V-mail 2: Radio Vanuatu
Monday 10 July, 2006 · Posted by Ben Atwood
Another e-mail update from the Vanuatu short-term mission team has come in! Read on for news of their experiences with ‘Island time’, men’s and women’s fellowship, and preaching to over 100,000 people…
“We have been really busy here. Last night we continued our “V-Team Band” adventure, as all of us sang to well over 100,000 people! Glen preached to the same masses of people, and played guitar to accompany us. It was only the second time he has ever sung in public! How was this possible? Well, we were on Vanuatu Radio - a international station that goes out not only to all of Vanuatu, but also to North Queensland, PNG, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and other South Pacific Countries. We were incredibly blessed with the opportunity to fill an hour slot in the radio last night using Glen’s sermon, Rachel’s testimony, and all of us singing and praying, as we had done in the church service we ran yesterday morning at PMC Church.
“On Wednesday, we took a very long and bumpy bus ride to Onesua High School. We again experienced ‘Island Time’ when the bus that had arranged to pick us up at 8:30am arrived just after 10am. After a brief tour of the boarding school, we did a presentation, complete with drama, Bible talk, testimony, Mysterious Dan the Magic Man, and songs. The kids were at first very shy and sat far away, but after Kathryn spoke to them in Bislama, they came very close! They were so in shock from hearing a white girl speaking their language that we had to wait for them to finish laughing before coming forward! Perhaps it’s just Kathryn’s fluency not being so great! It was a great success, and by the time we stopped in at a tourist village on the way back to Vila, they had already heard news of our ‘pig drama’ (as we acted out the story of the prodigal son). News in Vanuatu really does travel fast!
“On Wednesday night, we ran a women’s and men’s fellowship night at Selime church. The women’s night was very encouraging, with Ni-Vanuatu singing and harmonising putting us to shame! Together we studied Galatians 5 - a passage about the fruits of the Spirit, then the women expressed what they had learnt in dramas and then by painting on cloth squares which we have since put together into a quilt to present to the church when we return on the 23rd. The men’s night was an enormously encouraging night, especially the time of group prayer. The boys were blessed with a performance by the men’s choir that ‘knocked our white, toneless socks off!’ (as Joel says)
“We have been busy all week, with more dramas and songs and tricks in the market place, running a workshop for Sunday School leaders, leading and preaching at the church yesterday morning, running two youth group nights, visiting schools, and every now and then stopping to look around the island, swim, prepare our ministries for the next day and sometimes even eat and sleep! The team has worked very hard and have been very faithful in telling people clearly and creatively about how God loved us so much that he sent his Son to come and die on a cross to take our punishment for turning our back on God, so that we could have a relationship with God.”
Please continue to pray for the team’s health and energy - as you may have picked up, it sounds like they are working very hard for the gospel! Also pray for the people who have heard the Word of God as a result of the team’s efforts; it is a rare thing to be able to preach to 100,000 people at a time! God is doing a great thing in sowing seeds through this team, so pray that not only will those seeds take root and grow, but that the Lord of the Harvest would raise up Christians to help water those seeds, so that we might see a great revival in Vanuatu.
As usual, for more info or if you would like the e-mails direct, contact Ben Atwood.
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