Vanuatu Mission

Vanuatu Mission

June 2015

A team of people from KBC, led by Dr Sean George and Pastor Eliot Vlatko, joined the medical mission team from Healthcare Christian Fellowship for a week in South West Bay, Malekula Island, Vanuatu from 19 – 26 June 2015.

Here is some of Sean’s account of the trip, which was full of amazing testimonies of God’s mighty power at work.

 

Counselling

• The counselling team was led by Pastor Eliot Vlatko. Each patient who was seen in the clinics had the opportunity to go and spend time with the counsellors. The counsellors shared with them, prayed with them, and shared the gospel using the Steps to peace with God in the Bislama and English language
• There were interpreters available who would help with those who did not follow English.
• There were over 1400 Nivans who were counselled and over 400 of them gave their life to the Lord for the first time, or rededicated themselves to the Lord. Many had prayer for healing of their ailments too.

 

Medical Clinics

• The medical clinics led by Dr. Sean George started on Monday with morning worship at 8:00 am in the church, followed by each clinic being run in different locations in Leminbwan Village.
• There were many different clinics that were run, some by doctors, some by nurses, some by nurse practitioners. We had GP clinics, Specialist clinics like General Medicine, Cardiology, ENT, Respiratory medicine, Paediatrics, Non communicable disease clinics, Ophthalmology, OBGyn, Dentists etc.
• The patient would first present to the registration counter, then triaged by nursing staff, then allocated to the required clinics, then visit the doctor and then they would be send for counselling and finally to see the pharmacist to fill their scripts.
• We witnessed a lot of pathology, but overall the health of the Nivans (name of people of Vanuatu) in South West Bay seemed to be better than a number of other islands we have visited over the last 10 years.
• Common pathology included Diabetes, Hypertension, Skin diseases, Infections, Osteoarthritis, GORD, Muscular Low back pain, Knee pain etc. There were some challenging cases too. In particular there was an unconscious woman brought to the clinic one night, and her blood sugar was 17 mmol. There was no Insulin in Lembinwan Village, so in the night the Nivans had to go by boat (20 min journey) to Wintua to get some insulin. The patient was noticed to have neck stiffness, so we made a diagnosis of Meningitis. There were no appropriate antibiotics, we gave her the intravenous antibiotics that were available and prayed over her. Next morning to our surprise she was sitting up and having her breakfast!!! Praise the Lord!! Similarly the same night a man was brought in having cut his fingers with a large Machete while trying to open a coconut. Fortunately Sherry with her surgical experience was able to suture the fingers, and stop an arterial bleed, and God saved that man’s life too.
• We understand that altogether from Monday to Thursday there were around 1475 patients who were treated.

 

Children’s Ministry

• We had a team led by Kerryn Perry our children’s worker to engage with the children of Lembinwan and surrounding villages
• They played, learned Bible stories, learned songs, and had the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ, and many of the children gave their hearts to the Lord. They are the future generations of Vanuatu
• We were told over 55 kids came to know Christ for the first time, and many others rededicated their lives to the Lord
• Dr. Michellene was busy in her clinic seeing so many children
• Dr. Sherry was busy with kids seeing their ears!

 

Photo Gallery

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