signing out

its quiet
we leave Talua today
everyone in our house is asleep – its 4am
maybe its not so quiet
i can hear devotions being sung from Ps Mata's house
also, the crickets are chirping, the bats are flying outside our bedroom again - the berry's are back in the tree, and the roosters are beginning to crow.

we went to bed last night with all our bags packed, ready to go,
the bus picks us up in under two hours, we fly south from Santo leaving Vanuatu in a few days,
the house is clean, the new staff house PCANZ paid for is finished and has been opened, it has been named "Heniko House", graduation 07 is over so my final talk talk at Talua complete - I was guest speaker. some students have left, others leave in the next week or so, several are staying at Talua cos boats to their islands are few and far between – the students will stay over the summer break working at Talua till Feb 08 when it all begins again. by then two new kiwi's will be here living in Heniko House and we will be living somewhere in NZ.

there were tears in our family last night, the excitement that we are going back to nz had disappeared, much sadness over leaving behind close friends and leaving such a special place. my heart is heavy, saying bye to the new house, our house, the bursar office - spaces i needed or spaces i put a lot of energy into - last night i finally completed journaling all November transactions into the laptop before the generator went off, I only have December to complete when back in NZ. Thursday night i had to start the generator and turn it off two hours later - my last time at doing that, there have been plenty of 'last time' for this or that. no more long church services J, graduation was long but also gut wrenching shaking hands realizing this is the end, that some of these friends go back to the bush and I might never see them again, thank God for coffee in heaven and plenty of time to catch up and storian with mates, and thank God that heaven will not be very white at all but be filled with people of every race, nation and colour, white will be the minority - that will be good - heaven will have some character, soul, loud singing and charm that white people can't crank up. I'm going to miss being here, the whole family will miss being here.

God has been good, all the time, He has been good

this is Jon, signing out off from Talua

papa God bless you all
amen