Georgia and Team Vanuatu

Georgia was the location for this year's 2 week training with Biblical Ministries Worldwide (located in Atlanta) called Field Preparation Seminar. It was 2 weeks of non-stop learning. We had classes Monday through the next week Wednesday from 8-5 and because we were so blessed to have the entire Team Vanuatu (see all of us plus kids to the left here) all there together, we had team meetings every day at lunch and after supper. That left no free time so we were running, but it was time very well spent! BMW feeds and houses us very well and with very little expense on our part, which is nice! The above picture is all those who came through Field Prep this year. This was their largest class ever but what was really crazy is the number of people here for Candidate Orientation (which is what we went through last summer there). There were 27 adults in attendance and all were accepted by BMW's board so the Lord is growing this organization by a lot. This year's attendance is at least double that of last year's so our prayers are being answered for workers to go out into the harvest fields, praise the Lord!

Here are the classes we took at Field Prep, each of which were 1-2 hours:

A Passion for Missions, Avoiding Spiritual Burnout, BMW Update, Discipleship - Insights and Errors, Evangelism - the Heart of my Work, Family in Ministry, Life Long Learning, Church Planting Models, Church Planting Stepping Stones, Motivation for Church Planting, NEEDIA (a practical application of setting up vision and purpose and goals for an imaginary country), Theology of Hell - A Motivator for Missions, Training National Leaders, Your Exit Strategy, Brain Dominance Inventory, Elements of Cultural Resilience from Ruth, Guess who is Coming to Our House, Cultural Adaptability, Response to Culture, Strategies for Lifelong Language Learning, Language and Culture Evaluation, Building Spiritual Hedges (for men), Conflict Resolution, Maintaining and Growing Relationships with Supporters, Teamwork on the Field, An Introduction to Local Church Finances, Financial Matters on the Field, Emergency Management, Hospitality on the Field (for women), Conducting a Ministry Survey, Working from Home, Writing your Ministry Plan

Many of these classes were immediately applicable for our team meetings, which was an awesome blessing!

It was very beneficial to have all of our team present as we were able to work out our team structure and start hammering out purpose and vision statements, timelines, key performance areas, and job descriptions for the ministry in Vanuatu. We still have a long way to go in getting strategy and goals in written form, but the foundation was laid. As of now, the field of Vanuatu consists of two teams. One team is now just the Gibb family (with other potential team members they are recruiting from their church in Australia). They are planning to have their ministry be one of doing leadership training with existing native pastors in Vanuatu (or with those interested in becoming pastors) to plant churches that way. They would be primarily based out of the town of Luganville on the island of Santo. Here is the Gibb family (minus Matt, who will be attending boarding school in the US to finish out his high school career). Please pray for the Gibbs as they raise the last bit of their support that the Lord would give them wisdom and direction as they prepare to head over to Vanuatu this January, Lord willing. The other team is the bush team, consisting of Brad and Amber Jones, Houghton and Gretchen Richards, myself, and a new family who just joined BMW - the Kenners. Jim and Tania heard about the ministry in Vanuatu from the Richards and within the day were already praying about and pursuing the ministry themselves! Our team will seek to do evangelism, discipleship, and leadership training with an influential tribal people group in Vanuatu and empower the nationals to plant their own reproducing churches. I'll type up our vision and purpose, as well as some estimated timelines in a future post. Please pray for the Kenners as they spend the next year or so wrapping up work and ministry commitments and preparing for deputation. Also, pray for the rest of us who are in the middle of deputation that the Lord would lead us to those who He is preparing to team with us financially and prayerfully to reach Ni-Vanuatu people!

In our travels to and from Georgia, we were so blessed to be housed a huge chunk of the time at my aunt Betty and uncle Fred's home in Minneapolis. We stayed there almost a full week just before flying out to Georgia and for a few days immediately after Field Prep before heading back on our way to Montana. My grandma lives in Minneapolis as well so we enjoyed visiting and eating with her as well. She got together a group of women in her retirement complex that Gretchen and I were able to present our ministry to. They are already fervent prayer warriors for our team so it was awesome to meet them and share about the Ni-Vanuatu that they will be reaching through us!

