Tag Archives: Tanna

The Syncretistic Rabbit

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Credit: Revivals Cakes, via Wiki commons

There are no rabbits on Tanna.  There are also no chocolate eggs in the stores.  That’s cool with me, I don’t like chocolate much anyway.  For those who do, I have been able to get my hands on two packs of Tymos – much like the Australian Tim Tam but better because they come in coconut flavour.  Personally, I would prefer the rabbit itself, but as I said, none of them either.

Eggs aren’t a part of Easter here.  Why would they be?  Even if people did know what a rabbit was, I’m pretty sure they could take a fair guess and say that they don’t lay eggs.  An egg-delivering fur-ball just isn’t part of their past.  But it is part of ours of course. Continue reading →

Cyclone Ula and Tanna’s Spiritual Beliefs

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Vanuatu, Tanna, Naka, Cyclone Pam 30At the moment winds are blowing at about 165km/h close to the centre of the category 4 cyclone, Ula, about 210km southwest of Tanna. The courses of cyclones are difficult to predict, but at present the best guess is that it will miss Tanna and continue to head in a southwest direction, however there is more to think about here than the direction of the storm.

We are in Port Vila (on another island further away) at the moment waiting to go home to Tanna tomorrow, but from our experience with Cyclone Pam last year, it is likely that many people on Tanna at the moment will be in a state of great anxiety. Most people on Tanna do not view a cyclone and an event controlled by an all-powerful God, nor as a result of explainable physical phenomena; but as a physical occurrence controlled by certain people who manipulate spirits/gods through their magical ability and mental state. That is, they believe that some people can ‘pull’ a cyclone to Tanna or send it away. Continue reading →

Faith that’s Clothes Deep

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Iresized_resized_TRPH0014-2slamic attire is now commonplace on the road that runs through Tanna’s Middle Bush. Before Cyclone Pam there was one Muslim family on Tanna, now there are many.

Following the disaster many groups have given out relief in the form of food and goods such as tarpaulins, blankets and water containers. One group that operated in Middle Bush was Islamic. Continue reading →

New Growth on Old Ground

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DSCF9225John G. Paton and his wife Mary, who would soon give birth to their first child, landed at Port Resolution in 1858. They were not the first missionaries to serve in the Port Resolution area of Tanna and they were certainly not the last. Continue reading →

Compelled

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We’re excited to launch our mid-term mission program.  https://talkingabouttanna.com/compelled/

Please be in prayer that this work will support local mission workers and their church planting work on Tanna as well as grow Christian ministry here and overseas.