Vanuatu: Grasping the gospel of grace

A staggering 85% of people living in the beautiful South Pacific country of Vanuatu call themselves Christians. It was considered one of the missionary success stories of the 1800s.

But something is not quite right. Many of those people still hold on to the deep-seated belief that in life, ‘good’ people get good things and ‘bad’ people get bad things. The very heart of the Christian faith – grace – has proved a difficult concept for the people to grasp. Even a significant number of pastors would struggle to articulate the Biblical gospel of grace.

GNYF Vanuatu have found it a struggle to establish a consistent evangelical witness at the University of the South Pacific. But 2018 has seen a fresh wave of gospel opportunities, particularly among the local ni-Vanuatu students. The night before orientation day at the start of the year, a free publicity stall became available. The next day, a student whose relative was known to the staff-worker passed by the stand. She then brought a few of her friends over. Then somehow, word got around. In two hours, 40 local students had signed up to find out more! It was an incredible demonstration of God’s grace.

Following up with those 40 has been challenging. Discipleship methods used in other parts of the South Pacific have proved less effective in this culture. It’s been difficult to work out what approach to take with these students especially those who identify as Christians but who haven’t deeply grasped the concept of grace.

As the new term gets underway, please join us in praying for them:

• Pray for wisdom in discipling these students; pray that they would have a deep understanding of grace.
• Pray for opportunities to reach out to the many international students coming to this university from the different island nations of the South Pacific.
• Pray for the upcoming South Pacific regional conference SPARC, at the end of August, hosted by the movement in Vanuatu. Regional Secretary David Walter will be speaking on the theme of grace.
• Pray for GNYF Vanuatu as they hope to officially affiliate to IFES at World Assembly 2019.

Thanks for praying with us!