Greetings again from our remote missionary outpost in Northern Vanuatu!

 

Just in time, the Lord sent an angel to impress a friend of ours who lives in Australia. She was asked to preach in a local Adventist church, and had been convicted to try to help us. As she had no funds to send us, she decided to share our newsletter in the divine service. As a result, one church member pledged $850 for the church building project here in Gaua. This came at a critical time, while I was away in Vila. When I arrived back in Gaua, I found the church members had made unbelievable efforts to prepare the floor for the church building. Women, children and kids alike carried rocks from the seaside up to the building site. No machinery here to help. It is amazing to see what a massive job they accomplished to fill the foundations with rocks with their bare hands. But they had gotten as far as they could go. Their funds were all depleted, and they could not make any further progress without money to purchase the needed steel reinforcements and timber boards to lay the floor. In addition, Satan had sent a backslider to discourage them and to tempt them to think they would not be able to keep the building going forward. The members were affected by his evil insinuations. They were just starting to feel gloomy when I arrived back with the news of a donation from Australia-together with other news I received that a friend of mine would look into purchasing a chainsaw for this project also. As I asked them about their needs for materials we calculated the cost of the needed supplies-it came to $875, only $25 over what had just been donated! What rejoicing it caused to realize that God had supplied their very needs at just the time they needed them so much! So I told them to go ahead and order it, and said we would pay for the shipping fees-which we did. God is working again among His people here in these islands. We look forward to the completion of this building which will stand as a center of evangelistic activity, and a representative of God's work among these people. Who knows what will take place at the next point in the building project when funds dry up and the Lord once again reveals His mighty arm?!

 

Recently we received encouraging news from the Torres islands-a group of islands where the Anglican church has in the past proven to be very intolerant of any other "religious sects", so-called. It has been reported that a few years ago, a Seventh-day Adventist minister arrived by plane in Torres but was physically taken and put back on the plane as it was preparing for departure-because the local religious leaders did not want to hear about the Sabbath!  But things are changing for the better, and recently the Lord worked something for His glory...We have been and continue to pray for these people in Torres as I have personally visited these islands and know that the Lord has many precious people there. It is our goal and desire to spread our influence to these islands, in spite of the huge challenges of transport to and from there. A few weeks ago an SDA minister was on a flight to Santo which flew via the Torres group en route to Santo. The plane had engine trouble before takeoff and as a result was stuck in the Torres islands for a week. During this time the SDA minister was also stranded on the islands, and had the opportunity to make friends with many people in Torres. It is reported that he has several interests awaiting baptism as a result! God is in control. ThankYou Jesus!

 

Living at the bottom of an active volcano is an interesting experience. One real blessing is volcanic soil. You can grow almost anything here. Fertilizers are unknown on this island. And you dont see pale or washed out fruits and vegetables around the place. Plants look healthy. Naomi has taken this opportunity to start on a gardening project that looks like it will turn this place into a little bit of heaven on earth. Nature abounds with life here. Even the chickens here have glossy feathers, and the cows have a sheen on their coats. But volcanic soil makes extremely muddy mud! Naomi discovered this recently when our washing line recently snapped due to ultraviolet damage of the rope, combined with strong winds and lots of rain which added weight to the clothing. A long line of washing fell in the mud. After repairing the line, the rewashed clothes were hung again. But again the clothes came down! After washing the second time, we decided that the rope had had its time-but we didnt have any alternative. A third time the clothes fell in the mud, and we decided not to try again! Instead I went in search of some wire, rope-anything to hold up our clothes! A friend kindly gave us some very thick fishing line for which we were very thankful. We dont understand why we didnt think of fishing line before-it makes a wonderful clothes line. On my way back to our home I wondered if it would be long enough for the location we needed it, but I rejoiced to discover that the fishing line was exactly the right length-to within about 2 inches! We felt that the Lord was reassuring us that He understood exactly what we were dealing with!

