Neeley update and link to our EASY pay pal donation site.

Hello!  Thanks for the interest in donating.  We have created a VERY EASY to use paypal site.  you can find it at www.lovevanuatu.org/neeleys There all kinds of different ways to give all sorts of different amounts!  It is fun to take a look at so even if you can't give at this time just check it out.  And the www.lovevanuatu.org site is the site for our YWAM base that we work with so that is fun to check out as well.

Josh and the fam in the living room when Pierce was sick and Dahlia was once again petting “ours baby” who she adores!  Forgive the mess it happens alot at our house in a small place.

This photo is  of Pierce Dahlia and Lianna (in the pink) who is Geoff and Amanda’s 2 1/2 yr old adopted little girl.  The kids love to play (and of course fight!) together.  She is a real cutie and it is fun to have friends for the kids. 

 

This is Jackie our friend who is on staff at the YWAM base.  The kids love her!  Her dad teaches us the Bishlama (local language) classes.  We just started so hopefully we pick it up fast!

WE are expecting my parents here on Sun the 10th!  Can't wait!!  We are planning all kinds of fun things to do.  Like the cascade waterfall gardens where you can swim in the falls and the local hotels pools as well as exploring a new beach we haven’t been to and just found out about called honeymoon beach that isn’t too far of a walk from where we live.  Josh and I are looking forward to doing a little exploring when they arrive that we haven’t had a chance to do yet.   There is so much to see!

Blessings, Kristy, Josh Pierce Dahlia and Bella

We just adopted…BELLA is finally home & we are all in love with her!

Josh and I have felt it on our heart for years to adopt even before we had kids.  We have tried several times to look into different options but before things could go very far it would always fall through.   We know that at the core of Gods heart is a longing and a desire for children to have life, be loved and cared for.  Here is the answer to YEARS of prayer and a life saved!!  Introducing BELLA CHRISTIAN NEELEY born Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 7:11 am 3.52 kilos, or 7.74 lbs

“True religion is this to care for the orphans and the widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”-James 

I got the call on Sun at 1:45 am that Mary had gone into labor and we (Amanda my friend & I) were to meet her at the hospital.  So I got dressed fast and ran in the dark to my friend Amanda's house down the road a ways to get her.  There was a little confusion and we finally got a hold of the guy who was to take us to the hospital (remember neither of our families have cars, and bus’ don’t run in the middle of the night here unless they are just getting done drinking or coming from a kava bar (not good if you are the one getting a ride!).  We had woken him up and it turns out he went right back to sleep! So an hour later we figured out what happened and had to wake Amanda’s husband  Jeff (you can’t go out as a girl with out a guy in the  middle of the night for safety reasons.)  Then we had to pray for a Taxi cause it was the middle of the night and just as I prayed one showed up (we had only seen two vehicles period in the last hour we had been there!)!

Finally after much waiting and praying Little Bella was born at 7 am!  

This photo is of when she was only 20 min old!  Pre bath.  I was the very first person to touch her after delivery except for the nurse who delivered her!  She was under a heat lamp crying while the nurse attended to Mary (birth mother) and I was able to touch her and soothe her.  I was even able to give her her first bath !

The kids and Josh came as soon as they were allowed at about 8:30 on their way to church which happens to be right behind the hospital.  They were all so excited to meet her!

Notice the falling off diaper! Dahlia was crying cause all She got to hold were Bella’s feet.  Pierce and Dahlia just love having a little sister.  Dahlia keeps tugging on my pants saying “I can’t see my baby” when I am holding her. 

This morning she got out of bed saying “Ours baby! Ours baby!”  Like where is our baby?  Usually she yells “mama” and waits for me to get her out of bed.  Unfortunately at this point Bella much prefers if Josh or I hold her…Don’t know why :) 

This is the brave lady who gave Bella to us.  She is sitting with her daughter on her left and her sister on her right.  She is 36 and is not married, and the father is long gone.  Her parents are not willing to take another of her children as they have raised the other kids (the girl above 18 and two boys 7 and 10).  She knew we were her answer to prayer as to what to do concerning the baby.

Giving the baby up was hard for her to do even though she had planned it for months.  It was a bit emotional at the actual passing over when she got off the bus before us.  She didn’t say anything and I croaked out an awkward “Thank you, thank you” not knowing what else to say.  I am pretty sure she didn’t see me crying as I received the baby from her sister who was with her cause she wouldn’t look at me.  I think she was trying not to let me see her emotions.  I  wrote her a letter and stuck it in her bag at the hospital.  I just wanted to go beyond the language barrier and say that we were honored and thanked her for choosing life for our now daughter.  I reminded her that the love we feel for this baby is the same love God has for us (including her) as He says in the Bible he has “adopted” us in to His family.  I continued to tell her that God has a plan for her life and for Bella's life and that we were blessed to be a part of it.  I also reminded her that God brings the best out of a very bad situation and that this was exactly that.  We have asked her to write a letter to  Bella telling her why she choose to relinquish her to us and that it was not because she didn’t love her…  I hope that she will do that for Bella's sake and for hers. 

