Sam and his beautiful worship

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Meet Sam! The little boy that stole my heart! In Futuna, we did a lot of children's ministry and spent a ton of time with the pikinini, the Bislama word for children. We did everything with the pikinini. If we needed to hike somewhere new, you ask the pikinini to take you. You need help making your fire, ask the pikinini, they're pro's. Can't get your coconut to open? No worries, the pikinini as young as 2 year olds carry around knives and machetes. I love Tayler's story of having to ask a little boy if he would like her to hold his knife while he popped bubbles in the air. Tayler had just bandaged up a wound on him where he had stabbed himself with the knife. David was blowing bubbles, and this little boy was jumping and popping bubbles with one hand and knife in the other. Tayler was quite nervous, understandably.
During all of our time with the pikinini, different ones clung to various members of the team. Sam was one of my buddies, and during our nightly devotional times filled with worship and stories, Sam would always come and find me and stand in front of me, holding my hands around him, and then sit in my lap whenever I wasn't telling a story. Sam has such a bright and joy filled smile and personality. He is so incredibly sweet. But the thing that stole my heart the most was when he worshipped. Our teams big hit song on both Futuna and the island of Tanna was the song, Our Father by Bethel. On Tanna, they learned the song when Jasmine and David's team in the spring came. We sang this song at least once a day, if not more often. When Sam would sing Our Father, he would literally sing with all his might with his face raised toward heaven and eyes closed. He put his absolute all into it. It was one of the most precious, special things in all the world. I absolutely loved watching him worship.
What if we worshipped with our all as we sang in the congregation at church? What if we worshipped with our all in everything that we did? Sam taught me to worship with my whole heart because I want to be like Sam. I want my praise to God to be filled with all of me.

The Story of Laura in Matongi

Hello everyone! Now that more reliable wifi exists, I can share a few stories with pictures to accompany!   I was thinking about which story to share first, and I decided to share the story of Laura and the lesson God taught me through her.

Our first real stop in Vanuatu was the island of Futuna, where we lived for 2 and 1/2 weeks. Futuna's landmark is her mountain, which takes up most of the island, and Futuna is absolutely gorgeous! The views are breathtaking and to be taking them in is surreal. The island is only 3km wide, and there are 4 big villages on the island (with a few really small ones close by). Though the island is small, there aren't any roads to these villages, only paths to hike from place to place.

We stayed in one village, Mission Bay, the whole time we were there, and then hiked to the other villages to do various programs. Part of our team held a clinic in the village of Matongi one day, but I had stayed back at camp that day with Marisa who had injured her knee. When the team came back from that clinic, I was told of this little girl that had a bunch of terrible wounds that might be infected and need antibiotics. The next week we trekked back to Matongi for another clinic with me along for the ride.

During the clinic, Tayler pointed Laura, the little girl, out to me in her cute butterfly dress. We looked at her wounds, which looked so much better and not infected, and then she just sat with me for a while. As we talked, I found out that she is 9, and that she used to live in Australia (we knew she wasn't full Ni-Van, native to Vanuatu, due to her skin color and hair texture), and she has been in Vanuatu since last December. She loves butterflies and her favorite color is blue. She also doesn't want to be anything when she grows up (we were joking around). Through talking with her uncle, we discovered that there were some family issues, and her mom dropped her off with family in Vanuatu. Her uncle was there to pick her up, as he and his family were adopting her, and take her back to Australia where they live.

Laura and I sat together for a long time chatting, and I gave my role of taking blood pressures to another team member. As Laura was snuggled up next to me, at one point, I started talking to God and said how I felt bad that I just left my post.  I wasn't contributing to the clinic. All I was doing was being motherly to this little girl, who may not have had anything like this since she left her home. God says, "Is this not what I do for you? I stop what I'm doing to be with you and give you care and comfort and love." Obviously, God doesn't have to physically stop what He's doing, as He can be in all places at all times, but it spoke so much to my heart. We like to constantly do, do, do, but sometimes, the best ministry is just stopping to sit and talk and in this case snuggle. The best ministry can be just to love how you would want to be loved.

Laura touched my heart in such a special way, and I loved being able to spend that time with her.

Quick Update! More to Come Soon!

Hi everyone! Thought I'd put out a quick update! Pretty soon, I will start putting up stories and pictures regularly when I have more reliable wifi! We are currently in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu. We've been here for some time doing ministry in the markets, hospital, prison, and just on the street. We even had the huge blessing of meeting and praying with the President of Vanuatu! Outreach has been wild! I can say I've done some crazy things that I never in a million years thought I would have done! We have spent significant time living in the bush, which was an experience- I had a lot of fun though! I have stood and danced on top of an active volcano, I have literally hiked to the top of a mountain, I have seen breath taking views, I have seen God's compassion and love for the broken and hurting and sick. I have seen the power of God to change lives and whole villages. I have seen God answer prayers, and I have watched as God has impacted and changed my heart in ways I never thought imaginable. I have taken a journey to the center of my earth, and though it was hard and challenging at times, it has been well worth it! I can't wait to share pictures and stories!

Another Earthquake

There was another earthquake in New Zealand.  This time, I wasn't even on the island so that was good!  I am currently in Port Vila in Vanuatu.  There isn't much for internet access here but I wanted everyone to know that I am ok.  I will post about my jungle adventures later but the short answer was that it was life changing!