Friend, when was the last time you saw God's faithfulness in your life?

His mercies are new EVERY morning.

Every day it seems as if we have never realized how good He is!

Please give thanks to God in our behalf for all His benefits.

How great is His faithfulness!

And thank you too, for your help, prayers and interest in this project.

By Naomi

 

We had a very fulfilling time in Australia during February-April, but we were all eager to get back to Vanuatu to take up our work again. After only being home for 6 days, we had to leave again for a program in Sola, the capital of Torba Province, on the island of Vanua Lava. Most of those 6 days were spent cleaning everything around our home and clinic, as the cockroaches, spiders, termites, rats, lizards etc. had all been busy while we were away!

 

When we pack for a trip like that, we have to keep in mind that we may not return for a few weeks or longer, since everything depends so much on the weather when it comes to traveling by boat.  Packing and preparing the boat and organising everything usually takes a couple of days, as we have to think about so many things - fuel, water, food, clothes, equipment, life-jackets and water-proof jackets for the trip, sunscreen, mozzie repellent, sunglasses, medical supplies etc. which have to be packed into water-proof containers.  It's not just like loading up your car and fueling up at the nearest petrol station!

 

This Women's Ministry Congress was the first of its kind in Torba Province, and the fact that it actually took place required that a series of miracles had taken place.  Ten years earlier a similar type of program for women had been planned to take place on this same island, but the 'powers that be' had shouted their disapproval from the beach as the ship carrying the guest speakers arrived at the island.  They had to go to another island, where the SDA church has been established for some time, and hold their program there...

 

Now, ten years later, as Dorolyn Loloyer, the Women's/Children's Ministries leader, started making plans to hold this congress, Satan wasn't about to give up this territory without a battle.  At first it seemed as though the authorities at the venue that she had chosen was not going to let us use their premises, but praise God, there are a couple of SDA's on the staff at that venue and one of them overheard a telephone conversation between Dorolyn and the manager.  She realised that she could help out in this difficult situation, so she immediately phoned Dorolyn and said that she would do all she could to secure the venue and help with other arrangements - praise the Lord the phones were working that day! 

 

Next was the problem of shipping materials and equipment up to Sola from Port Vila, which is very expensive when everything needs to travel with you on the plane!  But there just 'happened' to be a ship leaving Port Vila, and heading north to Sola on an educational trip.  Dorolyn was informed that if she needed anything to be sent up to Sola, she could put it on that ship and it would be in Sola in just a day or two, which is unheard of usually, as the copra ships do a lot of detours looking for the best deals on copra.  An added blessing was that since the goods she needed to send were for educational purposes, she didn't get charged anything to ship them! God is so good.

 

I wasn't prepared for the good turn-out, but ladies came from almost every island in Torba, and from many different denominations.  Some of them walked for hours over rough tracks, carrying their sleeping mats, clothes etc. with them.  Others, like ourselves, had traveled by boat from nearby islands, braving the wind and waves, even with babies in their arms.  I greatly admire those brave ladies who endure the hardships and discomforts in order to receive the blessings the Lord has to bestow. Once they arrived they were not met with the comforts of their own homes.  They had to share dormitories and classrooms with no privacy, just woven mats on the concrete floor, a pit toilet  and mosquitos, fireants etc.  But they didn't let that stop them from attending the meetings and enjoying the fellowship.

 

We had the privilege of presenting some topics, and were grateful to be able to have our generator and other equipment with us to help make the presentations come alive.  Since I am still struggling to speak fluent Bislama, I find that powerpoint presentations with pictures really helps to make up for my lack of vocabulary. 

 

I had taken 49 sets of Health Lessons with me to distribute to those who wanted them.  I was just about mobbed by the ladies who were all crowding around trying to get their names registered to do the course of 12 lessons.  I now have about 75 ladies registered and must send the extra lessons to those who missed out.

 

On the last day there were tears shed as the ladies thought about going back to their remote villages and knowing that they may not see their newly formed friends again for a long time.  That evening there was a special farewell ceremony with all the 'big men' of Sola in attendance.  Although a few people had tried earlier on to prevent the local ladies from attending this program, in the end it was endorsed by those in authority and turned out to be a very significant break-through for the Adventist church in Sola.

 

Many of these women had never had practical training like this before, and it opened up their horizons quite a lot.  Mark has had several requests to go back to Vanua Lava and run more health programs in various villages, so we will be planning for that later in the year.

 

Please keep these ladies in your prayers, so that they will apply and share what they have learned, and others may be won into God's eternal kingdom.

 

Naomi Turnbull

Volunteer

Vanuatu

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by Kay

 

We've been busy (again!) since the word 'go'! The first week after our arrival in Vanuatu, we spent in Vila, Santo, and Aore where we caught up on a lot of things that we needed to do before we left to go to our remote island. We flew to Gaua on a Wednesday as the flights for Monday were full. When we arrived back we realized that the church seemed discouraged and lacking in unity. Minister Phillip asked Dad to preach the sermon on Sabbath, so Dad preached on how to encourage others who are discouraged.

 

When we got home we unpacked and did a huge clean-up as there had been rats (our cat went on a 3 week holiday of his own choice!) in our storage room and house, who left evidence of their stay.

