Growing in Grace and Knowledge

Hello! It's been about two months now since I was in Vanuatu, but I think it's time for a few more stories. When I spoke about my time in Vanuatu back at church afterwards, I was asked to talk about 'preparing the way', or how God had used this time in Vanuatu to prepare me for what's next in my life (the sermon that week related to John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus, so it just happened to fit in too). I am now about to leave home, to a city where I know very few people, and don't entirely know what to expect. But the one thing I do know, is that when we don't know what's going on, we can rest in God, and He is always faithful. That's something I learned every day in Vanuatu, and it's a lesson I hope stays with me for the rest of my life. 

I last left off on Day 4, when we had celebrated the 150th anniversary of Scripture Union. Then the next two days, as I wrote them at the time - well, you'll find out below...

DAY 5 - Tuesday 21st November 2017

The music next door (from an ongoing revival meeting type thing) started at 4:30am again this morning, but this time it was not so unpleasant to be woken up so early by it. The classic Island bass bobbed around, and a cool breeze blew through our open windows. I eventually went back to sleep until about 6am. Today, we will be running a kids' holiday bible camp, with songs and games and stories. What a privilege, to share God's word with these children as they grow in grace and knowledge. 

After devotions and breakfast (I tried vegemite, for possibly the first time I could remember!) we hung around (literally - in the trees) until the kids arrived. Then they played a game involving stacking tins (which I never quite worked out how to play). We all then came into the hall, and the story of Zacchaeus was acted out. Then we all sang the memory verse, 1 John 4:16 ('God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them'), and did some craft. I talked with a young woman called Naomi. She had two kids, 3 and 5, but they hadn’t come today. She seemed a little sad maybe, or distant, when I talked with her. She said she reads the bible at home when it is dark and quiet; she is a stay-at-home mum and is 26. She spends all day playing with her kids and looking after them. She said her dream was to one day see the Sydney Harbour, maybe on New Year’s Eve. She struck me as a woman of great strength and sorrow, who perhaps had a lonely and difficult path to walk. I could only guess, though, what the rest of her story was. I asked what some things to pray for her might be, and she wrote this in my notebook:

“My Name it’s Naomi... I would like for you to pray for me to be Strong. Love, Kine, Humble, My Mine to be Strong in the Lord to use it Knot people.”

After the craft the kids played a game we called ‘Jesus is coming!’ (our variation of the game ‘Captain’s Coming!’) very enthusiastically. We came back into the hall for the acting out of the Mary and Martha story, then sang some variations of the memory verse song. It was time for some more craft after that, making some chatterboxes, and then we played ‘what’s the time, Mr Wolf?’ and ‘44 Home’. The kids had sandwiches for lunch, and I kicked a soccer ball around with one of the little boys for a while. I had a nap on a mat, and then I saw the lady I had chatted with yesterday, Daisy, weaving mats out of palm branches. I came over, and then she taught me how to weave them too. When everyone went down to the beach I made another mat down there, and Daisy made a basket. She looked at me for a moment and said something to the effect of, ‘you are no longer an Australian. Now you are from Vanuatu, because you know how to weave palm mats!’ What a tremendous compliment!

So, what is it like here in Vanuatu? Down here on the beach, there is a cool, refreshing seabreeze; the sun sparkles on the clear water. The sweat and salt dry on your skin, and the little orange ants run all over your feet but never bite. Even away from the beach, the distant roar of the ocean is always present. Today, the breeze is filled with the melody of children laughing and playing on the beach. Smoke is carried through the humid air, sweet fragrant wood smoke. In the sand, which has a habit of sticking to your skin, there are many special treasures; there are little sticks of coral that can be used like chalk to draw on the rocks, and hermit crabs that try desperately to escape when you pick them up (owing to the fact they are commonly used as fishing bait!). Here, the campsite’s pet dogs come and sit on your feet; spiders dart through the grass, colourful beetles buzz around your head, and coconuts litter the ground.

And speaking of coconuts, this is how you open one, Vanuatu style (thanks to Albert)...

1.     Take a machete and sharpen two ends of a stick about a metre long, one end on an angle; stab one end in the ground.

2.     Find a coconut from the ground about the right colour and age, shaking it to make sure it has milk in it. Spear the coconut near the top of it on the stick, in order to peel it. Peel off all the fibres until you have the generic spherical coconut you see in the movies.

3.     Take the machete again and poke the three dots until you find the ‘mouth’. You can cut a hole here and drink it.

4.     Alternatively, you can tap the side of the coconut on something solid (eg. a rock or block of concrete) until it starts cracking, turning it around so the whole circumference is tapped. Then you can pull it apart into two halves and cut out the flesh to eat.

After Albert demonstrated how to crack coconuts properly, we spent some time relaxing and cracking coconuts and sharpening sticks with machetes. Then it was dinner time. After some delicious food, we brought the machetes back to Albert’s house. Then we all went through the program for tomorrow, and wove some more palm mats. Then, finally, it was time for bed.

