On March 18th, we were so pleased to host the all-island youth meeting on the JBI campus. Several hundred young people from churches all around the island of Efate gathered for the second youth rally of the year. The young people showered the JBI cafeteria with fresh food, rice and a cash offering of almost $150. Our school cafeteria runs solely on donated food and offerings so their generosity was a blessing to the students. Three youth choirs and the JBI student choir sang. Gary was asked to preach on I Timothy 4:11, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” Many stepped forward to the altar after the message. It was a wonderful night.
Going to the small, isolated places…
In 2009, a young lady by the name of Flora graduated from Joy Bible Institute. She was a town girl and grew up in a comfortable pastor’s home. Before graduating, Flora got on a cargo ship and went on a missions trip with fellow JBI students to the small, isolated northern Torba islands of Vanuatu. I remember standing on the wharf back then as Flora told me that she was not a good sailor and would be sick before leaving the harbor! Gary passed her a cou
ple of cans of coke and off she sailed. Later she told me that she had actually fared really well on the long sea voyage.
This mission trip turned out to be a life-changing experience for Flora. When she came back to Bible school she could not forget the needs of the people and the small island churches she had ministered in. After graduation, Flora went back to the Torba islands for several months of ministry. In May 2009, she came home briefly, packed up and moved “permanently” to the tiny island of Rah, off the coast of Mota Lava island. (Rah is the tiny round island off the southern point of the larger Mota Lava island in the photo above).
On the island of Rah, she is known as Pastor Flora and pastors the Assemblies of God church. What a joy to talk to her on the phone today. This only possible due to an new expanded mobile phone network and solar-charged cell phones since there is no electricity on the island of Rah. Flora asked for Sunday school materials and any other kind of Christian literature we can send her. I cannot fully express to you the joy I experienced in speaking to this very courageous and committed young woman. Would you please add her to your prayer list?
JBI News
I am not sure where the last month has gone but I know it has been a very busy one for us! Classes started at JBI on February 8 and we were so excited to see returning students and freshmen arriving on campus from so many different islands. Several were delayed because Cyclone Yasi and Vania had interrupted inter-island flights and passenger ship schedules but by the end of the first week everyone had found an alternative way to get to Port Vila. The highlight of the second week was Spiritual Emphasis with Rev. Joe Pyott, from Washington State, followed by yet another cyclone called Atu.
Then came the all-island combined service to celebrate the newly constructed church at Fresh Wind, a JBI back to school party, a four day missionary field retreat and the visit of several special chapel speakers! We were so pleased to have our missionary colleagues, the Webbs and missionary associates, the Jaegers and Thomas’ all in town for our missionary retreat. They all live on the island of Santo in the northern part of the country and we rarely get together. As I write, we are under another tropical storm warning which has delayed their flights back to Santo. Please pray this storm does not become a cyclone. This has been a particularly turbulent cyclone season and we have so many islands already experiencing hardship and severe food shortages because of storm damage!
Things are going well at JBI. Gary is busy in his new role as principal and he continues to teach and preach. I teach four days a week at JBI and oversee the homeschooling of our children. Our work schedule is substantial. The new students are settling in and adjusting well to campus life. We have two great national pastors teaching with us, Pastor Philip Naias and Pastor Kiel Maimai, who is also serving as campus pastor. We do have some challenges so thank you for continuing to pray for us and the school.
FYI – If you have been consulting our Joy Bible website/blog you will see that it is not updated. We have a technical problem and have been locked out of it for quite some time. We are hoping to get this resolved soon or else we will set up a new site.
Vision for Vanuatu 