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Mota church in our home village during cyclone

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Mota - 3rd May (out of order)

The first day living on the islands had a rocky start. I woke up the night before leaving with a full blown head and chest cold and swollen throat. Everyone else in my team except Rose woke up sea sick, throwing up all morning before we were dropped of on this island we'd never been to before at 8am. The Nivans came down to carry out stuff up the steep muddy bank. Their friendlyness and willingness to help complete strangers turning up on their island is incredible. We set up tents in front of the clinic, the only concrete building in the village. I shared with Rose and Shelby. In the afternoon despite feeling ill Nat convinced us to go out and do ministry. I headed off with Joelle and Nat on an adventure, we desired to leave our village and go down an unknown path down a steep bank and across a river that lead to the next village over. Within 5 minutes I was feeling better as the rain stopped briefly and we explored the island. We eventually came across two woman and an albino young man who wouldn't speak. The woman told us the follow the young man and then they continued on their way home from gardening. I will always remember that moment of being in the middle of a remote island, in the bush, in a place I'd never been with this young man who wouldn't speak but stood there with a machete the size of his forarm and that little voice in the back of my mind goes, "and this is how we die". But then the God minset kicks in and suddenly allies right with the world despite the bizarre situation. He lead us along a muddy path in who knows where until we come to the local primary school. We decided to stop and pray outside it, I clearly saw an image of a man standing on a pole and so I interceded for God to rise up God leaders within this school who will lead in accordance with God's will. We could here all the children singing inside and it sounded so beautiful. We later learnt that they were practicing their Mota island song for the High bishop of Vanuatu who was coming for the first time to Mota. We then went to the village close by that was completely empty as everyone was out working in their gardens collecting food for the week (this was Saturday). God then brought a woman named Cindy onto our path. She spoke perfect English because had lived in Auckland and had visited Tauranga many years earlier during her time at school. We spoke for so long and she introduced us to a older woman named Salomee. We were able to encourage Cindy and share stories with her. Afterwards she took us to the school again but this time we went inside. The children saw us through the window and chaos broke out which the teacher then had to calm down. The principle came out and spoke to us, his name was Wilkins. We found out later on that Wilkins was the main chief of the island. We organised to come back and run a school program on Friday (this was then delayed a week by the cyclone). After the school Cindy took us to the church they were building. It has taken 4 years so far and they have not yet finished. It is a huge concrete building with concrete pillers inside. The concrete was made with sand carried up from the beach by the locals. So much effort had gone in from all the people living in the community. I felt a sense of strong peace the second I entered as well as something I couldn't quite identify. Cindy spoke to us about John Partern who brought the Gospel to Mota. Funnily enough Rose happened to be reading a book on him that week. Cindy had such a passion about John and the church we were standing in and was upset we didn't know Mota's history. The whole island we found out was so excited about the coming of the High priest of Vanuatu coming from the Solomn Islamds. It was amazing to learn about the way the community works and thinks. We then walked home to rejoin our group to find out they had stories just as exciting. As night set in so did the wind and rain. I had a slight panic attack at the thought of sharing a small tent in humid 30 degrees all night but God's strength calmed me as I had to lie dead still to stop myself from literally sweating to death. The rain started to drip through at around 9pm and the wind threatened to blow the tent away with us still inside but for some reason these things didn't bother us much. We were woken up at 5.30am with the news we were to evacuate in a couple of hours as we were in the path of a cat 4 cyclone. We left our tents for a quick church devotion and to say goodbye to everyone. A few of us went to May's house where we sat, talked, and even danced with this beautiful, eccentric, sweet, elderly woman. We then spent an hour singing and dancing with the pikinini as we taught then kids songs and they taught us their songs. I even got the chance to talk to some of the teenage girls afterwards. By the time we got back our tent was ruined. My backpack lay in a 5cm puddle, literally filled inside with water, my pillow ruined, and sleeping bag and mat sitting in a lake in the middle of the tent. Thank God we made it through the night with only a few drips! We didn't care about the water damage, we were leaving anyway and we were disappointed we only got one night on the islands. After packing down we get the new news, the ship is fleeing to Fiji... Without us. "Good luck being stranded on a remote island guys!" No money, no passport, no airport, no boat assess, limited food, and no hope in being saved with a cyclone coming straight for us, the excitement of being a missionary. We were actually pretty unconcerned by it all, God's got this right? It's the small things I'm thankful for: my pack liner that kept my clothes dry, that my sleeping bag was miraculously not wet despite sitting in a puddle for at least half an hour (it wasn't even damp 😦), my mat in the same puddle dryed before dinner, and finally we were given access to the concrete clinic to sleep in for the next 2 weeks. God truely looks after His children.

