Founded in 2008, Vanuatu Missions was established to seek out national pastors in Vanuatu that were showing signs of success but needed encouragement and support.

SAYING GOODBYE!

When the Cases arrived in 2009, they were not greeted at the airport because no one knew they were coming.  But, there were 50 people to say goodbye.  They made wonderful friends and miss them dearly!

 

THE NEXT STAGE:

The headquarters of Vanuatu Missions has been formed in Port Vila, Vanuatu.  The Cases will transistion back to the U.S. to establish a stateside headquarters for the mission.  

The Port Vila church, Dynamic Church, has been forged with a core group of believers grounded in the unwavering truth of God’s Word.  An anointed and seasoned Ni-Van pastor, Jo’ne Saul, has been put in place to oversee Dynamic Church and to continue working with Barnabas Tausi, the director of Kingdom MInistries.  Kingdom Ministries is a covering that unifies the bush churches, to encourage each village pastor by sustaining a relationship and protecting them from denominational politics.  (Barnabas has been evangelizing the nation of Vanuatu for over 20 years and has 1000 converts all over the islands of Tanna and Efate.

Dynamic Church

A finished building!

Even though there are many obstacles and road blocks, with faith and perserverance Vanuatu Missions headquarters is off and running. In December, 2009, Dynamic Church erected their first church building on a piece of property in Erakor, a village just 10 minutes outside of Port Vila Township.  As is common with all bush churches, praise & worship consists of acoustical guitars and the beautiful harmony of the Ni-Van voice.  On this property, neither water nor electricity are available at this time.  The solution for water will be supplied by rain and collected in a water tank.  We are currently in need of the funding for a water tank.  Not only will the water from this tank provide drinking water, but it will also be used for future restrooms.

Torres Island Mission Trip, January 2010

Ian & Georgina Hamilton, Barnabas Tausi, Jone Saul & Barry Case	Delivering Bibles to an Island

A mission trip, in January 2010, was planned to the most northern and ignored Vanuatu Islands (the Torres Islands).  1000 books of the Gospel of John, printed in the Bislama language, which were funded by Baseline United Methodist Church were distributed.  Barnabas has already trained up a man who is willing to transfer his family to that island, temporarily, until the local pastors from Torres can be trained to pastor the churches.  The full gospel message is very pertinent to this group of people whose only introduction to Christ has been thru the Anglicans.  The majority of people have not yet been introduced to the Holy Spirit and salvation thru Jesus Christ.

Barnabas Tausi	Boy receiving the Gospel of John

Where is Vanuatu?

Vanuatu is a Y-shaped chain of 83 islands that is located in the South Pacific Ocean, east of northern Australia. The islands are very diverse in language, culture and economy. Port Vila is the capital city and is modern with restaurants, stores, and the daily arrival of cruise ships from Australia and New Zealand. The outer islands are very primitive in comparison. The people live in grass bungalows and often do not have water or electricity. There is no starvation, however, because the land is abundant in fruits and native root foods like taro, kumala, yam and manioc. Almost all Ni-Vans are poor and live within family communities.

Several of the islands were evangelized by Presbyterian missionaries in the 1700-1800’s and because of them, there are many churches established on these islands.

However, the witch doctors are still strong in power and religion has taken the place of relationship with Jesus. Muslims, Mormons and Jehovah Witness’ have begun moving into the islands. The race is on. Whichever message reaches the untold first usually wins. There are still many villages that have yet heard the gospel. (See map below)

 

 

Palm trees were used for the major support poles on Dynamic Church's building.	Ni-Vanuatu family
Ikauras village church built in May '08	Ladder . . . Vanuatu style!
Missionary gravestones on Erakor Island.	FCF MacArthur Church provided this water tank to a village church on Tanna Island.
Dynamic's first service on their own property.  Although umbrellas were needed due to a brief onslaught of rain, excitement was in the air.	Family Day at Eton beach! Kendall, Sam, Barry, Jill and Bailee
Do you want to go?  The best time of year to build a church is dry season, which is May through October. Temperature?  Being an equatorial country, Vanuatu has relatively uniform temperature throughout the year.  The warmest month is February and the coolest is August.  Port Vila has an average temperature of 25°C with August averaging 23°C/73°F and February 27°C/80°F. If you would like to make a donation to Vanuatu Missions, please click on the donate icon below. Your name & address will be recorded for tax purposes and you will receive a donation letter at the end of the year.

To contact e-mail: v.missions@yahoo.com  

Never heard of Vanuatu?  Here's more information: click this link for tons of Vanuatu info.

While Bislama is the national language, English and French are widely spoken.  Bislama is essentially a phonetic form of English, with much simplified grammer, if it is listened to closely and spoken slowly, it can be understood by most English speaking people.

Vanuatu is at its glorious best in the dry season from May to October.  Expect clear, warm days with an average temperature of 73 degrees F.  The cold season is June to August, when water temperatures drop to 70 degrees and the air is cooler.  Summer is the wet season and brings warmer weather but it can be unpleasantly steamy, with the heaviest rains in January.

In some areas the tropical climate and fertile soils support as many as 1500 species of flowers, ferns, shrubs, vines and trees.  Wildlife includes the native flying foxes, land and sea birds, dolphins, whales, turtles and dugongs (sea cows).  Reefs are also home to some 300 species of coral and more than 450 species of reef fish.