We also stayed one night with our friends Ralph and Shari Solberg in North Dakota. They have been very encouraging in our ministry sharing (deputation) time. The Lord has given friends and family along the way already who have been so gracious and hospitable to provide us a home away from home and a chance to reconnect. Although we are tired and have been sick most of the traveling time, God's grace is sufficient and the prayers and encouragement of the saints (that's you) sustain us, thank you!

If you're wondering what is happening from here, this is the known (written with a smile and a prayer...) schedule for the next month below. We are working on newsletters this week to send out to all of you! Look for it in the mail hopefully in the next week or two.

August 5 Fallon, MT (about 45 minutes from home base in Miles City here)

August 12 Ronan, MT (around 9-10 hours away in western MT)

- Midweek sometime in Kalispell

August 19 Frenchtown, MT (an hour or 2 from Ronan)

August 26 Coalwood, MT (about an hour from Miles City)

On the road

We are now pretty officially on the road. After a celebration with some friends and family on the 4th, we headed out for Minnesota. Sunday we presented at the Faltynski's church in Deluth, MN and enjoyed spending the weekend with them. They are friends who used to youth pastor at our sending church in Miles City, MT. They have 2 children, Winter (6) and Creedon (3) (and another on the way), who were great entertainment for Jesiah. They of course fought a lot too, but got some great learning opportunities in sharing. Here is Winter reading me a Dr. Seuss book. :) Brian and Laura Faltynski were very gracious and hospitable to us and allowed us a great time of fellowship with them and in their church body. The church was also very gracious with many very encouraging people thanking us for coming and joining with our team in prayer.

Monday we headed to Minneapolis where my parents had spent the weekend with my grandma and several of my aunts and uncles. We got to see everyone that evening before my parents headed back to Montana and we are now staying the week at my Aunt Betty and Uncle Fred's house in Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis. We are trying to rest and battle colds and sinus stuff so we can be well for Pre-Field training in Georgia next week! Yesterday we went to Round Lake park and enjoyed the outdoors a bit. Today we are presenting to some of my grandma's friends at her apartment building. I'll post some family pictures here later this week.

Saturday we leave for Georgia and get to meet up with the rest of Team Vanuatu! Thanks for your prayers for our safety, health and protection!

Life in Montana

Well, friends, I thought I'd update you on what I've been up to the last few weeks and give you a really tentative schedule for what is coming down the pike. If you are interested in seeing the plethora of activities my home town of Miles City has to offer, here's a great website about it: www.city-data.com/city/Miles-City-Montana.html It is really a bit of a culture shock just coming from Boise to here. :)
One of the main things I've been enjoying doing here has been hanging out with my family a lot. I'm working on ministry stuff with Gretchen and Houghton every day so it's inevitable that I see them and my nephew and niece too. My nephew can't say Laura so he calls me "Wara" and he's super fun to play with. My niece, Gwenny (Gwenyth) is a lot bigger and a lot happier than when I saw her last in Vanuatu in March and any day now she'll be walking.
She stands and balances beautifully but hasn't figured out the stepping out part quite yet. This picture is of Jesiah and I after he'd been "fixing" my hair for me and we were wrestling around. They are both very fun and I'm thankful to get to be involved in their lives.

So what have I been doing? Well, it would seem that life here has been crazier than I even expected it to be. We've been running from the time we wake up until when we head to bed. We have about 7 books we are to have read by our training July 16-26 in Georgia so we started a "book club" and have been reading either during afternoon kids' nap time or after they go to bed around 9PM or both. We've finished 1 1/2 assignments so far so have a long way to go, but we're trying to get through them. If you are bookworms, I'd highly recommend 2 of them so far anyway. One is "Passing the Baton" by Tom Steffen about doing ministry in a way that raises up leaders rather than making dependants. It is specifically for church planting so making sure church leadership is native driven rather than missionary driven but wow - if we only did discipleship and ministry like this in the States! There would be a lot more dynamic leaders here passing the baton on to those they've shared Christ with and we'd have really amazingly well trained "laypeople" out there spreading the gospel with confidence. It is a must-read for any Christian, I think. The other that I've only just started but is very good so far too is an old school book by Roland Allen called "The spontaneous expansion of the church" and so far seems to be similar in topic to the first book. The others on our list are:

