Home Sweet Home

Our house sits on a portion of Flexon’s ground (a Christian in Vila).  He has allowed us to use it with no strings (money) attached, which is very gracious.  He has also given the local church permission to erect a building on the other half.  We are just south of the main road, with the primary school located on the north side of the road.  Jean Claude and Leisande live just a stone’s throw further south, as do several of Jean Claude’s brothers (with families).  They have taken us in as part of the family, and it is neat to experience that sense of community and camaraderie.  It’s very different from what we’re used to, even in Vila, but we’re starting to warm up to the idea of communal living (what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is ours).


The house is approximately 18’ x 18’, with a small porch in back.  We plan to have a large, thatch-roofed veranda on front, but that has not materialized just yet.  The inside of the house is divided into two rooms - one a bedroom and the other a kitchen/everything else room.  The rooms are divided by bare studs for now - I have paid for masonite but the truck hasn’t had a chance to deliver it yet.  The house has a concrete floor, with the exception of the bathroom which is dirt, then sand, then large stones.  Our walls are half cement block and half woven bamboo.  The bamboo allows some airflow, and we have four wide windows that swivel to open either out or in.  We quickly learned that a fully-open window was actually an open invitation for the entire village to come stick their head in and look around, so now we only prop them half way open most of the time.

We have a small bathroom at the end of the back porch.  We have an RV (cassette) toilet, that has to be emptied about once a week (not my favorite job, but someone has to do it!).  We are in the process of building a “long-drop” local style toilet that we will use as much as possible, but the RV toilet in the house will be much more convenient for the kids and any night-time urges (too much information?!?).  We have a large, round plastic tub that the kids bathe in (like a bath tub), while Shawnda and I stand in said tub and pour water over us with a tea mug from a bucket. 

We have a corrugated iron roof, which serves to fill our 1,100L water tank in back (at least in theory, as it hasn’t rained in the village since we arrived).  For now I have to carry water in 25L plastic jugs from Jean Claude’s house, as they have a tap that is fed from a fresh water spring on top of a nearby mountain.  Carrying in the water makes me realize just how much water we use.  We are very conservative and easily use 100L per day, more on clothes-washing days (40L/day on cooking/dishes, 35L/day on bathing, 25L/day on drinking, 50L/week on clothes and 20L/week on the toilet).  Makes me wonder how much we use in Vila, or worse yet in the States!

The life-saving feature of our house is the two 90-watt solar panels on top.  This provides us with enough power for our two lightbulbs and an oscillating fan.  We turn on the fan during the kids’ afternoon nap and for an hour at night before we go to sleep.  It feels almost like we are cheating, as we turn the sun’s heat into a nice, cool breeze.  We are also able to charge my laptop, cell phones and batteries with the system.  We do still have the generator I used to power my circular saw and drill during the construction, but I am thinking about selling it once everything is in order.

I had enough timber left over from the house to make a bed for Shawnda and me.  We have two 15cm foam mattresses that lay side-by-side on top.  I made the bed unusually high so that we could fit all of our Rubbermaid containers underneath.  As soon as I can get some more timber cut, I will make the kids a set of bunk beds.  For now, their mattresses are just on the floor.

Last but not least is our kitchen.  I made cabinets in Vila and shipped them disassembled to Malekula.  We have a sink that empties into a 20L bucket.  Our “faucet” is a 25L jug with a plastic tap.  All of our food has to sealed up, so as not to invite any unwanted guests (rats, cockroaches, ants, millipedes, etc.).  I will mention here briefly that we have been very richly blessed by our neighbors, who have given us lots of fresh produce from their gardens - corn, peanuts, snake beans, green beans, cucumbers, lemons, bananas, tomatoes, papaya, and nous (similar to a green apple) just in the first week.  Shawnda made a nous cake in her Dutch oven and shared it with several neighbors - it was a HUGE hit and they were all very impressed with her culinary skills.  Closely akin to the kitchen, we have adult soursop and mango trees in our yard, along with some very young orange and papaya trees, and a watermelon vine.

