Vanuatu April 15

Update from Vanuatu:
This week has been a bit of battle as I have been sick for over one week. I did manage to make it to the local hospital last night and the guess is that I have a chest infection so I am on amoxicillin antibiotics. The good thing is that no matter the diagnosis, ANY infection should be healed with the medicine. I am trying to find the happy medium between rest and still translating for the Leadership School. Many 'home remedies' have come up among the natives including putting garlic under your feet with socks before bed, oil on the throat, full body steam, onion on the throat etc. One guy eagerly explained a herbal remedy used at home but then stated he had never used it on a 'white person' so he wouldn't want to try it on me. The hospital was fairly primitive but clean. One staff took the payment (ten dollars for natives, thirty for visitors) , another nurse was in charge of injections, one for passing out medicines, one doctor assistant and one security guard. There were quite a few babies there (this was 8pm).  I asked where the emergency room was and they pointed to the door we had come in, in front of it were three seats. Ricky, the leader of the Leadership school who is Ni-Van (from Vanuatu), said that many times people just sit and wait for such a long time that they die from blood loss. It made me appreciate our health care options during a time where many Americans are frustrated with it. Many blessings and thanks for the continued prayers for healing... Alissa

Vanuatu Earthquakes

We had a medium size earthquake last night, or maybe it was a small one but seemed bigger :) Early in the morning I woke up and started praying against fear, not knowing why. Then as I was praying the first earthquake hit.  I layed there listening to some girls praying and told God I was ready if a tsunami came but I prefered to stay in bed and sleep the rest of the night (Amen?). As the second one hit I bounced out of the bunkbed (I was on top) and debated whether staying on the top floor of the two story building was safer than trying to make it downstairs and outside...decided to wait it out. No other aftershocks happened and one of the staff quickly checked (technology is great- even in the village we have internet) and there were no tsunami warning so we went back to bed (i stayed on the bottom bunk this time with my shoes ready to slip on). A couple of the fijians boys had not experienced an earthquake before (the people from Vanuatu have them from time to time) so they ended up staying up all night. Good experience for us to put into practice our faith in God. What is our first reaction when faced with crisis? To run? To save ourselves? To pray? I'm thankful for an almighty God that hears prayers and delivers! Just another step towards heaven~ Alissa

Live from Vanuatu

Live from Vanuatu :)
I have a few moments break from a very busy schedule. I've been granted an extension of three weeks to stay in Vanuatu and continue supporting the base, primarily through building and encouraging the students in Transformational Leadership Seminar. I've been using my rusty french with some of the students from New Caledonia. We finished our rugby tournament and even though our team did not place it was an excellent time of bonding and building relationships. I continue my role as team medic extending to the rest of the base also (band aids, slivers, etc). We met a couple times with rugby union (myself,Waqa my director, Sai a well known ref and trainer from Fiji and Mana, a well known Fiji 7s player) and these meetings led to more doors being open to support the sport of rugby in the entire nation. Sai will be returning in two weeks time to train the referees here on the island and uplift the level of professionalism. I'm organizing a small scale rugby clinic for the girls in the village as they have told me that they used to have a girls team but after their coach was put into jail they gave up on the sport. A house here in the village burnt down last night. Apparently the grandparents and two grandaughters were sleeping when a candle caught fire on some clothes. Because their 'huts' are made of wood and tin roof they easily burn. By the time our boys from the base made it with a hose the house was burnt to the ground and the side kitchen was also gone. They boys managed to save the last outbuilding but the family was left with nothing. The sad part is many neighbors came outside to watch but the YWAM boys were the only ones offering their help and support. There is still work to do in extending God's love to the nation of Vanuatu!  Thank you for your prayers and support as I continue to be flexible to where God would have me. I right now have a head cold but believe by the time this email reaches you the prayers will have healed me !
Tank yu tomas  (thank you in Bislama) Alissa