A Bike for Epi

Pastors from the 7 churches on Epi Island gathered  this morning for the official (MOU) signing and handover of the bike. This bike will be used by Pastor Ben who is at present the Senior Pastor and oversees the 6 other AOG churches on the Island of Epi. He had asked last year if we could source a bike for him to travel around the churches that are under his oversight. At present he walks the long distance between villages.

A family from our home church heard about his need and generously donated the funds to purchase the bike and  tools needed to keep it in good repair.  The use of the bike is to enable the Senior Pastor greater ease of travel in his visitation of the churches on Epi. The bike belongs to the position not the pastor. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the AOG National Executive, the  the Epi Pastors, and Ps Russell on behalf of the Donors.

Needless to say there were grins all around, and laughs as Pastor Ben took the bike for his first tentative ride.

17th Shefa Provincial AOG Conference

                   

A busy Sunday

7.30 am we picked up our  hire vehicle to travel to Tanoliu to run the  morning Sunday School program followed by Russell preaching at the morning service. It was encouraging to see the boys who had made decisions at the Royal Ranger Camp in July using the Bibles we had given them.

After the service we drove further north to Saama Village for the afternoon service. The service was held in the School building as the church was  too small  for the  combined service that Russell had been asked to preach at. The fundraising for Bethany’s new church was launched.  He shared an encouraging  sermon on “The Attitude of Giving that included the story of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Russell marked out the area of the new church, 22 metres by 11 metres with a rope boundary. Each family stood around the perimeter with the children (the adult  church of the future)  inside. The pastors stood where the new pulpit would be. Each family taking responsibility for their part of the wall.

Children’s Sunday

Today Elim church celebrated Children’s Sunday. The children took an active part in the morning service. They led in prayer, led the singing, took up the offering and gave individual  testimonies, sharing what God has done in their lives.

Russell was the guest speaker. This church has a strong Royal Ranger group that meet each Saturday morning on Ifira Island. Today two of the Royal Ranger boys were presented with  their Personal  Hygiene Award. Eight other boys still have  their testing to do before they also  receive their award. The Royal Ranger Commander, Pastor Paul, was a Royal Ranger on Ifira Island when he was a young boy.  He is very passionate about the  curriculum content that has been specifically written for Vanuatu. Seven boys from this church made decisions to follow Jesus at our recent Royal Ranger Camp.

Blacksands/Pango Youth Camp

The camp is now over, and what a blessed time we  had with the youth of Blacksands and Pango churches. The theme of the camp was “Never Give Up”. Thursday morning we ran a “Relationship Seminar”, Friday morning Russell gave the youth a session  called “Your Toolbox for Life.” The evening meetings were open meetings for the whole church. To see young people moved by the power of God is always inspiring for us, especially as young people renew their commitment to Jesus.

This morning was the final session for the camp, and we were blessed again by such wonderful and warm young people. The youth presented 2 skits, one a choreographed version of the song  “We are the reason he died” they also acted out a drama of a young man who was on the road to destruction and  came to Jesus so his needs could be met. This was a powerful evangelism skit. The song was “Everything I need is You”. Unfortunately there are no photos. Our camera has died a slow death over the past 10 days, we are expecting a new one from Australia in the next week.