Mission Adventures in Vanuatu

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 ...

It was a beautiful Saturday and we were exhausted from the week of handling a million things for the missionaries … research for solar systems, water tanks, contacting owners about clogged drains and air conditioners, moving missionaries, cleaning out apartments, getting an apartment load shipped to Tanna, trying to find things for apartments that don’t exist on the island etc. We were told there would be a baptism for a couple of people in the branch that we serve in (a “branch” is a church congregation smaller than a ward). My first thought was, wow I didn’t know there was a baptismal font at that church building!   So off we went. Putting all the belongings for a new apartment in Port Resolution on the Island of Tanna on the ferry We drive about 40 minutes away on the other side of the island from where we live to an area called Mele, which is where we have been assigned. When we got to the church building and asked about the font, and the missionaries said, “We baptize in the o...

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...