DAY 6 - Wednesday 22^nd November 2017

After devotions and breakfast this morning, the kids began arriving. We played outside for a while, and some little girls sat in the hammock with me. Then we went into the hall and acted out the story of Jesus calming the storm – an amazing experience. Some of us Australians were the actors in the story, but all the kids had to make the noise of the storm, gradually getting louder and louder with each new sound effect added – rain, lightning, thunder. Eventually the noise in the hall grew deafening. And then, when the guy playing Jesus said ‘Quiet!’,  suddenly everything was dead silent; you could have heard a pin drop. Everyone was a little awestruck, and the silence continued for a moment before the story went on.

After the story we all sang ‘He died upon the cross’ and the memory verse song. Then for the craft, the kids put together paper jigsaw puzzles of the verse, and drew pictures of Jesus calming the storm. I helped a few of the younger ones, and ended up drawing pictures for them to colour in. And all the while, as the kids sat colouring, they would sing the memory verse song under their breath, even sometimes all in unison. It warmed my heart!

Most of the kids finished their drawings and went outside to play ‘stuck in the storm’ (ie. stuck in the mud), all the while a real tropical storm getting closer. Daisy and I stayed inside, singing the memory verse and dancing to it and making the kids still left inside giggle. Then I went outside and joined in the games with a group of little girls, who then braided my hair until it started to rain and we all headed back inside. We did some more singing – ‘Jesus is the mighty mighty king’, and then the memory verse, having a competition between the two halves of the room to see who could sing loudest or quietest. 

Then one of the leaders told the story of the Great Banquet with balloons, making the kids giggle, and then prayed. There was another craft, and then an attempt to play musical statues (which worked for a little while, although most of the kids seemed too shy to dance). Some kept colouring in, or wrote their names on balloons. Daisy said that it really was the ‘most fun day ever’ for the kids, and they really did enjoy singing and dancing (from what I understand, they don’t often get the opportunity to just play and be silly and be kids all that often). All the kids kept chanting the name of one particular boy to try and make him dance, but he flat out refused to get up. The dancing died down eventually, and most of the kids went back to colouring. Then it started really raining outside.

To our surprise then, some of the older boys (including the one they all chanted the name of) performed a dance for everyone; some kids watched while others kept colouring. Then one of the older girls started doing the dance that the kids had performed at the Scripture Union celebrations, and then all the kids joined in.

“Your love has taken over me, Father I depend on you... I have confidence in you; in you, O Lord, I put my trust... Under the canopy, you give me security; I am the righteousness of God.”

Here is the song, by the way; in fact it is actually a Nigerian song, but apparently it is popular in Vanuatu as well!

Then it was time for lunch, after some more colouring in and singing. I learned a bit of the story of Raymundo, a sweet little boy with a lovely singing voice. He is one of six kids, and his 2-year-old brother was even here today. His father died last year, but the community has been doing their best to look after his family, even though the community themselves do not have much. His shirt is too small for him though, and he wore the same one both days. 

The other kids call him Rose, I think, because he likes to hang out with the girls who are less rough-and-tumble than the other boys his age. Earlier, when most of the kids were playing outside and only a few stayed inside to finish colouring in, I walked past and heard him singing the memory verse in a funny opera-voice impression. It made my day. It has been a privilege to get to know these kids and share God’s love with them, watching them smile and laugh and play.

We all went outside and played ultimate Frisbee and then tug-of-war. The kids went swimming down at the beach again, and I sat on the sand and painted a few pictures – one of the ocean, and one of a boy who found it hard to sit still, and soon wanted to run off and join his friends (as most young boys would I guess!). It had been a long time since I painted anything, and I suspect the portrait doesn't bear a whole lot of resemblance...

After the beach we all hung around back at the campsite, and some of the kids went home on the first bus while the remainder played soccer. I helped a little girl open a coconut, and sang the memory verse song with her and her friend while they sat in the hammock. Eventually the bus came back, and the kids giggled as they said goodbye and ‘awinene!’ (whatever that means... we asked Albert and he said it must have been a kids’ slang word because it wasn’t Bislama. The kids told us it meant goodbye...)

Now it is suddenly very quiet at the campsite. The kids loved all the songs; throughout the day I’ve heard them singing softly to themselves, especially the memory verse song. It has been raining gently most of the afternoon; earlier in the day the humidity had been building up even though there was a breeze cool enough that the kids said it was cold. They felt the cold a lot more than we Australians did, especially after they went swimming and there was a cool wind; the little ones were all shivering. To me it still felt warm and humid.

After the kids left, we hung around; some of the others borrowed the paints I had brought and did some random origami. Then we all walked down to the villas where the camp cooks were staying. The others went snorkeling down at the beach, but I sat on the verandah while the rain continued gently. I read a book and had a nap, and then when everyone got back we had a barbecue dinner and icecream. Everyone else played cards until it was time to walk back; but I wasn't feeling well, and got a ride back in the truck because I was too exhausted to walk any further.

... 

And so that was the last day of the kids' camp, but as it turned out it wasn't the last time we got to hang out with these lovely children. I think these two days of the camp, and the day after (which I will hopefully write about fairly soon!) were surely the highlights of my time in Vanuatu.