Cyclone Pam

Cyclone Pam didn't hit Fiji. Our neighbours in Vanuatu have borne the brunt.

I'm writing on Sunday 13th March 2015 and news is still very sketchy because communications are down in Vanuatu. The category 5 cyclone appears to have devastated a significant proportion of the capital, Port Vila, but a country is more than its capital city and what it all means in terms of losses and deaths overall will become clear as the days unfold.

Here in the community at Pacific Theological College we have Rev Leinamau Seru from the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu along with Rev Collin and Mrs Roslyne Keleb and their family. From the Anglican Church of Melanesia, also from Vanuatu are Fr John Hinge with his wife Rossalie and family. The Hinge family are pastoral group members and I'm just back from visiting them and praying together. I happened to call by as the little boys were watching a cartoon about Moses' victory over the Red Sea. Very excitedly they told me the story. No sceptism in those young minds about who has ultimate control over the elements!

I conveyed the concern and prayers of the Methodist Church in Britain, via our Partnership Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific, Steve Pearce. Fr John's response was:

Thank you for the prayers - that is everything we need. This is natural disaster. Every year in Vanuatu we get warnings because we are right on the cyclone path, but only sometimes it is very bad like this year. We always remember 1985 and the cyclones Eric and Nigel which were devastating. This appears to be bad too, but we will wait for the news, trusting in God. 

The Hinge family are concerned about the state of things back 'home' - of course they are. But they convey the quiet confidence and solid faith of Christians who are well used to living in a cyclone belt where 'death' and 'resurrection' are realities played out in daily life, not confined to clinical discussion in the confines of a Theological College classroom.

I'll keep in close touch, of course, with the Vanuatuan community here at PTC and convey news from them, with their permission, as I have it. In the meantime, please pray...

for whatever is needful in Vanuatu's present situation to be provided 

speedily, generously and justly 

for those away from home with no news or minimal news: for confidence, calmness and the wisdom to make the right responses when news comes

for the Pacific region as a whole, as climate concerns and natural disasters again become headline news globally

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