13 October 2022
In the past few weeks, I have shared with readers of my letters in the Solomon Islands the journey of the Ywam Koha a New Zealand based vessel with a full compliment of volunteer doctors, dentists, nurses and vessel’s crew, that journeyed to FII to bring medical and dental services to isolated communities in the Fiji islands.
As the medical outreach has now ended successfully, I have received the following message which I would like to share by way of a thank you to all concerned and with the hope that one day the Ywam Koho might visit the Solomon Islands to undertake a similar medical project to give assistance to the many isolated villages and communities in the remoter regions of the Solomons.
Quote.
I recently had an incredible experience I want to share with you. After years of dreaming, declaring and working toward our goal of using the YWAM KOHA to empower health in isolated communities of the Pacific, I had the incredible privilege of seeing this aspirational dream come to life. To be honest, it was very emotional. Hundreds and hundreds of people have given, sacrificed and worked to bring this dream to life.
Every member of the YWAM KOHA crew is a hero. Seeing them work tirelessly to ensure that every aspect of the outreach could function was inspiring. They made sure the dental team had everything they needed to serve the beautiful patients that came on board. It’s not something I will soon forget.
I want to take you to Visogo and introduce you to Filo, the District Nurse for the Namuka Zone. Filo is a lady who cares deeply for her community. She is passionate about her people receiving the help they need. She spoke, with tears in her eyes, about the work of the YWAM KOHA. She expressed a deep sense of gratitude for the impact made in the 15 villages she oversees. Filo taught us a lot about what it means to walk with the locals and ensure that our services are not just aid, but both empowering and capacity building. I found so much confirmation in my time speaking with her. I'm convinced we have done the right thing at the right time. All glory to God.
My 12 days in Fiji culminated with a quick detour to Suva where we were invited to have afternoon tea with His Excellency, the President of Fiji. He heard reports about the work of the YWAM KOHA in his home province of Macuata and wanted to personally thank us. This was truly an unexpected honour.
The whole time I was in Fiji, my thoughts kept turning to each one of you with tremendous gratitude. Whether you have simply toured the KOHA, or you have served on the ship, you are a part of this amazing story. The KOHA’s fruit is your fruit.
Today as you receive this email will mark the end of the medical outreaches for this years deployment. We learnt heaps lessons and made many great connections that will enable us to be more effective in the future deployments. But for now, I can share that we have now served well over 2000 people through the medical and dental outreaches of the YWAM KOHA team.
We will send a full report with the statistics when we have collated all of the numbers, celebrate with us. Together we have empowered health for these amazing people, and their families.
Thank you for being a part of this journey. It has all been worth it! The future is bright and we are only getting started.
Ngā mihi nui,
Marty Emmett
on behalf of the YWAM Ships Aotearoa Team
Change to donation account:
Please note that we have made a slight change on how receive donations. From now on please use the following account number for any donations to YWAM Ships Aotearoa when using online banking - 02-0466-0368050-001.
If you would like to make an end-of-outreach donation that would be much appreciated. We consumed more fuel on this deployment than we had planned due to circumstances beyond our control, but next week we are needing to bunker (take on fuel) with over 30,000L of diesel. As you could imagine, this is not cheap. Click on the donate button below if you want to help with this last area of expense for the 2022 deployment. Thank you so much
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Yours sincerely
Frank Short
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