Cultural Surprises!

Surprises in other cultures are a part of serving in other countries.  Last Sunday, March 25, 2018, we traveled with our new missionary friends, David and Sylvia Potter, to an area where there is a
fairly new Nazarene church plant.  This church plant ministers to family members who are from the nearby island of Tanna, an archipelago country in the South Pacific.   This island is located about 140 miles from where this large family lives.  You can fly there or take a ferry there; although, rough seas can make bookings very unreliable.   This tribal family church that we visited has lived in this area for 35 years, but they own a little land back in Tanna, and someday, they will return there.  For now, their jobs are here in Vanuatu and their children are enrolled in a local school.

David Potter preached from Isaiah 55, " Come, all of you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come..." in Bislama. 

As in other churches, there was no guitar, but the voices of the members made some beautiful music!  

Some of you have followed our blog since 2012 and have traveled with us to beautiful places where food was a work of art; too delicious to eat! (But we did).  You also have seen photos of cultural dishes served to us and parts on the platter were unrecognizable.  But, we ate it...and drank it.  (This is when we depend on our Hepatitis A vaccination when traveling in other countries.)

After church services here, we were invited to stay for lunch.  Actually, this is quite an honor for a church to offer lunch to visitors.  They had already offered us two of the three chairs available and put us up front.  Gulp!  (This was a little uncomfortable.)  If you know us well, we don't sit on our own sofas at home most of the time, but on the floor.   While the women prepared the food, one of the chiefs of the village gave us a tour.  It was humbling, really, because he was so proud of what he had.
He showed us his prize pigs, and one was a doozy, and will meet his demise in August when the Chief's son is circumcised.  He pointed out too many fruit trees to remember.  This large family tribe grows almost everything they need right here in their space.

Finally, lunch was served and, we, along with the Potters, were served first.   Sylvia Potter explained the meal:  the dark meat was dark tuna mixed with...I forgot.., but was quite tasty.   The white portion on the plate was cassava, a root.  And, if you have ever eaten tapioca, then you have eaten Cassava;  it is the starchy liquid extracted from this root.  The green leaves are island spinach and quite tasty.  Inside each roll is the liquid meat of the cassava.   We ate it all.  To have refused would have been an insult to our guests.

The people of this Nazarene church were generous and sharing.  This was an awesome day!  We have about 7-8 Nazarene churches on this island and they are located in the jungles.  They are not big and showy.  They are in the bush.  We have noticed that our church here takes the gospel to the people...meeting them where they are!
The Potters have a deep love for these churches and for the pastors who shepherd the members.  It is a beautiful relationship to observe.

Yes, we saw the scripture that day:  ..."come all of you who are thirsty, come to the waters..."
The Word is His Water and His Word goes to the people in the jungle.
Sunday was a good day, indeed!

Thank you for reading our blog!
Keep looking up!
 J:m and L:nda