By Robyn Rexin
Vienna Moilliet, who grew up on the family sheep ranch and helped with lambing in the spring as soon as she was old enough, is now headed back to the Phillipines to be a missionary and do some midwifery.
She leaves on Sept. 2 for Tagaytay on the island of Luzon. She plans on staying long term but hopes to come home every two years for a couple of months.
Moilliet took a 2 1/2 year course in the Phillipines training to be a midwife and missionary. and wrote her final exams in the United States. She is looking forward to going back to the Phillipines and will be working for Safe Refuge International.
Moilliet will be a missionary for the Phillipines Mission, which is under the Vavenby Christian Church (VCC). Vienna will mostly be ministering to women and children who have been in sex slavery. There is extreme poverty in the country so children have been sold or born into it. Women are tricked or forced into it.
She will also be working with women and their children who live on the streets by building relationships and doing activities with them.
This is all volunteer work and she has to supply her own room and board. She will be dependent on donations from individuals and churches. Moilliet has visited several churches to talk about the ministry and what she will be doing.
Anyone wishing to donate should do so through the VCC because Safe Refuge International is American and getting a receipt is not possible. VCC has the ministry.
Vienna said that making the decision to leave her community and family was the most difficult decision she has had to make. She said, “After lots of prayer I truly felt called to this ministry. I want to build a bridge between the North Thompson and this ministry in the Phillipines by keeping connected as much as possible, showing how God is working on the other side of the world.”
She thanks everyone in Vavenby who has been so encouraging in the past. She is very proud that this is where her roots are.
Vienna’s last Sunday at VCC is Aug. 26. Following the service there will be a potluck lunch. Some tears are expected then but they are sure to be flowing at the airport on Sept. 2. Dad is already teary -eyed.
There had been a lot of work at the Vavenby railroad crossing on Vavenby Bridge Road this last week. Large amounts of gravel for the use of the new ties for the rail extension were being dumped, causing lots of dust to go up into the air.
There were flaggers on both sides of the tracks to stop cars when the gravel truck was moving. During that very hot weather the flaggers headed for the shade when not needed.
The Bookmobile arrived at the Vavenby library on July 26 and held a Book Club. Three elementary students and two preschoolers showed up as well as many adults.
The children were handed little red bags containing a paper to fill out for a draw held later in the summer, a record to write down the titles of books read, and stickers to put in the record after five titles listed.
The children started with an art project. They made bubble print planets to go with the theme of Blast Off. Craft leader Nicole Loureiro, who works for the TNRD library system and goes to all outlying areas, handed out a white paper with different sized circles on it to each child. Then they blew bubbles of various colours onto the paper.
While letting the paper dry in the sun the children went into the Bookmobile to choose some books to take home to read. After that they went back outside to cut out the splatter painted circles, glue them on black card stock, and add colourful star stickers. Each child had some good memories to take home.