The Long Road Home (2.10.2011)

I went out to the road about 5:30am to catch a transport to town (recall that I had been in the village a week working on the house, and the rest of the family were flying in today).  I was the first passenger, which gave me the distinct honor and pleasure of sitting in the cab of the truck with the driver - such results in a MUCH smoother ride along the bumpy roads.  We went to the east end of the village to pick up a few people, back to the center of the village to pick up a few more, and then to a village just west of ours to pick up a doctor who works at the clinic in Norsup.  We headed back east through Tulwei, and picked a few more stragglers.  The truck has a cage over the back, and I noticed in the side mirror that one man was standing on the edge of the truck bed, hanging on to the outside of the cage, with just the ball of his feet and big toes actually touching the truck - he road like that, over the bumpy road, for the entire hour in to town.  All said, there were about 15 people and loads of produce (to sell at the market).

We made it to Lakatoro by about 8:00, and the plane wasn’t scheduled to arrive until 11:15, so I headed to check out the “internet village” - the local phone company has installed these in several larger villages throughout the country over the past year, and we are VERY blessed to have one close to us (it’s the only one on the island).  The only other alternative for internet access would have been a dial-up account where we would have to beg a local company’s phone line.  One hour of internet access is 500 vatu, about $5.00.  I was able to check email, bank accounts, stocks, and sports in about 30 minutes, but since the allowance expires in a week, I had to go ahead and use the other 30 minutes or they would go to waste (we only go to Lakatoro once a week).  During that second 30 minute time frame, an Australian man (“g-day, mate”) sat down at a computer near me.  We chatted for quite a while.  He is overseeing a cacao plantation in central Vanuatu and has been here since December.  It was pretty obvious that we was starved for some Western communication, and I too enjoyed getting to know him.

Next I headed to the grocery store, to buy our needs for the upcoming week.  I knew Shawnda would have wanted to have the opportunity to scope out the store (she had yet to even step foot in one of the three small grocery stores), but I wanted to go ahead and get everything we needed in case the transport was ready to return to the village before we had another chance.  I bought cooking oil, corned beef, spam, onions, salt, toilet paper, dish soap, sugar, and flour for 3,850 vatu ($38.50).  I loaded it all into my backpack and went back to the open market to wait for the truck to the airport.  I spotted the truck driving by and waved him down.  It was still a couple of hours before the plane arrived, but it was more comfortable to ride around in the truck  than sit on the ground at the market.  We went to the airport about 11:15. 

The plane was 15 minutes late (i.e. on-time), and it was great to see my family again.  The kids literally ran to me from the plane.  Titus has been asking us almost daily since Christmas, “are we going to Malekula today?”  He and Lexi are both very excited about our new work.  We loaded up and headed back to town (there were several people who needed a ride from the airport (Norsup) to town (Lakatoro).  One of the things on Shawnda’s list that I hadn’t bought was eggs because they sell them individually here, and thus I could not really carry them without breaking them.  She had brought an egg carton from Vila, so we stopped briefly at a store and bought a dozen.  When she came out she said that she was pleasantly surprised by the store.  While she did that, I tracked down the Big Sista agent (a ship that services the northern islands), as he was holding a gas bottle for us that Shawnda had sent from Vila on Monday.  As soon as I found him, he said, “you need your gas bottle.”  I have never seen the guy before in my life, but there aren’t to many white people here, so most people already know me.  I got the bottle and carried it to the truck.  An empty bottle costs 9,000 vatu in Malekula, and another 5,750 to fill it, so sending a full one from Vila saved us quite a bit. 

Much to my delight, we were ready to head back to the village by about 1:00.  While each truck normally only makes one round trip to town per day, since our truck had carried so many people in the morning, and had even more to take back, he decided to make two trips.  The truck usually doesn’t head back to the village until 3:30 at the earliest.  As we crossed through the center of the island, the rain started to fall.  Rain is a blessing and a curse in Malekula - a blessing for obvious reasons, but a curse because the roads become impassible (especially the two-wheel drive truck we were in).  As we had completed about half the trip, we came to a slight incline in the road that was already quite muddy.  The driver stopped, got out, and said we would wait here until another truck came to take us the rest of the way (at which time he would return to Lakatoro to get his other passengers - he only wanted to have to maneuver the mud once).  We waited 30 minutes or so with no trucks to be had, so we just all headed back to town. 

