E-UpdatesCoastlands Ministry News24th July 2001 |
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Directors CutI have just returned from a Pastors Camp with Pastor David Cartledge as our speaker. He shared with us many great things. One thing that really impacted me was his comment on Phil 4:19, "My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus." As anyone in ministry or missions knows, we are always faced with the challenge of seeing breakthrough in the area of the supply needed to carry out the task. Well, the good news impacting me was this: We have what we need. David shared with us that the original of Phil 4:19 literally means – My God will cram you full of business opportunities and employment by giving you creative ideas, concepts and genius. What a wonderful realization.
God can put into his people the means necessary for them to be able to
help themselves and others achieve their dreams, goals and visions.
I have been opening my heart to the Lord for more creative ideas, concepts
and genius. Fancy that you can be a genius. Nobody told me that when
I dropped out of school. But now I know that God has enabled me to
do things and experience things that I could never have dreamed of in the
natural. Who says the Christian life is boring. It is one adventure
after another. Why not let the Holy Spirit put some creative genius
in you today? Open your heart and let Him reveal His will and wisdom to
you today. You can't get any more genius than that.
John Robertshaw From The Radio BaseSV LibertyDave and Tana Black are now in America Samoa. They experienced some engine problems and hope to have it repaired by next Monday so as to continue there trip to Fiji. They are in good heart. SV Grace 11Des & Merlene are preparing for an outreach into the Big Bay area Santo next week. Pastor John Robertshaw along with a small team will be joining them for this outreach. During this time a crusade will be held in this very remote region. It will be a wonderful opportunity as much seed has been sown in the region by Des & Merlene Around the TrapsThe remaining vessels are in harbor carrying our maintenance, applying for visas and doing all those tasks that are so necessary to keep afloat in a ministry like this. Coastlands SummitThis is confirmed for the November the 13th and will run from Tuesday till Friday. The speakers are Pastor Barry Silverback from Papua New Guinea and Pastor Steve Blake from Liberty for the Nations, New South Wales, Australia. These Summits are always a time of great vision, mission and motivation. Plan to be there. Billets are available. We will send the applications out in the near future. Coastlands BookCurrently a book is being researched and prepared for publishing by author Julia Loren. Julia is visiting us from California USA to write this book. She has been interviewing many of those involved with Coastlands over the last week. We will let you know when it is ready. |
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Special Report from ShekinahThe following is a longer than normal report given by Tom of Shekinah. Shekinah is currently at anchor in Sola, the main town for the Banks group of Islands. We are surrounded by volcano like mountains and one has two fumaroles which constantly blast steam out of the side of the mountain. We are on our way to the Torres Islands another one hundred or so miles to the north west. The weather is miserable - overcast with gusty winds from the southeast and the next leg of our journey is about seven hours duration - we plan to leave here tomorrow morning but for now we are awaiting the small supply vessel which is due in to Sola today - hmm!!!. We had a wonderful time of outreach at our last anchorage - Losalava on Gaua Island (Southernmost island of the Banks). We started with simple games for the children with giant water-pistols for when they got it wrong or mucked up - Heather played the Simon says game but substituted Jesus for Simon - we handed out lollies by the hundred, even the adults queued up for a sticky lolly. We also gave the village a brand new soccer ball. After an hour or so of games we put on the video of the cartoon film "Tarzan" An excellent and easily understood film with lots of humour and fun - the children loved it. At one point a trio of young English students walked into the village - they are studying the large sulphur lake Letas and it's birdlife - four hours walk away - and were very surprised by our presence - it is a very remote and isolated place! After the kids session we took all the equipment outside to the village square where we had erected the large screen and our new lighting system - six fluorescent lights on two long cables - we tied them to the thatched roof of one large hut and to the tiny Anglican church eaves on the other side of the square. We then had a time of prayer plus some praise and worship 'village' style songs which was followed by the Hillsong video 'Shout To The Lord' - They really do enjoy the up tempo western style of praising and worshipping The Lord - so many of them came to us after to say how much they enjoyed what they saw! We then showed the drama Heaven's Gates And Hell's Flames which was followed by Pastor Raymond's prayer and an altar call. Four villages had turned up - about 250 people - and about thirty people responded to the alter call. We felt this was really good especially considering we were in the territory of a very traditional Anglican congregation! When we left Port Vila a couple of weeks ago we were joined by a Ni-Vanuatu Pastor by the name of Raymond Clay. He is from the main AOG church in Vila and works as assistant to Pastor Youen Atnelo who is the AOG Superintendent to Vanuatu. Pastor Raymond is a very dedicated evangelist with a church planter's mentality! Also with us is Jerry who spent time with us last year - he was the guy who spoke on our short video of Shekinah's Yacht Ministry during 2000 The main reason for Pastor Raymond accompanying us to the Torres Islands is to start the very first AOG church there. The Torres Islands are made up of four main islands - there is a map on our website http://www.coastlands.net/shekinah - only three of them have an anchorage and one has a small airfield. Of the three anchorages one has a village nearby and the other two have a four hour walk to the nearest village. We will do as much as we can to help Pastor Raymond but we will be leaving him there as we have many other places to visit before returning to Vila. There is an AOG conference down in Emae Island for five days in late August They are having a big youth rally and we have been asked to take part in the rally. Emae is also the island where we hope to put in a permanent mooring buoy. Our next island stop is Ureparapara about seven or eight hours away to the north west - there is a small village on the island plus a school and a clinic. We hope to be able to re-stock the school and assist with medical supplies for the clinic. The island is an extinct (I hope ) volcano whose last eruption blew out the side of the crater and let the sea in - now you have to sail into this crater for about two miles to the village - sounds scary but they do get occasional yachts visiting. Early this morning we saw a small ship on the horizon and called it up on our VHF radio - the skipper said he was on his way to Ureparapara too - so we may have some company there tomorrow. Monday 16th July 2001 At anchor at Ureparapara - This morning I stepped through the companionway and out into the cockpit. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes I contemplated another beautiful blessing from The Lord - all around us wooded hills climb up steeply to the crater rim - the early morning sun skips across and into this extinct volcano - as I looked further around and past the breach in the crater wall where the sea comes in, I could see an eagle soaring in the sunlight - a rooster crows and the village of Lorup Bay slowly comes to life - we can see smoke gently rising from where we know the village nestles among the palm trees. There are many small rivers and creeks coming into the bay and most of them feed canoes full of children into the still waters of the bay - as usual they are heading for Shekinah - they know we cannot resist giving them lollies for their efforts. There are less than two hundred people living in the village which has only one primary school and about thirty-seven children taught by three resident teachers. Shekinah was able to bless the school with many exercise books, pens, pencils, rulers etc and boxes full of teacher resources - not enough by any means but we will come again - they tell us that no yacht in their memory has given so much for their community. But we have had so much fun here too - film shows for the kids, new footballs and games to play - praise and worship western style - home video shows, lolly handouts, everything we do creates great enjoyment and fun for all. The showing of Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames saw the whole village turnout even though they had school the next day. This video is SO powerfull! We know we are blessing them but that blessing is very much a two way thing. Our 'on board' pastor Raymond took the Sunday morning service - they knew him from his regular radio broadcasts from Port Vila. Jerry spends time with us outreaching and sharing our faith with the families we meet. For now we must look to tomorrow when we will head off to another very
remote island in the Torres Group. Low Island at least has an airstrip for
the small plane that visits once a fortnight. Ureparapara has no airstrip
and thus is totally reliant upon visiting yachts and totally remote too!!!
Please pray for our continuing safety and success in this mission
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