We took the Lafayette team out to Mele village this morning for Sunday worship. Pastor Todd gave an encouraging word from Psalm 77 and his personal story will not be soon forgotten!
Conference on Erromango
The Tafea Province AG Conference was held this year on the island of Erromango, in the southern part of Vanuatu. Gary was asked to be the morning speaker and Jeremy decided to go with him for the adventure!
They were supposed to leave Port Vila and fly down to the island of Tanna on Friday, August 26th, but the cargo ship which was to pick them up on Tanna and take them to the island of Erromango was delayed. So every day we waited for word on the ship until Monday night we got news that the guys needed to be on the flight for Tanna the next day. Sleeping bags and mosquito nets were packed and off they flew to Tanna. On Wednesday, they boarded the T. Uaraken with about 100 conference delegates and set sail for Pongkil, Erromango. The sea voyage took about 4 hours.
T. Uaraken loading passengers and cargo for Erromango.
Jeremy on board waiting for the ship to set sail…leaving Lenakel, Tanna.
The ship was large enough for everyone to sit or sleep on deck during the 4 hour trip to Erromango. At Pongkil, Erromango (below) everyone was ferried ashore in a small boat.
Erromango, is the home island of our General Supt. Rev. Youen Atnelo. Pongkil village is situated in a beautiful bay by a wide river along the rugged western coast. The ship anchored out in open ocean and the delegates and their baggage were ferried by small boat to a rocky outcropping along the shore. It took many trips for all the people, a couple of goats, piles of baggage and cartons of food to be ferried to the shore and carried up to the village. A lovely Assembly of God church sits in the middle of Pongkil village and a large outdoor bamboo shelter and platform had been erected for the five days of special meetings.
Pongkil village, the church (above right) and delegates singing and marching to the official opening of the conference (below).
The conference opened on Thursday, Sept. 1st and continued for the next five days. Gary taught every morning for a total of 12 hours. Various pastors gave morning devotions and spoke in the evening services. On the Monday morning as Pastor Tom Ierongen was giving a morning devotional a 5.8 earthquake shook the place…they are so common here that he never missed a beat and just kept on speaking!
(L to R) Ladies bringing flower leis (called salusalu) to welcome the conference visitors. People listening to morning speaker.
Special choir music and evening crowd.
Prayer time and baptismal service.
The conference ended Monday night, Sept 5th, but the ship which was to pick everyone up was docked on another island with engine problems. A second, much smaller ship was then chartered to go to Erromango and pick up everyone but it too had engine problems and was docked in Tanna. By this time, we were wondering when Gary and Jeremy would get home. Communication was very limited as there are no landlines or mobile phone connections in the village. A twenty minute climb up a steep hill would put Gary in range of the national mobile network so twice he and Jeremy hiked up there and called to give us some much awaited news.
Finally, on Friday, I received a text message that they were already out to sea headed for the island of Tanna in a small boat, standing room only on deck for a seven hour trip! At one point I had a short phone connection with Gary, as he was telling me about the overcrowded boat and a big rainstorm up ahead, I heard several people scream and we were cut off! Needless to say, I was very concerned and went on FB to ask people to pray…thanks to so many who prayed and sent messages! What an encouragement you were to me! That evening they made it safely to Tanna (missing the storm completely) and the next morning caught a flight back home to Port Vila! They had been gone 12 days!
Thank you so much for praying for the conference and everyone’s safety while traveling! Outer island travel is anything but predictable in Vanuatu!
Campus Transformations
As I mentioned in a previous post, the ladies from New Life Church in Kokomo, Indiana, did so many wonderful transformations around campus. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of their handiwork. First of all, the back room of the chapel had been used for quite sometime as a storage area but we had wanted to see it cleaned out and used as a prayer room. Well, it was transformed from a dingy room to a lovely prayer retreat.
Next they tackled Gary’s new office. The stark white walls and bright blue trim were repainted in cream and brown. The girls moved all his office furniture and bookshelves from his old office to the new one. This was such an unexpected and welcomed surprise! We have been so busy since taking over in January that we have not had time to do these things! The campus pastor’s office and Gary’s former office were also painted and fixed up! Thanks so much ladies, you made quite a difference on campus!!