"Missionary Methods - St Paul's or ours?" by Roland Allen

"Planting churches cross-culturally" by David Hesselgrave

"Mission Deputation: A Biblical Ministry and a classroom of learning" by Harold Loucks"

"Cross Cultural Connections" by Duane Elmer (we are most of the way through this but it is a bit more elementary so hasn't been as helpful)

"Let the Nations be Glad" by John Piper (I have read this one too actually and it is a must-read for every Christian too - very convicting and a great discussion about what missions really is about theologically.)

Aside from reading, we've been helping a lot with some huge fundraisers put on by my mom for one and another by some people in my sending church here. There is a family outside of Miles City about 11 miles that is moving to Lewistown, MT who decided to sell all their old farm tools and equipment and donate them completely to the Vanuatu fund. The money raised by that covers a lot of our outgoing expenses for a shipping container to send over to Vanuatu when we are moving so that was an awesome provision! The other big one was the one organized by my mom that pulled in around 25-30 families from our church here. It was like the mother of all garage sales. We had it in my parents' yard and had 15 tables piled with all the donations to sell. That was quite an ordeal to clean, price, set out and sell everything and God brought a huge amount of people to buy stuff! The picture to the right is my sister, mom and Gwenny, Houghton, and my dad when we were working on setting everything out. Jesiah was helping me take the picture. :) The Lord raised enough money from that one to fully cover our plane tickets to Georgia for our training as well as the majority of the cost of the training and board to be there. Wow! The Lord has been so good to provide all along the way for each step and each expense. Praise Him!

Another activity is that I got to go visit my grandpa and grandma in the teeny tiny town of Newell, South Dakota. It was nice to see them, even if it was only for a day. My grandma's sister, Aunt Ann, who is the one I inherited my car from lives there too so I saw her as well. Another surprise is that my grandma's brother and his wife (Bob and Virginia) drove through that day and visited a bit too so I saw them again after many years.

We have also been working on having things together to present to churches as well as packets to send out to individuals and churches interested in being part of the ministry. I've been brushing up on my piano and we've practiced some songs together. We met with and updated my pastor here, Jerry Coon (www. gbc-milescity.org) and the elder in charge of missions, Shawn Kelly. Grace is supporting us now as we are in this time of sharing the ministry so when our savings run out in the next month or so, we'll be living on and traveling on that.

Here is the schedule for what is upcoming, Lord-willing:

July 5 (this Thursday) - leave for Minnesota

July 8 (Sunday) - present at a church in Deluth, MN

July 9 (Monday) - drive to Minneapolis to hang out with my mom's side of the family and share with them the ministry in Vanuatu

July 14 (Saturday) - fly out to Georgia for training called "Pre-Field" with our organization, Biblical Ministries Worldwide (http://www.biblicalministries.org/)

July 16-25 (Monday -Wednesday) - training in Georgia on team-building, finances, church planting, and being effective cross-culturally

July 26-28 (Thurs. - Sat.) - meeting with our team, hopefully welcoming in a new family to our team!

July 28 (Sat) - fly back to MN

July/Aug? - possibly present in another church in MN, then drive back to Montana

August - spend most of the month in Western Montana at churches there, possibly into September as well

September/October - Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska churches

* salad/dessert dinner at home church here in Miles to fill in on our schedule, training, and more about the ministry in Vanuatu

*Sept 15-21 training in CO Springs on cross-cultural church planting with our whole team and another chance for further team-building

Fall - California?

