Port Vila, Republic of Vanuatu

Saralana Park, next to Parliament House, was the venue for our October 2008 Gospel Crusade in the capital city of Port Vila. Posters and banners, radio and television had taken the word across the many islands of the Republic of Vanuatu and the official opening was presided over by none other than the Prime Minister himself, the Honorable Nipake Edward Natapei. In fact we were honored by his presence on the platform for each of the three glorious crusade nights and the final day of the event saw the Minister of Trade officially bring it to a close.

What made the Port Vila event so remarkable is that the nation had not had a crusade of this kind and scale since 1977! The crusade committee and the pastors of various churches and denominations hadn’t seen such a unity and fellowship in the gospel in as many years and the massive alter calls of so many people giving their lives to Christ amid joyous celebration and dance was something to behold.

The final day, October 5, by coincidence, turned out to be Constitution Day for the Republic of Vanuatu. It was appropriate therefore to conclude the event with a solemn moment to lift up the nation, the government and people of this magnificent Pacific state in prayers and intercession. A fitting moment indeed of thanksgiving and dedication for a nation whose coat of arms bears the motto: In God We Stand!

And of course the Proclaimed Gospel – or rather Proclaimed Christianity has its signature in the incredible demonstration of God’s miracle power to heal the sick. For the paralytics, the lame and crippled; for the many women so wonderfully healed from breast cancer; for those who lay in the semi trucks and other vehicles having been brought in from the hospitals, it was such an event with Jesus Christ.

Anyone that attended this Crusade can never forget the sight of so much need. “I don’t think I have ever looked into such a sad story of human need” says the Evangelist, Eton Mills. The wheelchairs, broken limbs, even women with ‘the issue of blood’ just like in Bible days; young girls of 15 with breast cancer- You could have cried, witnessing how sadly and how painfully Satan has broken, even destroyed people’s lives.

Perhaps it has not really been understood how so desperately so many of God’s children out in the far away lands of our beautiful planet are suffering and groaning in pain of various maladies, bondage of every imaginable and unimaginable kind that unlessthe true bible proclaimation of the gospel hits their shores, Satan will carry on his merciless work of death with triumph and glee.

After Pentecost, God has endowed us with limitless dimensions of power in the person of the Holy Spirit. It’s amazing what capacity is lying dormant in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ these momentous 2000 years. It was for good reason that Jesus said,”ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”We should all be literate enough to understand that this is a direct reference to the proclamation and preaching of the gospel. Out there in the world, just like Jesus said, they are like sheep without a shepherd; like travellers lost in the desert with their tongues drying up for want of a drop of water. But who do you suppose, knows where the watering holes are? Remember the Samaritan woman at the well. Once she’d caught onto the idea that there is such a thing as living water, she ran off with news that here was something fresh and new in Israel! At first she’d thought that a new prophet had arisen in the land. Now her city was spreading the news that this had to be the Saviour of the world! He’s a saviour by name- Jesus!

The Apostles and those who carry the gospel the nations of the world are still Christ’s first ministers and ambassadors in the church. It is a travesty of truth to pretend that their preeminence should somehow be lost in the strange juggernaut of today’s new forms of church government and hierarchy. Christ is no ordinary Churchman! What he has in mind, when he speaks of the church, is not just some edifice or congregation gathering somewhere on a Sunday morning. He is thinking of a mighty and invincible army- an invasion force! Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it! It is a people besieging the citadel of hell, throwing the battering rams of gospel proclamation and liberating humanity in the deep dungeons of hades!

While you look forward to your next Sunday sermon, think of the opaque mass of humanity yet to hear their first. Missions, missions! Feeding the poor and helping the disadvantaged! But the thing that really hurts Satan happens at the uttermost part of the earth. Where the gospel rocks! Where the lame walk, the deaf hear and the dumb begin to utter a word for the first time! There the multitudes brave the rain for the miracles and the choirs lift up their voices with ‘Let Us Adore Him.’ Give me the gospel! Nothing else feels quite like it!