IT'S GREAT TO BE 8

On Sunday, September 27, 2015 our grandson, Landon, turned 8 years old.  We are excited for him as now he can be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He will be baptized on Saturday, October 10, 2015.  We are delighted about his decision to be baptized and about his upcoming baptism.

"Be baptized to show obedience, as was Jesus Christ, our Lord."  Baptism Children's Songbook, 100

Rebuilding After Cyclone Pam, Part 2

This is part 2 as promised.  Saturday morning, one hour after Elder Leben had left for Tanna, Gary flew on this plane.  The plane made one stop on the island of Eramongo and they reunited on Tanna Island about 11:00 AM.  It was an adventure.  In the five days on Tanna Island, Gary and Matthias were able to make an assessment of the needs on Tanna and to develop a plan to begin the rebuilding.  They felt as though they had heaven's help all the way as things began to fall in place.

A view from inside

The plane made one stop, landing on a grass runway on Eramango island

Take off and on to Tanna island

Matthias and Gary with local branch president on Tanna island

One of the homes that needs some serious repair after the cyclone.   Many people did the best they could to find pieces of their former homes to "cobble" them back together to make a shelter to keep the family particially dry.

Gas/Petrol Station on Tanna, no credit cards accepted.

Filling the truck at the gas station 

Going to Church - a hour and a half ride

Mother and child on the way to church Sunday morning

You need good balance to attend this church meeting

Elder Leben at Green Point church meeting, Tanna Island.  This is the sacrament table.

Sunday morning church meeting at Green Point  

Releif Society President, Green Point 

Elders Winters and Leben with local branch leadership

Gary and Matthias with leaders at a government meeting

Diagram of the village structure at White Grass, Tanna Island

Reviewing a partially built home

Branch president at his place of business (Butcher Shop)

Building a cyclone shelter from local materials

Temporary school building donated by UNICEF 

Meeting with local leaders to discuss rebuilding plans

A locally built cyclone shelter at Saet Siui, Tanna Island

At CARE International reviewing tool kits to help people rebuild their homes on Tanna.

Meeting with the director of the Rural Traning Center on Tanna Island.  This organization teaches skills to rebuild homes.

Meeting with Middle Bush leaders on Tanna Island

This mother was asking for a wheelchair for her 6 year old daughter.  Elder Leben,  a pediatrician was able to look at her leg and determine that she had a bone infection and needed to go to the hospital and have her leg treated.  Once treatment was received, she wouldn't need a wheelchair.

Homes on Tanna that need a few repairs

"Keep going, and the Lord will help you." D Todd Christofferson, Brethren, We Have Work to Do" October General Conference 2012

Rebuilding after Cyclone Pam, Part 1

On Friday, August 28th we flew to the island nation of Vanuatu.  We were met at the airport by Elder and Sister Leben, the humanitarian missionary couple in Vanuatu.  The purpose of our visit was to help them with the recovery plans to rebuild homes after Cyclone Pam.

We dropped off our luggage at our hotel and then went to the Leben's home for lunch.

Just as we were finishing lunch Elder Leben received a phone call telling him that the Saturday morning flight to Tanna island he and Gary were scheduled for was cancelled and they would book them for a flight on Tuesday.  That was totally unacceptable as the whole purpose of the trip was so that Gary and Elder Leben could work on Tanna for 5 days.  We immediately went to the Air Vanuatu office in downtown Port Vila to see if they could get on a different flight.  After standing in line for forever we finally left with one confirmed seat and one standby seat on another flight in the morning.

After our experience with the airline, we drove to one of the higher points on the island of Efate to relax and get an overview of Port Vila.

Early Saturday morning Sister Leben took the men to the airport.  Elder Leben took the confirmed seat on the first flight at 8:00 AM and Gary was able to get on a 9:00 AM flight with a stop on another island.  He arrived on Tanna island about 11:00 AM.  Meanwhile Susan and Sister Leben went about their part of the work on the island of Efate.  Things worked out well for Gary and Matthias and they had the 5 days needed for their work on Tanna island.  (More details on the next post.)

With the men safely off on their flights, Susan and Sister Leben went to the market and bought food for the week.  After their shopping they attended a baptism.  Following the baptism they went to lunch with Sister Stoddard, an education missionary on Vanuatu.  Her husband took the people (15) who came to the baptism back to their homes, an hour's drive away.  Pick up trucks are quite versatile.

Sunday they attended church at one ward and then went to another ward hoping to catch up with the stake president.  They were unsuccessful but were able to make contact with President Basil later in the day.  After discussing a pressing matter with him they went home and had dinner with Elder and Sister Stoddard who live next door to the Leben's.  After dinner Susan and Petra worked on their computers and made plans for Monday morning which began a full day and a busy work week.

Beginning Monday morning, Sisters Winters and Leben worked with local church members who helped them find the homes of people needing help rebuilding or repairing their homes.  When they arrived at a home, Susan would photograph the home and owner and assign a number.  She would ask them how many people lived in the home, if they owned the land and if they had water.  Meanwhile, Sister Leben and the local people would measure and assess the condition of the home.  Some homes were totally gone, while others just needed a few building materials to make them livable again.  

The plan is to have government approved building training courses at the local churches.  The training will teach the recipients how to build a stronger and safer, more cyclone resistant structure.  Each selected household will receive the specific materials that they need for repair or rebuild.  After the families complete the repairs or rebuild, the training the teams will go back and take pictures of the completed homes.  We call them homes, but they are far from what most people would consider a home.  They are really just a shelter, a sleeping area where the family can keep dry. Each home owner must attend the rebuilding training in order to receive the building materials.  The supplies will help to make a 4m x 5m (about 13 ft. X 16 ft.) sleeping area.  They are told not to try to build a bigger home as it will not be cyclone safe.  With the proper materials and building techniques the homes will be safe up to a category 3 cyclone.  This help and training is offered to everyone in the areas selected - members and non-members alike.  At this stage, it looks like there may be about 700 homes.

"Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, 'I'll try again tomorrow.'"  Mary Anne Radmacher, Courage Doesn't Always Roar (2009) quoted by Thomas S. Monson, First Presidency Message  January 2012 "Living the Abundant Life" 

Making Your Own Mission

Monday morning we got up very early, drove to the airport and caught a flight to Suva, Fiji.   Upon our arrival we were met by Frank and Suzanne Stanford.  Frank and Suzanne are from Calgary, Canada.  Back in 2002 they wanted to go on a mission, but only for a year.  When they met with their stake president he counseled them to "make their own mission".  And so they did - they went to Fiji and volunteered to serve in the Fiji Temple as temple workers.  After a year they returned to Canada, but one thing lead to another and they ended up back in Fiji to do some more church-service.  When they finished their time there they again returned to Canada.  Then about 5 years ago they were trying to decide what they should do next.   They got the distinct impression to sell everything and go back to Fiji.  The rest is history.  Frank is now the Country Welfare Manager (a volunteer church-service position) in Fiji and Suzanne takes care of the wheelchair distributions and is his assistant.  They work with the young single adults and youth in their ward, provide humanitarian service and are applying for citizenship in Fiji.  They are fantastic assets to everyone they associate with and an excellent example to those they work with.  Each year they return to Canada for a short visit with family and then return to their adventures in Fiji.  They live in Suva, but their service takes them to many other islands.

Frank has been invaluable in helping to make some of the humanitarian projects we have in the Pacific Area happen.  When the hospital ship, USNS Mercy, came in July, Frank coordinated the efforts to get people needing surgery to the ship and the supplies on the ship to medical clinics on land.  When a shipment of school furniture got stuck in customs, Frank worked tirelessly to solve the problem.  Suzanne has become the scrapbooker and kept an excellent record of newspaper clippings and articles in addition to pictures of the various humanitarian projects they have helped with over the years.

Frank traveled with us when we visited the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni this past week (more posts to follow).  He and Suzanne know how to make things happen.  We are thankful for them and the difference they have made in Fiji.  In our conversations this last week, they told us that because of health issues they probably would not have been able to pass the physicals to receive a mission call, but all the same, they are making their own very successful mission.

Gary, Susan, Suzanne and Frank

"Amidst the storms of life, danger lurks; and men, like boats, find themselves stranded and facing destruction.  Who will man the lifeboats, leaving behind the comforts of home and family, and go to the rescue?"  Thomas S. Monson, Teachings of Thomas S. Monson

International Dateline, More Garden Visits and A Pleasant Evening in Taveuni

After the ceremony at Somosomo School we jumped into our 4WD vehicle and drove to the other end of the island (Vuna) to visit more gardens and the people who have been working with Elder and Sister Roth.  We thought we had seen some nice gardens - then we visited the gardens in Vuna.  We are not sure whether it was the soil, the warmer climate or something else but we very impressed.  As you can probably tell, the gardens are flourishing.  The members were happy and were able to provide for their families as well as sell a little produce on the side.

Everyone in the family was involved in the garden.  After Gary showed one sister how to thin her carrots, her little ones immediately got down on the ground hard at work weeding the garden and thinning the carrots.

After our delightful visits to the gardens we loaded ourselves back into the car (really a 4WD truck) to go to our dinner appointment.  As we drove along, the topic of the International Dateline came up and since it was nearby, we decided to make a quick stop.  It was nearly sunset and quite windy, but we were able to capture some pictures before we drove up the road to rendezvous with some other senior missionaries at the Tramonto Restaurant.  The view was breathtaking.  Here you see Gary in "today" and Susan in "yesterday".  

After dinner we went back to our hotel which was rustic and quite nice.  We had a marvelous view of the water and even had some fruit bats out in the trees.

In the morning we got up and ate breakfast before going to the dock to catch the ferry back to Natuvu, Buca Bay.  Susan had made sure to take her seasick pills the night before and she did much better on the return trip.  We had decided to ride a different ferry on the return, but there were no available seats so we got on the Taveuni Princess again.   The captain wears white unless it is a stormy day.  Then she wears brown.  When the ferry arrived she was wearing brown.  We boarded the boat and waited for our departure.  As we were sitting there, Gary's cell phone rang.  It was a phone call from Church headquarters SLC regarding a missionary dentist that was scheduled to come and serve in the Samoa humanitarian dental clinic for the next 18 months.  We were glad for that call and quite surprised that we could receive telephone service so far from any center of population. When we returned to Natuvu, Buca Bay we drove to Savusavu where we had lunch with Elder and Sister Roth.  On the way to the airport to catch the first leg of our return home we stopped at the Seaqaqa Primary School where more school furniture had been donated.  It was just a quick visit.  It was Friday afternoon and school was out, but we were impressed that all the children and teachers were cleaning the buildings and grounds.  At the airport we checked in and departed at about 4:00pm.  The flight to Suva, Fiji was a short one.  We arrived and settled in for a 5 hour layover in the Suva airport, which has one small snack counter and not much to choose from - a good place to maintain your diet.  At 10:30pm we boarded our flight for Auckland and got back to New Zealand at 1:45am.  By the time we got home it was close to 3:00am.  It was wonderful to have been in Fiji, but it was also good to be home.

"Whatever our calling, regardless of our fears or anxieties, let us pray and then go and do."  Thomas S. Monson "They Pray and They Do"  General Conference April 2003