A World of Intersections

Wednesday morning, Jim and I
decided to walk to the town center, which is a little further than 2 miles from our apartment.  Two miles should take 30 minutes...or less, but we arrived in town about 2 hours later.  This island is a melting pot of cultures, and we are always looking for ways to be stirred into the pot. We saw this sign, La Parisienne Boulangerie.  We made our first unintended stop. It was filled with baquettes, croissants, chocolate croissants, small feta quiches, and one more surprise, a lady from Globe, Arizona! She and her husband are ministers of an active denomination here.  After sharing a little Arizona, we crossed the street, and dropped by a business to visit a friend who had attended our English conversation classes last week.  Twenty minutes later, we were at the far end of Main Street and through a spotless storefront window, we saw a large, shiny rotating cylinder.  We were curious.  We stepped into chocolate air!  There were pallets with sacks of cocoa beans and a welcome from the French chocolatier.  He had come to Vanuatu to start a chocolate business.
We have intersected with people from the states, from Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea, and more.  We have new friends who serve with SIL International, formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics, an organization that finds, develops and documents new languages.  Peace Corps, Wycliffe Bible Translators, and YWAM (Youth with a Mission) are here, each with a different assignment but living in a world of intersections.


All these interactions are gifts, but our best intersection happens each night from 6-9pm when we teach our Intermediate Level academic English class to pastor graduates.   Most of these pastors are bi-vocational, but arrive (albeit event-oriented timing) eager to absorb the challenges of their second, third and often, fourth language, English.  Just like learning any language, speaking and listening are much more manageable than writing it.  Conversations flow, but the pencil to the paper is slower.  Step by learning step, and with great fanfare, they submitted their first academic paper:  A Person Who Made a Difference in My Life.   They write about who lead them to Christ, how they learned to memorize scriptures, and who taught them to read.  They "drop names" but of missionaries, pastors, mentors, evangelists, and doctors who have lifted them spiritually.  When we read essays like this, we are humbled because they write not of movie stars, sports personalities, or top music artists and bands.  They write about the Greatest Author and the World's Greatest Book - the Bible. 
Our building is made of tin. Our classroom floor is crushed coral. Bugs fly, children sleep, a friendly rat runs the rafters, and lizards chat.  There are two small light bulbs that illuminate our space.  This setting caught our attention - at first; now, we don't see it.  We see students whose love illuminates this space and whose intense focus is learning English so they can preach in English. 
This assignment is a perfect fit.  We teach them and they re-focus us!  "Give away your life; you'll find life given back, but not merely given back - given back with bonus and blessing..." (Luke 6:38 MSG)

This assignment is not a Hallmark card; it is a scripture come to life!

Thank you for reading our blog and stepping on our stones!
Keep Looking Up!
 J:m and L:nda