Hymns in the Seabreeze

Hello! I've recently come back from a short trip to Vanuatu, so as promised, I've got some more stories to share. I last left off at the end of the second day of the trip, which was spent getting to know the culture and character of Vanuatu a little bit more. The third day was a Sunday (hey, that's randomly coincidental! Jesus rose on the third day, which also happened to be a Sunday...), and we would get to visit a local church down the road from our campsite. So without further ado, here is pretty much what I wrote at the time (I took a notebook with me everywhere and would always be scribbling things down so I wouldn't forget. I'm pretty forgetful, and I wanted to remember this time away, so I wrote pages and pages of haphazard notes at all angles all over the page. Anyway! Getting to the story...)

DAY 3 - Sunday 19th November 2017
Mercifully, I was able to have eight hours sleep. The music next door (from an ongoing revival crusade type thing) only begun at 5.30am, and I was already up and having a shower by then. Today we will be going to the Presbyterian church down the road; it is a beautiful day today.
We sang some songs together at devotions in the morning, and had breakfast (with frozen milk). We packed some things, and then it was off to meet our dear brothers and sisters in Christ in Vanuatu.
The church was a smallish, white rendered building, simply but beautifully decorated on the inside. A screen up the front showed the order of service, and we would soon see the similarities and differences between here and our home churches (each of us on the trip came from different cities and kinds of churches).
The service began on 'Vanuatu time' - in other words, when everyone got there! Eventually, to get people inside someone rang the church bell which hung on a pole somewhere outside (maybe it was a bell, or a gong, or an old metal fuel can; I don't remember exactly. All these options are commonly used as bells in Vanuatu). I think the whole village knew then it was time for church!
We wandered inside, and sat down.
After a while, a single voice rang out, singing the first line of a song. Then suddenly the whole church joined in, acapella style in beautiful harmony. It took a while, but I managed to figure out what the words were. It was a bible verse:
'Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven.'
The song ended, and there was silence for a moment. Then another voice began a new song.
'Praise him, praise him; praise him in the morning, praise him in the moonlight...'
After that I couldn't make out the words. No one was reading from anything; they all knew the songs off by heart. When I could figure out the words, I sang along; otherwise I just sang the tune wordlessly.
After a few songs, it was time for the service to start. Someone began the age-old call and response:
"God is good!"
"All the time."
"And all the time?"
"God is good!"
Then I saw that the order of service listed on the screen had begun.

1. Doxology
As it turns out, this was the singing. One person would start the first line of a song, then the rest of the church joined in like a spontaneous choir. There were a few more songs, I think.

2. Call to worship, and
3. Welcome
Someone read a psalm from the bible and said a few words of welcome. The pastor and his family came in, and they sat at the front of the church, facing in from the side.

4. Prayer of forgiveness and supplication
This was amazing to me, and so unlike anything I have ever seen before. I had heard of churches where this happened, but never seen it for myself. Everyone simultaneously burst out into prayer, speaking out loud, having a conversation between God and themselves, talking as though face to face. Sometimes the pastor's voice would rise above the rest, and it seemed people would pray with him, then continue their own private conversations with God. The voices gradually grew quieter, until they all faded away.

5. Opening hymn
Everyone stood up and sang a hymn together in Bislama (the local language, a kind of pidgin English), reading out of the hymnbook Niu Laef Buk 4, like a choir in perfect harmony. There were no other instruments; it was only voices. Some ladies sitting behind us kindly lent us their hymnbook so we could sing along too.

6. Children's talk
All the young kids came and sat on the woven mats out the front of the church, and a man very animatedly told them the parable of the talents from the bible, in Bislama. Then a few teenagers and young adults came out the front with two guitars and sang the song 10 000 Reasons (a popular church song in English, well-known around the world) for the rest of the church.

7. Offering
Woven bowls were passed around for the offering, and someone started a song which everyone then joined. After that was done, everyone burst into simultaneous prayer again, this time for thanksgiving and confession.

8. Announcements
An old man stood up the front and welcomed everyone, including us Australians visiting. Then he read out some announcements to the church for a while (I think it included things like the rosters for who was helping with what etc, since most people probably don't have internet and such).

9. Second hymn
We stood up and sang another Bislama hymn, from Niu Laef Buk (New Life Book) again. It went like this:

"Mi, mi wantem folem
Ol fasin blong yu nao.
Yu we yu ded blong sevem mi,
Yu tekemaot ol sin blong mi."