Please be praying.  we have committed to making this an open adoption where she can come and see the child and when we live on our land further North we will come and bring the whole family to pownogisu where she is from so they can all see her as she grows.  We believe in Gods redemptive work and want to bring healing and not just tear her away.  We have an uncle of the baby's that is a good friend that we want to have teach her her native tongue (local to that village) as well as Bishlama, so that she doesn’t loose her culture. 

We find it amazing that somehow God arranged it all to go so smoothly.  What a blessing little Bella is to us.  Truly Gods gift to us.

Preschool is growing!

World vision came to our school to donate a few toys and small colored books after a request was put in so that was a huge blessing.  We were missing quite a few kids as it had been a bit rainy and we usually cancel for lack of facilitys on a rainy day, but we stayed for the World vision workers (the two ladies one by me and the other by Pierce).

We seem to literally get a few new kids a week, but because the kids get sick so often we maintain our numbers of attendance at about 20.

Some of our kids like this little boy Jimmy are completely neglected!  They come to school dirty, with out having had breakfast (they walk on thier own to school), and when they are sick they are just left in the house on the dirt floor all day alone.  We found out Jimmy had been missing school cause  his parents left him with pink eye in his house alone with a fever and no medicine and no one to take care of him!  SHOCKING…  We are learning who we need to check in on.

The little boy in the blue and red shirt on the right is named Joel and the same thing happend to him.  The teacher went to see where he had been and found him alone on the dirt floor with a fever and a stomache ache dirty and with everyone gone to town.  No one was getting medicine for him or caring for him.  We have also seen signs of abuse that lead us to believe he is NOT treated well. 

Richard above, is only about 3 or 4 but his mom treats him badly and leaves him alone all the time to wander the village.  He often ends up at our house for luch.  He is always welcome, so when he is wandering around with his parents gone and the shack locked up he sometimes comes over.  We are finding that preschool is not the end of our work and figuring out how to show these children love and help them practically is more important than ABC’s.  We are looking into finding out if these children’s parents really want them or if there needs to be some intervention to get them into homes where they will be cared for.

There is so much need here!  We have a family ministries team coming in to work with us at YWAM so we are hoping to arrange parenting classes to help.  These children need an advocate so that is where we feel God has us helping.  Please be praying!

Movie day with the preschool at my house!

Every Friday is movie day at my house for the preschool.  We crowd around the computer for an educational show as part of our class as a special treat!  Everyone loves it.    Our class grows every day almost!  We are now up to 20 kids.  We were missing several due to pink eye.  Pierce is really suffering from pink eye at the moment.  Poor kid.  Pink eye seems to go around like colds.  Dahlia is Just recovering from her third bought!

We just had several kids join who were going to local schools but ran out of funds for school fees.  We are working on getting a few more volunteers and we are meeting weekly to start adjusting the lesson plans and planning crafts etc..  It seems to be going really well.

The new unofficial band aid ministry!!

We have a new ministry that just found us,  We are the band aid /sore people (basically I am like the school nurse who does the most basic stuff). 

The flower is from Angelina in the Green dress in the photo above.  One of Pierce and Dahlias best friends that goes to our preschool as well.  She is 8 but has no money for school fees so we are helping her by giving her more challenging work and trying to get her a scholarship after attending for this year.   Her mother left her and her 3 other siblings and just walked away one day and then left them with  the grandparents.

All the kids know that when they come to play I take care of their sores and clean them and put antibiotic cream on them and band aids (Plasters).   

Most of these kids just wander the village by themselves during the day as most of their parents don’t bother with them and lock up the house in the morning and leave for work.  They don’t all get baths or anything!  Kids as young as 4 are wandering around.  So we also just provide a fun safe place for them to hang out.

My kids love it and so do these kids!  Most of the kids are over everyday to play at our house in the yard with the toys (none of the kids have any toys that I have seen except a couple marbles once).

Above is Pierce with Mellissa who is Pierces other best friend.  She is 5 yrs old and her mom leaves her locks the house up.  She goes to school but often comes back to a locked house.  She had dinner with us the other night when her mom was gone at dinner time and she didn’t know where to.

