Canadian helps hope survive in Vanuatu

By Patricia Paddey

MILLIONS of TV viewers across North America were introduced to the South Pacific archipelago nation of Vanuatu in September, when the ninth edition of the reality TV series, Survivor, kicked off their fall season.

"It is a land with a fascinating history of cannibalism," said the show's host as he described the 83-island country during the opening episode, "where rituals like sorcery and black magic are still a part of daily life."

"The tribes of Vanuatu take their spirituality very seriously," he said.

Nelson, B.C. resident Dave Dever has experienced first hand just how seriously the locals of Vanuatu take their spirituality, and he knows that in the reality that extends beyond television screens, it is people who are hungry for the gospel that inhabit the Vanuatu of the twenty-first century.

For years, Dever has made it his personal mission to raise the money to purchase and deliver Bislama-language Bibles to the people of Vanuatu. (Bislama is a form of Melanesian Pidgin, declared by the country's constitution to be their national language.)

Inspired by the story of Scottish-born missionary, John Paton -- who went to the island of Tanna (now part of the independent republic of Vanuatu) to preach the gospel in 1858, Dever and his wife Abby took their first trip there in June, 2001.

"I bought a Bislama Bible at the Bible Society of Vanuatu [in order to learn] the language better," says Dever. "I took it with me and I showed some of the natives my Bislama Bible."

Dever says they kept meeting people who were in awe of their Bible -- the largest single document ever written in Bislama -- and they left with the overwhelming impression that most of the islanders had never seen the Scriptures in their own language before.

"It kept impressing on our hearts that there was a need there," Dever says.

Returning home to Canada, the Devers remembered the people of Vanuatu who needed Bibles of their own, and began a Bislama Bible fund. Soon, they were planning a second trip -- this time, to deliver 700 Bislama-language Bibles, purchased through the Bible Society of the South Pacific.

In September 2002, Dever personally handed out the Bibles he and his wife had saved to purchase.

"There was one man crawling. He had never walked. The first time I saw him he was crawling through the jungle all alone. I gave him the first Bible. He was [literally] jumping on the ground," remembers Dever.

When the Devers returned to Vanuatu in July 2003, they purchased and distributed 229 Bibles. They hope to deliver another 571 in December. "That would give us a total of 1,500 [Bibles distributed] for the three trips," Dever explains.

Dever is not a wealthy man. A labourer all his life, he insists he is an "ordinary person" who happens to believe he has been called by God to give out Bibles to those too poor to purchase them on their own. He and his wife, who live and work as custodians at a Bible camp in Nelson, recently established a registered charitable organization called Bibles For The Poor to help them fulfill that calling. Dever says that 100 per cent of financial gifts given to his organization are used to purchase Bibles, unless otherwise directed.

And what of the man who crawled through the jungle to receive his Bible? Says Dever, "he has someone come and read it to him every morning, and he prays every morning. He says, 'I am going to crawl with all my might for God. One day, I will have perfect legs in heaven.'"

"The word of God brings hope; eternal hope to those who are thirsty," says Dever. "We want to share this hope that we have been given with the world.

"What could be better than to give people eternal hope?"