Kenny & Becky Kapp: A Little Help From My Friends

Students preparing the manike for storage.

This week continues to be a testament to the undying spirit to move forward and not lament the past. As tragic as things have been here, we continue to see and hear the positive side of people. I suppose in some ways that is always there but it seems to be magnified in tragedy. We see that in the USA when there are hurricanes or other natural disasters. How people always rise to the challenge to help each other out but here it is even those impacted the most by the disaster, even those who lost all their earthly belongings, thank God for sparing them and their families and they move forward making things the best they can for their families.

Big refrigeration unit ready to store food.

There are lots of outside efforts to help in Tonga but there is also a huge need and limited supplies. There is a big concern for people who live daily off of the food they forage in the uta (bush). These are people who cannot just go to the store or market and just purchase what they need. With the dwindling food supply that is becoming a major concern.

One of the things that has been done here at Liahona is a big boxcar refrigeration unit has been brought in and students have been asked to help prepare the food for storage. You can see the students in this photo as they finish up gathering manioke so they can prepare it to go into the big refrigeration unit. I did not get a photo of they girls sitting around expertly chopping it into pieces with their machetes. This will be an ongoing effort for the next little while.

This is the open air market near the
hospital. They mainly sell clothing and
household products the don't sell produce

Many of the young men on the island are out helping harvest the existing crops that are still good and planting more so they will be ready as soon as possible.

In church today they released the second counselor in the bishopric and asked him to share his testimony. I wish I could capture the feeling as well as he did in his broken english but in essence he stated that; maybe God sent this storm to wipe out all of the bad so we can focus on the good. He wasn't talking about possessions ... he was talking about how we treat each other. What a great and simple lesson on so many levels.

We have seen trucks out all over the island gathering coconuts from wherever they landed. It is my understanding that they can keep for quite a while. There's not a lot of food value in them but there is some and they do have coconut milk to drink.

Neighborhood kids Missionaries (wearing badges)
and Timote Kau (recently released missionary).

We are trying to make sure the missionaries stay healthy especially as they work hard in this heat and humidity. We are constantly reminding them of the importance of drinking water and protecting themselves from the sun. We always carry extra water with us now and pass it out everywhere. So far a cut knuckle (which is okay) a few sore backs, a few more sunburns and a few that have stepped on a nail during the massive clean-up.

There doesn't seem to be a shortage of bottled water and the supply side is going pretty strong now but the down side is that many people do not buy bottled water. There has also been the normal rains so a lot of their normal water supply is being replenished.

On Saturday we went to visit Anahulu cave (with the Hudsons). It's somewhere we have not been before and thought this was a good opportunity to take a short break from all the devastation and also see what the storm had done to the beaches on the East side of the island. Of course, the cave tour was closed but we were able to park outside and went in on our own just to see what it looked like. Normal entrance fee is $15 per person ( I think that's what they charge the palingis). A local family came in while we were there

Phil and Jan Hudson and Becky at
the entrance to Anahulu cave.

There were lots of bats in the cave and since our only light was our iPhones (electricity was still our here), we didn't go in very far. Phil and Jan went in a bit further but didn't get to the swimming area. We also went down to the beach here where everything actually looked pretty normal for having such a big storm come through recently.

Beach at Anahulu cave

We met a family coming out as we were coming in headed to the pool at the end of the cave to swim. They had their 2 month old baby with them.

Family with 2 month old baby
coming to swim at the cave.

I would like to end this weeks post telling you all about a senior Tongan couple serving their second mission here in Tonga. They are from Salt Lake City near Liberty Park but were both born in Tonga. He attended Liahona High School and later moved to Salt Lake City Their goal is to spend the rest of their lives serving missions just like his parents did. Their service takes them all over the island and they are very in touch with some of the families that really need help.

They reached out to their grown children and their families asking them to help. They immediately responded and the Va'enukus got to work figuring out how best to help those in need. There are several of you that have sent donations to your senior missionary so they could use it to help others. Once we heard what the Va'enukus were doing many of those donations were given to them to purchase food.

One of the families they were helping was also literally living in mud so they helped get them some brick pavers to get them out of the mud in their home. We all know that whatever the Va'enukus do they do to the best of their ability.

Sister Va'enuku has spent almost every waking hour purchasing, preparing and delivering food. These two truly exemplary Christ like love as they help their fellowmen. Did I mention that their main job is to shuttle missionaries around the island as needed?

All of the seniors who have served here over the past 2/12 years know and love the Va'enukus. They are always willing to share everything they have with anyone in need and frequently work long hours to accomplish everything on their plate.