With plenty of time on our hands, we went ahead and had lunch at the market, where there are stalls that offer plates of rice, vegetables and meat for 300 vatu.  There was also another positive to coming back to town - the butcher was open (it is closed from 11:30-1:30).  Shawnda had brought our small ice chest on the plane, so we now had the opportunity to buy ice and fresh meat.  We figure the ice will last for two dinners and a lunch.  After that we’ll use tinned meat until the next Friday.  We found a grassy spot in the shade and settled in, assuming we’d head back to the village in an hour or so (it was now about 3:00).  We waited there a good two hours - the kids each found a plastic bag and picked up trash while we waited, totally unprovoked.  Not sure where they got the idea, but we counted it as our community service project for the week, ha!  While we were waiting there, Bernard walked by.  I met him back in October (?) of last year at the airport.  He is the one who started his own church and asked if I would come and help him.  I sent him a full set of our Bible correspondence course, which he completed in about a week.  We had talked on the phone several times since then, but this was my first chance to see him.  We visited for a while, and set up for our family to go and visit him in his village at the end of the month, probably for a couple of nights.  His village in on the northeast side of the island.

By now it was 4:30, and I would have been worried except I saw some of our fellow passengers walking by, so I knew the truck hadn’t left without us.  About 5:00 the truck pulled up, and we got on ready to head back to the village.  We had to first go to the market and the government compound (Lakatoro is the provincial headquarters).  I knew it wasn’t good when no passengers got on the truck - they weren’t ready to go.  So, we went back to the market house to wait.  After about an hour there, we loaded onto the truck again, picked everyone up, and were finally headed home about 6:30.  In the back of the truck there were 16 people, 9 pieces of masonite, 3 bags, 2 ice chests, 5 bags of cement, and 1 gas bottle.  Now I know how cattle feel when they are transported!  The rain from earlier had stopped, but the damage had been done.  We traversed the road  quite slowly, being careful not to stuck (though if we had we would have had plenty of people to push!).  We finally arrived at the top of Snake Hill, the last leg of road before you hit the west side of the island.  The driver got out and walked down to inspect the road.  There was lots of dialogue between the passengers (in local language, so we didn’t understand), and it was decided that we would all walk down the hill, so that only the driver’s life would be in danger should the truck go careening off the side of the hill.  We all mud-skied down the hill, and the driver did a great job of making it down as well, though I must say that I was a bit concerned for him. 

We finally made it to the village about 8:00.  Thankfully, I had already asked Jean Claude and Leisande (two Christians who live near us) if we could eat with them on Thursday night, knowing that our kitchen would not be ready to serve a meal.  We had kumala and Ramen noodles, and headed for the house.  We gave the kids baby-wipe baths, threw our mattresses down on the floor, and got a much-needed good night’s rest.  It was an eventful day, but one in which God met our every need and then some!

PS - I had intended to include several photos with this post, but the internet is too slow today.  Maybe next week!

Here we go

I have been in Malekula for a week working on the house (not finished yet, but livable!), and am now in town awaiting the arrival of the rest of the family.  They are due to fly just a few minutes from now.  Though we have been planning for this move for months, now that we are here it is a bit overwhelming.  We rest assured that God is with us and that many are praying for us.  I remain very excited about the potential for the work here, and am optimistic about the future of the church.  I had the opportunity to worship with the brethren here on Sunday, and meet again with them on Wednesday night for prayer.  I continue to be amazed by the spiritual maturity they exhibit.

Sorry for this being such a short post, but I do not have my computer here yet and am therefore "on the clock" and need to get off the computer here as soon as possible.  Thanks so much for your prayers and kind expressions of support!  We will plan to post again next Friday, Feb 18.  Lukim yu...

The first day of the rest of our lives

Yesterday marked an unofficial beginning, of sorts, as our co-workers (Aaron, Cindy, Kaela & Melia Baker) left for their new work on Tanna Island.  We had been planning for this day for months, but it was still a bit surreal to say goodbye and watch them board the plane.  I thought I would give some history and an overview of what our teammates are planning.