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Mota - 9th May

My time in Mota has both been easier and harder then expected. It has been easier to adjust to a new culture, minimalistic living with no electricity or cars, early mornings anywhere from 4.30am, and living practically on top of people. I am really grateful for God's patients in teaching me to love other cultures from week 7 in lecture phase that has allowed me to love the Nivans and their ways. I've learnt that my body can cope with all extreme circumstance when God is sustaining me. Despite the circumstances and the cyclone I'm sleeping well, waking well, feeling okay in way of health, and overall doing good physically. In some ways outreach has been tougher. I've found a lack of mental and physical energy and motivation that usually comes so easy to me. I've been thinking of home a lot which I hate since it removes me from the present. I didn't expect to be homesick but after all I've been away 4 months. The other challenge has been the language barrier. It has limited conversation to small talk which I'm neither good at or enjoy. I would really like the opportunity to speak into the woman and kids lives but I'm struggling to connect with just small talk. I'm currently waiting to see what area of the mission field God wants me. I know doing work here overseas feels right but this type of ministry isn't exactly what I'm called to. Children's ministry and this sort of clinic aren't my niche. Today, the 9th of May, we spent the morning doing devotions and time with God then watching Monica make lap lap. I shredded the coconut with a chair thing and watched them cook it like a hungi. After lunch we walked to the other village to the huge concrete building they built over 4 years that was nearing completion. After we arrived the Nivans quickly joined us. We all interceded for the church and did the machine skit which they loved. Afterwards we spent an hour or so chatting, I spoke with Cindy and Melissa in Bislama slowly getting better as time goes on.

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Mota homesickness - our time living on the islands for 13 days

I was homesick a lot on Mota, often without realising it. I thought home sickness was the feeling of missing someone but there are subtler forms. I found myself thinking constantly about how excited I am to share a story with someone when I get home, and how I'll explain this experience, or how I really want to start doing this new thing when I get home. I started getting frustrated at myself for mentally being at home while I was here in Vanuatu. I feel like this hindered me from truly giving my all to the people in Vanuatu. I learnt two things through this, one: I rarely content with where I am despite being content with what I have, two: home is where God has placed me, not Hawkes Bay. So right now I'm on a process with God to fix these things. To let go of Hawkes Bay without losing my love for it and also learning how to be content with where I am and what I'm doing. I've learnt that every place my foot lands in accordance with God's will is a gift from God in which I should thank him for and be fully satisfied with. I've realised that the thing that makes me happy is not doing God's will, it's just being in His presence that brings joy. I still want to do God's will and live a radicle life for him but first I need to cement the idea that it's God's love not his will that makes it worth it.

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Clinic in Gaua before patients arrived

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Gaua

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Gaua - Monday & Tuesday

The 2nd and 3rd days of Gaua we ran medical clinics. The night before we started I was enthusiastic about the clinics and interceded for them but on the morning of the first clinic I woke up tired and drained with no motivation. This feeling lasted into the morning as I started off at the prayer station of the clinic but as I prayed for people I gained energy. At lunch time I moved on to Triage with Emilia. I learnt how to speak a lot of Bislama as I tried to understand the symptoms of each patient. The one person that has stuck in my mind is one woman who came because of pain in her ribs on one side, we came to found out it had been there for 11 years and started when her husband kicked her. I don't think that's something I'm going to be able to forget quickly. All up we saw around 50 people that first day. The next day of clinics in Gaua came with bad weather. At first we found out only half our team could go as the seas were so rough we could only make one tender ride to the island. I chose to opt out since I was sick anyway but an hour later we had another change of plan and I ended up on the island with the rest of my team. The clinic only ran for half the day and I was able to master Triage with Jarred as a translator. I realised during these days that although running clinics is beneficial, it isn't as rewarding as I thought it would be. I can't see myself doing this sort of missionary work full time in the future but I'd be happy to help out on occasion.

