Day 3 on Tanna

Morris and the team were able to complete their goal of 100 verses on Wed. in spite of Morris' not feeling well. (We are 19 hours ahead of CST.) I talked to him this morning and he's still not feeling very good and is hoping to feel better as the day goes on. He's thankful that he's able to to keep working.

This is the last night that they can go to see the Mt. Yasur volcano. This 2 min. video was taken in September. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12PVLaEAnXs&feature=response_watch
Pretty spectacular, no wonder there is ash everywhere!

Day 2 on Tanna

Morris called this morning to say that he was pretty sick last night. He went back to bed until 10am and felt good enough to get through the 100 verses today. Greg and BethAnn are taking good care of him and he's enjoying working with Pastor Peter. Hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow.

I went into town to meet with another gal for lunch and good conversation. Before lunch, I meandered through the shops and open air market to see what they offered as a souvenir. So many wanted to engage me in conversation, especially the young girls who are there with their mothers. I talked at length with one person about my time in PNG. She figured I had been there since I had a PNG bilum (string bag). I used Tok Pisin and she used Bislama and we got along fine. I realize I've been hesitant to use it because it's not Bislama and might sound strange but I figure if I can understand most of what they are saying, they can probably figure out what I'm saying too. Kind of freeing!

Whitesands

Morris called to say that his first day of the consultant check of Luke went well. They finished their goal of 100 verses and they were getting ready for dinner. He seemed to be doing well even though he's having some stomach problems. He's taking pictures so we all can see what it's like there!

Pastor Peter Ray is a Presbyterian pastor who is now translating the New Testament into the Whitesands language. He and his wife, Ansi, have 4 children. He has served as Chairman of the Vanuatu Bible Translation (VBT) for 4 years overseeing 15 projects. Now he feels it's time for the Whitesands to receive a new translation. One was done in the language in the 1880s but it is "out of date" and considered unintelligible by most of the 3500 Whitesand speakers. He has also been a coordinator of other Presbyterian churches in the area but he has now been relieved of those responsibilites as well as his work with VBT so that he will have the time to work on the translation. However, he is still the Pastor of his local church. He went to Australia earlier this year to receive SIL's linguistic training.

Pastor Peter will be using a recent translation of the Naka New Testament, a related language to Whitesands, and Adapt-It, a computer program, to produce a Whitesands translation. Greg Carlson, the SIL advisor for the Naka NT is now Pastor Peter's advisor and the plan is to finish it in 4 years!

Lelepa Island

We headed out to Lelepa Island (above) today to visit Kalo and Maina, friends of the Webbs. Ross and Lyndal lived with them for 10 days when they first arrived in Vanuatu as an orientation to Vanuatu culture and Bislama, the trade language. We drove for about 30 min. and then took a 10 min. boat ride. SIL staff, Monique and Luwi, and their daughter Susan came along too. We were surprised to find that Survivor Vanuatu was filmed on this island and on the one next to it. See photo to right. They had some races between these two islands.

Kalo and Maina welcomed us into their home with papaya, bananas and young coconuts. We cut a whole in the coconuts and enjoyed the sweet milk inside. Their daughter, May, showed us her 6 day old daughter, Melody. A delicious lunch of a meat/vegetable sauce over rice, cooking bananas and greens was served. Then we headed out for a walk.

Kalo's youngest brother, Mansas, came along with us. As we paused to rest a little, he told Lyndal that he'd like to turn in an application to have a translation program started for their language. This was the first time someone had approached them asking for a translation. Lyndal told him to talk to the community and see if this is something they'd be interested in and then fill out the application. But then, Lyndal had to tell them that help was short and she didn't know when there would be anyone available to help them. Tough words. How about you? You could be the one to come!

We headed back to the house for some tea and cake, Kalo and Maina presented us with gifts and then we headed home. A good day was had by all!

Tomorrow morning, Morris heads out to Tanna Island and I'll share more about the Whitesands language program. I'll be staying here to help out as I am able and Morris will return on Friday.

Bible-based Videos

Allen and Neisha Klaski, serving with Wycliffe Associates, left this morning for Tanna Island for 2 weeks to bring Bible-based videos to about 10 villages. They were invited by Ken and Mendy Nehrbass, translators in the Southwest Tanna language. Some of the videos are in Bislama, the trade language, and some are in Southwest Tanna. They will walk from village to village, eat and sleep with a host family and show the videos to each village. Some Ni-Vanuatu men from Southwest Tanna will go along with them to translate for them and show them the way. Hopefully there will be others that go along to help carry all the cargo! Their home is in Harbor Beach, MI and their Pastor and his wife were our hosts at Barnabas International's Elim Retreat that we attended a few years ago. Small world! They left 6 kids behind with Grandma and Grandpa and are here for almost 3 weeks. They will come back before we leave so I'll be able to let you know how things went.

We knew that Ken Nehrbass has been experiencing pain in his kidneys due to a kidney infection but he has experienced more pain and it could be a kidney stone. He had a lot of pain last night. Another translator, Greg Carlson, the advisor that Morris will be working with, will meet the Nehrbasses at the airport and help them get set up to leave on their bush walk. They'd appreciate prayer for healing for Ken and their village video tour. Ken was in the middle of a translation consultant check when he got sick but managed to persevere to get it finished. Alan Canavan, the consultant, is now here with us but will be doing a consultant check for another team next week. We just got word that that translator is now sick. Much prayer is needed.

We did go snorkeling with Alan and Neisha before they left. What a beautiful underwater world God created for us to enjoy! We've snorkeled in PNG and Austrailia but this was the best experience. The fish were different and incredibly beautiful. I saw blues starfish that were 12" across and fish came right up to our faces in hopes of being fed.

We also took a hike up to waterfall and could swim underneath it and in other pools of water. Quite beautiful!

Erakor Island

The Webbs and us took a ferry out to a Erakor Island on Sunday. I'm amazed at how clear the water is and could easily see starfish along the dock leading to the island. There's a resort there now with a groomed path all around the island. As we walked along the path, we came upon the grave markers below. I was hoping you'd be able to read the writing on the gravestones but the one on the right is for the wife of a missionary and her death was in the late 1800s. Her dying words were something like, "I know that Jesus is mine." The left gravestone marks the deaths of 3 of her children who all died between their first and second birthdays. I stood for awhile there just thinking about all the trials and sacrifices that this family went through but what a great testimony to say that she was still trusting in Jesus through it all.

Vanuatu

We've arrived in Port Vila, Vanuatu! Ross and Lyndal Webb, the Directors of SIL Vanuatu and good friends from Papua New Guinea picked us up at the airport and have been taking great care of us! We've been learning lots about the work here and I'll be sharing about it in forthcoming blogs but did you know that Vanuatu has 110 languages and they think a Bible translation will be needed in about 60 languages? SIL is currently working in 15 languages and have completed 3 New Testaments. So there's lots of work to be done. Anybody interested?

Above is the SIL office and we are staying in a 2 bedroom flat on the 3rd. floor. Ross and Lyndal conveniently live right above us. Below is our kitchen.

To the left is the view out of the window in our living room. Morris moved the chairs this morning so we could drink our coffee and look at the view.

We've been here for a little over 24 hours and to our surprise, we realize we are experiencing some culture shock. We thought we had all this "transition to another country" figured out but then we remembered that returning to PNG after a furlough always took some adjustments too. It's good to know it's normal and then remind ourselves that in a few days life will feel more normal and routine. Even though we've had some culture shock, we are really glad to be here and are looking forward to the coming days. Fortunately, the first 24 hours have been cooler than normal! :)