South Island ministry trip May 2018
A testimony of Grace
March 2018. A team of five of us from Hope Centre Tauranga were on the Vanuatu island of Erromango where we were encouraging and supporting local leaders.
As the morning meeting was getting underway at Williams Bay, one of the Presbyterian elders summoned Ross and me to go and pray for someone. In a nearby building a lady was lying on a bed with others in the room and our instructions were “the baby needs to come”. Ok, so now I’m figuring this is a birthing table and the other lady in the room is the midwife and the man in the room is the husband.
While Ross is praying for the mother I’m listening to God with equal measures of desperation, inadequacy, and total focus borne out of a sense of being completely out of my depth. Isaiah 42:22 comes to mind which says “this is a people…..trapped in caves….hidden away in prisons….with none to deliver… and none to say ‘Give them back!’” So now I have my instructions to call the baby out of the womb and I speak to the child that it’s time to leave that place of comfort and safety and be welcomed to a new place of safety.
Mother begins to moan so we exit and make our way back to the meeting. Only 20 minutes later, Elder William summons us again to tell us “it’s a baby girl and all is well”. I am completely undone and dissolve in a wash of tears. Then William says “You need to give the child a name”. My first reaction is “you can’t expect us to name this child! We’re just visitors – the name is for a lifetime”. Fortunately Ross is more in control of himself than I am and he begins to pray. As I struggle through the range of emotions I strongly feel that the baby should be called Grace and Ross later confirms that he also felt this was the right name.
As we go back into the meeting I am overwhelmed with what has just happened. My tears keep leaking till around midday when I’m finally able to regain my composure. For me, this memory is a treasure beyond value and I’m so grateful to God for allowing me to be a part of what He was doing.
