Houghton's solar training

Gretchen made this smilebox with pics from Houghton's time in Colorado in Sept (while she and I were in N Carolina learning terrifying medical skills).  This stuff is so useful for us for sustaining ourselves in the 'bush' in Vanuatu.  So go Houghton for learning all this!  :)  Here's their pics that I stole, I mean borrowed, off their blog...

Thulesen family home on the range

We had a Thulesen family get-together (minus my Uncle Dick, who visited a few weeks later) in September and went out to see the ranch that my dad and his siblings all grew up on.  Gretch and I had never been out there so it was a great opportunity to see a bit of the Thulesen family history in person.  Now the deck that my parents are building has rocks incorporated from this homestead since they brought some back into town.

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Missionary Medical Intensive

Gretchen and I just got back from a medical intensive designed for missionaries ministering in rural areas who may not have medical help accessible in an emergency.  We trained with a group in North Carolina in their program called Missionary Medical Intensive.  Click here to check out the organization  Originally it was meant for EMTs and nurses, but they've dumbed it down some for us laypeople.  :)  It was hands down the best training I've been to in a decade.  They were very God-focused, hands-on, practical, and had excellent, humble, relational teachers (doctors and nurses).  The other students were great to get to know as well.  I had a fantastic roommate, Erika, and our friend Christina who we met in Vanuatu came the same time so we were able to have some time with her as well!  Here are pics.

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I also thank God for good health during the time!

Also, the 2nd week we were gone, Houghton was able to go to a solar/water/septic training as well to help fill in the gaps of understanding in those areas. We are so thankful for these opportunities to be better prepared for our long-term ministry in Vanuatu!

September newsletter

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David & Alana

The end of September, we had visitors David (Lumpy) and Alana stay on campus with us for two weeks.  We are all praying about the possibility of them working with us in Vanuatu as logisitics support.  In other words, they would be living in Vila (the capital city) and would hook us up with sending us supplies in the bush, be our emergency contact, help us out with transport for you when you come to visit us, etc.  They are a fun, genuine couple truly desiring to serve the Lord and others.  We are so blessed to have had the chance to get to know them and hang out for a few weeks.  They have just recently moved way up to northern Australia to live and work in an Aboriginal community.  They have commitments for the next year or so there, so we will all continue to pray about God's leading for our team.  Please pray with us and for David and Alana that the Lord would especially use this time in their lives to prepare them for future ministry, whether that be with us or others. 

While they were here, we went to my 1st ever rugby game, which is pretty wild to see.  We also drove about 1 1/2 hours from here up the mountains to snow.  David and Alana hadn't seen snow in TWENTY-SOME years - can you imagine?  It's not common in Australia, by the way.  :)  So it was fun to experience with them.  Alana made her first ever snow angel!  We drove through some areas that were burnt in the bush fires here the beginning of last year and it was eerie to see how much damage fire can really do, yet amazing to see how vibrant new growth is.  It made me think of the verse that says "He gave me beauty for ashes..." 

Check out the very last picture.  Lumpy does some photography and took this one of one of our albino kangaroos looking at a bunny.  So cute!  :)

Check out the video!!

Hey friends!  A few months ago we made a new video with some ministry updates.  Hopefully a lot of you have seen it or will see it at your churches.  We sent loads out to churches we presented at on our travels in the US before coming overseas.  If you haven't seen it yet, check with your pastor to ask if your church received a video.  Watch it here (cuts off the last 1/4 of the screen on the right) or click the YouTube link below to see the full version.  Enjoy!


Team Vanuatu video 2009

Operation Christmas child

Operation Christmas child (http://www.samaritanspurse.org.au/occ_08_index.shtml) is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse which packs shoeboxes to send to kids all around the world. They include gifts that are fun for Christmas - something to play with, school supplies, something to wear, etc. - as well as packing the Gospel in the language of the area they are sent to. Our church pastor's wife is a mega-deals-shopper and gets stuff throughout the year to pack into boxes. We helped out on a Saturday and packed tons of the things! It was a fun day and we pray that the boxes have an eternal impact around the world!

Vanuatu Ventures Sept. 09 newsletter

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Vanuatu friends

Last week we had fantastic visitors - friends we met in Vanuatu! Pete and Liz were in town for work and stopped in to see us. We first met them when they were helping out SIL in Vanuatu but then they ditched us there to come back to Australia of all places. Crazy people! :) When we came over to AUS in December last year, they hung out with us a bit in Sydney when we had a layover before flying down to school in Melbourne. Hopefully we'll get to see each other again before we head back to Vanuatu!

girls and make-up

Grace on our team just turned 13 this year. She is growing up! When I was about her age, my mom went with me to a make-up party put on by a lady in our church. It was a great opportunity to kick-off wearing make-up and also learn some make-up application skills. To my mom's chagrine, I of course still dabbled quite a bit in thick black eyeliner and teal mascara for awhile, but I like to think I've come around a bit in my ability to use more flattering stuff. :) Anyway, Gretch and I suggested the idea to Tania, who found an Aussie Mary Kay consultant and we had a make-up party. It was a fun time. Here are some during and after pictures from our girl's night.