JBI Teacher Gets Married
On Saturday, July 23, 2011, Pastor Kiel married Faith in the school chapel. Pastor Kiel Maimai is our JBI campus pastor and a teacher. It was so nice to have another campus chapel wedding! It was a beautiful ceremony performed by Pastor Bessie Fong. The bride was radiant and smiling and the groom very pleased. After the ceremony, the groom’s relatives serenaded and marched the bridal party up to the top of the hill where a wedding feast was laid out. Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. K. Maimai and a warm JBI welcome to you both!
Women’s Book in Bislama
I thought I would share with you the “behind the scene” story of how our most recent literature project was birthed.
On April 2nd, our National WM President, Sister Wati, was sharing with me her burden for the women she visits in her travels. She has such a heart to help other women grow in faith. After several cancelled attempts, the very first National WM Conference of the Assemblies of God was going to be held in Port Vila in May. She had heard that the women from many surrounding islands and provinces were excited and arranging boat travel to the conference. Reports were coming in of groups of 30, 50 and even 80 women being organized from islands and churches around the country to attend the conference.
The next morning was a Sunday and I awoke with a very firm conviction that I should prepare a book in Bislama dealing with some of the issues Sister Wati had shared with me and that it should be handed out at the 1st National WM conference starting on May 15. Now if you know me, you know that I am not a morning person and I do not wake up quite so focused!
As I was getting ready for church that morning, I kept wondering how I would ever find the time to translate or write such a book in a month! I teach at the Bible school, homeschool my kids, oversee campus renovation projects and was already feeling tired and overcommitted. After Sunday school that morning, Jasmine was sick and running a high fever so she came home and I stayed with her while Gary and Jeremy went back to church. I realized that “time” had just been handed to me so I hit my files and started looking at articles for book ideas. Next I started unpacking boxes of books on women’s issues looking for something to get me started. Within an hour I had a book in hand, “A Wife After God’s Own Heart” by Elizabeth George and started working. I ended up working at the computer for 15 hours that day and whenever I could during the next three weeks. 108 hours of computer work and a few headaches later, I had a 48 page booklet ready for the printer.
Of course, you cannot use someone else’s words without permission so I also began the process of requesting permission from Harvest House Publishers to excerpt and translate into Bislama parts of the first 5 chapters of Elizabeth George’s book. For a reasonable fee, they gave me permission for one print run with a maximum of 3,000 copies. I was quite relieved when the print contract was signed and mailed back to the publisher as I had already spent many hours working on the Bislama text.
I was working on such a tight deadline, that I finished the book and started proof reading it the weekend before the Monday the printer was expecting to receive it. As you know, the person who writes or translates such a long document needs to have at least one other set of eyes to correct it. Renee Webb, our missionary colleague up north, willingly proofed the whole booklet the night before I gave it to the printer and this gave me great peace of mind.
Now none of this would have been possible if I hadn’t had US$4000.00 of Light For The Lost (LFTL) funds already on hand. The local printer crunched the numbers trying to get me as many copies of the booklet as he could within my budget (and the dropping value of the US dollar didn’t help). The paper for the cover kept pushing me over my budget, until he finally said, “I think I have some paper on hand for the cover which you can have for free if you like it.” The paper had been sent to him by mistake for another job and was sitting on a shelf. So we went back into the print shop and he showed me a bright glossy lemon yellow card stock, not quite what I had envisioned but very good quality paper, free of charge and just the quantity needed! With the cover paper donated I was able to order 2000 copies of the book! The printer had 14 days to produce the books for us in time to hand them out during the conference! When I gave an afternoon lecture on marriage at the conference on Tuesday, May 17th almost 1000 books were handed out to the ladies but that is another story!!
I want to thank my family for putting up with all my extra computer hours during the month of April and much thanks also to Harvest House Publishers for allowing me to excerpt and translate the book, Renee Webb for proofreading, Mr. Michel Pioger, the owner of the Imprimerie de Port Vila (IPV) printers for the free cover page and great print job and all the wonderful LFTL partners who gave in 2010 so we could print one of the first Christian living books just for women in the Bislama language!