Winter - Boise area

That's what we have so far and time is flying so it is crunch time to get meetings set up. If you think your church would be interested or if you have a group of friends or home group you'd like to have us present to, that would be awesome! Just let me know and we'll get it in our tentative schedule. Please pray for us as we travel this week that the Lord would ordain meetings with people he'd have be part of the ministry to Vanuatu and that we would be prepared for the training. Also, as always in traveling with young children, please pray that they would be able to endure all the driving and flying! I'll try to update while on the road from Minnesota and Georgia to let you know what we are learning and doing. Thanks so much for your prayers and support up to this point!

In Montana

I made it to Montana safe and sound by God's grace. The first few and last few hours of the 14 1/2 hour drive were the worst but I made it unscathed with car still attached to the U-Haul and without hitting any deer. The drive during the parts for which I was fully awake was beautiful up on I15 in Idaho and on I90 in Montana. Here are a few pictures of God's creation that I got to enjoy thanks to all the unusual rain Montana's been getting. I won't tell you who my friend was who took these pictures while I was very safely concentrating on the road... Thanks for your prayers while I was driving. I know many of you were praying and I needed it! Other than the fabulous scenic eye-candy, it was a tough and very long day.

Wow, was the blessing of friends in Idaho who helped pack and clean was ever more apparent upon arriving here. My mom and I unloaded the first half of my stuff on Sunday and I unloaded all the rest other than furniture and some of the heaviest boxes that Houghton (my brother-in-law) helped me with on Monday (today). It went a lot faster when 10 of you were hauling for me! Now my parents get to put up with boxes everywhere while I try to organize them into corners of their house to store long-term or until heading to Vanuatu. I have a bunch I need to re-pack too so I'm slowly working on that.

Today I also got to see my niece and nephew again. I don't have pictures yet but I'll post some of my lovely family. Gwen's the cutest little pudgy girl ever and Jesiah's turning into a little boy, not just a toddler anymore! They are sweet and fun.

It sounds like on Sunday the ministry of sharing about what God is doing in Vanuatu will officially start in Montana for me. Gretchen and Houghton have been invited to a church in Fallon, Montana and Lord-willing, I'll be joining them. Gretch asked me to play piano for them for some songs they'll be singing so since I haven't played in probably ten years, I'll be getting in some serious practice for that I hope! Otherwise, she may withdraw the involvement offer... :) I plan to post some of the tentative schedule from now to March here for everyone in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out Gretch and Houghton's blog and website. They have some awesome stuff you can't find on mine. The links for those are in the list on the right, but here are some quick links for you: http://www.richardsroad.com/ and http://www.richardsroad.blogspot.com/

Dying...to Idaho

This is amazingly difficult to say goodbye to my current life, essentially. It is hard to permanently say goodbye at work to the kids, teachers and staff, and parents. It is really hard to say goodbye to the prayer group at work that has been such an amazing blessing this last year (what a blessing you are Kim, Teddi, Sara and Merrianne!). It is hard to say goodbye to much of my "stuff". It is hard to say goodbye to my gym and the workout classes and people there that I love. It is hard to say goodbye to my churches where I have great fellowship. It is hard to say goodbye to my cats and to my house where I've loved living the last 4 years. It is hard to say goodbye to a climate I love and to living in Idaho, which I adore. It is hard to say goodbye to hiking trails and walking paths, to access to all the diversity of stores, restaurants, and culture.

It is hard to say goodbye to ministries and people I've ministered with and to. Here is the junior high Bible study girls group from Heritage Bible Church on the left. Also pictured are my young friends Melissa on the left (going to be a junior - wow!) and Bridgette (going into 7th grade) on the right.

On the right is Lorna, who, with her husband, leads missions prayer for Calvary Chapel. The group shot is one evening at Missions Prayer. Pictured are Natalie (a missionary to Romania!), Nancy, Gary, Julie, John, Jan, Lorna, Jessica, and Larry in the back. In the front are Nadine and me. Several of the "regulars" aren't pictured here. I'll miss praying with all of you in body anyway! There are so many other groups of kids whose pictures I don't have digitally to post here from youth group and Bible studies at Calvary, sorry guys!

It is especially hard to say goodbye to fantastic friends. To the left is Mindy, who did accountability and verse memorization for a long time with me. Here is Liz, my Argentinian amiga who I loved being able to not only hang out with a lot and share fellowship with as a Christian, but also be literal neighbors with!

