Throughout the Pacific Area the Church has 21 members who are called to serve as a Director of Public Affairs (DPA) for their region, country or stakes. As senior missionaries we support them in their work, dealing with media, opinion leaders and government leaders.
A new director was called for Vanuatu, James Tounguen. He will be assisted by his wife Christiane. We traveled with Richard Hunter, the Pacific Area Public Affairs director and with associate director of Public Affairs Robert J. Dudfield, to train James in his new assignment. We were being trained ourselves on how to train a DPA. We were met there by Kim Woodbury from Church headquarters.
Part of the training consisted of meeting with local newspaper, radio and TV reporters, including Lilyrose Welwel from the national TV station. She interviewed Robert Dudfield and James.
While in Port Vila, Robert - who is also an Area Seventy - conducted a fireside for members. We participated on a panel and responded to questions. The saints came out to the meeting in large numbers and welcomed us warmly. There are about 7,700 members in Vanuatu, with the largest concentration in the capitol of Port Vila.
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| Meeting President Yvon Basil of the Port Vila Vanuatu Stake. |
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| The stake center is a standard church meetinghouse for the tropics. |
The stake center is located in the capitol city which is on the island of Efate. There are three Church meetinghouses on the island built to modern standards. Below is one that is not. It is a bush chapel for a branch on the opposite side of Efate from the capitol.
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