National Women’s Ministries Conference
National WM Conference started this Sunday afternoon with a bang…actually it was a marching military band and a parade through downtown Port Vila that started things off! Delegates from every province of Vanuatu (including myself) in matching island dresses and a large group of ladies from the Solomon Islands marched behind the Vanuatu Mobile Force band up to Saralana Park where the conference will be held this week.
The Conference opened with Royal Rangers raising the Vanuatu flag and a group of Missionnettes doing an action song (Jasmine among them) and then welcome speeches. Mrs. Natapei, the former Prime Minister’s wife graciously came and officially opened the conference on behalf of the government. The mass AG youth choir did a great job under the direction of Matilda. Mrs. Beverly Komasi, wife of AG Supt of the Solomon Islands, was the opening speaker. The conference theme is, “Who Will Stand In the Gap For Such A Time As This?” So things got off to a great start!
Scheduled speakers are Mrs. Beverly Komasi from the Solomon Islands, Mrs. Naomi Vueta from Fiji, Mrs. Agnes Fave from Papua New Guinea and myself. So keep us in prayer!
Palm Sunday
Beautiful sunny day here in Vanuatu after days of rain! Wonderful Palm Sunday service this morning at Evangel Temple! Palm Sunday services in Vanuatu are energetic and joyful as Christians sing “Hosanna” and wave palm branches!
All-island Youth Meeting
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.
Spiritual Emphasis Week at JBI
We are so happy to have Rev. Joe Pyott, from Washington State (USA) with us for spiritual emphasis. So far it has been a great week with messages from God’s Word on prayer, purity & marriage, faith, soul-winning and the Holy Spirit. Pray that this will be a life-changing week for JBI students.
JBI Installation of New Principal
On Sunday, January 30th, an installation service was held in the Joy Bible Institute chapel to officially install Gary as the new principal of the Bible school. We want to thank Rev. Edgell Iolopua, General Superintendent, for allowing us to serve in this capacity for the next four years. Our missionary colleague, Bryan Webb, graciously flew in from the northern island of Santo and preached our installation service. We thank him for coming and enjoyed having him stay with us. Unfortunately, it ended up that he could not fly back home on Monday as Cyclone Yasi was passing over the northern islands. His family weathered the storm alone and are all well. Thank you also to all the pastors and friends who attended the service and the ladies for the refreshments.
Looking forward to the students arriving for registration on Monday, February 7th. Pray with us for a great school year!
Daily Challenges
It is great to be back online and have internet service again! Getting a house, unpacking and moving has not been as easy as we had hoped…never is really. Things take much longer than you hope they will. We moved into our rental house and five days later had our first robbery which resulted in the loss of Gary’s new Apple laptop and my mobile phone! It was such a shock to us to have this happen! We are so thankful that Gary had everything except a most recent Bible study backed up. Unfortunately, his computer cannot be replaced here and this is really hindering him from getting his work done. The thieves came again two weeks later and damaged windows and a door but did not get in. UPDATE: Our landlord has just installed security bars on the windows. Thank you for praying for our safety and good rest.
Two weeks ago, we were sitting out Cyclone Vania, which actually formed near the southern Vanuatu island of Erromango, about 100 miles away. It was a slow moving cyclone with high winds which uprooted trees in our yard and all over the Joy Bible Institute campus. The campus still looks like a war zone as so many large trees have come down. We are thankful that no buildings were seriously damaged but we lost the bananas, papayas and much of the avocado crop which the students eat.
The southern islands of Vanuatu were harder hit by Cyclone Vania with food gardens and huts destroyed. For people in rural areas this means food shortages until the next crops can be planted and harvested in 4 to 6 months. We know of four AG churches on Tanna which were heavily damaged. The damage reports are still coming in from other rural areas. Plans are underway for a shipment of food to be sent to Tanna with the assistance of AG World Relief. Thank you to those who have given towards this. Pray that things will go smoothly and a ship will be going south with space to take relief supplies very soon.
