You're Going to Vanuatu

 One night in a home-meeting, one of the pastors felt spontaneously that I should be sent on a mission-trip.

"Come, let's lay hands on John," he suddenly said, "The Lord has spoken—you're going to Vanuatu".

So they straightaway laid hands on me, and prayed. Then that week he organised flight tickets for me. And within just a short time, I was flying!

I was accompanying the late pastor Keith Willie (who had a notable deliverance ministry), and a small team, at first.

Pastor Willie's ancestor was one of those who, he felt was taken deceptively, from the shores of the New Hebrides many years ago and brought to North Queensland to labour in cane fields. So, landing in Vanuatu for his first time was an emotional moment for Pastor Willie.

He was also blind, and paralysed in both his hands—so I helped feed him, bathe him, shave him and dress him every day for the several days I was with them.

We were met at the airport by a well-known local church-elder. He'd recently purchased a 100-tonne vessel, to transport delegates between the islands for church-conferences, and to transport aid. So he invited me aboard to pray a prayer of dedication.

As I looked at the beautiful azure, aqua-coloured coral reef, I thought to myself, I never imagined a few days ago that I'd be here doing this today!

It had all happened so unexpectedly, unplanned and quickly—and I was enjoying it! Especially because God was evidently with me.

The senior pastor of the church we ministered in on Sunday, in the capital, Port Vila, also happened to be the Attorney General of the Republic of Vanuatu, at the time. They’d only recently started a new movement of churches across the nation.

The pastor back home had also included a flight for me to the island of Espiritu Santo. I was to leave the team at Efate, and fly out by myself. A pastor-friend of his picked me up from Luganville, in a vehicle belonging to a local Chinese store-owner.

We travelled along the rough dirt road to his village, where there was no electricity or running water—but he had a church, and he'd also started a private Christian high school.

The pastor explained to me that when students finished primary school they'd sit an exam, and only the brightest kids got to go to high school. So, having ben a trained teacher himself, it was in his heart to offer a high school education to those kids who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity for ongoing education. Many of the students were living in his own home with his wife and children, and they were feeding them.

That night in the church, I spontaneously stood and expressed a gift of prophecy, to the pastor's surprise. Then afterwards, after I'd preached a little, the Holy Spirit fell upon all the young people.

The floor inside the church-building consisted of crushed coral, nevertheless so many of the students were falling to the ground as they became filled with the Holy Spirit—we had to pass the wooden benches outside through the open window-spaces to make room for everyone on the ground inside!

All they had was one portable lamp, but the sound in the dark of everyone getting powerfully filled by God was something else.

They fed us with what they called Coconut crab—the crabs come up out of the sea at night, and with their huge claws are capable of cracking open coconuts. It's the largest crab in the world, up to 4kg or more, and can stretch up to a metre wide claw-to-claw—plenty of meat.

In the daytime I was talking with one of the elders, and learned that the coastal villages of Santo island had received the gospel over 100 years beforehand, but the interior still had not been reached with the gospel after all those years.

So I said to the elder, "Let's go."

He looked at me—surely I couldn't mean…but he saw that I did indeed mean, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸!

Then he seemed as eager and determined as me. So, into the interior we trekked.

Vanuatu reportedly has the highest number of languages per capita of any country in the world. In some places there is a completely different language for as few as every ten people. Many are still unreached with the gospel.

We eventually arrived, unannounced, at a very primitive village. I was the first foreigner they'd ever seen, the elder told me. Inside one bark hut was an open-fire, for cooking. A man glared at me suspiciously, wearing nothing except a sheath.

Afterwards on our way back to the pastor’s village, I encouraged the elder to keep going back to the unreached interior, and he seemed up for it.

It was State of Origin time, and I wished I could see the game. Then it so happened that I was invited to the home of another Chinese businessman that night, who happened to have a generator and a big satellite dish. So I got to watch the game.

You can imagine my thrill as I saw Queensland pass the ball through ten pairs of hands across 60 metres and score that 'miracle try' to win the game from two points behind, right near full-time! Not so much because of the game itself—but to think that God would care about a simple wish like that, and be able to provide it even on a remote island where nearly no-one had electricity let alone TVs!

Anything you think you might have to give-up to go on the mission-field, God can and will give back to you in abundance—even the non-spiritual, practical things—whether needs, or mere desires—along with any hardship you might undergo. That's a promise (see Mark 10:28-30)!

(I’ll paste the Scripture in the Comments below; and a Link to that Try, for anyone who may be interested: Game 1, 1994 I think it was.)

Before leaving Santo island, the pastor talked to me about a delicate cultural and moral issue the churches were facing which had divided a denomination and was affecting many couples’ lives (concerning the definition of marriage; and customary versus government-registered marriages; and divorce): and I felt I was inspired with an unpremeditated word of wisdom which was able to dissolve doubts and spoke right to the situation.

Then I flew back to the main island of Efate. The team had already completed their ministry and flown back to Australia. I got to share with a United Nations worker.

Then a lady brought her Chinese businessman-husband to the elder's house where I was staying. He'd been desiring to receive the Spirit for a long time, but never could quite receive. So she asked if I could help him.

She left him with me. I gave him just a sentence or two of instruction, and then we prayed. He instantly got beautifully filled with the Spirit, speaking in tongues—he didn't want to stop! I just sat there and let him carry on. His wife peered around the corner from the hallway into the lounge room, and saw her husband just enjoying the Lord—this had been a long time coming for them.

It came time to fly home. I didn't realise a departure tax was payable, and I didn't have any money. But right at that moment, the elder turned-up at the departure desk and told me they were paying our departure taxes for us.

A couple also came to see me off at the airport who knew the pilot, and they evidently arranged something with him for me. Because just before we began our descent to Brisbane, a hostess came to my seat and said, "The pilot is calling for you."

I said to the person seated beside me, who I was chatting with, "Excuse me, the pilot is asking for me".

I was given the privilege of a seat in the cockpit, all the way until we landed at Brisbane and taxied to the terminal.

(It was nighttime, and way down below in the far distance you could see three separate small strips of light.

"That's the Gold Coast on the left; the Sunshine Coast on the right; and Brisbane in the middle," the co-pilot said.

"Any second now you'll hear the engines cut-back."

The three strips of light each slowly became longer and longer, and separated further and further, and the middle little strip of light loomed larger and larger until it became the city of Brisbane and we landed in it.)

After I got home, I didn't waste any time to organise shipments of aid for the remote pastor and his school. Friends, churches and State schools in Queensland and New South Wales eagerly donated clothes, school books, typewriters, Christian books and bicycles—and all the shipping costs were donated.

The good relationships that were made on the trip, continued for a long time.

I usually stayed away much longer than 12 days, on missions—but the dates the pastor booked my tickets meant I arrived back just in time for a once-in-a-lifetime family reunion which had already been planned.

I don't really know why I felt to Post this story today. It was all just a really enjoyable, unexpected, gracious little surprise, provided-for suddenly by the Lord, through a brother who acted promptly on what he spontaneously sensed during a regular home-meeting.

How excellent is His loving kindness! He satisfies us with the abundance of His house; and makes us drink of the river of His pleasures. With Him is the fountain of life and light!