The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Vanuatu has signed an agreement allowing the use of their new multipurpose hall for the 2017 Pacific Mini Games (Van2017), this year held in Vanuatu.
Vanuatu Mission president Pastor Nos Terry Mailalong recently met with Van2017 CEO Clint Flood to sign a venue use agreement for the hall, which will be used for the weightlifting competitions. Currently under construction, the hall will be finished this month and is expected to seat 5000 people. The official meeting was also an opportunity for the Vanuatu Government to look at opportunities to use the hall as a future evacuation centre for natural disasters.
According to Pastor Mailalong, the multipurpose hall project was initiated to address discipleship needs and to provide urgently needed seating capacity for the growing urban areas of the Pacific. He said for Vanuatu it was ideal to be built in Port Vila as a gathering place for all the Church activities and programs, such as combined services and major meetings.
“When Van2017 approached us about using this facility for the Games, we were happy to assist because this hall is not intentionally built just for Mission programs—it is planned for other denominations or groups to use the building as well, as long as they abide by the conditions of use agreement put forward by the church,” said Pastor Mailalong. “In the long run, this area is going to be very beneficial to all our communities, so let’s work together to build that relationship, for the interest of our people.”
Held every four years, the multi-sport Pacific Mini Games is a scaled-down version of the main Pacific Games, and was designed to enable smaller nations in the South Pacific to host events and compete against each other. For more information on the Van2017 Pacific Mini Games, which starts on December 4, visit the official website: www.van2017.com.
