When their yacht Dayspring III foundered on a reef off Wallis Island (between Fiji and Western Samoa), Ron and Aggie Russell thought their life’s work of distributing Bibles to remote Pacific islanders was over.
They hadn’t counted on the enthusiasm and energy of four former Dayspring crew, who were determined to see the yacht mission revived. Wellingtonians Chris Bryan, Mike Cornish, Colin Salisbury and Roger Bolam, who had all sailed with Ron on Dayspring III, formed the Dayspring Ministries Trust in 2008, with the intention of purchasing and operating a new mission yacht. The trust has strong Presbyterian connections, as both Mike and Colin attend Knox Presbyterian in Lower Hutt, and the Rev Doug Pa’u, Presbyterian minister at Knox St Columba, Naenae, is on the trust’s board of reference.
Mike says Chris was the initial driving force as he had the strongest connections with Dayspring III. “I crewed on voyages with Ron from 2000-2005, taking Bibles to Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. Ron was a great inspiration to me,” Chris says.
It took three years for the trust to be in a position to buy a new mission yacht, although things did not go smoothly. “It might sound easy, even fun, to find and buy a yacht but it was really difficult as we couldn’t find a suitable vessel,” Mike says. “The journey was hard and we prayed about it at Knox, asking God, ‘do you want this?’ because we kept coming up against brick walls. Then my mother, who was praying with us, said that we would find the right boat in Fiji, and that’s just what happened. We bought the yacht Seahawk in early 2009.”
Mike says the boat was purchased with the help of the Bible Society of New Zealand. “We reestablished the Dayspring Ministries’ relationship with the Bible Society, and they supply us with Bibles translated into Pacific languages. They also provided us with a $55,000 interest-free loan to buy the boat, [while] we raised the $100,000 required for the boat’s refit from trustee loans and donations.”
Chris says that because the boat is registered in Fiji, “we have to deal with some very strict and specific requirements when it comes to licences and quality of workmanship for the refit. There were so many challenges that we asked God if we were missing something, but we know that good things get tested too. We questioned ourselves on ‘what we are in this for?’; we never prayed together as hard as when things went wrong.” Mike agrees. “When things go wrong month after month, you wonder if maybe it’s us that need to get right first. In overcoming those obstacles, we relied heavily on the support of our churches and on the Rev Doug Pa’u.”
Doug says he has watched the four trustees go from being acquaintances to friends to brothers. “They caught something bigger than their local church, yet they are still doing the work of their church in another location.”
When things are challenging, Chris says he thinks about the reaction they get from the islanders when the boat arrives. “There is something nostalgic for them in seeing a sailboat come into the harbour carrying the word of God”. Doug adds that the “boat reminds them of their remoteness and the degree of effort it has taken to reach them. God has not forgotten them.”
Part of that huge effort Chris says is the work involved in translating the Bible into Pacific languages. “Ron was in Tokelau around 25 years ago and in June last year we were finally ready to deliver the New Testament in Tokelauan. Unfortunately we couldn’t as Tokelau was closed due to fears about swine flu but we will deliver the Bibles later this year.”
Dayspring’s mission trips began in June 2010 and will continue until October. Visits are planned to Samoa, Lau Group, Savusavu, Lomaiviti, Suva, Vanuatu and lastly Tuvalu. An estimated 100 villages will be visited and up to 12,000 Bibles distributed.
Chris says they will need around $60,000 for the 2010 season’s costs and parishes are asked to help support the yacht mission with money and prayer.
“We hope in the future to offer people from the churches the opportunity to be more involved, perhaps as crew for a week at a time,” Mike says.
* If you would like to support Dayspring visit their website www.dayspring.org.nz or email info@dayspring.org.nz
By Angela Singer