By Cindy
We are well aware that our blog has been sadly neglected in recent weeks. And for that we are sorry. This is due to the simple fact that time seems to be speeding by and Aaron and I are scrambling along behind, doing our best to keep up! The blog just happens to be one thing that gets pushed to the end of the list more often than not, with more pressing matters taking precedence over it. However, in the attempt to make up for lost time and update you on the goings on here in Tanna…here goes. Hang on to your hat.
The main reason I have found myself with extra time to write this is because some of our friends from Etas called us this morning at A QUARTER TO 5:00! They wanted to pass what I felt like was a not-so-urgent message to Abu Iata. And I guess they figured that since they were up before 5:00, we would be too! Why they couldn’t have waited a couple hours, I do not know. But, I’m not at all bitter about it…Ha!
Aaron’s teaching (Bible and Computers) at the RTC has been stepped up from four mornings a week from 7:30-9:00 to five mornings a week from 7:30-11:30. These are the last two weeks of school so we are now in cram-mode as the RTC is working to cram everything in before the school closing on November 30th. We are continuing our Sunday night small group study with Harry and Tess and also the mid-week Bible studies in Loun village. Only now, instead of studying on Thursday evenings, the study has moved to Wednesday during the day. We leave as soon as Aaron is finished teaching one of his RTC classes and walk 45 minutes to Loun, study for about an hour or so, then eat lunch and fellowship with the Christians. We try to head for home about 1:00pm because it takes about an hour to walk back, being as how it is slightly uphill on the way back and a much more tiring walk in the mid-day sun. By the time we reach home we are all four ready for a bit of rest!
In addition to all that, Aaron is also carrying the heavy weight of making our plans to move back to the USA. It is a stress on us trying to figure out how to make our Vanuatu work mesh together with a Stateside work, how much salary we will need to live on (which is bound to be different as a family of four than when we left seven years ago as a young couple with a small baby). We also have to figure out how much work fund we need to accomplish the work we want to do for the Vanuatu church and are fervently seeking congregations and individuals who will continue to stand with us in the Vanuatu work despite our change of address. If we wanted our lives to be easier, we would just chuck the Vanuatu plan and seek a local work that can provide our full income. However, we fully believe that we are in a position to fill a need for the church here and so we are willingly subjecting ourselves to the additional stress which comes with working out all of those details.
This week on Thursday the women from the Lorakau/Loun congregation (myself included) are taking a truck to town and having a picnic on the beach. This will be our first ever “planned” women’s fellowship and we are all looking forward to it! All the women are pitching in to pay the transport fee and we will take our food along, and swim in the ocean. Tess wants me to help her organize some games, so we will see what we come up with in the next two days! It will be a fun time though, and it is being held as kind of a special gathering because I am leaving soon.
After that, our family plus a few other Christians leave for Yatekun village in south Tanna next Wednesday. We will be there until Monday, holding Bible studies and working to encourage the three Christians that live in that village. If you recall, the church was started in that village in August. We will return on Monday the 28th.
As I said, the closing of the school is on November 30th (Wednesday) and there will also be a goodbye kakae meal for our family. It is sure to be an emotional time! Then, December 3rd (the Saturday following) is the goodbye kakae for our family given by the Lorakau/Loun congregation (more crying for me, I am sure!). And since I just won’t have cried enough…the very next day, December 4th, is the girl’s and my last Sunday in Tanna. Then, Monday morning we leave. Wow. I think I’m going to need a whole box of Kleenex or a giant handkerchief just to get through that last week!
