The face and sound of America has greatly changed since I was a child. Except for fourth grade Spanish television lessons with Senorita Conchita, and high school French with Madame Gaffie, I’m not sure that I ever heard anyone speaking another language (except at church!). Today, everywhere we go, we hear many languages: Spanish, French, Chinese, Russian, Romanian, and many more.

I (Gary) am currently in the States for a couple of weeks to help our daughter Jasmine with some health issues. Our flight to Indianapolis was canceled due to weather, leaving us stuck for the night in Dallas-Fort Worth. We stayed overnight at the Clarion Hotel near the airport.

The next morning, as we were waiting in the lobby for the shuttle, I saw a man who was obviously not American. So I asked him, “Where are you from, brother?” “Côte d’Ivoire,” he responded. That’s Ivory Coast (West Africa) for those who’ve not yet updated their geography. Lori and I spent three years (1984-1986) in Daloa, Côte d’Ivoire, helping to train local pastors. Thirty-three years later, many of them are still pastoring churches or serving as missionaries to other African countries.

Imagine this man’s surprise and mine! He was amazed to find an American who had lived in his home country. I was amazed to find an Ivoirien in Texas. My new friend has been in the States for 19 years and works with the hotel and airport shuttles.

We immediately switched into French. Adding to our surprise, he too had lived in Daloa as his father had been a teacher at a school there. When I spread my arms and said, “Atoooo,” an Ivoirien greeting for old friends who had not seen each other for a long time, he came up and gave me a big hug! He was laughing through the whole conversation. We blessed each other in the name of the Lord.

There are many new faces and voices all around us, some just needing to be recognized and loved as fellow bearers of God’s image and told of the love of Christ who commanded us to make disciples of all “nations” (Greek: ethne, ethnic groups). Today many of those “nations” are in our airports, our superstores, and our neighborhoods, many just waiting for a friendly word and blessing.

Prayer Requests

• Pray for wisdom and God’s direction as we seek to help Jasmine so that the Lord would accomplish His purposes in and through her life.
• Pray for Lori and our national pastors, Philip and Kiel, as they try to carry my load at Joy Bible Institute during these weeks of my absence.
• Pray for Jeremy as he finishes high school in Vanuatu with us.
• Pray that the Lord would send us a young missionary couple trained in Bible and theology.
• Pray that the Lord would call more national workers in Vanuatu.
• Pray and consider increasing your monthly support. We are about $2,000 short of our monthly expenses.

Thank you for your partnership in this Great Commission ministry!

Gary and Lori Ellison have been serving as Assemblies of God missionaries since 1982, training pastors in Africa, Europe, and the South Pacific. Gary serves as the principal of Joy Bible Institute of Vanuatu. In addition to teaching and coordinating various projects, Lori translates Christian literature into Bislama.

One Down and Two to Go!

We have just finished the first school term at Joy Bible Institute where we are training the next generation of pastors for Vanuatu and beyond. One down and two to go for 2019!

It is interesting that we now have some older men who have enrolled in the three-year pastors training program. They want to make the rest of their lives count for Christ. One was a teacher, two were police officers from different parts of the country, another a business man, and another a leader in his village.

Of course, most of our students are younger. One of our students graduated early and returned last week to his home island of Ambrym to work with Wycliffe Bible translators (SIL) to help translate the Bible into his language.

Sande Skul Seminar: Team-Teaching with Students

After Lori translated and published “Sunday School Lessons in Bislama – Book Two,” a local church asked her to conduct a seminar for their Sunday School teachers. Within a week, three more churches asked for her help. So she decided to team up with five of her Christian Education students to teach the seminar for all the churches. Over 60 people attended and all five future pastors did an excellent job.

“Preach the Word”

Whether it’s in a local church (as in this photo) or in a series on the Book of Revelation at Joy Bible Institute, I am always grateful for the privilege of opening the Word of God. Our mission is to train up a generation of pastors who will faithfully open the Scriptures to strengthen the church

So why do they call it “Green Hill”?

In 2015, category 5 Cyclone Pam destroyed Green Hill Elementary school (which is located in a very remote area on top of a very green hill where all the students wear… green).