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Gaua

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Gaua - Sunday 30th April

At 8am we took the tender over to Gaua for our first contact with the Nivans on the island. Half way through the tender trip it started pouring rain before any of us could get on a rain jacket, and we then had to wade through the sea to shore so we were more than a little wet all day. The island looked like a beautiful but deserted mountain of green with black sand beach. We later found out that the sand was black due to the volcano which took up the majority of the island. We climbed up a muddy hill and were taken into a dirt floored, flax hut which was the community hall. We attended a short church service in the church there which fit around 50 people. The one thing that I noticed the most was how set in stone the church service was. They sung worship songs and hymns, then all dropped to their knees and recited a prayer together that they had all memorised, all sat up and listened to a bible reading, all dropped to their knees again and recited more prayers, and finally stood up and sung. It's the way they had every prayer memorised and knew exactly what was coming next that stuck me. I'm hoping that the reason it wasn't more personal with God or each other was because we were there but I know that island living is very community based not individualised so that might have been normal. After this we joined the entire community in the community hall again. We sung songs for them and with them, danced with the children singing children's songs, played a very long game of duck duck goose for an hour or so with all the children in that village with all the adults watching and laughing, we did a drama skit for them (machines), then spent time talking with the locals or drawing with the kids. By the end we were completely covered in dirt/dust and sweating more than I thought humanly possible but it was a fun time. One woman (aged 20) we spoke to a lot due to her great English was called Annalee. We got on well and she explained how the community works a little and we just laughed and joked together.

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Santo Healing Pools

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Santo Healing Pools

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Santo Island (Holy Island)

