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"Maranatha is a 43 ft
steel-hulled ketch owned by Phil and Pam Bailey.
Phil spent 16 years building her on the "5 year plan" at their home at
Dooralong, a small town west of Wyong on the Central Coast of N.S.W.
Pam is a retired school teacher and Phil a retired Customs officer. He also
has an electrical contracting trade. The main Christian ministries they
have been involved in were the prayer ministry of their local church,
Northlakes Christian Life Centre at Charmhaven, and Gideons International
where they both have served six years on the Northern N.S.W. Regional
Cabinet. Phil has also represented the Australian Gideons on an
international team which placed 200,000 Bibles in a two week Bible Blitz in
Romania and the Czech Republic.
They have three children, Michelle, Tim and Glenn, all Christians and
happily married and four grandchildren, leaving Phil and Pam free to pursue
God's calling. In 2000 God divinely directed them to Bowen to become
affiliated with Coastlands. They have sold their house and live full-time
on Maranatha.
Since 2002 they have spent June to November each year in the Louisiade
Archipelago off the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea taking ministry teams
from one of the local churches around the islands, some of which are over
100 miles from the main centre. As there is no reliable local transport the
local church elders rarely and in some instances never get to visit the
outlying fellowships for ministry and training.
While providing transport is their main ministry, other areas includes
providing "tools" such as guitars for the churches, blackboards, Bibles
(over 1200 so far), Sunday School materials, lamps, hand-tools, study
Bibles, Bible dictionaries, commentaries and other resource materials for
pastors, medicines for the aid posts and school supplies for the schools.
They have also been able to fund four men from the Louisiades to attend the
Bethel Bible College in Port Moresby for much need training. In 2006, six
more men will be going to the college. In 2004 Pam was asked to conduct a
five day conference on teaching R.E. in schools and Sunday Schools. This
involved over 100 people from 20 different fellowships from four
denominations. In 2005 they also worked in conjunction with Bruce and
Dianne from Pacific Mercy helping with their Christian video ministry.
Their plans for 2006 are to return to the Louisiades in June with another
load of supplies and then take a team of evangelists further north to
Woodlark Island for outreach. They have also been asked to organise a
speaker for a leaders' conference in October.
Phil & Pam
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