I met Patrick during our fifth edition of Preaching in the Park, which was November 30 of 2005. Patrick showed great interest in personal Bible study, and inquired as to where we worshipped here in town. He and a friend of his showed up to worship the first Sunday of December, which proved to be a good Sunday to visit because the Vila congregation was holding our monthly fellowship meal that day. In addition, everyone stuck around for a couple of hours playing games. Patrick enjoyed playing soccer, and interestingly spent almost an hour talking about spiritual matters with Flexon (who was himself a new convert at the time).

Patrick and I studied regularly on Tuesday mornings for a little over a month, and he was regular in his attendance to our worship services as well. Near the beginning of January, he got a short-term job that kept him from our normal studies and from attending worship services (I got a little nervous because I didn’t know why he quit coming, and didn’t have a reliable way to contact him). Thankfully, he and his wife showed up to worship services the first Sunday of February (this was the first time for us to meet her), and we all got to know them both better during our fellowship meal. It was at this time that Shem, a local Christian, invited Patrick to study with him. They studied together two or three times before Shem and his family went to their home island of Ambrym to help the church there. When Shem left, Patrick and I resumed our weekly studies. Following an in-depth study of salvation and counting the cost (over two hours) on Tuesday, Patrick stated his readiness to be baptized for the forgiveness of his sins, and join the body of Christ. I asked him when he wanted to do it, and he responded with a nervous shoulder-shrug (being denominationally-minded, he assumed he would have to wait until we had a “baptismal Sunday”). We quickly looked at the Ethiopian eunuch’s conversion story in Acts 8, to show the biblical response to a proper understanding of the truth. When I asked if he could wait until next year (to make sure he got the point), he responded “longwe tumas” [too far in the future]…I asked about next week, “longwe tumas”…I asked about tomorrow, “longwe tumas”…I asked about right now, “hemia nao” [that’s right]. At that, we walked down to the lagoon near our house and Flexon (who happened to be at the house helping Aaron with his car) baptized him into Christ.

We are very excited because this was truly a congregational conversion: our Preaching in the Park ministry contacted Patrick initially, Flexon spent an hour talking to him about the church and our mission team (when he could have been enjoying the games with everyone else), everyone welcomed him at our monthly meals, and Shem took the initiative to befriend him and conduct a few personal Bible studies.

Patrick has been a member of more than five denominations here in Vanuatu (including a seven-year stint as a Mormon elder), and stated very clearly that he left each one because they were engaged in some practice that was not in harmony with the Bible. He has repeatedly stated his gratefulness for our “Bible-only” approach to study, worship and conduct. Another positive attribute possessed by Patrick is his invitation policy – he almost always shows up to worship, studies and fellowships with a friend or family member alongside him. Please be praying for Patrick’s new life in Christ, and also for his wife whom we hope will begin studying the Bible with us soon.

EB