Pledge in Paradise

These Ifira Island Royal Ranger Boys saying the Royal Rangr Pledge was a photo that just had to be taken. They are proud to be Royal Rangers.  The Outpost has around 40 boys who attend each Saturday morning on the sandbeach at the back of the island.  Pastor Paul is their enthusiastic leader. The boys recently wore their uniforms to the opening of their new church.  Saturday group this week was light on as there was a wedding on the island, the first for the year and most had gone to the pre-wedding celebrations which last for 1 week.

Commissioning Service

Sunday saw 6 Leaders commissioned and dedicated at a special service at Pango Family Worship Centre (AG). These young men have completed their Basic Leadership Training and are ready to start their first Royal Ranger meeting next Saturday. This is a brand new group in Port Vila.

Russell spoke on Men leading Boys, and the Purpose of Royal Rangers which is to Reach, Teach and Keep Boys for Jesus Christ. The leaders then one by one  were challenged to accept the call and responsibility as leaders, to “Reach, Teach and Keep Boys for Jesus Christ”. On saying yes, they stepped over a rope line on the ground, which was then pulled away to signify there was no going back.  The Church  from 7th -14th June each morning at 5.45  will be praying for 2hrs for the  Royal Rangers reaching out into the community. (Guess who will have to get up early those mornings!)

Thankyou Bendigo Connect Church (AOG)

Today we took some of the goodies to Rainbow School that Val and Colin brought across from Australia. Thank you so much to all those who gathered together the many school resources that she brought. We took them today to Rainbow School. The Children gave Val lots of hugs and cuddles. Sister Ruth couldn’t say thank you enough. Val commented that today for her was a 2 million dollar experience.

 

Freswota AOG

Sunday saw us visiting Freswota (Freshwater) AG.  We have been taking Bernard and Debbie to different churches so they can experience a cross section of our AG churches here. Freswota is hard to find as it is out in the suburbs, and in a rural like setting. The church is in the process of being built. The people worship in a building that has no doors, windows, and  the walls don’t reach the ceiling as yet. The seats are single planks on concrete blocks, there is no electricity, so no lights, no keyboards, no sound system.  Russell shared briefly on “Finding Papa God’s number one plan for life, and putting the Number two plan (belong yumi) in bin belong rubbish”.

Translation – SIL

Robyn was privileged to be invited to the final session of the SIL course at JBI to view the students work. They had spent 5 days learning the techniques of translation. The students represented 11 different language groups. 80% of those students had never written their own languages before. Their assignment was to translate the story of “The Good Samaritan” into their language and read it out. It was so good to be able to share this milestone with “our men and women”. This course was presented by workers from SIL.

According to the Lonely Planet,  Vanuatu claims the highest concentration of different languages per head of population of any country in the world. There are at least 105 local languages as well as English, French and Bislama – a form of pidgin (or business)  English. The number of languages spoken by ni-Vanuatu reflects their diverse origins. The fact that they have always lived in small and quite isolated communities, usually separated by physical barriers such as difficult terrain or sea.