Elvis in Vanuatu

There are opportunities for adventure and worthwhile service right on your country’s doorstep, as Hayley and Randall Oliver discovered.

Settling aboard the 15.6-m sloop Elvis, in Port Vila, Vanuata, after its two week, 1000 nautical mile (nm)-maiden voyage from Queensland, we began an 18-hour, 100-nm working cruise to the Maskelyn Islands of Vanuatu. We knew our lives were about to be changed. Over the next two weeks, together with Oliver Stubbs and Laura Ashley, volunteers from the USA; surgeon Dr Bruce Robbie and his wife, Beverley, a nurse); dentist Dr Wayne Martin and his wife, Dr Robin Martin; Dianne Strahan (captain and nurse); and Steve Woodward, the boat operations officer, we would visit six remote villages, examine some 2000 patients and pull more than 1000 teeth!

We were sailing with Pacific Yacht Ministries (PYM), a Queensland-based humanitarian medical ministry to needy Pacific islands, which operates Elvis. (Its tender is called, Love Me Tender!) PYM is the result of the vision and drive of Steve Woodward and his dedicated and long-suffering wife, Kath, who own the boat. Its aim is to bring physical relief to unserviced, remote island communities.

Central to PYM’s mission is the notion that it will only do for those communities that which they can’t do for themselves; it will also help them develop the means to do those things they can.

That’s the theory, anyway. The reality was two weeks of unromantic, hard slog—seasickness, cramped living, cold showers, hot nights, early mornings, cold showers . . .

Our adventure began the night we’d planned to leave Port Villa. An elderly lady was brought to Elvis with a dislocated jaw, sustained while yawning! That sounds humorous, but she was in great pain. After giving a dose of Valium, the team doctor and dentist realigned the jaw—but only after an amount of time had past, ensuring a later-than-anticipated embarking.

From the outset, we realised God had a different agenda for the trip to ours. We were excited by the prospect of the unknown, of stepping into the night not knowing where He would lead, but trusting Him to guide.

We worked in villages on two main islands—Maskelyn and Ahkamb, about 20 nm apart. Each day was long, but the gratitude of the people was immense and obvious. It was also obvious that many hadn’t seen a doctor or dentist in years. The cost was beyond the reach of most families, with the nearest hospital a two-week journey by dugout. Although many villages had some form of clinic, they were often run-down and possessed out-of-date medicines, scant supplies and, often, had no trained staff. Villagers informed us that the government-employed nurses who ran the clinics had abandoned their post to return to their own villages, leaving them bereft. Just the week before we arrived, two children had died, and perhaps needlessly, had help come a little sooner or been of a higher quality.

The village children are beautiful, with big smiles and quick to laugh. Although shy, one stroke of Laura’s long, blond locks, so different to their own tightly coiled coifs, and the barriers were broken.

In each village, as guests, banquets were prepared for us; gifts were exchanged and speeches of thanks delivered. We were humbled by the generosity of people with so little. Oliver, speaking of the people’s contrasting generous spirit, remarked, “When I first came here, I felt sorry for these people. Now I feel sorry for myself.”

We realised God was teaching us all some valuable lessons about ourselves.
The medical needs in Vanuatu are real and large. Without access to health care, the people continue to live with the pain of decaying teeth, malignant tumors, eye complaints, arthritis, infection, malaria and elephantiasis, skin disorders, and premature death. They also know that with intervention, their ailments are often treatable, even preventable.

It was difficult observing a grieving mother knowing that with the resources, her child could have been saved.
PYM has plans to address such needs. Although a fledgling ministry, its members and supporters are determined to see it succeed.

This year PYM is planning a land-based operation in the Solomon Islands, in known safe areas, led by experienced missionaries. PYM has also been approached by the Fred Hollows Foundation to be a vehicle for a specialist eye surgeon in Vanuatu to visit the country’s outer islands.

PYM needs the services of doctors, nurses, dentists and dental assistants to provide care and treatment, along with fundraisers and financiers willing to support the ministry.*

Spending time with Steve, the ministry’s visionary, one quickly realises his vision is not only for the people Elvis will visit, but also for the team it carries.

One cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening your own. And, after two weeks with the people of Vanuatu, we began to understand the truth of this. Service gives meaning, purpose and direction to a life that’s all at sea—and particularly in a society of affluence—where a person is likely to be distracted from a need of God. §

* Interested? For more information or to register your interest in the work of Pacific Yacht Ministries, check the web at www.pacificyachtministries.org

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