Director's Message

Jamie W. Spence, Founder/Executive Director

Picture yourself, one of only 200 people living on a tropical island only three miles long and a half mile wide...

Life in your village is pretty low key. The men fish and build things such as thatched homes and outrigger canoes. As the day grows hot, they retire to the shade, weave rope and "talk story."

The women boil breadfruit over an open fire, pound it into sticky green loaves, and wrap it in leaves to bake in the coals, while the children (so many of them!) happily play.

But amid the seeming tranquillity of island life, a trio of unseen enemies lurks. They steal the health of your friends and family. They blind your parents, and they kill your children. Their names? Ignorance, Isolation, and Poverty.

Ignorance - keeps you from practicing good health habits--boiling your drinking water, exercising your body, and feeding your children nutritious native foods instead of the white flour, sugar, rice and shortening that arrive on the microships.

Isolation - prevents you from seeking the attention of a physician or dentist for your family, even in an emergency.

Poverty - keeps your leaders from purchasing medicines to stock your island's small dispensary.

What would you think if...

Director Jamie Spence with a child who's life was saved by Canvasback.

Imagine your reaction, then, if a silvery ship were to sail into your lagoon carrying doctors, nurses, and enough supplies to treat everyone on your island who was ill. Imagine them immunizing your children against deadly diseases, fixing the rotted places in your teeth and teaching you ways to keep yourself and your children healthy and happy; even restoring sight to your aging mother so she can see to read and do handwork once again!

How do you think you'd respond if these same people gave you a Bible in your own language--your very first---and said that they'd come all the way across the ocean just to tell you about a God in heaven who loves you?

These things and more have been the experience of thousands of people in the remote islands of Micronesia since Canvasback Missions began ministering there in 1986. For many, Canvasback has meant the difference between health and sickness, between hope and despair, even between life and death.

Jesus Remembers them..

To be sure, the people Canvasback serves aren't the largest populations in the world, nor the easiest to reach. Perhaps that's why they are among the most forgotten.

But Jesus hasn't forgotten them; He loves them dearly, and will go to any length to demonstrate to His saving grace to these precious people. And with your continued prayers and support, so will Canvasback Missions.

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