We share treats with them and lend toys and play with them.  It is really great.  Pierce just loves it and so does Dahlia.  When they go she cries "Dahlia go play friends!". 

When I break out the two coloring books and the crayons we brought, all the kids flock and no one wants to do anything else but color (to Dahlias delight and Pierces dismay as he is waiting with a ball!)  So now the kids bring the other kids to me that have sores and wounds and we bandage them up.

This is John from my preschool a total sweetie who is about 3 yrs old (most kids or parents don’t know exactly how old they are as no one keeps track.) 

Every kid seams to have 3-6 sores that are infected whether from scratched mosquito bites (they don’t have bug nets at night or screens on the house or repellent) or just wounds and they get so infected immediately with the flies and the filth everywhere. 

Just today I must have doctored 15-20 sores and yesterday over 40!  It is really important you bandage them or they get infected and the sores grow and grow into "bigfella sores" (Bislama for Big sores!)  The infected sores are really painfull. 

I just sit them up on my bench on the patio and we are off!

We have only had small ones and they really hurt.  We are teaching them about hygiene as well.  Debby Josh's mom and Tracey sent care packages with tons of band aids and antibiotic cream etc  and toothbrushes for kids so we are using all of that for them.  Thanks for the band aids you sent!  I am really going through them but the kids I use them on really need them!  We are praying for the miracle of the never ending band aids!   

This is just the carnage from day one!!  The kids just kept showing up!  I love it!

Our local preschool

This is the local preschool that I have just started to help teach.   One year ago Rachael (the teacher)  started this “kindy” (preschool) because there are so many kids who cannot afford the school fees here, and she wanted even the poorest of the poor to have a chance at a good education.  With no previous experience in teaching she left her sales and marketing position because she said she had a dream that Kindy is what she needed to be doing.  She and her family of 6 kids live off her husbands wage of about $65 USD a week.  Her life is inspiring.  I love how she just follows the Lord with out thinking twice, regardless of personal cost!

We meet under a banyan tree at Rachael's house just down the road from our house.   We currently have no shelter so if it rains we don’t meet, but my husband is putting up a tarp for shade and protection from the rain.  The only supplies we have at the moment are a few pencils, some crayons and colored pencils as well as paper, scissors and glue.  We were able to get those through UNICEF.  Rachael applied last year for some stationary aid from them and was also able to apply through another aid group to have 4 kids (her whole class last year) go to school on scholarships!  The school is also planning on accepting this years graduates on scholarships as well!  This is awesome as most of these kids wouldn’t have any other way to afford school fees.  The parents are so grateful!

Rachael and I just met to work on a new curriculum that we will be implementing soon.  It allows the kids a chance to excel in Memory, Bible, art, science, language, math and interpersonal skills. The other teacher and I meet once a week to plan the weeks curriculumand pray for our students. 

It is such an awesome opportunity to get involved and my children are attending and really enjoy it as well.

Our biggest struggles include not having a bathroom for the kids, personal hygiene, and a proper set up as far as chairs or a table of some sort.  We currently just sit on a piece of plastic on the ground and sit around a board on the ground to write on.  

Our greatest joys are the sweet little kids that show up every day from 7:30 to noon.  We include play time and snack as well.  I am really excited to see how our new curriculum goes.

The local economy…

Employment in Vanuatu is 6%.  Not an unemployment rate of 6% EMPLOYMENT rate.  Wow, that means 94% are unemployed.  This friend of ours is a gardener at a local resort and is considered one of the lucky to have a job.  The going rates in this area are just under $10 a day or $1.25 an hour!  Port Vila the capital here sees quite an influx of islanders hoping for work in the city.  Sadly there are shanty towns that have been built from those that have left their homes and gardens on the outer islands only to find there is very little work here.  YWAM an international aid group that I am here with has a strong presence in these areas, working with the children in preschool programs, unwed mothers and others in need.  It is hard for these islanders to get the boat fare back to their home so often they feel they are stuck.

A lot of the people here live very simply in crudely built tin homes on rented or passed down pieces of land with gardens that provide the food they need to live on and sometimes enough to sell in the market as well.  They do not have a lot of material things but seem to be very happy people.  Everyone is happy to share what they have and you will have a hard time finding a face that isn’t smiling!  We have been enjoying the warm hospitality of all our neighbors and find the people absolutely lovely.  If you ever get the chance to visit this amazing country you will enjoy the cheerful smiles and easy going contented islanders that make this country such a pleasure to visit!  We could all learn a thing or two about contentment from them. 

In these troubled times it is a chance for me to be reminded of all that we have to be grateful for.  A nice home over our heads and food on the table .