Good News Club Party

Good News Club at Ekoftau held  a  Christmas Party for the final session for 2008.  We are now ministering to 56 children each Tuesday afternoon. Some of these children are now coming to Sunday School. It has been exciting to see this club grow from a handful of children in April to the strong group it is today.  The children loved the party food, as many of these children do not get enough to eat, they made short work of the feast that was provided by Sister Ma. The children absorb the Bible Stories and learn the memory verse each week.

    

We Care Winner

Patterson was excited to win the term prize for his Royal Ranger Group.  To be eligible for the draw the boys had to attend every week. The photo shows Patterson with some of his friends and his   prize.

This term the Award worked for was the Bible Award. Tonight was testing night. The group have taken to the new Vanuatu Royal Ranger program with great enthusiasm.

There are four very committed leaders at We Care, and the Senior Commander was surprised  to receive a Outstanding Leadership medal tonight.

Graduation time at JBI

The students who live here at JBI have become our friends. We were excited to be invited to their Graduation banquet and to attend the graduation service. Well done, Andrick, Elvis and Job who have completed their third year and are now going out as Pastors. We never looked as colourful as this at our own graduation from CBC in 1977.

Royal Ranger Presentation for Pastors

We visited Emmanuel AOG in the  Custom Village of Ipai  up on the mountain range, about 10 km out of Lenakel the main town on Tanna Island. 18 Pastors from around the island had gathered together for a series of meetings on the Thursday and Friday.  The church is unfinished and looks like it has been that way for a some time. The first AOG in Tanna was started just up the hill from this site. Emmauel has a congregation of around 90 people.

The meeting started with the singing “I know the Lord will make a way for me” This song describes the journey we have had so far this year.

Russell gave a presentation to the Pastors on how the Royal Rangers program could benefit  the boys in the villages, and keep the boys in the church and make them “stand up strong”. The Presbyter invited us back next year to train and start Royal Rangers in the churches. We will spend a month on Tanna next May. The pastors are keen to have the girls included in the program.

After a short break Russell also gave a lecture  on leadership, “Taking leadership from Good to Remarkable.” This request was made when we arrived on the Thursday, so Thursday afternoon and evening were spent in preparation.  We enjoyed our fellowship with these pastors, some travelled many hours on foot or by truck to attend. After teaching for 3 hrs we went back to the Guest house, which is owned by another pastor for a break and then had a look around the town.

 

Pastor Johnny suggested that we visit Mt. Yasur the active Volcano and he arranged for his son to take us on a bone rattling 6 hr round trip in a remarkable Toyota Hilux Twincab.  Standing on the rim of the volcano watching the lava flying into the air was something we will remember forever.

Pastors Resource

Monday 3rd Nov saw us taking a coastal trader to Epi an island in the north, approximately 130 km from Port Vila. The trader took 12 hours to reach Epi as it crawled across a very calm sea. We saw a couple of pods of whales and dolphins and a brilliant sunrise as we travelled through the Shepherd Group of islands.  We left at 10.30 pm at night so some of the crossing was in darkness. People perched where ever they could find a spot amongst the cargo and did their best to sleep in awkward positions.  There would have been over 100 people on board.

 
To The 7 Churches At EPI, Greetings. We took a total of 7 packages with 15 books in each package,  for the 7 village AoG churches  on Epi. Each package  included a Strong’s Concordance, Bible Dictionary, a new study bible and topical books on bible doctrine. The pastors came to Lamen Island where we were staying on Sunday 9th  to receive their precious bundle of books. Due to a death of an island member both the Presbyterian and Refuge Temple AOG services  were  cancelled. This is common here in Vanuatu as bodies are buried the same day as there is no refrigeration. The man died in New Zealand so the islanders went to the mainland expecting the plane to bring the man’s body  home. As a result Russell preached to just a few members of the church and the visiting pastors. The service was held out in the open which was a lot cooler. After receiving their books the pastor’s caught a motor boat back to the mainland.  Russell also spoke at the Thursday night meeting.

Thank you to all the people who donated books for these pastors, they were thrilled to receive them. What a blessing they will be.

Robyn always enjoys the chance to run an open Sunday school. Sunday school numbers were down also as many of the church families had gone to the mainland.  The island children sing with gusto, and of a night you can hear them singing the Sunday School songs throughout the village.