Our First Anniversary

“I cannot believe you are spending your very first anniversary on the field!” she exclaimed. “We appreciate the sacrifice; so sad your first anniversary is overseas” from another. These are some of the comments/emails I received prior to our anniversary. What would my response be now? If I could have picked any way to celebrate, if I could have changed even one thing about it, I'd choose it to be exactly how it was!





We headed for the beach around two on Saturday afternoon. I remember the truck going over the bumpy pot holes as I went over my checklist. This was my first campout to plan and I was sure I had forgotten something. I looked over at Nathan and smiled. The day was perfect. The sun was shining bright but the temperature was cool and there was a constant light breeze. I was certain it was even more beautiful than the day we got married.





We arrived at Champagne Beach and immediately begin looking for the perfect place to pitch our tent. We found a little spot nestled between two trees facing the ocean. A couple of hours later we had met and talked with the owner (a local chief), paid our rental fee, had the tent up, table set, and fire burning strong. The night before I had made cream cheese marble brownies and did all the prep work for our meal. Fajitas over a camp fire turned out to be delicious!





We had hoped to eat at sunset but our timing was slightly off. We ate a little early but had time to settle into a romantic walk on the beach as the beautiful Vanuatu sunset began to unfold. We were slightly worried that with it being tourist season we might not have rented the whole beach to ourselves (only ten dollars a night per person). However, we were blessed and by sunset the entire beach was ours! We buried our bare feet into the white sand as we held hands and talked about everything and nothing all, at the same time.

We played our favorite games on our picnic blanket by candlelight. Later, we blew out the candles just to watch how bright the stars were. A million miles from city lights, there we set watching the stars reflect off of the ocean. It was perfect! We could even see the Milky Way. You can't get all this at a fancy resort!





We set our alarm to watch the sunrise the next morning. In a sleepy state we grabbed our muffins and banana bread, the biggest blanket we had, and headed for the perfect spot. The sun was too fast and we had to race it towards our destination. There in the cool morning air we ate breakfast and watched the sunrise.





This is paradise not torture! Sure there are some hard things about being here, bugs and at times unbearable heat, but it is also one of the most beautiful places on earth. If you stop long enough to appreciate it's beauty, you see even with the poverty of the country, there are certain things God gives that man can't take away.

Family holidays may be hard on the field, but our first anniversary, it was perfect. So if you thought to pity me, just know that I had the best anniversary possible . . . I was with Nathan!

Jennifer

Painting In Paradise

Well, it has been a slow week on the work front, but I have taken the time to do some things I enjoy. One of those things is painting. Not painting houses, although I have done a little of that as of late, but the artsy type painting.

When we left the States, I thought I was going to have to put my painting on hold. My medium of choice was oil on canvas. With all the new airline restrictions I was not able to travel with the needed products, many of which I would not have been able to replenish here if I wanted to. I was disappointed but it was one of the things I felt I could sacrifice.




This all changed in May. For my birthday, the Webb family bought me an acrylic paint set after hearing from Jen that I liked to paint. Well, they couldn't have chosen a better gift. I have been painting like a madman ever since! Never having dealt with acrylics before, I was pleasantly surprised at how much easier they are to work with. So far, I have nearly completed nine paintings and counting.

Jen has also been painting with me and showing me the artistic light she has been hiding under a bushel. I keep telling her that our paintings will be worth something some day, but most likely not until after we are dead! Doesn’t that just seem so unfair? I guess those are just the breaks!





Painting has quickly become one of our favorite pastimes here at the ends of the earth. If you are wanting paint-worthy scenes, look no further than Vanuatu. Between the beaches and mountains here on Santo, to the villages and day to day life that goes on all around us, we will never run out of subjects to be remembered by our brushes. Each time we take up our brushes we try to jot down another thousand words worth of memories of our wonderful time here. We can’t wait to share with everyone these captured pieces of paradise.

Nathan

Progress In August

We have had plenty going on lately. While our house project has been at a bit of a standstill due to funding, Nate has been keeping busy helping Bryan Webb with building the SBTC (Sanna Bible Training Center) chapel. We have had an exciting month so far. I have been to the hospital here on Santo a few times and am looking to start a hospital ministry while Nate works out at the land. We also celebrated our very first wedding anniversary on the 8th of this month.

