By: Cindy
This is a long blog entry…but, worth the time in reading it. Give it 10 minutes and I promise you will be encouraged by the story of our weekend with this amazing group of people. You might even laugh some too!
Wow. What a weekend. Unlike any other we have ever experienced in our lives. Aaron described it as a “jaw-dropping” weekend. Jaw-dropping on the part of the local people as they received a message of Christ and His church that they had never heard before. Jaw-dropping for us as we witnessed a hunger and thirst for the truth of the Word like we have never seen before.
On Sunday of last week Aaron sent a text to Tom, who he has been studying with for some time. You might recognize him as “Thomas” who walks four hours each Friday to Lenakel town to study with Aaron. Come to find out that “Thomas” is really named Tom and in true Vanuatu style just never bothered to correct Aaron regarding his name. I can’t tell you how many times that has happened to us – and we might bother to feel stupid for calling someone by the wrong name for so long, however, if they are too embarrassed to correct us then so be it. Oh my Vanuatu!
Anyway, Aaron sent the text to Tom on Sunday and Tom received it on Tuesday. How did he receive it? By turning on his phone? No...that would be too easy. Tom doesn’t get service at his home in Yaetukun so in order to get cell phone service he has to either walk two hours to get it or climb a large breadfruit tree right outside his house. You can guess which one is more convenient. Although, climbing a breadfruit tree is no easy task, I can imagine!
At any rate, we met Tom in town on Friday morning and he showed us the way to his village. In addition to our family of four, we also had Abu Yata and Miswel accompanying us on the trip (as they have the benefit of speaking the local language), and another man, Sam, who is not a Christian yet, but has been studying with us for several months. Along the way, we stopped to spend some time at the most beautiful black sand beach I have ever seen! The grains of sand were soft, fine, rich black in color and glittered in the sun like someone had cast thousands of tiny diamonds in among them. Breathtaking! The girls played in the ocean and the sand while the rest of us watched. Aaron and Tom went through their regular Friday Bible study. Then, we hit the road again for Yaetukun arriving in the afternoon. We spent the rest of Friday afternoon meeting various members of Tom’s family and just relaxing and getting to know them. Tom is married to a woman named Margaret and they have 3 girls with a baby on the way…hoping for a boy, of course!
On the “property” where Tom lives is his house, two outdoor kitchens (a large and small), an outhouse, a small bamboo-walled church building and a small open-air “dining” house (for lack of a better description). I’m pretty sure we are the only people that have ever “dined” there, though.
Tom and Margaret’s house is a good size with a hard-packed dirt floor in the entryway and then elevated bamboo flooring in the four small rooms and a tin roof. Aaron and I and the girls slept in one of the rooms (Aaron, Melia and I sharing our mattress with Kaela on a small pad next to us). Our beds took up the entirety of the space, if that helps to imagine the size of the room. Abu Iata slept in the smaller room next to us. Misuel and Sam slept in the room across from us, and the fourth room was an interesting conglomeration of wadded up clothing, bags, household goods and a guitar. Tom and his family slept in the smaller of the outdoor kitchens (which is not uncommon when people have family visiting – for people to sleep in the kitchen).
We ate our meals in the “dining” house each day and though I tried several times to get Margaret to serve the men first and then the rest of us, she insisted on serving our family first – at the table. I tried to get her to let me eat in the kitchen with a couple of the women, but she would have nothing of it. (Sigh). I dislike being set apart like that. But, it is the Vanuatu way and there isn’t much you can do about it. Next time, though (I’m already plotting and planning!), I will tell her that I am no longer a guest because I have been there before and hopefully, she will give in let me wait to eat with the women!
Each afternoon we walked about 20 minutes to a river for our baths. The water was an ice-cold shock to the system, especially since we never made it there until the sun was starting to go down. This time of year, once the sun starts setting the temperature drops – not that it is cold, but the cooler temps combined with the icy water….and brrrr!!!!! Melia bawled every time because she didn’t want to get washed with cold water. Kaela shivered along with all the other kids and had a grand time swimming in the shallow pool among the rocks. In case I forget to say it later, Kaela and Melia both did wonderfully on this trip! They played and explored right along with the local children only a couple hours after meeting them. We were very proud of how well they did adjusting to things being different.
