A previous edition
of the Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study featured the
story of the John Frum cargo cult of Vanuatu. Members of this
group were not involved in the church because they were waiting
for “John” who would come “Frum” America
and provide them with everything they needed. At that time an
outreach to the group was just beginning.
Regional liaison for the Pacific David Walter writes that
in August 2006 on Tanna Island, one thousand (of a total of
seven thousand) former members of the cargo cult brought gifts
of friendship and then sang and danced in celebration. They
came to shake hands with the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church
of Vanuatu and to join in fellowship.
All this started with lay pastor Maliwan Taruel, who worked
with evangelists from the church in the 1990s. Despite years
of rejection he persisted, with help from his presbytery and
the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu. Now people who once drove
out the church from that area of the island are worshiping,
praying, singing, and dancing together for Christ. Some are
members of families that have returned to the church after an
absence of fifty years and more. Pastor Maliwan’s grandfather
was the first ordained ni-Vanuatu pastor on Tanna Island in
the early part of the twentieth century, so the roots of these
conversions are deep. |