 

We also had to prepare the boats and our equipment for our trip to Vanua Lava (the next island north of us in Gaua) where the first women's congress for Torba Province was held. It was hosted by SDAs from the Mission in Port Vila and a representative from Fiji, but it was open to anyone who wanted to attend. We were all involved in the program, so we had to go even though we were a day late waiting for good weather that didn't come. It was a bit of a rough trip there but we praise God for giving us our small catamaran which has proved to be very stable on rough seas. It was a very good program with about 150-200 women and girls in attendance, and it seems to have broken down some prejudice in that area.

 

After the one-week program we were requested to go to Vureas Bay (on the south-west coast of the island) to visit a friend that we had met in Aore. We also wanted to meet the Minister and the Adventist church members over there, as well as the nurse in the clinic there who happens to be an SDA and was trained to be a Lay worker for the church! So we took up the opportunity to go and see the west coast. We left Sunday midday from Sola (the east coast) and arrived in the late afternoon. We thought that because we were a group of six we wouldn't disturb the people in the village for only one night. They pled for us to sleep with them but we said we'd try sleeping on the beach and if we had problems we would let them know. Also, the three girls that were with us, and myself, wanted some adventure! We put our mats on the beach and had a reasonable night's sleep. It was a bit bumpy but we didn't have any mosquitoes, rain or thieves so we didn't complain!

 

Despite the simplicity of our stay we had some adventure and a bit of relaxation. We also walked around looking at a friend's property for possibilities for a future base for God's work in Vanua Lava. We also walked to see a lot of springs, a crystal clear river, and we also saw the other church company's building. In the afternoon we did a boat trip to the north west coast to see a fairly large twin water fall. It was too late to return to Gaua as planned, so we got our small tent out of the boat. We set it up beside our friends house and the girls slept in our friends' spare room. There was a bit of disturbance in the night with some young boys looking for mischief but the dogs barked and nothing bad actually happened. We believe that God must have sent angels to wake up the dogs. That night it did rain so we were glad for the shelter of the tent!

 

Finally on Tuesday at midday we left to come back to Gaua. It was a rough trip back and we were all cold, it was dark for the last quarter of the journey and we were drenched with nearly every wave! But we had a lot of fun with dolphins swimming beside the boat for about fifteen minutes. One of the girls and I went to the front of the boat and we laid down holding on tightly to the boat with one hand while we put our other hand in the water and we tried to touch the dolphins! We were so close to touching them but they were swimming even faster than the boat was moving! I believe God loves to make us happy even when things seem to be a trial and He really did by sending those dolphins to swim with us!

 

As we were approaching Gaua we almost ran into a serious problem of being dumped on the reef. It was already dark and we didn't see the surf on the reef until we were almost in it! But thanks be to God who protected us and Dad quickly turned the boat out of it. We could have also had a few problems with getting into the safety of the bay too, but praise God it all worked out. The moon was not up that night so Dad had to use the GPS to guide the boat blindly through a narrow passage in the reef in the dark! We arrived safely and dropped the girls off on the shore close to their home. We slept the night on the boat in the bay because the tide was too low to get into our anchorage. The next high tide was at about 3am, so Dad drove the boat the rest of the way in the dark morning. When we arrived at our anchorage Dad shined the torch around and we discovered that our banana boat was missing from is normal mooring! I was inside the boat asleep but I suddenly awoke when I heard that the boat was gone! We had taken the engine off when we were away, so we were sure that no-one would have stolen the boat, and if someone had, everyone would know about it very soon, as you can't hide anything on our island, especially a banana boat! We resolved that the church must have decided to use it to carry sand for the church building as we had given them permission to use it before and they had used it. So we slept until about 6 am on the catermeran and then went ashore when the tide came down again. Then we met the neighborhood kids, who said that the banana boat had floated away to another village! We were shocked but very hungry and tired, so we went to the house and ate some breakfast. Then Dad and I went on the 4 wheeler motorbike to find our boat. Sure enough, it was at the other village and they had anchored it safely for us till we got back. What was amazing was that it must have floated behind the reef and then crossed a large bay (without going into the open ocean) then continued to go north behind the reef on the other side of the bay! We were told that at low tide it was resting against a pile of rocks. Early in the morning a child had been walking along the shore and noticed it sitting out there against the rocks, with no engine and no people! Excitedly the child ran to his Grandma thinking that he had found a stray boat from another island. They walked down and had a look but the two of them couldn't do any thing about it so they woke up an older boy who paddled out in his canoe to get the boat. It was then that they discovered it was the 'Doctors Boat'! The tide was rising and the boy was now able to tow the boat to shore where he anchored it safely. When we arrived they told us what had happened and said we could come and get it whenever we wanted to. So we had a good look and discovered that two of the ropes were broken. They were obviously a little old and they were not strong enough to hold the boat. In the rush to get to Vanua Lava we had failed to tie an extra rope onto the bouy, as we normally do. Dad felt along the bottom of the boat expecting to find at least one new scratch or chip but he discovered that there was nothing broken and no new scratches, despite the fact that it was right up against the rocks! Praise the Lord for His wonderful care and protection that He shows to His people!

 

 

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