 

Over the past weeks we have had some serious cases to attend to on the island of Gaua-some with sad endings, some with happy endings. One tragic case was an elderly woman who died before we could reach her with medical help. I was called to help this lady who was in a critical condition [heart/lungs] and we responded as soon as we could-unfortunately the family left it to the last moment before coming to me for help. Kay and I set out in our banana boat but were unable to find the passage through the reef to her village. Around these islands, if you dont know where you can safely pass through the reef, you cant go. Guessing is dangerous business. That day the ocean was also extremely choppy and the wind was squalling. Waves seemed to be coming at us from all directions. Eventually we were forced to return, hoping that we would be able to assist the sick lady at the next available opportunity. But later we heard that tragically, the lady was already dead-she had died a short time afterwards. Such is life for people on these islands.

 

Another happy ending and most miraculous case was a young 10-year boy, Alic, who was brought to our clinic, deeply unconscious. He was hot and convulsing and vomiting, all at the same time. As soon as he arrived, he started to aspirate his vomit, and his lungs appeared to fill up with vomitus. Time lingered as he choked and gurgled, and amidst urgent attempts to get that vomitus out of his lungs, I started to think that we were about to lose him-but I was glad that he happened to aspirate in our clinic, and not at home. With God's help (to keep my mind at ease in this tense situation), I resuscitated him, the awful moments passed, and I was delighted to hear and feel spontanous breathing start up and his heart pounding in his chest. I decided from the history that he was either suffering from cerebral malaria or eosinophilic meningitis-a disease that is spread by rat droppings which is quite common here. Then followed 24 hours of battling for his life with intravenous treatments and vigilant critical care till we could evacuate him out to Santo by plane-hoping that the hospital there would able to provide critical care until his infection settled-though I never expected him to recover fully from such a severe attack on his brain tissues. (How I wished we had our own aircraft to evacuate him immediately, rather than waiting a full day for an Air Vanuatu plane!) Actually those 24 hours were the most critical because his raging fever settled the following morning, and his convulsions slowed down though he never regained consciousness while I was with him. We prayed earnestly for his recovery and I did not hear back from Santo for a while. But while I was in Santo I visited the hospital to whom he had been referred and was very glad to hear someone report that they thought Alic was OK-though his medical chart at the hospital contained very little detail. But the other day I had the privilege of meeting Alic again back on Gaua Island-I did not recognize him or his parents at first but praise God he is alive-and I am especially thankful that he had not suffered any permanent brain damage-he appears to be a normal healthy individual again. We all rejoiced together as we contemplated what God had done. To God be glory and praise! We all feel that it was for Alic and for people like him that we came to Torba province.

 

I have just come back to Gaua island after visiting the capital city of Vanuatu, Port Vila, and the only other 'town' in Vanuatu, which is called Luganville on the island of Santo. (Other villages do exist but with very little population or infrastructure.) One blessing was to revisit these places and discover that something has changed since I was last there-I can now speak Bislama! I have never before learned a language so quickly and sometimes this fact reminds me of the gift of tongues-though I certainly dont claim to have that gift! But God has certainly blessed Kay, Naomi and I with learning this amazing language-I have even preached in my broken Bislama already. Kay and Naomi are both already holding conversations in Bislama. Understanding the language of the people you are working with is a great asset and certainly helps to get closer to people and sense their real and their felt needs. It is true that for an English speaking person, Bislama is quite easy to learn, but we feel that God has blessed us in helping us to learn it quite rapidly. ThankYou Lord for helping our tongues get round these words!

 

Another blessing I received in Vila was picking up a laptop that was shipped to us, following the demise and death of our previous laptop. We are most privileged to have the support of Laymen Ministries who are a wonderful organization to work for. Jeff Reich went to great lengths to provide us with just the laptop we need here (although he couldnt find one that works underwater!), and we hope and pray that this one wont get dropped in the ocean by well-meaning friends-like our last one! ThankYou Lord for this much needed communication tool!

 

