Earthquake - Part 1

At the mission home for a Zone Conference

It’s been a really good two weeks. Lots of positive things and forward movement going on. The initial reason we were brought out here was to help with the construction of new buildings… Church buildings, additions, and missionary housing primarily on the islands of Tanna and Malekula. As mentioned before, it’s very complicated because these other two islands are very primitive by American standards and there isn’t a local “Home Depot” that has everything all of the time. Logistics are a serious issue that slows the process of everything down. Throw the earthquake in there with the disruption of the supply chain and WA LA … an even more messy complication.

Joe had two days of meetings with Dave Amende, who is a church employee based in New Zealand and the contractors. Several contracts were signed for 9 structures and 2 additions …  4 in Malekula and 7 in Tanna. Construction will start the middle of March. There will be a Senior missionary quarter built on each of those islands as part of the contract. This is so important because as it stands now, there is nowhere for older missionaries like us to stay. Only elders (the boys) and no sisters serve on these islands because it is almost total bush living. (Bucket showers, no indoor plumbing, sometimes solar power, and on and on… you get the idea). Being able to have a senior couple live and serve full time in these places will bring a lot of support to the branches, wards, leadership, and young missionaries.

The missionary quarters being built will have regular indoor plumbing, a small refrigerator, small washing machine, and a full solar system powerful enough to run everything. The senior missionary quarters will have all of that as well as an air conditioner. It will be a (very small) two bedroom, two bathroom, with a sitting area and little kitchen. The second bedroom and bathroom will be helpful so that when others come to the island (mission leaders or people like us doing work on the island) will have a place to stay that is reasonable. :)

The church is growing so fast on Tanna. June of 2024 they were made a “stake” with about 3100 people in attendance. Six months later at the next conference they had almost 4000. Think about the logistics of that! … Leadership training, proper running of meetings, accounting, clerking, keeping all the records correct (kind of, ha ha). The young missionaries are so busy teaching they don’t have time to worry about things like hot water and sometimes need to use the ocean to bathe, which I’m sure they are really bummed about. Seriously, it would be a nightmare for me, but for these young elder missionaries it’s one huge adventure and they are experiencing lot of success.

More than 30 bags of stuff removed from a house that four elders live in. What you don't see is the other truck load of things we took to donate to the NiVans.

As for what we are doing with the rest of our time, we are managing all of the missionary housing on the islands of Effate, where we live, Tanna, and Malekula… 35 dwellings, which is a WHOLE job by its self. We are loving working with the branch leadership in Mele where we meet for church, and I teach institute on Tuesdays. We are pretty much running….

Speaking of the branch we work with. We finished teaching the temple preparation class for about 15 people who were supposed to fly to Fiji this week to attend the temple for the first time and be “sealed” with their families. Our branch presidents family were part of this group. There is something called “the temple patron fund” that the church has that will help pay the expenses for these families to fly, etc. because it’s so expensive. The families figure out how much they can pay, and the church pays the rest.

SO… there was a huge issue and ALL accounts related to the church had been locked down. It was a Vanuatu government problem. No access to money for the mission, the stake, wards, branches, the FM group that does all the fixing and repair of buildings… NOTHING. No money. As a result, the airfare for this whole group of people who were supposed to leave last Monday had not been paid for yet so it all was canceled. Everyone was trying to figure something out to pay for it another way, but when they called the airlines there were no more flights available. No flights the day before, the day of or the day after they were supposed to leave. We were just heartbroken and trying to have a good attitude thinking, “It will be ok. They will be able to go at some point” etc.”

Two or three days before they were supposed to leave, over 15 passenger flights to Fiji opened up and the accounts were unlocked. Total miracle! They fly back today and I can’t wait to hear about their experiences last week when we meet on Sunday. We were SO happy!

Working on construction and other missionary housing related issues, does not feel or seem very “spiritual”, but a persons dwelling and their ability to be able to fulfill their missionary purpose of inviting and bringing others to Christ is paramount in being able to focus, feel the spirit, and be in a peaceful environment. With all of the housing issues, we both really enjoy ministering to the young missionaries as well. We can’t tell you how many times we have “run into” missionaries as we are other places who just needed to talk, or that we needed to talk with about things that helped bring them comfort or solve a bigger issue. One morning, we literally ran into 8 missionaries in a matter of 3 hours.

Zone Conference

I’m grateful for the opportunities to be reminded that God is in the details in huge ways, as well as the tiny ones and that He is mindful of all of us and what we need the most. It feels like we are both finding our footing here and getting into a groove of forward movement. 

.…and for the rest of today, we are going to the beach. :)

We love and miss you all!!

The Kwans

Beach time! Gorgeous clear warm water.

Cooked sweet and sour chicken for 75
missionaries for zone conference.