Here is Kara, my friend who challenges me to growth and depth. Next is Melanie, a fellow missionary. She is heading back to Africa, Lord-willing! I wish I could have gotten a picture of the prayer group I have enjoyed over the years with Melanie, Jonie, Tara, Teresa, Jenn and others!

Here are some of my other lovely friends from work. To the left is Christie, my great friend who will be taking my school counseling position since I'm leaving! To the right is Melinda, who I was so privileged to work with at my school this last year as she completed her counseling practicum for grad school.

In the center here is Jennifer, a new friend sent pretty randomly as a gift from the Lord! To the right is Amy, who I went to grad school with and am so grateful to continue a friendship with even after graduation in 2003! Pictured next is a great group of friends who came to a goodbye barbeque last week. It is a mix of friends from all areas in my life but from left to right starting in the back is me, then James and wife Casey and baby Lydia, then Kathleen and husband Travis and daughter Elise, behind them the tall one is Dave, then is Bonnie and baby Ethan and husband Brian and daughter Jasmine, next is Christie, then Scott, then Kevin, Tyson, and Ryan. In the front are Mindy, Teresa, Kara and husband Travis. Most of these pictured are some of my longest known friends in Idaho who I get together with often to play games with and do other activities with.

There are so many others I'm sorry to say I didn't get pictures with. I love you all and you will be so missed!!

It is hard to say goodbye to some hopes and plans. Another huge loss is my independence. The Lord has been teaching me so much through this process and I am so excited to see how He grows me and where He leads. However, there are so many losses, so much grief with all of this. I really feel a part of me is dying but that is what the Christian walk is all about, isn't it! Death to self and alive to Christ. I pray He uses these griefs to grow me and bring Him glory and that the gospel may be preached and Ni-Vanuatu and others may come to know Jesus Christ, and Him crucified!

This was a great message to read from "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers, which has devotionals for each day. This is from May 30. It is entitled: "Yes - but...!" and has the verse Luke 9:61 "Lord, I will follow Thee; but..."

"Supposing God tells you to do something which is an enormous test to your common sense, what are you going to do? Hang back? If you get into the habit of doing a thing in the physical domain, you will do it every time until you break the habit determinedly; and the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will get up to what Jesus Christ wants, and every time you will turn back resolutely. "Yes, but - supposing I do obey God in this matter, what about...?" "Yes, I will obey God if He will let me use my common sense, but don't ask me to take a step in the dark." Jesus Christ demands of the man who trusts Him the same reckless sporting spirit that the natural man exhibits. If a man is going to do anything worth while, there are times when he has to risk everything on his leap, and in the spiritual domain Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold by common sense and leap into what He says, and immediately you do, you find that what He says fits on as solidly as common sense. At the bar of common sense Jesus Christ's statements may seem mad; but bring them to the bar of faith, and you begin to find with awestruck spirit that they are the words of God. Trust entirely in God, and when He brings you to the venture, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis, only one out of a crowd is daring enough to bank his faith in the character of God."

Here's a picture near the Boise foothills and one at sunset at the Boise River. Thanks for your Creation, God! Goodbye, my home state of 8 years. I loved Idaho! Montana, here I come! (I'm driving all day Saturday, June 16, 2007 to Miles City, MT to start sharing with churches about the ministry in Vanuatu.)

I LOVE Vanuatu!

J'aime Vanuatu (French) Mi lavem Vanuatu (Bislama)

So many things were so crazy and different about Vanuatu that when I tell people about it, many are surprised when I say I loved it there. Here are the things I loved most about Vanuatu. First of all, the people are amazing. I love the friendliness, the generosity, the kindness, the shyness, the modesty, the simple lifestyle, the freedom from materialism, the slower pace, the love for children, the quiet smiles but also the energetic greetings. They are a lovely people. To the left is me talking with my "seatmate" on the flight between Vila and Santo. His primary language was his tribal one, secondary was Bislama, and tertiary was French. Fortunately for me, he was pretty decent in English too! The people are so patient and friendly and willing to puzzle out a conversation. With Mario here, we spoke a little bit of French, I tried to figure out a little of his Bislama, and we spoke a bit of English. I mentioned before how much I loved the singing at the various church services while I was there. This is the choir at Matevulu College. They were fabulous! I'm not sure I could ever get too much of being a part of the singing there.