It was called 'Jisas, Mi Wantem Save Moa', and was based on an old English hymn called 'More About Jesus Would I Know'. From my limited understanding of Bislama, here is a rough translation (if you read the Bislama out loud phonetically, you can probably see the connections):

"I want to follow you
All my ways belong to you now.
You died to save me;
You took away all my sin."

10. Bible reading
The bible reading was from Matthew's gospel, the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30).
After the passage was read out, the pastor prayed, and then began his sermon.
I took lots of notes on the sermon, although since it was mostly in Bislama, I wasn't always exactly sure what the pastor was saying; I think we managed to get the gist of it. It was about giving the gifts God has given us back to Him, and multiplying them. It was about being faithful with what God has entrusted us with, and investing in what God has given you. 'God has given us each according to our ability; He has given a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is our treasure.' A few more verses from the bible were mentioned, like 1 Peter 4:10 - about using the gifts you have received to serve others - and Romans 12:4-6, about how in Christ it is like we are all members of the same body, and in Christ we are all one but have different roles (according to the gifts God has given us).
The pastor appealed to the congregation to be faithful servants of Jesus Christ, to hear Him say 'well done, good and faithful servant' like in the parable. He urged them to 'be faithful unto death' (Revelation 2.10), and urged everyone to really believe in Jesus Christ. When you are sick you go to the doctor - likewise, when you are lost in your sin, you need Jesus to save you. 'Come before him. Do not be afraid. Be faithful servants, until Jesus comes back, or you meet him in heaven.'
He encouraged us all to be faithful, because God is faithful. God is always faithful, in all the situations and trials we are given.

11. Third hymn
We all sang a hymn in the local language of Efate, the island we were staying on (it was very different to Bislama - this one was the ancient language that existed before Europeans came, which most people still speak). The ladies behind us again kindly lent us the other hymnbook it was from. Then a man stood up and said the blessing; the service ended officially.


We Australians were asked to leave first, and then asked to line up outside the exit of the church. Then, to our surprise, the whole church shook every one of our hands as they walked out! Afterwards, I talked to some women outside. There was a lady named Alina, and another lady Tusia and her little daughter Carlina, who wore matching purple dresses. Alina studies architecture in Papua New Guinea for 10 months a year, and only just got back a few days earlier to see her own little daughter again.
Then we talked to a pastor, not the man who had preached but a younger pastor (maybe the youth pastor). A tiny little girl clung to his side; she was his daughter Alana.
I asked if there were things we could pray for their church; he told us a few things. Young people didn't always come much anymore, finding entertainment and distractions in the new technology available now in Vanuatu (much like in many Australian churches!). As the young pastor pointed out though, it may be a changing world but God doesn't change. He really longed for the young people to know God; he really deeply cared for them and wanted them to know God in the same close way that he and the older people did. However, it is difficult for him and the older church leaders to understand the new world and values that the youth have found by way of the internet, especially the older leaders who have grown up in a traditional Island culture; so he asked us to pray for the next generation, and the leaders in the many challenges they face in helping lead the youth to  deep and meaningful relationships with Jesus.

We said goodbye and began a pleasant walk back to the campsite, a walk of about half an hour or so. I had a good chat with Ed (one of the trip leaders) on the way back, and although the clouds were growing darker it didn't rain just yet. After getting back we went to the beach not far from the campsite, although I only dipped my toes in.
Then we came back and had sausage sandwiches for lunch, and hung around and chatted for a while. The others played cards, and I got my paints out and sketched a frangipani I found on the ground. I went back to the cabin and had a nap, then later came back up to discuss the children's program we would be running in a few days' time. We were discussing the bible memory verse and trying to think up a way to help the kids remember it, and I had an old kids' song stuck in my head. Then I realised that the words of the bible verse just happened to perfectly fit the tune! Everyone else seemed to like the idea as well.
"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 1 John 4:16..."
After writing out the verse on about 30 little origami hearts, I went with some of the girls on a sunset walk along the beach (I went barefoot, as anyone who knows me could probably guess :P). Then it was time for a dinner of chicken and rice and vegetables, and we chatted for a while. After helping bring over all the chairs we could find to the big tent pitched on the grass for the 150th anniversary of Scripture Union celebrations tomorrow, the others had their own makeshift church service in English up in the hall. I went to bed early, however; after all the early mornings I was pretty tired.

It was really a blessing to stand before God alongside our brothers and sisters in Vanuatu. We didn't always understand the language, but we Christians have a universal language - love. We were welcomed in love, and farewelled in love. We knew that we were a part of their family, and they were a part of ours.