Tragedies

The end of 2018 brought a lot of tragedies to North Ambrym.  A family in a village about 20 minutes walk from us lost 2 of their kids when their canoes drifted out to sea.  They had been playing at the coast, but the waves and winds were too strong, and they didn't have a any real paddle, just a small piece of coconut tree.  They were lost for days, then 3 were eventually found on the far SE part of an island SE of us.  The youngest was dead when they found them and the other 2 recovered.  One boy was lost to sea as he had tried to jump and swim for help when they saw they were drifting too far away.  What a sad and terrible thing for their family!

Then just a few weeks later, a baby from our sister village came to us gasping for breath.  Houghton was worried he may not last the day as he figured he had pneumonia.  Prior to this dozens of people were bringing babies to us with colds and flus, and baby Atel had had a cold that developed much further.  We spent the next hour or so trying to find emergency arrangements to get Atel to Vila for treatment.  We eventually realized our only option ultimately was to charter a helicopter, who came to the field on the side of our village.  A man from an emergency service in Vila that we are members of came along and was unable to put an IV in him, so got him on oxygen and Atel and his parents flew off to Vila.

Little baby Atel died a few days later.  Someone in Vila generously payed to charter a small plane for his parents to fly back with his tiny casket to Ambrym to bury him.  Several people gave generously to us toward the huge costs of the helicopter, and our home church, Grace Bible, covered the full remaining costs.  We are grateful for all of your prayers and generosity.  Please continue to pray for this family as they grieve the loss of their baby boy.

In this time, my maternal grandmother passed away.  She was a lovely woman of God who was likely our most faithful prayer supporter.  She was generous and loving, and she will be so so missed!  We are rejoicing with her, however, that she is now in the presence of the Lord!

A few weeks later, our volcano activity increased and the two previous calderas collapsed, and ash fall was a problem for a week or so.  Nearly 800 earthquakes hit Ambrym over the course of the next week or two.  Our area was spared any damage from these little quakes, but SE Ambrym villages took the brunt of not only the ash and acid rain, but major damage from the earthquakes as well.  A new vent opened nearer to them as well (rather than where they had been in the direct center of the island) so they are in the highest danger area for any future volcano activity.  The following pictures show some of the damage they received, and of course they all had to move to other areas of Ambrym.  

We are so grateful through all of this that we have a God who is sovereign over all tragedies and natural disasters, and we can trust His plan to work these out for our good and His glory.  Please pray for all of those continuing to grieve, for their comfort, and for God to be known and depended on in their trouble.