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Mercy Ships International  

University of the Nations

A MISSIONARY'S UNWITTING fulfillment of a strange Pacific 
islands prophecy has led to a unique "adoption" program linking 
tribal villages and First World churches. 

        John Rush had no idea that he would signal the end of a 50-year wait for members of a bizarre "cargo cult" when he visited 
Tanna, one of the remote Vanuatu islands in the South Pacific, in 1993. 

        But the director of the Pacific Ruby, a vessel from Youth With A Mission's Mercy Ships fleet, was hailed by locals as John Frum, the benefactor they had been waiting for since the end of the Second World War. 

        Up to 15,000 people were part of the John Frum group, which grew up after one of the American servicemen leaving the area at the end of the war promised to return with supplies and to tell them more about God. 

        The islanders - who got their name from "John from America" - built landing strips and docks for the anticipated return. Resisting help from outsiders for fear of impeding their benefactor's return, they modeled their villages after military bases and marched with bamboo replica rifles as they awaited the arrival of a white ship. 

        Then Rush - from California - arrived with the white-hulled 
medical ship, and was asked by local church leaders to visit the 
main John Frum village. Initially reluctant, he finally agreed to go - only to have the village chief tell him that he wanted nothing to do with Christianity. 

        But as the two men struck up a friendship, Rush was 
unexpectedly invited to make a return visit. On this trip, Rush and the Mercy Ships team were allowed to address the villagers, and he told them: "We cannot put our hope in America...we have learned to put our hope and trust in Jesus Christ. He is the only answer to our problems." 

        Since then local Christians on the island have followed up on 
those first contacts, with many John Frum villagers declaring that they want to follow Christ, Rush reveals in his new book - The Man With The Bird On His Head - which tells the whole unlikely story. 

        Rush has also established New Song ministries, to coordinate a sponsorship program through which Western churches can fund the construction of a church/community center in each village, and 
an ongoing discipleship program. 

        He believes that the John Frum prophecy was used by God to open the group to the Christian message.. "It's really hard to see 
yourself as a mythical character, but the circumstances of that visit have led to a genuine opening for the gospel," he says. 

        Published by Youth With A Mission Publishing, the book takes its title from a curious carving Rush saw during his visit - a 
man with a bird on his head. Intrigued by the piece, he asked what it meant - and was told that it signified the man was a messenger, who came from far away with news. 

        The Man With The Bird On His Head is published by:
 

YWAM Press & Media Services