Kokoda Angels’ Medical Mission Boat
Project Name: “Kokoda Angels’ Medical Mission Boat”
Concept
“The vision of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific is to be a thriving Adventist movement, living our hope in Jesus and transforming the Pacific” through wholistic approach to human life. Northern and Milne Bay Mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has proposed a Mobile Medical Clinic and Adventist Media Boat Project for the quinquennium (2021 – 2025). This proposed vessel is to be an innovative tool to facilitate the Papua New Guinea Union Mission’s Four Strategic Arenas in “Mission, Service, People & Culture and Wholistic Sustainable Empowerment.” The proposed Mission Boat project will play a strategic role in the church’s long-term health and missional vision in PNGUM and the two host provinces. This concept paper distills the business plan of the NMBM Mobile Medical Boat Project.
Adventist Mobile Medical Health Care service
The primary function of this boat project is to promote and expand Adventist Health Care Services to the coastal provinces of PNG, the island communities of the Louisiade Archipelago and the coastal villages between Central Papua Conference and Milne Bay Province. This project will deliver church-health-care services in two-fold, both curative and preventative health care services as an embodiment to the church’s strong emphasis on wholistic health care. The medical ship may travel once a quarter voyage from Vanimo in Sepik Mission to Daru in South West Papua Mission.
Part of these health care services will include preventative intervention programs and awareness against all lifestyle deceases. Lifestyle decease intervention programs on the boat will include all church health ministry’s programs like 10, 000 Toes, Elia Wellness, Adopt a Clinic, wellness hubs and distribution of health and nutritional guides and books.
The vessel will operate as a registered health facility in PNG and will act as a mother ship, helping to support other church and government operated health facilities in the two provinces. The mobile medical vessel’s support services will extend to all the clinics and health centers supported by AUSAID through Kokoda Tracking Authority and Kokoda Initiative including Buna Bay community health clinic.
The Kokoda Angels’ medical ship will also facilitate the ‘International Operation Open Heart’ program, which is a partnership program between ADRA Australia and Sydney Adventist Hospital.
The two provincial health authorities of Northern and Milne Bay will be our working partners to deliver healthcare services, supplies and support to rural health workers and facilities. If the mobile medical service improves in the long run with installation of additional precision cutting edge equipment, other provincial health authorities will be engaged for partnership.
The vessel will be made available for use during the PNG for Christ Medical Evangelism program in 2023 to prepare for the major PNG for Christ program by General Conference and PNGUM in 2024.
Mobile Adventist Media Center
The secondary function of this vessel will include a mobile Adventist Media Center featuring an Adventist Book Center (ABC) and a wholesale compartment for Publishing Ministry Coordination and Literature Evangelism. There will be a model study library on the vessel for local churches to adopt. The same library will be utilised in discipleship training aboard the ship when it docks into islands and costal district churches.
The Adventist Media Center on the vessel will be facilitating the Local Mission’s Discipleship Movement under the PNGUM’s “Mission Arena” of its quinquennial strategic plan. One of the Local Mission’s projects to implement discipleship movement is to establish local church libraries or resource centers for all local churches and literature racks (book shelves) for every Seventh-day Adventists’ family homes. The local church appointed publishing ministries coordinators who are also trained literature evangelists will facilitate the local church libraries while local mission’s trained literature evangelists will facilitate Adventist home literature racks. This is the ground work for a sustained discipleship movement and higher retention plan under the “mission arena.” The mobile Adventist Media Center on the vessel will function as whole sale distributor, facilitating all the local church libraries and Adventist Home literature racks (book shelves).
Establishment of local church libraries will further facilitate related projects like center of influence, local church resource centers, local church-based intentional discipleship movement and higher retention plan for church membership. Establishment of ‘family spiritual kitchen’ (book shelves) will gradually narrow the window of apostacy and backsliding. Active literature work will be multiplied once the church members complete their home literature racks and in turn rally together to sow the gospel seed through literature ministry. Other supplementary media ministry on the boat will include installation of broadcasting channels (Hope TV, Hope Radio, AWR, 3ABN).
Other addition function will include movement of church goods and services from SPD (via Cains) to PNGUM, NMBM and CPC. NMBM has been the victim of delayed shipment of quarterly Sabbath School Lessons for many years. Northern and Milne Bay Mission hosts two maritime provinces with three of its eight districts accessible only by see transport. This project will solve such logistic issues. The medical both will further facilitate the transportation of raw vanilla beans and related commodities from NMBM ADCARE farmers.