I had a Bible study with the women on Saturday afternoon directly after lunch. I taught on Mary and Martha and the importance of taking time for what is truly important. I also took that opportunity to encourage the women to attend all of the studies over the weekend. One of the women asked for advice on raising children. I answered it, directing them to several scriptures that might give them some guidance. But, when I finished, I still felt like I had short-changed them! There is just no good way to cover that topic in a matter of ten minutes! My time was about up because Aaron really needed to get started on his next study. Afterwards, I kept thinking, “Oh! I should have said that!” And “Oh! I forgot to mention this”. Oh well. The funny thing about the little church building is that the pulpit is built up on this mound of dirt that looks exactly like a freshly filled grave. It struck me as kind of funny for some reason…
It wasn’t long after arriving that nature called and so I trekked my way to the outhouse. I’ve been in many an outhouse in Vanuatu, but I have to say this one ranks at the very bottom of the list. It may technically be a “long drop” toilet, but let me tell you the “drop” is NOT long enough! Not even two layers of clothing could stifle the stench coming up from that hole in the ground. Wow. Not only that, but the “walls” left much to be desired. Three of the walls were made of dried coconut branches lined up next to each other. Only they weren’t layered very well and there were large gaps between the leaves. The fourth wall was made of corrugated steel that was so rusted that there were 4-5 inch holes in it in places. The whole experience left me feeling as though someone was going to get the surprise of their life if ever they got close enough while I was in it. Gaps in the outhouse walls may not be a big problem if you are blessed to have the color of skin that blends in with the outdoor surroundings. However, it becomes a big problem when you feel like your snowy white backside is shining like a beacon for all to see! Those two problems combined and I couldn’t get out of there fast enough!
At Tom’s house there was also this pig that was always meandering around looking for food to eat. Only it had a problem, two problems, really. It didn’t oink normal. Its noise was more like a, “Grunt-grunt-grunt-squeak! Grunt-grunt-grunt-squeak!” It was the funniest thing to hear. And then, it often had breathing problems and chose the most inopportune moments to have an attack. This is the first time Aaron’s preaching has ever been interrupted by a hyperventilating pig!
The reason there is a church building on Tom’s property is because he is the preacher for a small congregation that is part of a church called “The Upper Room”. Essentially, a man from Vanuatu came and taught Tom and his extended family and persuaded them to join this church. And then left them with promises to send building supplies and come for more training. To no avail. So, for a couple of years now Tom has felt a dissatisfaction with this man and the church that he has been a part of. Last year in April when the campaign group came, Aaron and Mike Green (from the USA) both preached at the market in Lenakel. Margaret heard the preaching and told Tom to get Aaron’s number and get him to come teach him. To make a long story short, after going back to Port Vila, our furlough to the USA, coming back to Port Vila and moving to Tanna, Aaron was finally able to make good on his promise to teach Tom. So, they have been studying since our arrival in Tanna. Tom has proved to be a dedicated student of the Word and has taken the outlines that Aaron taught him each week and preached them each Sunday to the Upper Room congregation. And the congregation noticed. He told us that several people asked him about his sermons because they noticed a difference in what he was preaching – that there was meat to his sermons and not just the spiritual fluff that is so common here in Vanuatu. Now, after six months, at Tom’s invitation we made our first trip to Iaekutun.
Each day was amazing. The members of the congregation, all Tom’s extended family, were interested and excited about the things they were hearing. Aaron taught on Saturday morning and afternoon, and twice again on Sunday. Each time the study sessions lasted for 2-3 hours. What was jaw-dropping for us was to see how much these people were yearning to hear the truth. And they weren’t satisfied with just a little bit – they wanted it all! Several times Aaron tried to wrap up his studies after about an hour and a half, thinking that the people might need a break. And each time they continued to ask questions. Finally on Saturday afternoon, Tom’s brother, Antwan, said something that brought tears to my eyes. Aaron suggested, after two hours of studying, that they might want to take a break. But, Antwan spoke up and said, “No, we don’t want to stop. This is our chance. I don’t know about tomorrow, what will happen. But, you are here now. This is a good study. The answers are clear and we want to know more. This is our chance.” Never before have I heard someone request to continue on in their studying when they could have taken a break. And let me tell you those backless log benches were a FAR cry from padded pews! Those people saw something precious that they had never heard before. Most of them have been part of at least three different denominations in the past, but they saw something different in what Aaron was teaching them. They saw the truth in its purest form. It wasn’t just someone up there telling them what to believe and what to do. It was someone showing them from the Word what is right and true and giving them the choice to accept it or not. It is amazing when you see the Word doing its work right before your very eyes – what a powerful thing!
We left them Monday morning with a promise and plans to return in early August. The men of the congregation have made a decision to change their worship practices after seeing the pattern of worship that the New Testament church held to. They expressed a desire to leave behind the things they have done in the past and begin to take hold of what is before them. That will take some time. They weren’t ready to be baptized into Christ yet, although the invitation was extended to them. But, we are confident that in the very near future they will be ready to take that most important soul-saving step, as well.
Please pray for the people and our work in Yaetukun!
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