NEWS (our little blog thingy)

The Holidays are past, the new year is here and lots has happened. We want you to give you just a short update in email form. The past two months we have spent in Switzerland with family and church. It was good to spend Christmas with the whole Sutter family (4 generations) after so many years of being away for the holidays. Leilani absolutely loved the snow and her Swiss grandparents. It was an important time for us to be here. It was also a very good time re-connecting with our church here in Switzerland and with supporters. However, it was in many ways a difficult time for us. The death of Cindy’s dad right when we arrived here was a big challenge. We are a lot less refreshed than we thought we would be, but through it all we see God’s goodness. It was not the holiday we anticipated but God is at work in Switzerland and wanted us to be here for this time. Tonight we will board a plane that will bring us to a plane that will bring us to one more plane that will bring us back to Vanuatu. There, God has a lot waiting for us. 2012 will be a very full year. We have been able to fundraise a bit and hope to push forward with construction on our ministry site in the coming two months. Then, in April, we will be heading out again for Cindy to do her DTS. The rest of the year is also quite full already with big outreaches and, of course, the actual beginning of our ministry on our land.

We would like to thank all of you who have been standing with us during this difficult time, be it through prayer, words of comfort and encouragement and through finances. We are heading into this new season, full of anticipation of what God will do for and through us.

A thing we are dealing with at the moment is our health insurance. Our longtime sponsor for our health insurance had to pull out unexpectedly without giving us much notice. The annual premium of all our policies – USD 3’400 – has already been charged to our credit card which will hit our account next week. Yet another opportunity for God to show himself faithful, yet another opportunity for us to practice not to worry. We would definitely appreciate your prayers in this matter. Should you want to literally/financially stand in the gap between us and our health insurance bill you can do that by clicking the 'donate' button on this page.

Going back to Vanuatu will also mean that we will be online a lot less. We will be living outside town with Cindy’s family and in a few weeks, hopefully, in the first building on our ministry land, outside town as well, without power, therefor without internet. We will head to town at least once a week for the ‘compulsory’ coffee and while enjoying the coffee and the views of the harbor, check emails and update our website, the ministry website www.v2life.org and our facebook pages. That’s also the best place to keep up to date with our construction progress and ministry to young people.

Switzerland, 16 December 2011

We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. May we all remember what Christmas is really about. For unto  us a Son is born...

ONE OF THE GREATEST MEN OF GOD WE HAVE EVER KNOWN HAS GONE TO BE WITH THE LORD, OUR DAD AND ABU-MAN. We miss you and always will, but we know you have received your much deserved crown and reward and you are walking on eternal streets of gold. Until that day where we will walk these streets with you we will hold on strongly to the Truth you taught us

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Port Vila, 17 October 2011

At the moment we are facing quite a financial crunch and we will have to see about USD 1500 come in over the next week to cover all our bills at the end of the month. I guess the global financial crisis is affecting us after all. Our financial support has been quite steady over the past months. However, with a growing family, living in one of the most expensive countries in the world, where virtually everything is imported (and accordingly taxed), our support would have to constantly go up a bit. We have 4 more weeks in Vanuatu and our weeklong trip to Switzerland, after that we will likely be able to recover financially and work on our support base before coming back to Vanuatu in January.
If you would like to help us pay off all our bills at the end of the month, and in that way help bring a positive closure to a very successful and effective year of ministry, we would greatly appreciate that. You can make secure online donations by following the below 'PayPal Donation' link. Thank you heaps!

Port Vila, 29 September 2011

Thanks to very generous donations, our ministry was able to purchase a brand new 20ft container. For the next few months it will serve us as storage for all our belongings, afterwards we will use it as a shed/workshop on our ministry site.

We are in great need of a shipping container for storage purposes. Over the next couple of months we will have a time of transition onto our ministry site. The first buildings will be ready to live in, but not have final security yet, meaning whenever there's nobody there, the place will turn into a 'help yourself' or 'take what you can' opportunity. Until final secure windows are installed, we will have to be able to store things in the container. After that, it will serve as a lockable shed, to securely store our equipment and tools.
We need this container within the next few weeks as we face sort of a mid November deadline where this needs to be in place on our ministry site. Such a container will cost around USD 2500 to 3000 here in Vanuatu. If you would like to help us with the purchase of this container you can click on the donate button below. Donations are processed through our foundation in Switzerland.

Port Vila, 1 August 2011

July was all about Medical Mission and the two different Marine Reach Outreaches to Vanuatu. After months of preparation, meetings with Government authorities and endless visits to the Customs Department it was finally time for the two teams to get to Vanuatu.
We had a General Medical Team do 2 weeks of clinics in North Efate. They treated over 1000 patients, did dental ed and screenings in 8 schools (over 1000 students), visited 8 villages and 3 islands, delivered one healthy baby, pulled over 400 teeth and much more. Most important of all, every patient treated was also shared the love of God and was offered prayer.
Our second team was a specialist Ophthalmology team that went to Luganville, Santo. In two weeks they performed over 80 eye surgeries, cataracts and pterygium, and so restored the sight of at times virtually blind people. Read some of their stories by clicking below.

Eye Surgery Outreach Stories
On our first day of surgery at the Northern District Hospital in Luganville, an elderly Ni-van man was brought to us by the name of Garae Namoli. He had cataracts in both eyes rendering him virtually completely blind. His friend Rupert (who lives in the same village) had heard there was an eye team visiting the hospital and so told Garae to come. It was a long journey to the hospital; three days by foot, ... (more)

Port Vila, 2 May 2011

A Construction team from a church in New Zealand has completed a two week project with us building our first house on our land. The weather played its part, the needed material was almost all available, and the funds the team had raised in New Zealand prior to coming were exactly sufficient to complete what they had planned to do. We now have a solid small house structure. It is still lacking the walls and the interior, which will be the next step of the project. Click on the photo below to see more pictures.

THANKS GUYS!!!