The school was started by our 1998 Joy Bible Institute graduate Pastor Charley Job. After graduating, he and his wife felt called to go to the remote subsistence farming community of Green Hill to start a church. About 12 years ago, when their young boys became school age, Charley and his wife saw the need for their education and a Christian school. So they started one! Today some 140 children attend Green Hill Primary School, many of them walking long distances to get an education. Just like in the “good old days.”

Since March 2015, Lori has been raising funds to rebuild the school after its destruction by Cyclone Pam. A third building, funded almost entirely by BGMC (Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge), is nearing completion.

In May we were blessed to have a wonderful team from Southeastern University (Assemblies of God). The 12 member team ministered in our churches, at youth rallies, in all three Port Vila prisons, and to “top it off” on Green Hill.

So what to pray for?

• Pray that the Lord would send us a young missionary couple trained in Bible and theology.
• Pray that the Lord would call more national workers here in Vanuatu.
• A Creation ministries team arrives June 10. They will speak in public schools and distribute 8,000 copies of the Christian devotional Explore the World. Pray that the Lord will use the team to strengthen the faith of believers and open the eyes of teachers and students who have not yet come to faith.
• Pray for the next 11 week term at Joy Bible Institute beginning June 3.
• Pray and consider increasing your monthly support. We are about $2,000 short of our monthly expenses.
• Pray for our daughter that the Lord will accomplish His purposes in and through her life.
• Pray for Jeremy as he finishes high school here with us.

Thank you for your partnership in this Great Commission ministry!

Gary and Lori Ellison have been serving as Assemblies of God missionaries since 1982, training pastors in Africa, Europe, and the South Pacific. Gary serves as the principal of Joy Bible Institute of Vanuatu. In addition to teaching and coordinating various projects, Lori translates Christian literature into Bislama.

For months we have had ongoing problems with our internet service. We changed internet providers and then went back to our original provider. There is an overall technology problem in the city and it is beyond our control at this point. We hope that the system will improve in 2016. In the meantime, our email capabilities have been reduced to sometimes one brief connection per day. Internet browsing has become a rare event and loading a photo to our blog or even FB basically impossible. There is so much that has been happening and we are so anxious to share it with you.

For months we have had ongoing problems with our internet service. We changed internet providers and then went back to our original provider. There is an overall technology problem in the city and it is beyond our control at this point. We hope that the system will improve in 2016. In the meantime, our email capabilities have been reduced to sometimes one brief connection per day. Internet browsing has become a rare event and loading a photo to our blog or even FB basically impossible. There is so much that has been happening and we are so anxious to share it with you. We apologize for the lack of update on our website.

A few miles out of town, you turn off the main road and head up a track made only for 4wheel drive vehicles to get to Green Hill, Upper Teouma. The road is deeply rutted, flooded, muddy, and a challenge to the best of drivers! The trip takes about 45 minutes if you do not get bogged down along the way.

Until Cyclone Pam, I confess I had never been there, I was always told that our car could not make it. (It most definitely would not!) I knew there were several Assemblies of God churches in the upper hills of Teouma and would see the pastors and their wives at various gatherings in town.

In April, the newly formed National AG Disaster Committee, hired a Landcruiser and driver and headed out for a damage assessment trip to Teouma. We had already done assessments of easier to reach churches and communities.

A month after the cyclone, the long grasses had grown but the trees were still mostly stripped of leaves, branches broken, and many completely uprooted. Teouma is a market gardening community, nestled high in the hills. The cyclone whipped over these high plateaus ferociously, ripping crops out of the ground and blowing away every building in some settlements. It was a sobering drive.

Our first stop was to Pastor Charley Job in Green Hill. Every building in their area blew away except his small cement block house. Their house had safely sheltered all the nearest neighbors during the storm. After the cyclone, they stepped out of their house to find their primary school gone, the church building gone, and the nearby church’s widows house also gone. The winds were so violent that almost nothing of the school was found within walking distance. They recovered only enough to rebuild a shed to store relief and donated school supplies in.

