Happy Christmas 2012

Christmas Greetings   
        from the Paschkes,
                                        to all our family and friends. 


Just wanted to say Hi to everyone, and thanks to many for your Christmas letters.

We always enjoy reading the news of the year from our friends, and keeping up to date with how everyone is going.

We are actually back in Adelaide (Mount Barker) at the moment and have been enjoying Christmas with our extended family.  It was great to be able to spend three full days with Chewie (Lyndell's brother) and Kaz and their five kids, after four years of not seeing each other. They have just returned from PNG, and are now on their way to Nth Qld where they will be living.
 

Jon's sisters and family will be joining us for Christmas Day, along with Allen and Val (Lyndell's mum and dad) who have also travelled over to Adelaide from Melbourne.

We are planning on returning to Vanuatu mid-January. 

But the purpose of this brief blog is just to wish you all a blessed Christmas season, and we especially trust that you will have some time to reflect and be thankful for the best gift of all - Jesus, given for each of us.


Much love and many blessings,
  from Jon and Lyndell, Ben and Joel.

Jon cracks the big 50 !

Recently Jon travelled to a Scripture Union conference in Malaysia, and just 24 hours after returning from overseas, it was time to mark his 50^th birthday.  Jon had said before he left that he wasn’t wanting a big party, coz he wasn’t a ‘party man’ (he would be more than happy to go to someone else’s party, but has always said that he doesn’t need his own party).  However, we felt that the occasion was certainly worth at least a small acknowledgement. 

Accordingly the boys and I made a quiet plan to invite over a couple of Jon’s long-time Vanuatu friends for a family kakae at our home on the night of 13^th November.  Previously, we had only let on to him that we had invited Netty and her husband and their two little girls to come over to share a “laplap sosor” for the evening meal. (An all-time favourite meal of Jon’s.)  

As the night went on, a few more friends just happened to ‘turn up’.  And ... it turned out to be a lovely evening catching up with friends whom we don’t necessarily see all that often, even though we all live in the same town. 

 

It was fun too that we could use our new home to offer hospitality to others and host this group of 25 people with enough space for people to sit around on the mat enjoying the laplap and others relaxing and chatting outside the house or on the verandah.

We weren’t able to find birthday candles for the birthday chocolate cake, but the colourful chewing gums were still enjoyed by all the kids who were there!

 

 

The oldest member of our Vanuatu family was Pastor Leinamau’s mother (in her 70s) and the youngest was Yolanda Yosef (Netty’s second daughter), at 8 months old.

Congratulations Jon (and dad)! 

Lots of love from Lyndell, Ben & Joel

“Learning French in Paradise”

Hi again.

Ben has recently written an article for the Newsletter of his school (“Open Access College” in Adelaide), where he talks about studying French as his foreign language subject.   It is titled “Learning French in Paradise”.

C’est bon.  J'espère que vous l'apprécierez.  Here is the link …  

http://www.openaccess.edu.au/newsletter/issue3_term2_2012.html#Apprendre

Joel's view of life in Vanuatu

Have a look at Joel's view of life here in Vanuatu . . .

Visit to Futuna and Tanna Islands

Ben and I (Jon) have had the wonderful privilege of a brief 10 day visit to the southern islands of Futuna and Tanna.  I was invited to lead the Bible studies at the “Southern Islands Presbyterian Youth Convention” hosted by the people on Futuna Island (from the 9^th to the 16^th of October).  The general theme of the convention was “Worship in Spirit and Truth”, and also included electives designed to help the youth in their leadership of their home communities.  It was fabulous being together with Albea Nalisa (our SU Coordinator) as he used his music and worship-leading gifts all through the week. 

A colourful celebration dance

Futuna is Albea’s home island and it was obvious both he and his community really enjoyed the reunion! It was a tremendous convention, with about 100 participants (not including the Futunese hosts) from the scattered islands of southern Vanuatu, with the majority of the young people coming from various parts of Tanna Island. Even more youth were ready to come over to Futuna for the convention, but the ever-typical transport problems (the engine of the “plan A” ship broke down), meant that quite a few had to stay home.  Anyway, for those of us who could be there, it was a fabulous week.  Ben took heaps of photos, so lots of memories.  Thank you so much for those of you who have been praying for us!

 
More about Futuna ...

Jon and Albea

I take my hat off to the people of Futuna! Their island is only small compared to most of the others in Vanuatu, and the feeling of being “out on your own” in the middle of a huge ocean is really quite something!  These guys are the genuine survivors.  Along with their faith in a great and faithful God, the Futunese people have developed a wide range of skills not only in order to survive but also to thrive in their local environment.

A single track leads you on a 4 hour walk around the island, connecting all the villages.  In between (and up the big hill in the centre of the island), food gardens are cultivated on slopes that have to be seen to be believed!  Water is gravity fed to villages from a couple of permanent sources. But so much of this and other ‘island infrastructure’ was destroyed (or at least severely damaged) by two powerful malingering cyclones in January this year. The connecting walking track was also made impassable in several places by rock falls or landslides.  Food gardens are just now starting to produce as normal again, but it has obviously been a very challenging year.

 The people of Futuna necessarily have to live independently from other islands and from town resources. They haven’t had a visit from a cargo boat for over a year now! Village stores generally don’t have much in stock.  There has never been any mobile phone coverage from either of Vanuatu’s telecommunication providers, and there is only one landline telephone on the whole island, which was only working for a part of one day while we were there! The twice weekly twin-otter plane link is the only regular connection with the rest of the country.

The Fish … !

