Vanuatu Trip with the Dillons

GRN has a number of people working in different parts of the world, and varied jobs within the ministry.

One family in GRN, the Dillons worked with distributing GRN materials. Their ministry was to deliver phones, SD cards, Sabres, and what ever else was needed.


Clayton, Margaret, Laura and Faith Dillon





The one big difference was that the Dillons lived on a catamaran, Shining Light and sailed from Australia, to different Islands in the Pacific. 

When the Dillons need to travel to across the Coral Sea, they need extra crew members to help with the night watch. Glenys was privileged to be one of the crew members to help with this job. She was able to fly to Vanuatu and help with the trip back to Australia.

This meant Glenys had to fly to Vanuatu and meet with the Dillons at the airport. As Glenys' only sea voyage was  a ferry to Magnetic Island and Stradbroke Island, this was rather daunting to do travel alone to another country.

She arrived in one piece, with no hassles

A couple of days were spend in Vanuatu before embarking on a voyage across the Coral Sea.

The Sunday in Vanuata was spent at a Presbyterian boarding School on the graduation day.. This school was badly damaged by Cyclone Pam earlier in the year.  It was mentioned during the service how the school had been damaged but because of the support from the Presbyterian Church, they only missed out on 2 weeks of school

It was while Glenys was there, she was able to talk to some of the board members of the school. This was very interesting learning about the sacrifice the parents make so their children can get an education.

She also learned that there were around 100 denominations on Vanuatu. Every 10 minutes you drove past another church.

There is so much opportunity to hear about God in this country. This is a great contrast to remote parts of Australia, where Christians have to travel many miles, even hours to get to the closest church.

Sailing back to Australia was an unforgettable experience. Margaret and Clayton were very patient with the land-lubber who had never done any sailing before. They explained how and why things worked and how to read the sea, the wind and the navigational tools.

There was another crew member on board. She was a young lady from Magnetic Island. Chiara lived on a yacht, so was well informed on sailing and what to do.

We had a great time together. We cooked meals together, spent time with the 2 daughters, talked a lot, took lots of photos, and enjoyed the time.

No one on board was very sea sick. Glenys was so grateful for this, as she was worried she would be in bed for the duration.  There were times we all felt a bit queasy, but endured it well.

Glenys saw her first flying fish. That was exciting. As she spend a lot of her childhood reading, and a number of those books covered stories of pirates, being marooned on coral islands, it was great to see the pacific where a lot of these stories were based. No pirates though!













We stopped on a coral reef called Chesterfield Reef. This was the highlight of the trip. The reef was filled with nesting sea birds, hermit crabs, and a wonderful smell of birds. We were able to spend some time snorkeling in the ocean. This was amazing. A lot of the reef had been damaged by the cyclone, but it was still beautiful.

Anybody interesting in spending a month sailing the Coral Sea, snorkeling and taking photos?

After about 10 days sailing, we arrived in Bundaberg.

Glenys's thoughts:

I did not mention that we could not shower on the voyage as there was limited water. The shower at Bundy was the best shower ever!

While this journey was to help other workers get back to Oz, I felt it was a great trip to experience something I had never done before. Just on the side, my sons thought I was too old for the trip, and would not survive..still life in the old girl yet!

Clayton and Margaret and the girls were great hosts and very gracious, and Chiara was a fun and enjoyable companion to sail the Coral Sea with.