PRIME MINISTER OF VANUATU WELCOMES JESUS TO PORT VILA, 2004  

Elections in July 2004 had set up Serge Vohor as the new Prime Minister. Evangelical pastors were hesitant about approaching the Catholic Vohor to make a proclamation inviting Jesus into the community. Walo Ani says, "After some encouragement, they decided to make an attempt at the top." The delegation of 12 pastors was not aware that God had been at work in Vohor's life in the months before his appointment as Prime Minister. A trip to Israel "impacted him so greatly he actually stopped drinking heavily and smoking. The outpouring of God's love on this sinner humbled the pastors when they heard his testimony," says Walo Ani. He says the Prime Minister "warmly and openly accepted the responsibility to lead the corporate repentance and invitation of Jesus into his nation."

At a public rally the Prime Minister proclaimed:

I Serge Vohor, the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, on behalf of my people confess that we have sinned against the almighty God, the Holy Spirit and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I repent of my own sin and the sins of my community today and the sins of our forefathers of the past generations.
Lord Jesus, I and my people do not want to miss the day of your visitation.
We beg you this day not to pass us by.
We are sinners.
We ask you for forgiveness.
We invite you into our community today.
Come and change us.
Come and renew our lives.
Come and transform our families.
Come and visit our tribes.
Come and heal our land.
Jesus is lord of Vanuatu.
Holy Spirit, come!

After meeting with the 12-pastor delegation, the prime minister invited the pastors to breakfast the very next morning, gave them $1,000 as seed money so they could cultivate unity among themselves and his office, designated a prayer section of his office for pastors to pray with him, and ordered devotions and prayers to be held in all government department offices.

PRIME MINISTER OF VANUATU MAKES PUBLIC COVENANT WITH GOD, 20 OCTOBER 2002

Imagine the impact of an elected leader of a nation repenting of sin on behalf of his people, renouncing all forms of evil, and making a public covenant with God. This is exactly what happened in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu on October 20, 2002. This declaration took place at the 12th South Pacific Prayer Assembly when some 400 delegates gathered in Vanuatu's capital, Port-Vila, from the island nations of Solomon, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Fiji, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, New Caledonia and Tonga.

Vanuatu, formerly known as the New Hebrides, has a population of just over 196,000, 98 percent of whom are Melanesian. The Ni-Vanuatu are 36.7 percent Presbyterian, with 15 percent each Anglicans and Catholics, plus others, including 7.6 percent with indigenous beliefs.

"DECLARATION BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF VANUATU, HONOURABLE EDWARD NIPAKE NATAPEI TUTA FANUA _ARIKI

I, Edward Nipake Natapei Tuta Fanua _ariki, Prime Minister of Vanuatu on this occasion of the 12th South Pacific Prayer Assembly, and on the foundation of the Preamble of the Constitution of Vanuatu founded on faith in God and Christian Principles:

Confess on behalf of the People and the Nation of Vanuatu, the sins of our ancestors whose actions and past practices of living and worship have given away our legal rights to the devil. I ask you, Almighty God to forgive the sins of our ancestors and to forgive us as well and to release us from this bondage.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Power of the blood of Jesus Christ, I renounce their worship of evil gods, I renounce their covenants with evil spirits and demonic powers, I renounce all their actions and worship of idols and evil spirits and evil gods. I renounce all their practices of worship and allegiance, which have given away our rights to Satan and which have given Satan the right to rule and have authority in the air, on our Land and in the sea.

I, the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, today, on behalf of the People and the Republic of Vanuatu, make this covenant with Almighty God:

1. We acknowledge you as the one and only True God; 2. We acknowledge you as the only God in whom Vanuatu stands; 3. We acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as our Personal Lord and Saviour; and 4. We acknowledge the power and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the Nation of Vanuatu.

I also, this day pledge our allegiance to honour and serve no other gods but God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Almighty God, I ask that your Favour, Peace, Prosperity, Justice, Salvation, Healing and power rest upon the Republic of Vanuatu and on the People of Vanuatu. I, the Prime Minister, submit this Nation into your mighty Hands.

'Long God Yumi Stanap' Amen.

Signed, The Right Honourable Edward Nipake Natapei TUTA FANUA _ARIKI, PRIME
MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF VANUATU."

Since "Righteousness exalts a nation," (Prov. 14:34) we know that God's blessing will be on Vanuatu. The story of what God is doing in that island nation will no doubt have many more chapters.

INDEPENDENCE ADDRESS TO THE NATION BY PRIME MINISTER FATHER WALTER LINI, 30 JULY 1980

    Today we have reached a moment for which many of us have worked hard and prayed continuously for the last 10 years. And it was with very strong personal emotions - some 12 hours ago, just after midnight, that I became Prime Minster.

    Our road to independence has sometimes been exalting and at others it has been depressing. More recently it has been deeply tragic. But today we have arrived and today we shall start to travel along a different road which will be infinitely longer and very much harder. From today we are responsible ourselves for making the decisions which will influence the pattern of our lives and those of future generations of Ni-Vanuatu. Therefore, although this is a natural time for joyous celebration it is also a time for sober reflection.  Today we join an international community which is wracked by tension - we join that community as one of its smallest members. Although we shall have a voice in the councils of world institutions it will be a very small voice. In any event, for many years to come we shall be fully occupied, here at home, kin building our own nation and improving living conditions within our own frontiers. However, within the  Pacific region we shall not be strangers to the existing institutions and we shall not by any means be the smallest Pacific island state. Internationally and beyo9nd the Pacific we hope to build on our special relationship with France and Britain. That relationship changes, of course, today but its continuing substance will place us in a select group of communities with Anglo-French links. I am thinking especially of the other island states of Mauritius and the Seychelles but also of Canada and Cameroon. We hope that Vanuatu will be able to play a useful role in cementing relations between the French-speaking and English-speaking Pacific island states and territories.

