnished and with WIFI! We downloaded the contract and would have sent that money through Money Gram the next day had not a good brother in Christ, Gregory, pointed out to us that it could be a scam! We listened to Gregory and didn’t send the money. The owners are off island and living in Texas! Gregory pointed out the deal sounded too good and it looked flaky to him. We believe now he was right and are so thankful to have been saved from deceit and robbery!

On May 9th, Wednesday, Gregory took us to the Veterans Administration building where I applied for medical benefits from the VA. He also took us to see Ms. Amor, who offered us a studio apartment at $670 a month. The location was very good but at that amount of money we were hoping to find something better. I also established a bank account and my own PayPal account.

On May 10, Thursday I received a gift from a brother in UK via the PayPay account. And later I received payment for a domain name I previously renewed for a friend in Australia. It totaled $89, our first income since coming to Guam!

May 11, Friday, we received notice from Gregory of a house we can live in with an elderly lady at only $300 a month! We were overjoyed! We will move today. Also we will meet a person who can possibly give me employment as a wedding pastor, a job I had much experience in Japan.

On May 13, Mother’s Day, we met Ms. Paca’s two sons, wives and children. We had a mother’s day lunch with them. About 10 days later one of Ms. Paca’s sons, Tiger, invited Tess and I to temporarily live in his million dollar house in the captial, Agana, to care for his 3 dogs and 2 cats while he and his family take a vacation in the Republic of Palau! They said we can eat up any food we find!

On May 20 Tess and I had our marriage ceremony in Yigo in Bethel Baptist Church. The minister was William Maunsell.

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