Sunday, November 3, 2013

From Espiritu Santo to Port Vila

After a long and hardworking time of building the water tank, we were blessed with a day off! 
You can click on any picture to see the original size
We were really blessed because the whole group got the opportunity to go to Champagne Beach, one of the nicest beaches in Vanuatu.  
We had a blast spending time relaxing, being in the sun, swimming in the clear tropical ocean water, exploring, eating fresh pineapple, and spam sandwiches for lunch! When we left, most of us were a few shades redder.  
The second we had arrived at home, Clemont (our host) told us that we had five minutes to change and take showers before we left because we were going to the hospital to pray for people.  We were a little confused because we students were told to dress up nicely. When we got to the road, we sat and waited for a ride.  By the time that a truck arrived that was willing to take us, it was dark outside.  We ended up getting surprised by the leaders and Clemont, who took us out for a nice dinner together. We had a lot of fun – the two highlights were the great food and the flushing toilet complete with toilet paper!  It was a truly wonderful day and we were blessed.

The next day, we had to get the guttering up and attached to the house and water tank.  After the guttering was finished, we all had to dress up nice for the going away party. 
The girls wore their totally amazing and stylish island dresses. 

Before the dinner began, it started off with some people (including the village chief) and some of us giving small speeches.  Then, we were all given gifts and we exchanged gifts with the family as well.  Dinner was really special and involved a lot of food. Let me stress the A LOT in that sentence.  We had at least five different kinds of food: lap lap, rice, bananas, and so many other dishes.  Every time we turned our heads to talk to someone, someone was putting more food on our plates!  After we ate lots of food, we all were called up to dance.  So then, we listened to Reggae music and danced until we were exhausted and really, really sweaty.  When we were all done dancing, we shook a million hands and said our goodbyes to the locals of the community.  The thing that lightened the mood was that "I Want it That Way" by Backstreet Boys and a Reggae version of "Everytime We Touch" by Cascada were being blared in our ears while shaking hands.
Dan and his buddies.
Brad and his homies.
The last day in Santo involved a lot of patience waiting for almost an hour and a half for our "bus" (van) to arrive to pick us up. We were told it would come at 10, it didn't come until 11:30.  We had to catch a flight at 12:35, but fortunately it was on island time (late), so we got to the airport and checked in and still waited a while before the plane left.  Leaving Santo was pretty sad... One thing that made our waiting interesting was our plane tickets that were hand written...

We got picked up in Port Vila and now we are staying at YWAM Marine Reach's outreach base, called "Grace House."  Once we arrived at the house, we were welcomed by the medical DTS group.  It was really exciting to see familiar faces again!
Over the next few days we mainly prepared for the next stage of our outreach in and around Port Vila on the island of Efate. This included an receiving an orientation to Port Vila, hearing about the different opportunities of things that we could do here, praying about it A LOT, and also spending some time interceding (praying) for the other DTS groups. 

It was a good week, and we were blessed in so many ways. God blessed us both with a wonderful end to our time on Santo and a great place to live as we do ministry in Port Vila. It has involved a big transition from things like limited electricity, bucket showers, and island time to electricity, running water, and being on a schedule. Still, we finished the week with lots of excitement about the opportunities for ministry that God has thrown our way, and the amazing possibilities for Him to work through us!
~The Go Team

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