Vanuatu 15

A bit of an interesting evening; a small earthquake shook Port Vila tonight and sent everyone outside. Quite a shake for us all, and a bit of excitement in an otherwise quiet night in.

We needed a quiet night after a big day.

We arrived at church this morning to quite a crowd.  As the service concluded, we saw hundreds of people arriving with food and gifts. Apparently the chief of this part of Tagabe had organised a thankyou celebration for the team.

At least 10 people took the opportunity to speak and some then presented gifts. A shield was made, in the shape of The Salvation Army shield, with a thank you note inscribed. This will go back to IHQ to hang in the IES office. Or maybe in the South Pacific & East Asia office to remind them that the corps over here would like official recognition.

It was quite an emotional day and you feel quite fraudulent - getting personal thanks for something that God has brought together, and someone else has paid for! Nonetheless there was much to celebrate. At least 500 people gathered (out of a community of around 750) to share in a meal together. Many of them sang, and the choir from the Presbyterian Church down the road finished their thank you speech with a rendition of "To God be the Glory".

It was also great to see the outpost shelter then turn into Town Hall, where the chief then called everyone together to discuss everything from the teenagers using drugs to the noise from the nightclub at the end of the street. (Ironic, in some respects, when one of 'businesses' in the street is the local Kava bar).

I said to my colleagues: "This is what (should) happen wherever The Salvation Army comes to town". The community shares food. The community solves its problems together. The community meets together. The community celebrates. The community gives thanks. And, some that choose, join together to worship God.

And we enjoyed Ice Cream. But that's another story that some would have seen on Facebook.

There has also been much to celebrate on the project front this week. We've sourced the boats, fishing gear and solar powered freezers for Tanna. This will not only help our villages get back to their livelihood but expand it by storing fish they can take to market in Lanekal (the main town of Tanna).

We have the go ahead and the labour in place to repair the toilet block for North Vila Public School and the nutrition program will start this week at the Vila Christian School. This will help 1950 students (between the two schools) get back to school.

This week we obtained vouchers from a hardware store that are helping 155 families in Tagabe to self repair their homes and buy the household wares they need to replace. We distributed emergency shelter kits (tarps and rope, basically) to 441 households in Erakor during a house-to-house damage assessment of over 1000 homes.

We also made a deal with UNICEF to undertake some WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) projects on their behalf, which , if nothing else, is evidence of respect for our team.

So, hopefully there won't be any more tremors and we can get some sleep, ready for whatever this week has in store.