The medical missionary work and literature evangelism work through the medical boat will continue after the PNG for Christ medical evangelism in 2023 and the major program in 2024 by the General Conference and PNGUM. The medical service and Adventist Media Service on the boat will directly continue to sustain the PNG for Christ program after 2024 and beyond.
A Compelling Mission
The Medical Clinic and Adventist Media boat project will function as an innovative tool to adopt and implement the World Church’s Reach the World strategic plan. The I Will Go initiative of the General Conference offers this strategic direction for all Churches, Missions, Conferences, Unions, Divisions and Mission Institutions. This strategic direction and initiative is rooted in the Great Commission found in Matthew 28, which calls Jesus’s followers to go and make disciples of all nations.
With this encompassing strategic direction, the General Conference Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department has introduced the GROW Your Church initiative. The initiative, GROW Your Church model follows the agriculture method of soul-winning taught by Jesus in His parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9; Matthew 13:18-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:4-15). The five phases developed from this parable are: Soil Preparation, Seed Sowing, Cultivation, Harvest and Preservation. The mobile health services on the boat will play the role of ‘soil preparation’ and mobile Adventist Media Center will implement ‘seed sowing, cultivation and preservation and or multiplication.
The mobile medical clinic with its lifestyle decease intervention programs known as ‘Health Reform’ accompanied by Adventist media aboard for literature ministry is deeply rooted in the church’s emphasis on wholistic health and restoration of the human soul. “This is where health reform has been made the entering wedge. By this work many have been reached that would not otherwise have been reached. Men and women of strong, noble sentiments and deep sympathies have been aroused to do something, while priest and Levite have passed by on the other side. ... MTC 124.1
“The message of truth is to go to all nations, tongues, and people; its publications, printed in many different languages, are to be scattered abroad like the leaves of autumn.” 4T 79.1 “Publications are to be distributed like the leaves of autumn. This is the message that has been coming to us from the Lord for many years.” RH July 19, 1906, par. 11
“The gospel of health has able advocates, but their work has been made very hard because so many ministers, presidents of conferences, and others in positions of influence have failed to give the question of health reform its proper attention. They have not recognised it in its relation to the work of the message as the right arm of the body... When properly conducted, the health work is an entering wedge, making a way for other truths to reach the heart. When the third angel’s message is received in its fullness, health reform will be given its place in the councils of the conference, in the work of the church, in the home, at the table, and in all the household arrangements. Then the right arm will serve and protect the body.” 6T p 327. Colporteur Ministry p. 131, 132.
Our health literature is the helping hand of the gospel, opening the way for the truth to enter and save many souls. I know of nothing which so quickly unlocks hearts as this literature, which when read and practiced, leads souls to the searching of the Bible for a better understanding of the truth. Colporteur Ministry p. 132
The medical mission work aboard the ship will apply the concept “soil preparation” while Adventist Media Service on board will apply the concept of “seed sowing.” Guided by the Church’s advocacy on wholistic wellbeing of the human person, this project is meant to be an embodiment of the connection between health and the Gospel Truth. The church’s mobile clinic will serve for both curative and preventive measures with its health reform message tailored into lifestyle decease intervention programs.
Every sick patient that passes through the mobile medical boat will eventually come out with a literature in hand. The lifestyle decease intervention programs as preventive measures will be supplemented by Adventist Health Literatures from the Adventist Media Center, complementing with a World Changer’s Bible thus leading the sin-sick souls to a restored healthy relationship with God.
This medical mission boat project is one of the strategic aims of the Northern & Milne Bay Mission to contribute in preparation for the PNGUM’s 2024 Health Evangelism program. The Health Evangelism program will be conducted by the associate health directors of the General Conference. This will be the soil preparation work towards the major “PNG for Christ” harvest program in 2024.
A comprehensive ministry package will be delivered once the mission boat docks onto an island district or a camp meeting along the costal churches. A wholistic ministry package in a camp meeting for a week will see the pastors preaching and training. The medical team would provide screening, treating patients and roll out preventive intervention programs and health education including immunization in the island districts. The Adventist media team would train literature evangelists, sell literatures and facilitate local church libraries and home literature racks. The Adcare team would buy vanilla beans, yam, fish and provide agriculture skills training on local commodities. For the isolated district churches, a visit by the “Kokoda Angels” will be a one-stop shop for their wholistic needs.
Once the business plan for this project is completed by the project steering committee in February, it will be uploaded on the Northern & Milne Bay Mission website.
For partnership and collaborative networking to effectively deliver this medical mission boat project please contact the following project steering committee members on emails below.
Pr. Robert Nana (NMBM President) [email protected]
Pr. Joseph Molu (NMBM Stewardship & SSPM Director) [email protected]