A team of 16 volunteers from Port Macquarie Seventh-day Adventist Church (New South Wales) recently completed the renovation of a dilapidated nurse’s residence in a remote village on Tanna Island, Vanuatu.
The Port to Port fly’n’build project saw the team travel to Port Resolution, where they worked alongside local volunteers to complete the job. The residence—once the village’s local health clinic—had fallen into disrepair over the years. A new clinic was constructed in 2010 by a previous team from Port Macquarie, but there was a vital need to upgrade the residence to encourage a nurse to serve in this isolated location.
The Australian team, including builders, painters and cooks, not only completed the building work but also ran STORMCo activities for the local children and hosted evangelistic programs in the evenings.
Port Macquarie church pastor Kendell Cobbin and a village pastor worked together during the project, sharing and preaching to a combined district church meeting.
“The experience touched members of our team, and many rededicated themselves to serve their Lord and Master,” said Alan Rosendale, who helped organise the trip.
The original clinic was built in 1963 as a dormitory for the Port Resolution School, and was later extended by Waitara Seventh-day Adventist Church’s youth group to serve as a nurse’s residence. However, due to the high frequency of hurricanes within the region over the years, the building became unusable.
Meanwhile, the 10,000 Toes Campaign is raising funds for all Adopt-a-Clinics in the South Pacific to carry out much-needed refurbishments and transform them into wellness clinics.
“An audit is currently being carried out to identify clinics that need immediate attention so that work can begin in 2025,” 10,000 Toes Campaign coordinator Pamela Townend said.
If your church or community group would like to run a fly‘n’build, contact Pamela at pam@10000toes.com for more information.
