If you draw a line from Honolulu straight to Sydney, it'll cut right through Port Villa,

which is the capital of what is today called Vanuatu.

And if you go along two-thirds of that line, you'll be there.

Those are the New Hebrides.

Given that name by Captain James Cook in the 18th century

because they look to him like the Hebrides islands off the coast of Scotland. Today Vanuatu has about 190,000 people on 80 islands.

Not all of them are inhabited, but many of them.

As far as we know, there was no Christian influence among the New Hebrides until 1839.

Think of it.

Just think of it.

Just think of it.

18 centuries

between Christ and the first missionary.

It should not have been.

The first missionaries, you've probably heard the names, John Williams and James Harris,

within minutes after going ashore on the island of Eromanga, they were clubbed to death, cooked and eaten

in the face of the ship that was still offshore.

John Patton arrived there in 1858 and gave his life to the New Hebrides. He died when he was, well was 1907, you do the math.

He had a long life, which is amazing when you realize what he went through.

He was born in 1824 to 1907.

He lived in Scotland, grew up in a godly home and was a city missionary, today we call an urban missionary probably, in the reformed Presbyterian church in Glasgow from age 23 to 34 and it was a

wonderfully fruitful ministry.

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