G’day. We are finally back in New Zealand after a very long year onboard the M/V Pacific Link.
We began the year in NZ getting the ship ready for a sixteen port public relations (PR) tour of Australia. We spent almost six months travelling from Adelaide to Hobart and along the eastern seaboard of Australia, ending up on Thursday Island, located at the tip of the Cape York Peninsula, just south of Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya.
Leaving Thursday Island we sailed to Papua New Guinea where we spent nearly three months on outreaches to villages along the river system of the Gulf province.

The peoples of “Gulf province” are not long out of the stone-age. They are a friendly people now, but not so one hundred years ago when missionaries were killed…and eaten.
Thankfully those days are past. We are in awe of the missionaries of the past who had such a heart for the lost that they left all the comforts of home and sailed to remote lands to reach the unreached.
Today the effects of their message are evident throughout the country of PNG, as most villages have at least one church.

The welfare of the pastor is the church’s responsibility. Each week one of the ‘clans’ within the church takes the responsibility of providing one weeks worth of food for the pastor and his family. After church on Sunday the clan will gather provisions and bring them to the pastor’s home Fruit, vegetables, sago (processed starch from the Sago Palm Tree that is a staple in their diet)… Grubs, fish, crabs and even shrimp which are plentiful in the rivers.
Corruption in PNG’s government is a huge problem. Allocated funding for government projects often disappear into the pockets of elected politicians. Meanwhile the people live solely on what they can hunt and gather. All around them are signs of money from multi-national oil companies, gold and copper mines and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)…but so little actually reaches the people of PNG…but rather goes off shore to investors and ex-Patriot workers.

Jeannie visited schools everywhere we went and found that most schools have one teacher and a hundred students. Many schools have closed down for lack of teachers…or supplies. Teachers rarely receive their government pay-checks, and if they did there is only one bank where the check could be cashed. The bank may be many hours away by boat…and it will cost nearly one-half of their actual pay to hire a boat to take them to pick up their pay. Many paychecks ‘disappear’ and are cashed by thieves. It is an amazing country, very dark in places and yet the good news of Jesus Christ is advancing throughout the country. In one village where we visited 127 young people gave their heart to the Lord and are now being discipled by the local church.

The outreach to PNG was run in conjunction with Youth With A Mission Australia. YWAM Australia has wanted to launch a ship for many years now. We came alongside them and helped them ‘get their feet wet’ with the ship and now have left the ship with them to operate in the years to come. They will focus their outreaches on PNG for the next 5-7 years…and likely longer.

Marine Reach – YWAM is in a time of expansion around the world, and for Jeannie and me, it has been exciting to be part of launching a ship ministry in Australia.

We are presently looking for a new ship (like this one) that will be based here in New Zealand but will continue to focus outreaches into the remote South Pacific island nations. Our goal is to purchase a used vessel, sail it back to Tauranga, New Zealand by mid 2011. We will spend the remainder of the year fitting out the new vessel to be a medical ship. We would like to have two operating theaters onboard the ship; one for dental and an Ophthalmology surgery.

2011 will be a year of mostly land based outreaches throughout Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu, as well as one outreach onboard the M/V Pacific Link in Papua New Guinea. Our aim is to have the new ship ready for outreaches in April 2012.

Jeannie has just finished an intensive TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) course. The qualification she received is recognized world-wide. This is both a ministry tool and a means of working as a teacher, which is where her heart is.

Mike has recently been named as the New Zealand national director of Marine Reach-YWAM. He will be overseeing the New Zealand office and base and working in conjunction with our Asia-Pacific director, Jesse Misa, to see the new ship launched.

When Moses met with God at the burning bush, (Exodus 3) God said that he had (v.7) heard the cry of his people Israel in Egypt, and that he was concerned for their welfare and had come to rescue them and bring them to the promised land. A few verses later (v.10) God says I have come to rescue them, so GO,. I am sending you to Pharaoh.
This is the heart of missions. God is concerned at the plight of the peoples who live in darkness and bondage, and has come to rescue them and bring them to the promised land, a place of salvation...and relationship with God himself.
God has come to do the rescuing…but he sends his servants to the foreign nations…BUT (v.12) God promises, “…I will be with you.”
For Jeannie and me…and our family… the call of God to the nations is a call to the South Pacific Island Nations…and New Zealand. Our calling to go has been made possible through faithful supporters who have prayed for us, encouraged us and helped to send us by giving sacrificially to help reach the peoples of the S. Pacific. These stories of lives changed are as much yours as they are ours.

Thank you so much for standing with us nearly eleven years.

YWAM – Marine Reach, are running schools here in NZ and Fiji to train people of any age to a lifestyle of mission. We have Discipleship Training Schools (DTS) for 18-35 year olds…and Crossroads DTS for over 35…and even run multi-generational DTS where all ages are combined. DTS is 5-6 months long. If you or someone you know is looking at how to get involved in missions have them check out our website and facebook page.
Here are the links:
http://www.marinereachministries.com
http://www.mrmdts.org/