On the 26th of April we encountered a problem while in Port Vila; we had no engineer for the sail the next day to the banks islands. The only engineer available was on the island of Santo meaning we'd have to have an unplanned 16hr sail there to pick him up. Nat and Emila (our team leaders) were excited about this change of plans as they had prayed they would be able to go to this island in the original planning and Nat had it prophesied over her that she would return after her outreach there the previous year. As well as this, there was speculation spreading about a healing pool there for the last few months. Most ferries had been diverted to Santo over past weeks as many Nivans were travelling to this pool to be healed. All teams started to dive into prayer about this pool and whether or not to visit. Our team plus 3 other teams felt to go. God spoke to me saying, don't pray over the water, bless the people around it. None of us knew if this water was from God or the enemy but we were excited for whatever God had planned. After a 25min walk we arrived at the pools around 12pm. About 60 people were bathing in this section of the sea, crippled, paralysed, mothers, children, and the elderly alike from islands all over. We split up and did whatever God lead us to do. Dave from Med team 2 started preaching after the Ship team finished worship. Our team arrived slightly later and went straight into prayer, praying for everyone God lead us too. We all had such different experiences there that day. All teams saw many healing after praying. We prayed for almost everyone there over 5hours. God chose to focus me on relationships and learning from the Nivans. My story is this: I started out with Nat and Erin praying as a team for many ailments. Although we saw no instant healings who knows what happened afterwards when other people prayed for them. When I went out on my own praying for individuals I came across a man called Allen, the assistant pastor (assistant due to retirement) of a church of 400 who had traveled NZ in the 70's/80's for church. After praying a blessing over him he spoke to me about mission work he's apart of. Him and a team are currently translating the Old Testament into the 4 native languages of the Pentecost island and he asked if I would continue to pray for their work. I prayed over a semi paralysed man due to a stroke who was unable to speak, despite not seeing healing this man has stuck in my mind for some reason. After this I came across a very confident woman sitting in one of the pools. She told me about her belief that God is truly blessing Vanuatu and how she believes that Vanuatu is full of the Holy Spirit and is going to lead other islands/nations to God. She emphasised that this water is not just about healing but restoration and cleansing. She believes it is a true gift from God and is preparing Vanuatu for what is to come. She had obvious passion for this and had a determination for me to understand. After listening and a praying for her I felt to move on. God started to speak to me about his desire for me to speak life to people. On walking to the shore I meet a younger woman who was heavily pregnant who I later found out was age 27. We sat down and spoke for about an hour sharing testimonies and small talk. Erin, my team member, later joined this conversation as we sung songs and talked about God's unending love. I quickly learnt how open the Nivans are as this woman shared her life with me both the good and the bad. She also spoke to me about how the healing pool came to be. A woman had breast cancer and had come every day to the ocean to pray to God. God told her one day that the ocean near her had healing properties (I later learnt that this part of the beach was were the first missionaries arrived). We bathed and was healed, she later brought her sick daughter and she was healed as well. After this news spread about the pool until all of Vanuatu knew of it as more people were healed. We prayed for a few more people afterwards, one woman in particular caught my spirits attention as whenever she was near Holy Spirit would move with in me. To this day I'm unsure of why but I spend a long time praying for her. The local people gave out grapefruit and we enjoyed all being together. The end of our day another outreach team (not from the ship arrived) as their plane had been cancelled forcing them to come to this island instead. God brought us all together in this one place despite all our plans, there was now around 45 YWAM'ers and not one of us planned to be there. I was privileged to be able to pray over members of the other team before sharing dinner on the ship with them sharing outreach stories. Prayed for a woman in orange dress right before leaving. She spoke little English but we praised God together. Shelby's, Emilia's, and Joelle's story (in part): They prayed as a group for many individuals for healing and miracles. A man was healed of pain in his knee allowing him to bend his knee where before he couldn't. Eye sight (preiferal vision) was restored in one elderly woman. Kayleigh's Story (in part): Her, Tim, and others prayed for the woman who ran the pool. They felt empty and tired so they prayed for strength and Kayleigh washed their feet and spoke to them. Prayed for mother and daughter of different health issues. She prayed over both multiple times and they were healed. Prayed for a group of woman, Betty, Rosie, and Sarah in the water with Rose and a few others. They spent over an hour joking and laughing with the woman as they poured water over them. The woman taught Bislama songs to them and translated them to English. Tim's story (in part): Prayed for multiple people for healing. Many people were healed of pains and muscle weaknesses. Day 2: We went onto Santo for the morning as a team. We walked in the rain to the house Nat stayed at the previous year, stopping in at the local police station to pray for the officers along the way. The wet walk there helped me realise that outreach was learning to be content with always being highly uncomfortable which surprisingly none of us had a problem with. God is good. At the house we played with the children there, hitting balloons around then prayed for the family. We walked to the hospital and sat for hours with the mamas there with their unwell babies. I painted two woman's nails and spoke for a long time with one woman who told Erin, Joelle, and I her life story. She was a strong woman of faith who spoke about all God had done for her since her husband passed away the previous year. They are extremely poor as she has no income but she was so thankful to God for the miracles He'd done for her. Despite coming to help these woman grow in their relationship with God, sometimes their faith helps us to grow as well. -Be mutually encouraged by each other's faith (one of Pauls letters). The mamas and us all laughed and sung together and had a great time.

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Port Vila 26th April

First day on Vanuatu :) It surprised me how quickly we all adjusted to the culture but the native trees did throw me slightly as we first got in the tender to sail to the main land. It was the first time I'd seen Vanuatu in the daylight and the change of scenery caught me off guard. I expected to have a culture shock as we walked down the main road but it seemed so normal to me. Yes it was very different but I'd seen enough tv shows and documentaries to know what different cultures look like. After converting money we spent the day at the mamas markets and the lava lounge as well as doing devotionals as a team sitting on the side of the street. The mamas markets were amazing, one half was a fruit and vegetable market filled with the biggest avocados I've seen in my life and the smallest bananas ever. Live chickens sat in boxes while live crabs were bundled alive together with string. The other half of the market was stalls with clothing and necklaces. My goal was to talk to these woman and build relationships but due to lack of time making me rush, my inability to speak good Bislama, and my interest in their clothing, I came across as a regular tourist which made it hard to speak long. Thankfully we'll be coming back to Port Villa in a month where we'll have more time and I've learnt from my mistakes. We went to the lava lounge for wifi and after spending an hour there I became frustrated at my team for wasting so much time while we were there for only one day. I felt I had no authority to say anything because I was obviously the only one feeling that way. Thankfully the next day we were able to talk as a group and the issue was brought up and dealt with. It's amazing how quickly issues between people can arise so I spent a while having to process with God.

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The first Vanuatu creature I found 😁

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Prayer and Passion meet us on arrival 😁

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First sunset on the sail across the Pacific Ocean