Back to Eden

 Aerial photo of Back to Eden and the adjacent beach and reef

Alan and Bronwen Prisk are Australian expatriates running Back to Eden Restaurant on Vanuatu. They also have a bungalow for visitors. They are likeable and intelligent – and are both sincere Christians who feel they were sent to take God’s love to the Vanuatu local people. How did they come to that conclusion?



Bronnie and Alan

 One morning in Nambour (Queensland) Bronnie was praying when she found herself staring at a picture of Jesus in a dingy that was tied to a wharf. He was beckoning her to get into the boat with Him. Bronnie saw herself get into the boat and ask Jesus, “Where are we going?”
“Vanuatu,” He replied.

Bronnie dissolved into tears of awe, joy and many other emotions. She and Alan had been praying about this for some time. It seemed God really did want them to go. Their other children were all either married or living in a house together, so they would be fine, although she would miss them. It would be wonderful to spend some time with their daughter Hannah who lived with her husband Ray on Vanuatu.

Over the next few days her mind flicked back over the events of the past months.

Several months ago, they had been visiting Hannah and Ray, when they noticed a bungalow built by a Frenchman. It was pleasant. The sort of place they could enjoy living. As they gazed at it, they both felt something shift inside them. Was God calling them to live there?

As they looked into the possibility, they found it was legally necessary to be employed in Vanuatu or to run a business there, in order to move there. Alan was experienced in building and Bronnie was well known as a gourmet cook (I verify this from my own experience). A restaurant! They could employ some of the local people to help them.


Bronnie and Alan's house with restaurant
 and guest bungalow.



It would be huge step to leave their large family in Australia. They would need to be certain God was leading them.

And so it was that Bronnie was praying and had her vision.
She began to pack.
What do I need to take, Lord? She asked as she sorted their possessions.
“Just take Me,” came the whisper.




                                                 In the restaurant

Now they live there and run a successful restaurant, with several local girls helping. They enjoy many visitors. The position of their home and restaurant, right on the seafront, attracts many.


They love to enjoy a glass of wine and a platter of cheese as they sit looking out at the sun setting into the ocean, flooding the sea and the sky with orange and rose brilliance.
 Sunset



Alan takes anyone interested in snorkelling to see the exotic sights on the nearby reef.





On all fronts it is a glimpse of paradise.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We'll call him Jonah

Image
Last week I left us on holidays in New Zealand. This week we take a detour into my future, years later when I lived in Nambour, a delightful country town just north of Brisbane. Something felt different about that day. I hurried onto the Nambour railway platform, wondering what was important about this particular journey to Brisbane. I travelled down regularly to visit my mother with Alzheimer’s disease but this day I’d felt a clear whisper from God to pray for my train trip. There were quite a few people waiting on the platform but there was space at the end of a seat with a youngish man seated at the other end, so I sat there. “Do you have a pen I can borrow?” the man asked. Do I ever go anywhere without a pen? I handed him my biro and he proceeded to write some notes. A whirring whine announced the arrival of the train. The man, who introduced himself – we’ll call him Joe, as I tend to think of him as Jonah – said, “Oh, I’m not finished with your
Read more

The Silver Lining: Is there any way we can keep it?

Image
The pandemic and the shutdown A strange silence broods over the land. It is early April 2020 and Australia is in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Attempting to halt the movement of the virus, the government has placed severe restrictions on everyone. Night after night, television brings news of more severe restrictions. Even families can no longer get together. Anything to protect us ‘oldies’. Shopping must be done alone, for necessities only, and we must keep one point five metres between us and the next shopper. And this is after the initial panic buying, when frightened shoppers grabbed armfuls of all necessities. Toilet paper ran out in most stores! Fear is etched on people’s faces. The news each night tells of multitudes of deaths in various countries, statistics growing nightly. Health workers are catching the virus as they help the sick. Some die. Businesses fold as restrictions have forbidden shoppers, tourists and others, so alarming numbers are out of work, with
Read more

June - Time to Celebrate

Image
  WooHoo! Celebration time. June marks fifty years since, after a series of undeniable ‘God incidents’, I said ‘Yes’ and became a Christian. I was twenty-five.   I’m amazed to find myself so old and so Christian. It’s all happened very fast – well, so it feels.   If you’d seen me fifty- one years ago, before I became a Christian, you would never have dreamt it. I was the girl least likely to become a Christian. In fact, one friend said, ‘If Jeanette becomes a Christian, I’ll believe it all.’ She figured she was safe as an unbeliever. Hah!     Early Hints There were hints during my childhood and teenage years. Chinks in the solid wall that kept me focussed on the material world, rarely dreaming there was anything more. One such chink occurred when I was fourteen.        A Chink It was a hot Brisbane summer day. A skinny fourteen year old, I sat on the verandah of our lovely old Queenslander, my legs stretched out over the weather-beaten floor boards. I gazed at
Read more