As you continue on around the east side of Efate Island, Eton Village is located about a 30 minutes drive from Port Vila. Missionaries Tobey and Kathy Huff live on the church property, and were instrumental in cyclone relief there, especially in relation to food, water and housing. We coordinated efforts to some extent, but for the most part they handled the needs of the brethren and others in the village. In similar fashion to Etas, we delivered 20+ boxes of donated goods into the hands of the leadership, who in turn distributed the items as they saw fit. The members also worked together with Tobey to repair the church building, which lost one side of windows and one side of the roof.
Approximately 20 minutes beyond Eton is Epau Village. Epau’s water system was offline for several days following the cyclone, and so we made water runs there as well. Thankfully, the system was functioning very quickly, thanks in large part to Bob, who is chairman of the village water committee and one of the leaders in the church in Epau. The water system in Epau consists of a series of pipes and tanks, fed by a fresh water spring about a mile up the hill from the village. There is basically one outdoor tap for every household/clan. We delivered water filtration systems to folks here as well, to ensure clean drinking water. In addition, we supplied food staples, tarps, nails, and soap early on, as they waited for the government rations to kick in. Most of the brethren in Epau lost at least one entire house, and so we were able to use relief funds to purchase much needed sheets of roofing iron, depending on how many they lost in the storm. Additionally, the entire roof of the church building fell in on itself, and so many local Christians worked together to get it replaced, along with the louvered glass windows.
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| Church building in Epau Village |
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| Church building in Eton Village |
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