Tania giving Grace a hand.Gretchen shows us alternative places to put our make-up... :) Elyse and I pucker up. Tania shows off her best fish face.

And.... the after pictures. Gretch, Grace, Elyse, me, Tania.

Jones and Kenner families arrive to complete our team!

September Smilebox

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Update on Outgoing Needs

Here is an updated chart on my outgoing needs as of my giving statement for this month. I change the sidebar (see right on my blog) every month but here is the breakdown if you prefer it visually. God has been providing through many of you every month. Thank you so much! In the coming months, I'll be looking into purchasing many of the specific items in the categories listed in these charts to meet the May 2009 deadline to avoid duty and customs fees. Please e-mail me if you have questions!

Making laplap

I have officially made and eaten laplap, an "aelan kakae" or island food, a staple here. In the Bislama dictionary it is described as a pudding, or grated tuber or banana mixed with coconut milk and sometimes meat added, sometimes surrounded by island cabbage. It is wrapped in large leaves (laplap or banana tree leaves) and cooked on hot stones. Here's the finished product to the right, only note that it is rare for it to be made with chicken (the big white chunks) like this - usually just yams and cabbage.

My friend Magreth and I had planned to get together so she and her cousin could start teaching me to make mats. Magreth's dad didn't want her to show me though because the dye from the mats stains hands and everything else it comes in contact with. He didn't want her new white friend to be pink. She's close to having him convinced that I really am ok with that so we'll see... Anyway, making laplap was a great alternative. I went and hung out with her and her family last week and met most of them, but got to meet a few more and get to know them a bit more. Here are her 2 girls, Sevanda (8) and Lin (7) as well as her nephew, Jak (on the right with the crazy hair). :) She also has a 15 year old son, Prin, who is visiting family on another island right now.

Here's how the process works (sorry for the poor quality videos - just imagine you are on a rollercoaster and it will seem more fun... also, FYI, some language on the videos is Bislama, the trade language I'm learning and some is this family's tribal language from Tongoa island where they are from):

0. Purchase all ingredients and cut or buy laplap leaves.

1. Prepare island cabbage by spreading out leaves and breaking off stems an inch or so from the base of the leaf. Keep back all small leaves in a separate pile.

2. Peel yams and wash them

3. Grate yams into a huge bowl with water in it4. Add salt and sugar to grated yams, then squeeze it until it is pudding-ish. (hands must be washed after so they don't get itchy from the yams)

5. Crack open coconuts, then grate them into a bowl with the water from inside them.

6. Squeeze out the milk from the grated meat ("melekem"). This can be done with hands like I did out in Pango or with the gratings inside a piece of cloth, or the husks off the coconut can be used to put the meat in to be squeezed.

7. Start the fire. Special rocks are needed for this that hold heat well. Rocks go on the ground inside the cooking house, then sticks are lit on top. When a fire is going, more stones go on top of the sticks. Rocks are moved with tongs made from a branchy part of a coconut tree. I was laughing because Magreth's family has a few metal pieces they put in with rocks - some parts from an old lawnmower. Jen, one of Magreth's sisters said that they get hotter than the rocks so are nice to use.

8. Strip laplap leaves of their stems or bones ("bun") as they call them.

9. Bring laplap leaves down to the cooking house and lay them out. 3 go up and down, 3 across, then 3 more up and down. Two are put on the hot stones so they get soft and these go on the top of all the others. The laplap is made on these.

10. Take all top stones off the fire and take out the wood.

11. Lay out island cabbage facedown, all layered with stems pointing out.12. Pour yam mess on top and spread over the surface.

13. Milk coconut meat another time, this time after it's soaked in water, and squeeze on top of pudding.

14. Layer all small, set-aside island cabbage leaves on top.>

15. We bought some whole chickens (they wanted chicken wings but the whole town was out - we tried nearly 10 different store) and put chicken pieces on top.

16. Spoon strong coconut milk on top.

17. Fold up laplap leaves. Using a tie from the stems of the laplap leaves (removed earlier), tie up the bundle.

18. Put the bundle on top of the bottom rock layer. Using the coconut branch tongs, place the top hot rocks on top of the bundle.

19. Layer laplap leaves on top.

20. Layer burlap sacks on top. (if you don't have burlap, just use more laplap leaves)

21. Wait a few hours.

22. Take off all the top layers and bring the bundle up to the table. Unwravel, cut and eat! It was really good with the chicken in there. I'm not sure I would have liked it as much without the chicken flavoring everything, but still, a full day of work for enough food for the whole family (remember that family means extended since they all live right together). They don't have refrigeration so if any is leftover, they put it in a cabinet with a metal door that sits out in the yard. Kids get in and out of this all day long. They keep meat, milk, and other ingredients back like this at the market too.

Here's the crew: Magreth's mom, Rupi, sister Jen, me, Magreth, and cousin Priscilla. What a sweet family! Since I started this post, I was able to hang out one other full day with them while they taught me to make "mambor," a cabbage-ish plant. We made it with cooking bananas and strong coconut milk - yum! I must say, mambor tastes a lot like grass (and they even said they think it smells like grass), but it fills the belly and was fun to learn.