The happiest place on earth

My brother Phil is National Director of Church Army New Zealand.  He and his family moved to New Zealand in 2009, and by all accounts are thoroughly enjoying life in the southern hemisphere.  A couple of weeks ago Phil arrived back in the UK in order to attend a conference of Church Army leaders.  It gave us a good opportunity to spend a few days with him and catch up with family news etc. 

Phil brought a friend called Ben with him.  Ben is from Vanuatu, a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean.  Ben was also due to attend the Church Army conference.  I must admit that geography was not one of my stronger subjects at school (I didn’t have many!) and I before I met Ben knew next to nothing about Vanuatu.

One thing I now know about Vanuatu is that the average temperatures are considerably higher than those we experience in the UK.  When Ben arrived at our house on a cold March evening he was very well wrapped up, and I’m not sure that he really appreciated our climate, even though the sun did eventually make a belated appearance during his stay.  Ben was somewhat bemused when snow started to fall from the sky as we walked down to church one morning!

Ben is a lovely Christian guy, with a broad smile and a winsome manner.  He has a humility and gentleness about him, and it was a real privilege to get to know him a little.  Phil and Ben had spent a day in London on their arrival in the UK.  From what Ben told us, it had been an awe-inspiring and overwhelming experience for him as he was able to see in person places which he had only ever heard about.

Ben gave us an idea of life in Vanuatu; it is clear that many of life’s so-called ‘necessities’ which we in the UK take for granted are just not available in Vanuatu.  Many people do not have access to electricity (think of what that would mean in your life!)  Only the very well-off have any sort of motorised transport; for most, travelling is by foot.  Over 80% of the population lives in rural, isolated villages with minimal access to basic health and education services.  It is clear that life in Vanuatu is like a totally different world from what we experience in the UK.

Materially speaking, people in Vanuatu have very little, and yet, according to a "happy planet index" published by the New Economics Foundation, Vanuatu is the happiest place on earth (whereas the UK languishes in 108th place).  We in the UK have so much in terms of material possessions, and yet many people in the UK seem to have a desperate lack of joy or happiness.  As Jesus himself said, ‘life is not measured by how much you own.’ (Luke 12:15).  I am grateful to have met Ben, and for the reminder that true joy and happiness cannot be found in “things”, however much we might crave them.