Still another blessing I received in Vila was hearing about the extremely generous donation of a HAM radio for the work in Torba from some kind couple in the US. After receiving a HAM radio license, I obtained official permission from Vanuatu's Ministry of Health to use their Health Center frequencies so that I can maintain contact with remote clinics and help them with difficult cases. Very frequently these health centers are trying to contact doctors for advice in Santo, but doctors there are mostly either busy or unavailable or speak Chinese only! My plan is to be more accessible and the only way I can do this is via HF radio. I was delighted to hear that someone would help with this much needed item, as communication in Torba province is a serious challenge. But checking out the frequency range which the donated HAM radio covered, I was very disappointed to see that it would not work on the Health Center frequencies for which I particularly wanted it. This was a big let down for me, as I knew the radio was an exceptionally good one (top of the range in fact) which would be a tremendous blessing. But after contacting our very helpful donor, things turned out for God's glory. He contacted the manufacturer for us and the manufacturer notified us of how the set could be modified by removing 3 diodes, that would open up the frequency range to cover the frequencies I want. This has already been kindly done by Jeff at LM and the last I heard was the radio was on its way to Vanuatu. I am very thankful to God that I will soon be able me to communicate with the Health centers as well as on multiple frequencies with other HAM operators, pending antenna development. In future the radio might even be used on marine and aviation frequencies, should that become necessary for this project. ThankYou Lord!

 

 

Yet another blessing in Vila was an opportunity to undertake a type conversion (Cessna 172) and to get my private pilot's license converted from a South African one to an Vanuatu license. The Lord must have impressed my instructor to give me a discount because of my volunteer status because he gave me an exceptionally reasonable bill and also taught me shortfield take offs and landings on grass strips which is a great asset for anyone flying in this country. We continue to pray for God's guidance and blessing as we anticipate using an aircraft in these islands. We know it will be a project of faith-how else can God reveal His faithfulness? We must learn how to exercise steadfast faith in His steadfast faithfulness! ThankYou Lord for working that out!

 

 

Another amazing experience in Vila was attending Divine Service at Portoroki SDA church two Sabbaths ago. The speaker was Pr John Leeman, president of the Vanuatu SDA mission. In the congregation was another president-the president of Vanuatu (Sorry I cant spell, pronounce, or write his name!). Being a lawyer, this state president claims that the Lord had impressed him on several occasions to lead the country closer to God by repeatedly and providentially leading him to study about Hezekiah and Josiah. After sharing experiences he had had about this matter (and without any previous communication with the mission president) the time came for the divine service. It was amazing to see how Pr John Leeman had already been led to prepare a sermon on the government of heaven and the 10 commandments which form the basis of God's law, including of course, the fourth commandment. Addressing the law from a lawyers viewpoint, the mission president preached a very powerful and convincing message about the need for us to keep God's law. Following the service, the two presidents shook hands and the state president said to the mission president with obvious conviction, that he deeply appreciated the message-and that he wished that Vanuatu could be led to abide by those heavenly principles. In particular, he remarked about the 4th commandment, as if he was struggling to understand how it would fit into the picture...time will tell. But I asked Pr Leeman if he would contemplate writing now to the prime minister of Vanuatu, to invite him also to church. May God lead these leading men to make decisions that will glorify God.

 

The head elder of the Portoroki SDA Church in Port Vila, like us, is praying that somehow 3ABN and HOPE channel TV can be rebroadcast in Vanuatu on local frequencies. We sense the urgency of the hour, and the power of media ministry in reaching rapidly the people of these islands. We dont know how it will happen, but feel that somehow, soon, the Lord's TV ministries should be made available here, for Satan is working rapidly to bring his devilish media into this country to defile its inhabitants with every species of error and wickedness. We have seen how people are willing to walk for hours down slippery roads, cross big rivers, and pay sacrificially to watch kung-fu or almost any kind of videos, just because it is video, it is electronic media. Unfortunately, I fear that these people may end up devouring whatever they are given. Lets give them good food-bread from Heaven, the light of life. In this sense we hold their destiny in our hands! One of our goals is to start a video library here on Gaua also.

 

It seems to us that the Lord is opening up many opportunities for His work right now. Perhaps this is because time is so short, and soon Jesus will return. We believe that it is because the Lord requires the spread of the gospel before Jesus shall return to the earth with power and great glory. As Jesus said,

 

 

But the converse is also true: If we are faithful, then rest assured that

for God has already promised:

 

It appears that our light, our privileges, our opportunities, our blessings, our advantages are very great. We live in an age of great light, incredible opportunities. Will we be faithful with them? Our prayer is that somehow, the Lord will change us and make us more faithful to His showers of blessings-because it is a law of heaven that He cannot give more until we use everything we already have. May we abound, and be found faithful for His sake, for the sake of those for whom He shed His precious blood!

 

Mark Turnbull

Laymen Ministries Volunteer

Vanuatu Mission of Seventh-day Adventists