To Pause at the Threshold

 

Well, we are still in Vanuatu! We got a phone call around 8:30AM on Friday October 23, our day to begin our travels toward the USA. Our missionary partner, Peter Isaac, asked David if he had heard that our flight’s departure had been moved up. NO! I quickly called Air Vanuatu and discovered that it was true. Air Vanuatu never notified us of the change! We are very thankful for the Vanuatu “bush telephone”! We were thankful that we were packed and ready to go. We quickly made a plan and got out the door to pickup our COVID PCR test results at the hospital and drop our car and other things off at our old house with the Isaacs, and hop in their truck to head back to the apartment to pick up our luggage. We made it to the airport by 10 AM right on schedule and some of our friends were already there!

Well, to make the very long story shorter, after about 4 hours of waiting we left to go to the Air Vanuatu office in town. We were not allowed on the plane because the earlier departure time made our NZ transit visa invalid and NZ didn’t want to budge an inch on their 24 hour limit rule!

My dear husband taught me that it is far better to come to acceptance of bad news quickly than to grouse about it and let it eat you up. He’s a very wise guy! So, we got over the pain and disappointment as quickly as possible. We are tired of farewells and saying goodbye! We are considering not telling anyone our departure date so that we can just go to the airport and checkin and be off! That probably won’t happen.

We are now booked to depart from Vanuatu on Wednesday, November 3rd with our arrival in Grand Rapids on Friday, November 5, 11:01PM. Please pray that we are able to get the AU transit visa worked out in time. We’ve submitted the online applications and lots of different documents that were required. Pray that Air Vanuatu won’t change our departure flight!! 

Today, two passengers who arrived on a flight from New Caledonia last Friday and who have been quarantined in a facility were found to be COVID +. This is causing quite a stir for a nation that hasn’t had any cases other than a couple that came from outside and were in quarantine. We’re hoping and praying that the border will remain open for outbound travel, and that there was no transmission to the airport personnel or quarantine staff. 

There is one more little item that could cause some trouble. The simulation COVID lockdown that was going to happen the three days before our departure on Friday, has now been rescheduled for the three days before our departure next Wednesday. We will need to drive to the hospital to get our PCR test redone and then return to pick up the results. Please pray that nothing will interfere with that key piece in our ability to travel.

Thank you so much for your prayers! We have been at peace and mostly joyful in the midst of all that has gone on. 

By the way, To Pause at the Threshold is the name of a book I’m reading about transitions by Esther de Waal. It seems perhaps that we’ve been given a moment to “pause” and reflect on the place we’ve been and the people who've become family, and what we’re relinquishing as we open up to the new possibilities awaiting us across “the threshold." 

At the end of the day with its joys and disappointments, some friends invited us to join them at a restaurant down the street from our apartment.  We enjoyed a nice meal and a glorious sunset!

Making a List and Checking It Twice...

Sunrise over Efate

No, we're not thinking of celebrating Christmas in July! 😁But, we are making a list. With only 3 1/2 months till we bid farewell to our home of 18 years, our minds have been full of many things needing to be done before we leave. Some of the items on our list are training meetings where we spend time helping others be ready to take on our responsibilities. We're so thankful for the people who have committed to taking on those roles! Though they have much to learn, they come with skills and knowledge that makes the learning easier. They also have an eagerness to learn and willingness to give their time. We're praising God for our SPNTC administrative team!

Some of the items on our list are things we're really glad to be checking off the list! Things like registering our Toyota RAV4 for the last time and the last time to face the process of renewing our residency visa. The process to accomplish these tasks seems to change every year and involves many attempts to finally get them checked off. 

Our list includes some "lasts" that are difficult because they mean letting go of something that we've really enjoyed and found very fulfilling. David is nearing the end of his last SPNTC class, and Sylvia finished teaching her class last month. As difficult as it has been to be prepared and ready to teach each class, the opportunity to be connected with our pastors, church leaders, and faculty as their teachers has brought so much joy across the years. It has been exciting to see several of our graduates move on to become teachers who are eager to make a difference in the lives of their students. 

In the midst of checking off things from our list, things that are fairly familiar, we are having to learn some brand new things which then get added to our list to pass along to others. We appreciate your prayers as we get familiar with GNECsis - the Global Nazarene Education Consortium system of recording students, classes, and grades for SPNTC. This system has been under development by people in the Nazarene Church to help small schools like SPNTC with record keeping without the cost of expensive software. We have been joining other SPNTC principals and registrars from Samoa and Fiji and another Bible college representative from Portugal via Zoom to be trained by Kindra Bible from her office in the USA. It's a huge jump from the Microsoft Word and Excel documents that have kept our records for the last 15 years here in Vanuatu. Please pray for us as we figure out the tasks and procedures for entering our information and train our SPNTC registrar and new principal, Rev. Jenny Isaac.

Our GNECsis training takes place on Zoom across many time zones.

Meriam joined students from Samoa via Zoom.

In our last newsletter we mentioned that the CALD program from Nazarene Theological College in Brisbane, Australia, was set to begin for Nazarenes in Vanuatu. Rev. Meriam Naunga has completed her first 25 hour intensive and is now working to complete her assignments in the first CALD class, Introduction to Pastoral Theology. She is finding it to be very challenging with all the lectures and discussions in English, as well as the reading assignments. She is learning to submit assignments online that she first writes in Bislama and then translates to English. Thank you for your prayers for Rev. Meriam as she pursues this training, and pray that other Nazarene graduates will join her.

Pastor David and Rev. Meriam Naunga

"See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" 

Isaiah 43:19