Our first year 2008

Sunset on the beach at Lamen Island Epi.

As the sun sets on our first year as Missionaries in Vanuatu, we would like to thank all our supporters for their prayers, gifts, emails and encouragement.

We are the arrowhead, but without the shaft (our supporters ) and the bow (our home church) we would not have been able to achieve as much as we have.

God has been so good to us, placing us in a position where we are doing what comes naturally, working with children and with Royal Rangers.   With our  diary already filling up, we look forward with anticipation to what God has planned ahead for us in 2009.

Village School

We took 2 packing boxes of school supplies to the government  school on Lamen Island. These supplies had been donated by generous people in Australia. There were exercise books, pencils, library books, teachers resource, scissors, lead pencils and many other useful resource. The school is very poor and the teachers appreciative. The children sang for us and we attended the morning assembly. The school goes from Kindy to grade 6. The high school is on the mainland.  Students from the island board there during the term. It is 2km across the water to the mainland, and a slow trip, and the water is not always suitable for daily travel. Education is not free in Vanuatu, supplying these books will help parents considerably as well as the school.

 

Sunday School Fundraiser

In the island villages there is little Vatu or money and what there is buys much needed kerosine and soap for daily use. It is too much to expect the children to bring money for the Sunday School offering. The Sunday School at Refuge Temple AG came up with a novel way of raising money for supplies. The children were encouraged to bring along 2 coconuts each to Sunday School.

The children then gathered together to grate the coconuts. They even taught Russell how to grate, there was fun and laughter the whole time.

The next step was to squeeze out the coconut milk through calico. The mix was then left over night for the cream to separate from the water. The next part of the process was to boil the cream until oil formed on the surface. This process took a couple of hours.

30 plus coconuts = 9 litres of coconut milk, = 4 litres of cream = 1.75 litres of coconut oil = sold to the baker for 500 vatu ($6Au) The whole process involved  a lot of work and time, but in their eyes a real winner.