Mission Adventures in Vanuatu

We are settling into our assignments which have changed quite a bit. Our initial assignment was to help move the construction forward with new church buildings and missionary quarters that will be built on several islands here in Vanuatu. That is still a part of what we are doing, but have also been given the responsibility of managing all of the missionary housing for four islands which is very complicated.   Example, we need to find and rent a few new missionary quarters on the island of Tanna. Tanna is far from the island of Efate where we live, and purchasing everything for the new apartment has to come from here and then packaged and put on a ferry for 19 hours to be sent over. Logistically it is very involved. (beds, mattresses, kitchen stuff, stove top, refrigerator, etc...) Post earthquake, as you can imagine there have been issues with several apartments and we have had to move missionaries around, handle repair issues, look for new apartments, and work with landlords on g...

Adorable Nivan children playing It’s been 3 weeks since the earthquake happened and it feels like things should be mostly back to normal but they are not. We have gotten so many aftershocks I can’t count and they have been in the 5.2 range. We did get one that was 6.6 that woke us up in the night. The waterfront area is closed because of a few buildings that collapsed and others that are not safe so the banking, government offices, and other major businesses have been displaced. Everything is still in flux and they are not sure where all of that will land permanently or even semi-permanently. The mission office is also downtown where there is still no water or power. That building seems to be ok but the ones around it are not so for now, the basic mission office stuff has been moved to the different senior missionary apartments to work from “home” where we now have power, internet, and water (most of the time). A room in the mission office right after the earthquake With as hard as thi...

A beautiful evening before the earthquake A Christmas season like no other. It was a week before Christmas and in my mind, we live in a perpetual state of “August”… Until we would go into a restaurant at a resort decked out with Christmas decorations and music playing “I’ll be home for Christmas” in the background. Although, hearing “Riding in a winter wonderland” and “Sleigh Bells”, was a little weird with beaches, blue aqua water, palm trees, and warm island air.   December 17th, at 12:45 we were in our apartment. I was in the kitchen and Joe in the second bedroom where an office has been set up. We both heard this sound that kept getting louder so I walked over to the door jam where Joe was and the earth started rumbling, then it started shaking and becoming more and more violent by the second. Joe was thrown, as well as his desk and computer. I braced myself in the doorway and really thought our second floor apartment was going down. It was a 7.3 earthquake. Soon after it stopp...

It’s hard to describe what we saw…. It started with a 16 seater flight from where we live, Effete island, Port Vila to Malekula Island. We arrived at an “airport”, (I use that term loosely) with a tiny blacktop runway and metal shack where you don’t even use a ticket. They literally weigh you and your stuff because the plane is so small.  Malekula airport Our objective was to go see a list of 9 sites in two days. Assess current buildings, as well as land for new ones and new missionary quarters. We saw women of all ages with machetes cutting the brush, grass, and trees back from off the road (in skirts), barefoot naked children playing in mud holes in the middle of the road. We drove through 3 rivers and the 4th was too deep so we had to turn around. They check the depth by walking into the river to see how high it goes on their body. Our driver stopped to pick up about 10 women and children on their way to a wedding, so they all got in the back of the truck on the bumpy, muddy roa...