UPDATE: Yesterday a second cyclone called Yasi passed over the northern Vanuatu islands of the Banks. All domestic flights were cancelled due to the high winds. Our missionary colleague, Bryan Webb, who was down in Port Vila with us over the weekend and unable to fly home yesterday. His wife and children went through the cyclone alone. I am happy to say he was able to get on a flight home today. We have many churches on the small Banks Islands and are waiting for damage reports. So please pray for the people in the Banks who have just gone through this cyclone. The meteorological department has predicted four cyclones to hit Vanuatu this season.
Arrived Safely!
We arrived safely in Port Vila on Saturday, December 11th after 29 hours traveling time! We were worn out but very happy to be back on Vanuatu soil. It was really great to go to church on Sunday and be with friends. Wherever we go we are shaking hands with people happily surprised to see us back.
News does travel fast on an island. Sunday after church we were walking home and met a man who attends another AG church in another part of town. He was not surprised when I told him that we had just gotten back the day before. “Oh, I know” he said, “It was announced today that missionary (Gary) is preaching at our church next Sunday!” Gary did not know that but it is always good to have a few days’ warning!
We are really feeling the hot summer weather after leaving the cold winter temperatures of North America behind only a few days ago! At this point the hot weather is bearable but not yet enjoyable.
We have several challenges in the days ahead. We are looking for an affordable vehicle in an expensive and limited consumer market. We rented a house in November but have arrived to find out that it is needing some work and the landlord intends to paint the inside but is not sure when. We, on the other hand, have already paid rent and expected to move in right away. Christmas is only eleven days away and we want to make it a special day for our children.
Thank you for praying for us as we work through this transition time. We do not yet have Internet service but look forward to reading your emails very soon. Snail mail is always welcome, too!
Vanuatu Hit By Multiple Earthquakes
Some of you have contacted us concerning the reported earthquakes yesterday in Vanuatu. Thank you for your concern. According to the USGS website in just over 24 hours there have been 14 significant earthquakes hit the area between the northern islands of Vanuatu and the Santa Cruz Islands. The largest earthquake registered at 7.8 and the least at 4.1. There were probably many smaller after shocks but those will not show on that list. A Tsunami warning was issued but two hours later it was cancelled.
Our missionary colleagues, Bryan and Renee Webb, live on the island of Santo, about 175 miles from the epicenter. We have heard from them and they are well. They felt five strong earthquakes in Santo. No one was hurt from the earthquakes as there are few buildings built over one storey. The newly built concrete mission house was not damaged and the local built huts are flexible enough to sway but rarely fall down from an earthquake. A tsunami wave would have caused severe damage but this did not materialize. Our medical missionary colleagues, Priscilla and Gary Ross live in a remote bush area of Santo and they are also fine.
Port Vila where Joy Bible Institute is located is about 600 miles farther south from the earthquakes’ epicenter. We have not received news from them yet but do not expect any severe damage reports. Though the number of strong earthquakes in such a short time is unsettling.
Thank you for continuing to pray for Vanuatu. Last week our missionary colleagues in the Pacific island nations of Samoa and American Samoa experienced a powerful 8.0 earthquake and the devastation of two tsunami waves. Villages were flatten and 170 people drowned. Pray for the missionaries, pastors and Bible students as they help during this difficult time in Samoa.
Moving
In a week we will be flying to the States for our deputation. I can tell you that it is never easy to pull up roots, pack the boxes and put everything in storage for a year. We also have a beautiful cat needing a new family. Some of the JBI students spent their free day helping Gary move the furniture. They may be sitting down in this picture but they worked very hard! Thank you guys for all your help!
A Birthday Party
Our JBI principal, Pastor Edgell, celebrated his 40th birthday today! Could not let that special date go by without a party and some chocolate cake! After some speeches, a dowsing talcum powder and a few laughs, we had a wonderful dinner and desserts. Happy Birthday, Pastor Edgell, and God Bless You!
Vision for Vanuatu 
