45 boys and girls came to the party at Ekoftau Family Worship Centre. These children had been faithful in their attendance over the past year, may coming for the past two years since the Good News Outreach started. During this time they have grown in their love for Jesus and their understanding of His love for them.

The children formed small groups and recited memory verses, sang songs, and shared what learning about Jesus meant to them.

These children live in a squatters settlement, so the party was a big event for them. Mumma’s from the church cooked a nourishing meal for them. Each child received either a Children’s bible or a bible story book that was generously donated by a sponsor in Brisbane. It is the generosity of people that allows us to bless so many people.

Sunday afternoon seven students graduated from Joy Bible Institute. This was the culmination of 3 years of study.

Hundreds of people gathered at Pango Family Worship Centre to help them celebrate this important occasion.

These students have worked very hard and are looking forward to their future ministry opportunities.

Clovis will be pioneering a new AOG church on South Santo, Ps Jack will be returning to his Church on Malekula, well equipped to teach his people, Alick will be moving to Lamen Bay on Epi to start a new AOG church. Jill and Ronneth will be returning to Pentecost to work in the Church of Christ, Rinnett is travelling around the  various Islands as an Evangelist, Florah will be joining her Evangelist father on his mission trips.

The students represented many islands in Vanuatu, they were from Pentecost, Ifira, Efate, Epi, Melakula and Banks islands.

For us, it has been a joy to be part of the lives of these students for the past two years.

26  Royal Ranger boys and girls of Tanoliu village made salvation bracelets as part of their activities on Sunday afternoon. They used black, red, white, green and yellow beads threaded on leather stapping. This exercise was a fun time with the older children helping the younger children with the threading.  Some of the parents watching joined is as well and made their own bracelet.

They learnt how to explain the salvation story by using the coloured beads.  These children are going to wear their bracelets to the village school on Monday to share the Good News with their friends.

Last Wednesday night we were blessed by an unexpected visit from the ladies from Ekoftau Women’s Ministry. We were just settling down for the evening when we heard footsteps on our front veranda. These ladies blessed us no end, they brought along staple food items for our pantry. They held a small meeting, singing a cappella, sharing testimony and bible readings.   We felt very humble to be blessed by these women, these ladies have little or no income.  “ A little is much if God is in it”

The media seem to be very good at getting the bad news out, but not so good at making sure of the follow up good news.

We  had  many emails from friends around the world concerned about our welfare after a series of large earthquakes to the north west of Vanuatu. The predicted tsunami did not eventuate.

Thank you for caring!

We regularly get earthquakes where we live, just a part of living on the pacific rim. In Vila alone during June/July we had 3 over 6, and quite a few around the 4.5 to 5.5 mark.

Last Thursday the early warning sirens started at 9.30am, and the  residents of the city soon evacuated to higher ground. Schools closed, and resorts were evacuated. The small islands of Ifira, Erakor   and the villages on the coast were all deserted. Everyone was relieved and thankful that the predicted disaster did not happen.

One very enterprising young man  came up with a novel idea. He climbed onto the roof of his church, set up his video camera to capture the predicted tsunami wave. He had with him, his surfboard, his suitcase packed with his precious books, and his wedding shoes.