Green Hill Primary School had just reopened for classes the morning of our visit. Not all the children were back in school but the principal and teachers were doing their best under teach. Salvaged wood and donated plastic tarps were the new classrooms. Children sat mostly on the grass, as very few desks and chairs survived the cyclone. Normally 120 children attended this school.

I can tell you that I promised them that day to write letters and find someone to help them rebuild. Many damaged schools in town had not even begun to reopen when this school, which had lost everything, was back in session.

From Green Hill we came back down to visit Pastor and Mrs. John Yalsi of Red Ground, Teouma. Their farming settlement is perched high on a cliff overlooking the Teouma River Valley. It is a beautiful spot but was completely devastated by the cyclone. Everything was destroyed including their church. Even the cement walls crumbled. The church members climbed down the high cliff to recuperate metal roofing sheets and things for their houses. In the photo above, the pastor and his wife are standing in front of the ruins of their church. When we stopped to see them, they were busy in their gardens replanting crops to take to market in Port Vila. Until they had crops to sell, they would have no income.

After a short visit, some words of encouragement and gifts of rice and meat, we continued on down the hill towards another Teouma church pastored by Pastor John Yalu.

Pastor Yalu and his congregation, had used fallen coconut trees, bamboo, and blue plastic tarps to make the nicest temporary church I had seen. He was concerned that day because his wife had been away during the cyclone and was coming home to a house without a roof (photo on the right). We gathered with some of the church members and heard how God had protected them. Again after leaving some food, we continued on our way to visit other pastor and other destroyed church buildings.

The Assemblies of God had 30 church buildings completely destroyed and another 20 severely damaged by Cyclone Pam. Many pastors and their members lost their homes and their incomes. Thank you for praying and giving to help us rebuild churches in Vanuatu destroyed by this cyclone. If you haven’t yet given, we need your help. Please send all gifts to our AGWM account and label them for cyclone rebuilding.

Cyclone Pam took the roof off this building which houses the boy’s bathrooms, their laundry, and the school workshop. Colton and Karmen worked really hard to get the roof back on to give everyone some privacy. The plumbing and electrical wiring still needs to be fully repaired but we have come along way in a few months.

Thank you to everyone who gave to help us get this building repaired!

Some of you have been following our rebuilding on fb and I apologize to those who look for news here because I have not been updating this site. I promise to do better! The hours have been insufficient to get everything done.

The JBI girl’s dorm is now repaired and the girls are enjoying their new home again! The whole roof was replaced, with new timber structure and metal roofing. Then we went inside and had to replace all the ceilings, electrical wiring, ceiling fans, and light fixtures. New low energy and LED lighting was chosen and this will make a big difference in the school utility bill. We found that wall studs inside standing walls and window frames had actually been snapped by the force of the winds and so most had to be replaced. Damaged and water-logged inside plasterboard walls were removed too. Everything was repainted. New curtains were sewn by a married student’s wife. We are waiting for the new kitchen cupboards to be delivered and then it will be finished. It already looks wonderful!

Above left is the BEFORE photo of girl’s kitchen and living area destroyed by the cyclone. That rusty metal roofing in the room doesn’t not even belong to this house.

Photo above right is the AFTER showing the same corner. Just missing the kitchen cupboards.

The JBI students were fabulous. They got up on broken roofs and nailed wood and waxed tarps in place (photos above). A big thank you to Steve & Helen Blake of Liberty for the Nations, for giving us rolls of waxed tarpaulins. The tarpaulins were donated by WCT of Australia and were so strong. Many campus roofs were covered in this WCT material for many months until funds came through to repair.

Thank you to Colton Cravatt, MAPS Construction volunteer from the USA, He spent three months with us helping to repair several campus buildings. On May 30, I (Lori) fell and fractured my knee and Colton stepped up and kept things going. Thank you also to Calo and Jeffery, local workers who worked on the girl’s dorm giving it all the finishing touches needed. Also to John Betuel, an electrician who came on weekends and installed new wiring and fixtures.

Finally, thank you to Australia Christian Churches ACCIR, friends in Belgium and supporters in the United States, because of your financial gifts were able to repair the JBI girl’s dorm! THANK YOU!