“…with what can we compare the kingdom of God, …? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the bird of the air can make nests in its shade.” Mark 4:30-32
These verses proved a great encouragement for us this year. Looking back to the time we first arrived until now, we can see the hand of God, planting us like one of the smallest of seeds into the ground. And where He plants, He gives the increase as well!
Many times, we felt so weak, so overwhelmed, often lonely, sometimes discouraged, empty and even frail. But God is always faithful. When we were weak, He proved Himself strong, and strengthened us in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus. Therefore, we can boast of the things that show our weakness, because that’s when the power of Christ rests upon us!
We want to share some of this year’s highlights with you all, because we know that there are many who are praying for us and the ministry, and many who give faithfully and joyfully towards this work!
In March 2019, after the construction of the mission base in the jungle was finished, we celebrated the official opening of the bush clinic and welcomed full-time nurse Fiona to the team, who moved to Selei village together with her family. At the same time, two local mission workers from Santo Bush Mission, a partner organization, moved to the village and began reaching out in the communities.
We then started planning the addition to the clinic, a maternity ward. With the help of different companies, friends and especially our home church in Vienna, Austria, a 40’ft container full of building material was sent out and arrived here in June.
It was a difficult job to prepare everything for the construction, but God helped us through it all. After many difficulties and setbacks, we finally were able to set everything up, two days before a big building team arrived on July the 9th.
The next day we headed into the jungle, 5 trucks fully loaded, with a construction team and medical professionals. For the next 9 days all worked really hard, and completed the main construction of a modern and stable, 7 x 12 meter maternity ward (inclusive one of the first flush toilets and showers in the whole bush!)
At the same time, the nurses, doctors and a dentist were able to serve over 200 patients! For many villagers it was the first time receiving such medical attention.
After the time in the jungle, the construction team even managed to build a whole dormitory building on our base for future missionaries.
Most of the in- and outside work on the maternity is already finished and 3 healthy babies have been born in the clinic already. We are now looking to equip the maternity ward with a solar system for electricity and some necessary equipment to ensure successful deliveries.
Thankfully, this year we were joined by several volunteers throughout the year to help us with all the work. Without their help, it would certainly be impossible to do all the work here. Thank you to all who gave up time, money and even health, to serve alongside us in Vanuatu!
A bi-weekly kids club ministry on our yard, where all neighborhood kids are invited to hear a Bible story, pray, sing and then play, do crafts and have a good time together.
We serve by hospitality, at least once and sometimes twice a week, hosting missionaries, neighbors and people we meet for dinner and fellowship. Since God has blessed us with a great property, we have our door always open in our guest house for missionaries and visitors to stay with us. This helps others with free accommodation and brings us much joy in fellowship.
A weekly prayer service was started in our home in November. We invite all neighbors and interested people to come together once a week and pray and intercede for each other and the nation of Vanuatu!
Outreaches into the jungle: we try to visit Selei often and spend time with the tribes in the villages, building up relationship with them and getting to know them and their life style better.
At times we were able to hike deep into the highlands to visit small tribes in the jungle.
There is much more happening, and we are happy to have adjusted to life and ministry in Vanuatu slowly but surely. We have lots to learn still, with the language, local lifestyle and working in a honor and shame culture.
We are looking forward to 2020 because there are some exiting news to share:
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A family from Hawaii with a young child are joining our ministry for at least 7 months. We have been praying for a long time for God to send out families to join us and He has been faithful!
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So far, at least 4 more volunteers are coming over for 2 to 10 months!
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God provided through His people almost 24,000 USD to purchase a truck! This has been a long-standing need that finally was answered and will help us in our ministry tremendously!
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A road is being built from the clinic in Selei deep into the bush. This will help us to be able to reach a lot of villages much easier by truck instead of walking for many hours. We hope and pray that through this many doors to unengaged villages will be opened!
God is also leading us to grow out our mission base in the jungle in Selei next year by building a boarding school for tribal kids in Selei! This will be a very big construction project, but we know, God will Provide!
There are hundreds of unschooled children in jungle villages. This school will be able to bridge the gap, by working together with local kindergarten and by taking in kids for grade 3-6 to begin with.
At the moments we are still surveying the area to see how many children would be able to come. The local chief already portioned of a big piece of land for us, close to the mission base, to begin construction of the school.
This will be an exciting opportunity to bring the Gospel to many villages, by providing their children with Christian education and giving many the opportunity to learn about Jesus and teaching them His word from a young age!