People on Futuna live off the sea.  Our main food for the week-long convention was fish – and man, it doesn’t get any better than that!  When the local men and boys go fishing, you know that they will bring something back – because they know exactly what they’re doing!  Wahoo, tuna, barracuda, flying fish, poulet (deep-sea red fish) – you name it, they find it!   

Ben and I had the special privilege of going out on a fishing trip with two fisherman friends at 4am one morning – and we struck with instant success.  Trawling with only hand-lines, we caught 2 nice sized wahoo and one tuna, and were back in the village in time for breakfast!  Again, it doesn’t get much better than that!  What an awesome privilege to go out with two blokes who know the water, currents, tides, wind and weather, baits and lures, etc – like the back of their hands! 

I can’t take credit for any great skill in catching my first ever wahoo, but I do have the fishing line scars on my hands to prove that it did actually happen!  Man, what a workout!

  

 Over to Tanna …

Ben on the edge of the ash plain

Only a brief visit to Tanna this time, but it was totally worth it. Albea and I had the opportunity to stay with the local SU volunteer boys, and check out the work they are doing on renovating their new SU office and bookroom, as well as visiting Secondary Schools at Ienaula, Lenakel, and Isangel (French).  Ben and I shared the talk with the students at Ienaula, and with the youth group at Iarkei village, who live over near the active volcano. 

At the crater

  Of course we had to spend an evening with Yasur Volcano too. You can’t come over to this side of the island without ‘dropping in’.  As usual, Yasur put on a great performance – we loved it!  Ben got some great photos, as well as some good stories and local information for a subject he is studying at school on volcanoes.  These things are truly amazing.  It’s so cool to be able to see a real volcano up close (in 4D sen-surround), rather than just studying about one in a text book!

 

‘til next time.

Jon and Ben.

Memory Verse challenge #3

Today we had a small celebration to recognize the effort put in by Ben and Joel and 6 friends who all learnt to say the 24 verses of Psalm 139 off by heart.  Well done guys!  That was a great effort.  May the truth of these verses which reflect the greatness and goodness of God be with you forever.

Ben, Corey, Anthony, Joel, Cassia, Tione, Jacinta and Sharyna

 

Psalm 139 (NIV 1984)

 ¹ O LORD, you have searched me
   and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
   you know it completely, O LORD.
 ⁵ You hem me in — behind and before;
   you have laid your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.
 ⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.
 ¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
   the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.
 ¹³ For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
 ¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
   were written in your book
   before one of them came to be.
 ¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
   they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
   I am still with you.
 ¹⁹ If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
   Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
   your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
   and abhor those who rise up against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
   I count them my enemies.
 ²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting. 

 

Congratulations guys! What’s the next challenge?

Book cover designed by Ben

We’re really pleased to announce the long-awaited launch of the new book, “Wea nao Stret Rod?”.

It has been quite a long process, from the initial translating from PNG Tok Pisin into Bislama (done by Lilian, a local lady), and then checking, and re-checking of drafts, formatting, cover designing, printing, collating, publishing, etc. -- but it's finally all done! 

Remember the classic book by John Bunyan, “Pilgrims’ Progress”?   Maybe you read it some years ago.  Well, we now have an illustrated and contextualised version of this same story available in Bislama for people throughout Vanuatu to also read and enjoy.

A team effort. SU, SIL, VBT.

   

This is one of the fruit of the partnership between Scripture Union Vanuatu, SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) and VBT (Vanuatu Bible Translation).

 

You can read more about the book and launch in the following article, written for the local newspaper by Ross Webb ...

Wea Nao Stret Rod?

Good question! The Holy Bible of course works hard to answer that question. And many people have tried to make the Bible’s answer easy to understand. One of those clear thinkers was a man named John Bunyan who was put in gaol by leaders in England for asking too many questions about the corrupt nature of the church at the time!

He didn’t waste his time in prison. No, he spent his time writing an allegory called “Pilgrim’s Progress”. It is the story of a man who faces many hardships, persecutions and trials during his life. The whole story is a vivid and realistic picture of a person who wishes to live as a Christian and eventually end up in the “celestial city”.

That story was written almost 400 years ago. It turned out to be a very influential book – for nearly 300 years in England it was the most popular book next to the Bible. It inspired and encouraged many Christians in tough times. Unfortunately if you tried to read the original version today you’d have a tough time. The English he wrote in is difficult for us to understand clearly today.

But readers in Vanuatu don’t have to face that challenge. On Thursday 29^th September in a small ceremony, Scripture Union, Vanuatu Bible Translation (VBT) and SIL launched a version of Pilgrim’s Progress in Bislama. Its Bislama title is “Wea Nao Stret Rod?”. The language and the title isn’t the only thing that has changed. The story has been reformed and translated to reflect life in Melanesia with our particular challenges in focus so that it’s easy for us to relate to.

Lilian Navaika (SIL) and Albea Nalisa (SUV)

This version was written first in PNG’s Tok Pisin. Two years ago Lilian Navaika of SIL started wrestling with the Tok Pisin version to get it into understandable Bislama. Then a team of readers and reviewers from VBT and Scripture Union read it over many times to get it to sound as good as it does. Those involved in the editing agreed that it was a great story and one that should become very popular in Vanuatu.

Albea Nalisa, Coordinator of Scripture Union told those gathered that 300 vatu was very cheap for such an important book. The ladies who work in the SUV office and lending library on the top floor of Caillard & Kaddour in Port Vila will be more than happy to show you the new book, and all the other Bislama titles they have to help you find the Stret Rod.

Will “Wea Nao Stret Rod?” become as popular and influential as its parent Pilgrim’s Progress? Only time will tell.