Our team has been together in some form for many years.  We first met the Bakers back in 2001, when we both worshiped at the 29th and Yale congregation in Tulsa, OK.  Independently of one another, we both decided to begin attending the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver in 2002.  It was there that our friendship with them was solidified, and also where we all met Mike Olson, a native of Colorado.  The five of us went on a survey trip to Fiji and Vanuatu during the summer break between our two years at Bear Valley, and then began making plans to function as a mission team, ultimately deciding to focus our efforts on Vanuatu.

Upon graduation, we all moved into a house in Colorado that was owned by some great friends, Jeremy and Rebecca Korodaj.  That house served as our home base as we all went out raising funds for our mission.  It was during this time that Kaela was born.  We lived together in that house for almost a year, when we then moved to Vanuatu (April 2005).  We were grateful to find a duplex for rent that met all of our needs, and so we have lived next door to the Bakers in Vanuatu for almost six years.  Our four kids are like brother and sisters to each other, and we really do feel like we are family.  Of course we’ve spent countless hours together with “Uncle Mike” as well.  We have experienced a lot together, both joyful and sorrowful, and "the team" has been a blessing every step of the way.

The Bakers were introduced to Tanna through the Christians in Etas Village here on Efate, most of whom are originally from that island.  Once these locals had learned and obeyed the truth, they were eager to have that same truth taught to their loved ones.  After making several trips to Tanna, the Bakers decided that they would dedicate at least a year to helping these people learn about Jesus by teaching the Bible.  They have rented a small, one-room, cement block house in Lorakau Village, which is the village where the church was started in Tanna during an April 2010 campaign.  Aaron’s main focus will be on training the Christian men, that they may teach others also (a la 2 Timothy 2:2).

Once he returns from his time of furlough in the States, Mike will be preparing to move to the island of Espiritu Santo.  We have hundreds of Bible correspondence course students there, which he will be following up on.  He will also take advantage of his proximity to Ambae Island, where there are two congregations meeting, by making several trips in to assist these brethren.

As of now, we plan to all be together in Vila in April, at which time we will celebrate the completion of six years on the field.  We will again gather in Vila next December, which looks like it will be the last time for us to be together in Vanuatu as missionaries. 

As a reminder, our family was delayed a week by Cyclone Vania.  Lord willing, I will be heading to Malekula on February 3, and the rest of the family will follow a week later, on February 10.  Please keep our entire team in your prayers as we transition into this new phase of our work, especially as we do so separately.  Tank yu tumas! (Thank you very much!)

Plan your work, work your plan

As I type this post on January 18, I am reminded that we had hoped we would already be on the field in Malekula by this time.  We had planned to send our final shipment of “stuff” in December, but the ship arrived at the wharf late and in order to make up time did not allow any cargo onboard.  The next voyage was scheduled for January 27, and so we established that as our new departure date.  However, last week’s category 1 cyclone (our first in almost 6 years of living in Vanuatu) caused the ship to postpone its trip to Malekula by a week.  So, our new departure date is February 3.  Actually, I will travel alone on the 3rd and the rest of the family will follow on the 10th (hopefully the extra week will allow me to put the finishing touches on our house, or at least to get it in a livable condition!).

We are excitedly anxious about starting this new phase in our work, and the delays are somewhat difficult to deal with.  But, if there’s one thing we’ve learned since arriving in Vanuatu, it’s patience.  Too, the extra “down time” has given us a chance to think, dream and plan more.  Here are a few of our thoughts regarding our upcoming work in Malekula, Lord willing:

• We are planning to see this new work through, and anticipate it taking three years to the get church firmly established.  We plan to split our time between Malekula and Vila in two-month increments, rotating back and forth.  For at least the first year, we will be keeping our house in Vila - it’s the cheapest, most secure, and most familiar option we have for the time being.

• I plan to spend some time every day learning the local language (the “Big Nambas language”).  The national language of Bislama will easily get me by teaching, preaching and conversing, but the locals speak their language exclusively amongst themselves.  I believe that grasping that language will be a valuable skill to possess.

