I'm still alive...
The V-Blog has been a little quiet of late, of which I apologise. Many of you will be receiving my first prayer letter soon (distributed by my lovely brothers and sisters at Credo) which should fill you in on the broad happenings of the last two months.
A little more recently I’ve found myself abruptly in a new house. My time at Sutherland House (only ever meant to be a stop-gap) finished on Tuesday, and four days beforehand I’d heard of a little house coming up for rent after some renovation work near a friend of mine’s place. Taking a punt and ringing the landlord, I effectively got a ‘meet me here on Tuesday morning and we’ll get the utilities hooked up!’
So now I have my own little place, complete with its own spider (named Lancelot for his valiant deeds in keeping my bedroom clear of the 82 odd roaches I killed in the first night there) and – oddly enough – a blackboard in my living room.
In other news we’ve seeded a second cell group. Almost exclusively composed of locals we’ve started Ephesians again with the studies I’ve been writing for the residential students. This needs to change. After our first proper week of meeting I’ve realised just how different the Ni-Vanuatu are in their thinking when it’s just them in a group (we do some of our discussion in Bislama, closer to a first language for most of them which seems to change the way they interpret questions a little). My traditional method of writing a Bible study has had mixed success in the residential group (some Ni-Vanuatu but mostly Fijians and Tongans with the occasional Solomon Islander) but seemed to fail miserably when applied to the wholly Ni-Vanuatu group.
If anyone has any experience in Pacific ministry, or even African small group work (some remarkable similarities when one considers it!) I’d love to hear from them!
Posted: Apr 16, 05:22 PM Category: cell group
Tags for this article: bible, cf, vanuatu
Katty · Apr 16, 07:37 PM
oh i can’t wait to meet Lancelot!
and ofcourse your bible study groups :)
praying for you brother Joel
D. · Apr 16, 09:39 PM
Personally, I’m happy to leave Lancelot where he is! I’m a tad concerned as to what size a spider is who can take care of 82-odd roaches!
Keep at it J! Think of all the good skills this is teaching you… ;-)
How are the coffee supplies going?
J · Apr 17, 06:58 PM
Lancelot is indeed a fine friend, though he doesn’t like mozzie coils much…I lit up last night and he started doing this angry little dance along my walls…
Hahaha, he was assisted in the initial assault by this strange French fly spray that sizzles after you spray it. I don’t want to think about what’s in it, but ‘tis certainly effective!
I’m working on the second bag you sent me in the first shipment…should be about another fortnight or so before it’s done if heavy use continues by small groups and such =)
Kimi · Apr 22, 02:00 PM
RIP Lancelot
Have the roaches come back since his death?
Sim · Apr 23, 10:16 PM
Dude…Lancelot sounds like a beast! Does he have awesome action hero lines, too? Something about fighting roaches in the shade, perhaps?
Think I’m with D., though – Big L can stay put in Vanuatu – angry dances and all!