Secondly, it is an amazingly gorgeous place! The Garden of Eden couldn't have looked a whole lot different. :) Here are some of my favorite shots of areas there. These first ones are of a place called Blue Hole, which is a lake formed from a fresh water spring source. We got to swim in it and it is quite cold, probably the only cold thing in Vanuatu! The water truly is this aquamarine color. I promise I didn't add in turquoise on my photo editor! :) This next picture is one of my favorites with the gorgeous blue sky and all the tall magnificent palm trees. Here are some great ones of the ocean after the cyclone blew over. It really is clear enough to see the bottom!

For another of my favorite ocean front shots, see my post on the storms (at the end). Here is an awesome shot Houghton got of some of the islands as we were flying from Efate down south to Santo island up north. The only real competition for scenery like this is Glacier National Park in Montana and Banff in Alberta, Canada.

Of course my other loves should be easy to puzzle out from my earlier posts about the food, the fun flora and fauna, and some of the great connections with people made there.

Over the summer I wrote out a list of my highest desires or wishes in life, especially in a missions setting. So many of those are met in Vanuatu. Those wishes include (in no particular order):

1. being able to support or lead with a role in logistics/administration (I got to do a ton of this on the survey trip and it looks as though there will be no shortage of ways I can be of use in these areas for the rest of the missions team.)

2. being involved in discipleship (Whether with kids or adults, I'm sure there will be connections with people right away to be able to encourage others in their spiritual growth in the Lord, not to mention many to introduce to the Lord for the first time!)

3. having a way to get away alone to refresh and be with the Lord (this one could be tricky, especially the first year there)

4. having connection with family (Here is my sister Gretchen and her husband, Houghton and their kids Jesiah and Gwenyth. We are all on the same missions team! What an awesome blessing too to have parents who are so supportive and invested. Here is my dad on this survey trip. My mom is looking forward to checking it out with him in the future!)

5. not being cold (no fear of that in steamy Vanuatu!!)

6. freedom from fear, safety (The guys ran into 2 single white girls working separately on Malakula island and although they were happy to see other white people who spoke English, they were very content and not endangered in that setting.)

7. having a way to exercise ( I still have to figure this one out in hot Vanuatu. I might need to get some better swimming skills.)

8. having friendship and accountability (This will be met on the team and with other contacts in Vanuatu and I'm sure the Lord will provide other great friends there.)

9. being able to work with kids (There's no shortage of kids in Vanuatu and they are happy to talk and interact even with people like me with limited language! I would enjoy contacts through a school there and this sort of connection seems to have unlimited possibilities for people willing to teach English, which I am.)

10. work with people who follow through (I really have a great team! See some of my first posts for a team picture. There is a possibility of another family joining in with us as well and they seem really awesome and like they would be a great addition to our ranks.)

11. a chance to use the French I've always prayed I would get to use someday (Even though I stink at it, it is really fun to practice and I got to do so more than I expected in Vanuatu on this trip! I'm also starting to learn some Bislama, the lingua franca in Vanuatu, and it is very fun to learn!)

12. husband (I'm still praying about this one but the Lord has truly given me great contentment as a single woman. I'm in no rush!)

These items aren't the result of any sort of Biblical or inspired list, just hopes and prayers. I'm not unwilling to be somewhere that this list isn't fulfilled but what a blessing that the Lord seems to be opening up a way to serve in a place where so many of them would be! What an amazing God! I prayed before going on this survey trip that the Lord would give me a love for the people and the islands. He certainly did that and much more. Should the Lord will, I would love to return and serve Him in Vanuatu. Now He just has to answer prayers for provision for this (the return) to happen for me and the team and we'll get this show on the road! May God be glorified in me! Psalm 19:21 "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."