• Our first year’s main focus will be evangelism.  We will be living in Tulwei Village (northwest) and will distribute tracts, conduct gospel meetings, and offer personal Bible studies there.  We have one Christian living in Wiaru Village (north central), and her family has invited me to come and teach in that village.  Flexon’s sister lives in Lampupu Village (central) and she and her husband have asked me to come and teach there.  During one of my prior trips I met a man at the airport who “has his own church” and is looking for some direction as he leads those 12-15 souls.  He has completed our Bible correspondence courses (BCC) and subsequently invited me to come and teach his congregation (northeast).  Last but not least, we have approximately 50 BCC students on the island, and I will send out letters to each of them offering to conduct studies in their villages.  I plan to involve the local brethren in as much of these efforts as possible for some on-the-job training - one or two of them are already capable of even teaching some of these lessons.  Someday they will be solely responsible for evangelizing their island.

• Since the majority of our time will be spent in Tulwei, we want to take an active part in the community.  We will work in the garden with the brethren, harvest cacao and copra during their respective seasons, participate in community projects, and volunteer at the local primary school.  Shawnda also plans to start a “library club” in which she invites mothers and their children to come and listen to a story.

• In year two (2012) our focus will shift more towards edification.  We will plan to “return and visit the brethren in every [village] in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord” (Acts 15:36).  My goal is to establish a traveling blitz-week Bible school of sorts, where I go in and teach daily on a topic for a week in each location.

• A lot can happen between now and the third year, but we’ve titled year three as the time to “set in order what remains” (Titus 1:5).  We hope to be in a position where we can focus on equipping the brethren to take the baton and run.  We will, in all likelihood, be returning the States the first part of 2014.  It is our great desire and prayer that we will have established several faithful congregations on the island by that time.  Furthermore, we hope and pray that God will bless us with a situation going forward (in the States) that will allow us to return to Vanuatu once a year for the foreseeable future.

• Though we will certainly stay busy with all of this and the usual family obligations (including homeschooling), village life is still very slow and by definition includes a significant amount of down time.  The culture is such that accomplishing one thing per day qualifies as “ busy.”  I look forward to reading a lot, teaching myself to play the guitar, doing some writing, and just enjoying the slower pace of village life as a family.  In fact, each time I am there I think to myself “surely this is the way God intended for us to live.”  

• During our Vila rotations, I am considering the idea of focusing on one congregation per rotation.  I envision us being a “shot in the arm” for the congregation during that two-month period, with lots of teaching, evangelism, visiting and encouragement.

Please join us in praying that these goals and dreams will come to fruition.  Thanks for reading and we look forward to updating you on the progress.  To God be the glory!

A few fun facts

Malekula Island

• Malekula is the archipelago's 2nd largest island.  It was named "Mallicolo" by Captain James Cook in 1774, which interestingly means "pain in the rear."  It is uncertain exactly what characteristic earned it such a title, but some have postulated that it was cannibalism, malaria, fierce tribesmen, or the poison-ivy toilet paper.

• The island is shaped like a sitting dog.  People in Tulwei village describe their location as being "trot blong dog" - the dog's throat.  If you zoom in close on Google maps (satellite view) to the dog's throat, you will see Brenwe Village marked.  Tulwei Village is slightly southwest of Brenwe, and our house is just south of the rather obvious "clear spot" on the road (the spot is the primary school).  The Google satellite photo is quite out of date, well over two years old (thus our house is not visible).

• There are 28 different languages spoken in Malekula alone, the most diverse island in Vanuatu.  A few examples of the Big Nambas language (spoken where we will live) are: white man - terel; grandma - abu dabet; good night - pas metafaren; that's alright - i pas woki.  One of my goals is to gain a working knowledge of the language, mostly so I can understand what in the world people are saying all the time!  Bislama is very effective in teaching the gospel throughout Malekula.  The New Testament was translated into the Big Nambas language in 1986, and is called "Turanien M'Dah".

