It is often easy to do what we do without realising that at some stage other people will ask “so what do you do?” This is especially easy when you do a job like mine, where there is always plenty to stay occupied with, even though sometimes it’s hard to explain what those things are.
I’ve been with Marine Reach – the medical ship and missions training organisation – for more than six years now, and the experience has been life changing, challenging, and profoundly enriching.

So what is it that I spend my weeks doing here in Vanuatu?

Well, what I do this year is very different to what I did last year.
In some ways.
In other ways it has not changed one bit. And the same will probably apply to next year.

Perhaps I should start by explaining Marine Reach a little more: for only in understanding this unique group, can you begin to wrap your head around how I function within it, why I ended up in Vanuatu, and what next month might look like. Of course, I should probably paint a picture of an average work day too, because that will help.

---

Marine Reach began in 1991 in Tauranga, New Zealand as a small-ship missions group. The brainchild of a Presbyterian minister’s son, the vision was to carry missionaries, medical professionals and relief supplies to the remote islands of the Pacific ocean. Using small ships, Marine Reach would navigate treacherous reef-bound islands to find difficult-to-reach pockets of population; delivering much needed free medical care and the message of hope in Christ to those who are often forgotten and left to their own devices.

Acquiring M/Y Pacific Ruby, a visit to Pitcairn island via Tahiti enabled international YWAM founder Loren Cunningham, to complete his goal to personally deliver the Christian message to the most remote island population on earth.

 

Marine Reach used this ship (1991-1999), as well as M/V Island Mercy (1994-2000) and M/V Pacific Link (2001-2010) to develop their free medical missions around the Pacific Ocean, visiting most island nations between New Zealand and Pitcairn Island, as well as the Philippines. In 2013, their newest ship M/V Pacific Hope marked a new commitment to provide focussed services in the Republic of Vanuatu, a nation of some 260,000 people spread across 63 inhabited islands.

---

I joined Marine Reach in 2010, and as a practical sort of person, I quickly found lots to do in a ship ministry (without a ship). I spent a couple of years helping transform an old daffodil farm into a training base for young christians. With groundskeeping and equipment maintenance demanding the majority of my time, I learnt a lot about myself and what is involved in living in a community focussed environment. In 2012 things changed quite profoundly when I took a team to Vanuatu.
Upon departing Vanuatu, I had the inexplicable feeling that I would be heavily involved in this fascinating little country for quite some time. I also had no intention to remain with Marine Reach. Over the course of the following two months, not only did I make a renewed commitment to Marine Reach, I also agreed to return to Vanuatu and establish a permanent presence and hospitality facility there.
By mid-2013, I was providing short-term outreach teams with outreach planning and hospitality care, as well as running in-country preparations and liaison for our new ship, M/V Pacific Hope.

Things have grown and changed a fair bit since those early days in Port Vila. By the end of 2015 I had moved to a far more focussed role, working mainly with M/V Pacific Hope outreach coordination and planning.

In 2016, that role involved training a small team to help me.
Months before the ship arrived in Vanuatu, we began working with the government to register all of our medical professionals, plan the outreach locations, and prepare the arrival paperwork. During that time, we would take time to visit potential outreach islands to make sure the ship could go there safely. During these visits, we would confirm that the communities needed our help, and understood what to expect when our big white medical ship arrived.
Once the preparations were done, we would join the ship for each outreach, helping to connect our new friends on the island with our old friends on the ship. A huge part of our time during each two week medical outreach was making sure that everyone had what they needed, to do what had been planned.
After each outreach we would become reporters, pulling together all of the information we could grab. With this information, we would prepare reports for our government friends, our sponsors and staff. You can read the biggest report I wrote here: the 2016 Annual Report.

This is a pretty diverse and demanding job. With five two week outreaches in 2016, and four planned for 2017, there is always something going on.
And it doesn’t stop there: in 2017, I’ve been asked to help manage a major building project on the island of Efate.

I do all of this for free. Why? Because as a non-profit, we’re pretty convinced that every dollar given by donors should go to the end goal, not be sucked up by administration costs. That’s why I give everyone an opportunity to help me do it here.