In addition to our blog page, we have unveiled our very own website at unpluggedliving.net, from which you can visit our blog spot directly by clicking on "experiences". There is also information on our current projects as well as lots of pictures of our time here so far. Special thanks to Tim and Connie Rich for all their hard work in putting this together. What a blessing!

We have spent today painting Pasta Dick’s house, and are excitedly preparing for the Assembly of God National Convention coming to Santo for the first time in years. Nathan and I will be telling the Bible stories in the morning children’s services. I will also be helping with some face painting for the children. Cannot wait to see their smiles! We will get pictures up on our website of all the August events as soon as we can.

Thanks to all of our blog followers for taking interest in our lives!

Jennifer

7.5 Earthquake

Just wanted to let everyone know that Nate & Jen are fine after the 7.5 earthquake yesterday. I skyped with them this evening and they sheepishly admitted that they didn't even feel it!! They were out in the garden, so maybe since they were outside it wasn't that noticeable?!?! I'm from California and I can't imagine not feeling an earthquake of that magnitude.

Trica

Grocery Shopping

We went grocery shopping in town today. They had HUGE cow tongues in the meat market, and a bag of, I kid you not "Small Black Fungus" in the store! Mmmm . . . . Yummy!

Out of flour, eggs, potatoes, and onions at that store, but they've got our fungus needs covered!!

If you look around at some of the smaller stores you can find the stuff you need. I just thought it was funny!

They will have more eggs tomorrow (which, by the way are 40 cents each), but I have not seen potatoes and onions in a while! We managed to get all we needed in nine different stores.

Jennifer

The Teacher's House

Nate and Jen haven't been able to get on the Internet much lately (connection problems in Vanuatu), so not much blogging has been going on here! They told me I could go ahead and post these pics of their house to show what progress they've made so far.

The house is being built on the land where the college will eventually be built. I believe work has already been started on some of the other buildings.





This is the front view, I believe. A screen porch will go across the front, with a door on each end.





This one shows the woven bamboo "siding."





Not exactly sure what this one shows - except that maybe Nate's really tired????? ( I believe he has collapsed in the kitchen. Or it might be the living room. Not sure!) He could be resting his back - he fell backwards into the 7' hole for the septic tank the other day. Never a good thing to do!





This is the view they will have out of their bedroom window. Can you say "jungle!!" The large windows will help let air flow through during the hot summer season. No air conditioning here!!

At this point, construction has slowed due to the lack of funds. Please help us pray that the needed money will come in so they can get the house finished.

If you would like to help with this project, follow this link and note that it is for the teacher's housing.

Trica

Diary of A Missionary's Wife - Part 2

April 14, 2010

. . . The village children saw us looking for a place to swim and began to lead us to the right place. Pretty soon even more children came and we had about twenty children all ready to go swimming!

Welsin, the chief's son, had been teasing me a lot earlier during freeze tag, so when he and Trevor (another village boy) wanted to take me and Nathan out in the canoe, I was a bit hesitant. I was afraid of sharks or of getting stuck somewhere, but Nathan and I decided to enjoy the adventure. I teased Welsin that he'd BETTER not tip the boat because I didn't want to be shark food! He kept teasing back that he was going to. I would tease back in Bislama, "You better not!", with an authoritative tone and he would just laugh so hard! Both of the boys found my fears hilarious. As luck would have it, after we got a ways out the canoe broke and we all fell in the water!! Welsin thought it was hilarious, and I have to admit, after all the teasing it was pretty funny.

Later, after we climbed into a bigger fishing boat, Welsin asked Nathan to tell them a story. Nathan told the story of David and Goliath, and then about an ice storm in Missouri. Then he had to explain snow to them! They asked Nathan if he had a truck in America and when he told them that even I had a car, they could not believe that I, being a woman, could drive!!

Before we left, I told Welsin that I was going to tell all the kids at school tomorrow about how he tipped the boat and tried to feed me to the sharks. All the kids laughed until they almost cried.

The day Wesin and Trevor took us out in the canoe will forever be one of my fondest memories of Vanuatu.

Jennifer



I don't have any pictures of that day, but Wesin is the blonde boy on the second bench. Trevor is sitting beside him.



A couple of the village children.