Vanuatu What Who?

Vanuatu is East of Australia, written in red

Vanuatu is an island nation located in the middle of the South Pacific; it is an archipelago consisting of close to 82 small sized islands, 65 of which are inhabited. It lies 600 miles to the west of Fiji and 250 miles to the northeast of New Caledonia and is about three quarters of the way from Hawaii to Australia. (Islands.com) It's way out there, folks!
Actually, you might be more familiar with Vanuatu because "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast: Survivor, South Pacific" Season 2004 was shot there. (...but you probably don't watch that...)
We are traveling to Vanuatu for our next mission assignment where we will live for 2 months and teach at a college on the island.

This assignment began with a conversation on a bench last June in Indianapolis when Linda sat down to post some photos on Facebook.
A gentleman introduced himself and we struck up a conversation which transitioned into a love for missions. He was the missionary in Vanuatu! He invited Jim and me to meet his wife and to discuss their desire to have a little support in teaching English to pastor graduates and those pastors working toward various certifications. We said we would pray about it, and they said they would pray about it.

Within weeks, emails ensued and prayers across the ocean became a little more intense. How could we know for sure that this was where we supposed to serve? We want every assignment to be exactly what God wants and to fulfill His perfect purpose. So, what was the turning point? It came when we remembered the many times that we were in language programs struggling to learn Spanish. Each time, God placed a teacher, a tutor, a class, an opportunity for us to inch our way to the next footing in Spanish. And, we celebrated! What if these English learners in Vanuatu feel like we feel? What if they want to inch their way to their next foothold in English? We are not the only ones who can go there and teach, but the bench conversation opened the idea. And, what if we could make a difference in their lives as our language teachers have made in ours? We could not hoard what we had discovered about language learning. The answer was to accept the assignment.

As we again turn to our list of things to pack and preparations to manage, we invite you to follow us on this next journey farther than in the past but nearer to His purpose.

Thank you for praying with us and for reading our blog.

Keep Looking Up!

J:m and L:nda

Facts about Vanuatu