1 Week in

Woo!

Hello everyone! I am having the most amazing time, it is incredible!
We just spent the last week on the Island of Lelipa and it was absolutly incredible, I met some of the most amazing people on the most beautiful island, it was something else.

Everyday we would work on this concrete water tank that we were building, (The villagers would have to usually canoe across the passage to the mainland (Vila) to get water from freshwater streams there when the tanks they have run out, so we were building another one. Whats awsome is while we were there, it rained HARD twice, filling up all the tanks so that some were overflowing! it was powerful.

We made friends with so many people, and impacted alot of lives. There was this one woman who had suffered from a stroke and the entire right side of her body below the neck was pretty much paralyzed. She could move her fingers and toes really. We all prayed over her one day for healing, and once we were done... she could move her right arm fully, that was really cool to see, theres been a fair bit of spiritual warfare, and htast JUST on Lelipa, and i'm sure we'll be faced with more.

On the island we ate fruit, 'showered' in the ocean, and would sweat... alot haha.

The guys all slept in this half built church while the girls in this building of sorts that was a big room. There was in general no electricity on the island save for one 'shop' and one or two homes, but those were not community generators, those belonged to the family. Also, no running water save for water coming from the tanks, the toilet was... haha something else, i'm sure you'll see pictures.

Everynight you could hear village mutts fighting, haha and the next day the dogs would have all these scars all over them.

For fun when we were done work, Eric and myself (usually with two of our Vanuatian friends Fredie and Rex) would swim out to this sunken plane and go freediving around it, the other day we saw a Stingray and we tried to spear it with Fredies spear but it was too quick.

The water tank is finished save for a roof, it's watertight, but now we want to structure it perfectly so the DTS will be heading back there in a few days... next week? After hte SOS has gone home. When the SOS goes home, our outreach leader (Joe) will be going back to Perth with them temporarily (Which is a good thing because then he can go to a doctor, his eye got really really swollen up the other day and we don't know why.. he may have been bitten by something but we are unsure, they have some MASSIVE bugs here)
Anyways, when Joe is gone, we will be going into Prisons here in Port Vila to speak to prisoners, which will be amazing, after that we go (as i said) back to Lelipa for a day or so to finish the tank, which will be cool, I miss them all already. (Oh! I'll talk about this game I learned that the kids on the island made up)


When Joe does get back to Vanuatu then we will go to this Island up north about 30 min boat trip that has 7 villages on it, and we will be backpacking from one to another. (Oh, and and one point... either before or after that, I can't remember we only got concrete plans a few days ago, but we will be going into the slums of vila as well)

And thats essentially all the details i can think of right now.... Joe leaves in 2 days for Perth, and thats the gameplan.

This morning I woke up at 5:30- throwing up... thought you might like to hear some of my calamitys as well haha, also my feet have been slaughtered becuase hte sandals that i have are my dads, which have moulded to his feet not mine, and as a result I have some AMAZING blisters and gashes.. which may be septic now becuase i didn't put anything on them the entire time i was on Lelipa, but I doubt it. A few scrapes and scratches from the plane (cutting myself on the sides as i swam through it haha but nothing some salt water can't fix.. whats awsome is not too far off is where there are Hammerheads!


Right now in Vila we are staying at a YWAM run...area? it really reminds me of Morningstar
kind of set up, almost exactly the same sized and designed buildings, everything (For those from westbank/ glenrosa), and we are sleeping in the church. Last night the biggest beetle i have ever seen in my life came flying through the window, this thing was the size of my palm and it landed on my mosquito net and got trapped. Also last night chuck said he saw cockraches crawling all over, and one on my net. haHA! Missions is amazing!

So... thats my quick blurb update for now.... I've been keeping my journal everyday so I have lots of good full length explinations of awsome stuff that i've forgotten at this current moment... but oh boy... one week and it's been this good? thats great.

So! I have to head off now, time is running out, so i should wrap this up

I've been thinking of you all! haha and i won't give you the little updates like what music i've been listning to, noone wants that anymore, BUT! if you have any questions about anything that i havn't mentioned here? then PLEASE! by all means e-mail me! Thank you to those who E-mailed me in this past week, I was excited to hear what's new with you!


"Pray Dangerous Prayers"

-Jon