• There is a well-known "custom story" in Malekula of a man named Ambat, who had two white children - they disobeyed him by eating an apple and were turned black as punishment.  I wish I knew just how old this story was, as it most likely predates the introduction of the Bible by Europeans in the 17th century.  How cool is that!
   
• There are two main cultural groups in Malekula - the Big Nambas and the Small Nambas.  Kudos to those of you who can figure out what a nambas is (stating it would have made this post PG-13)!  Thankfully, both tribes now wear more "European" style clothes.  Otherwise, becoming "all things to all men" would have been a bit embarrassing!

• Eerily, the last victim of cannibalism was cooked in a ground oven in 1969, in the Big Nambas area (which is where we’ll live!).  The grandfather of some of the local Christians practiced this unsavory diet.  I always like to give the Malekulans a hard time around meal time - "you're not going to eat me, are you?!?"

• Some say the Big Nambas were the last group in all of Vanuatu to accept missionary teaching (or any other European influence).  Interesting that members of this tribe were the first on the island to accept and obey the gospel (in October 2009).

• Much of Malekula’s cacao has been certified as organic.  A Swis chocolatier has negotiated an exclusive contract with Tulwei and the surrounding villages, as organic cacao’s demand is increasing while its worldwide supply is decreasing.  He has a ship that comes to Vanuatu three times per year to pick up their beans (the lengthy trip shows just how valuable the cacao really is).  I look forward to working with the local brethren during the harvest season in March and April, as the process is fascinating.  You would never guess that chocolate comes from this yellow fruit.

• Malekula waters “teem with sharks” and there have been several fatalities.  The island also has a significant population of Pacific boas.  Yikes!

• Traditionally, Malekulans believe that you can die from one of only two possible causes - old age or sorcery.

It all started when...

Eric, Flexon and Fiona in Tulwei Village - June 2009

It’s difficult to determine a starting point when talking about the providence of God, especially in regard to our work in Malekula as we feel as though God has been working this out since we were born (and beyond).  But, so that this blog entry isn’t 20 pages long, let’s start back in April 2005 when our team first arrived in Vanuatu on a mission to preach the gospel to this island nation.

We needed a place to stay for a couple of weeks while we secured housing.  We had a positive experience with the Coral Motel back in 2004, and since they had a house that we could all stay in for a reasonable rate, we took it.  It “just so happened” that the owner of the motel was selling his truck, and we were in need of some transportation.  We purchased that truck, knowing that the bed was in severe need of repair.  A few days later, as I was on my way to get some quotations for the work, I drove past a local Christian, Eddie (who lives in Eton but was in town for the day).  I pulled over and told him what I was looking for.  He insisted that we head straight for Ken Garage, as he knew Ken well and trusted his work.  Their estimate was reasonable, and so they began working right away.  When I went back a few days later to see how things were going, I visited for several minutes with the mechanic, Flexon.  He inquired as to what I was doing in Vanuatu, and before I left I had set up a Bible study with him and one of his co-workers.  A few weeks later Flexon was baptized into Christ, and a few months later he met and married Fiona.  Fiona was then baptized into Christ in August 2005, after studies with Flexon, Shawnda, and myself.  It was then that Flexon started asking me to accompany him to his home island of Malekula to teach his family the gospel.

For various reasons, we were not able to make that trip until June 2009, when Flexon, Fiona and I first traveled to Tulwei Village in NW Malekula.  We taught every night for a week, but did not have any conversions that trip.  Flexon and I returned in October, at which time his brother, Alsen, was baptized into Christ.  Before hearing and obeying the truth, Alsen was the youth leader for the Presbyterian Church in the village.  He and I both faced a lot of grief over his departure.

In subsequent trips, 8 more were baptized in Tulwei Village, as was Alsen’s niece in Wiaru Village (a two hour walk).   We have many more interested in Tulwei and have received invitations to come and teach in three other villages.  Our team has also made contact with 48 others through our Bible correspondence courses.

If you want to learn more about our work in Malekula up to this point, you can read our family’s e-Scrapbook from June 2009, October 2009, December 2009, March 2010, as well as my Malekula journals at www.missionvanuatu.com/archivesOTHER.