    There are may visitors here today from other countries far and near and they all could, I am sure, testify to the fact that there is no such thing as an "independent" state" "independent" that is, in the sense given in the dictionary. Indeed, all the countries of the world are becoming less and less independent in that sense. Both financially and economically we can expect to be less independent than many states : we shall, for many years to come, depend on external aid not just for our capital or development needs but also for our ordinary government services such as education, health and so on. In order, therefore, to be politically independent we shall depend on the goodwill and generosity of foreign aid donors - especially on Britain and France. We are entitled to hope that we shall be able to exercise freedom of choice - in other words, independence - in ways in which we provide public services and change our society as we develop. At the same time we have to face the fact that there may be external pressures on us both from large companies and foreign governments to conform to their ideas rather than our own where the two differ. This itself will be a test of our determination and ability as well as a test of their generosity of spirit and the result of goodwill, of course, be a greater or lesser degree of independence for Vanuatu.

    In this and other tests we shall need guidance not only from God but from our own custom and traditional values. We are moving into a period of rapid change rather like a canoe entering a patch of rough water : God and custom must be the sail and the steering-paddle of our canoe. It will be the responsibility of successive parliaments and government as well as the chiefs to preserve our custom but not to preserve it blindly and without reference to change. For custom has always changes will be for us to decide together : for all of us, for the government, for your elected represent representatives in parliament and for the chiefs.

    Just before I finish I should like to say something about national unity. Our new republic will need the energy and the ability of each of its citizens in the tasks of nation- building and national development. Indeed, for many years we shall need to import skills and expertise. We cannot and we must not waste our talents in internal quarrelling. The spirit of unity - like the trees which many of you planted as symbols last week - can only grow if it is nourished. The trees need water and the spirit of unity needs to be nurtured in our minds. If we all want unity and harmony in Vanuatu we shall achieve it.

    But we must work for it and I give you all my solemn assurance today that it will be the principal aim of the government which I lead. Some people are worried about the future : they want guarantees, assurances and safeguards. To these people I say that their guarantees, their assurances and the safeguards are contained in the Constitution. Wholehearted acceptance of the Constitution and the loyal and effective participation in the development of Vanuatu is everybody's guarantee for the future.

    The future of Vanuatu is bright, and its is important that we should be allowed to develop in the Melanesian way on our own.

    As a nation we put our colonial past behind us an step confidently into a new future. We will go beyond pandemonium to the independence of a free Pacific Islands territory, and look forward to taking our place among the nations of the world.

Walter Lini

Vila, July 1980

THE GREAT SOUTHLAND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, 14 MAY 1606

Pedro Fernandez de Quiros (Portuguese navigator) returned to Mexico, after spending eighteen months refitting in Manila. In 1600 he journeyed to Rome for inspiration, and was blessed by Pope Clement VIII. He had come to believe that he was divinely chosen as the one to bring the inhabitants of the southern land into the 'true fold' of the Catholic church, and that this 'Terra Australis' would become Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, a country dedicated to the Holy Spirit. 

De Quiros obtained royal approval to search for the southern land in 1603. After acquiring three vessels and a crew, including Luis Viez de Torres as second-in-command, he set sail for Callao, Peru on 21 December 1605. Sailing west, they sighted land after five months at sea. With great festivity and excitement, de Quiros took possession of this land in the name of  His Majesty on 14 May 1606. 
 
His proclamation stated: - 'Let the heavens, the earth, the waters with all their creatures and all those here present  witness that I, Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, in these hitherto unknown parts, in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the Eternal Father and of the Virgin Mary, God and true man, hoist this emblem of the Holy Cross on which His person was crucified and whereon He gave His life for the ransom and remedy of all the human race, being present as witnesses all the land and sea-going officers; on this Day of Pentecost, 14 May 1606. 

'In these hitherto unknown southern regions where I now am, I have come with the authorisation of the Supreme Pontiff, Clement III, and by order of our King, Philip III, King of the Spains, etc, promulgated by the Council of State, I, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, in the name of the Most Holy Trinity take possession of all the islands and lands that I have newly discovered and shall discover as far as the pole. 

'I take possession of all this part of the South as far as the pole in the name of Jesus. I take possession of all this part of the South as far as the pole in the name of St Francis and in the name of all his Order and members of it... I take possession of all this part of the South as far as the pole in the name of John of God and all the professed members of his Order... 

'Finally, from this Bay of St Philip and St James and its port of Vera Cruz and from the place where the city to be known as the New Jerusalem is to be founded, in this latitude of full 15-1/3 degrees, and of all the lands that I have seen and I am seeing of all this part of the South as far as the pole. 

'Which from now on shall be called the Southern Land of the Holy Ghost, with all its annexes and dependencies, and this always and forever, in the name of King Philip III, who bears the cost and expense of this fleet with which I came to discover the said lands, on whose power and will shall depend the foundation, government and maintenance of all that is sought both temporally and spiritually for these lands and their peoples, in whose name these flags are flown and I hoist this his royal standard, in the presence as witnesses of the commander, Luis Baez de Torres, and hoist his royal standard and the other flags, being further witnesses on this Feast of Pentecost, and on the said day, month and year.'