Solomon Islands District Tok Stori (Volume 6, Issue 5)

Tok Stori

Solomon Islands District

Newman Legacy Funds Distribution

The 2023 allocation of the Newman Legacy funds to the Solomon Islands District were distributed to three village congregations during theEaster Campaign that have not yet participated in this community care program. Munda church leaders Rex and Manalyn utilized the mission team to assist them with providing basic food items for widows around their community in Munda, Western Province. Moscom

church leaders Peter and Susan used their funds after Easter to visit widows and the sick at eleven homes in Maru’upaina Bay, East Are’are, providing food and other essential items.

Fouelechurchleaders Robinson and Fred, together with the women of the church, prepared meals and visited needy people at villages around Port Adam, South Malaita, sharing in a time of fellowship and worship. Each one of these village

churches shared stories of the positive impact these funds had in their communities. The widows at Moscom “expressed their gratitude for the kind and loving care that was shown to them through the Moscom Salvation Army church.” The annual grant of these funds empower the village churches to live out The Salvation Army mission to care for the most vulnerable in remote areas aroundtheSolomonIslands.

IOM Validation Workshops

Throughout the month of May, Major Vanessa had the opportunity to attend a number of Validation Workshops run by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) regarding Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking (MSHT) within the Solomon Islands . The first of these workshops was validating the data that was collected for Safe & Decent Working Conditions on Fishing Vessels in the Pacific. The following two validated the Research on Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Trafficking in Persons (TiP) in the Solomon Islands, as well as the Referral of Victims of Trafficking. Each of these workshops were attended by

members of the SAFENet scheme, which is the referral pathway for those who are victims of MSHT. Major Vanessa commented that “the workshops and research that has taken place is a great step forward for the Solomon Islands and

Mother’s Day Service

This year on Mother’s Day, the men of Honiara Corps cooked and served lunch for all the women of the church after the Sunday service. District Emergency Services Coordinator Festus Ganiomea, organised the cook-up for a total of 135 people with the use of the SAES catering equipment, providing a meal of soy chicken drumsticks on rice with fried garlic onion and capsicum. The ladies were very excited to be relieved of their normal cultural duties as mothers to be served on their special day. The laughter and relaxed conversation after church was evidence of how much this meal was

Enrolment of 13 New Soldiers

The thirteen recruits who completed Soldiership Classes last month were enrolled as the newest soldiers of The Salvation Army Solomon Islands on Mother’s Day. Their enrolment was an exciting moment for Honiara Corps, which is celebrating a wave of growth since moving into their new worship space at Mbua Vale High School. This brings the total number of Soldiers for the Solomon Islands District to 302, with 87 of those soldiers from Honiara Corps. Many of these new soldiers were a part of the District Easter Campaign teams, engaging in mission and ministry roles,

living out this distinctive form of active membership in The Salvation Army: "There is no question that one of the distinctives of the Army's identity is soldiership. We are called to be ‘a good

the overall statistical aspect of the impact of MSHT on this country. It is important in the scheme of things that we are able to research and find our own statistics rather than relying on those from the outside feeding us what they see as the statistics rather than us giving them the data.” There is still a lot of education that needs to occur within the relevant ministries and the business sector, however, IOM, members of SAFENetand other key stakeholders in this area will continue to validate the research and educate the public on the issue and look forward to the results being published overthenextfew months.

appreciated. Another feature of the day was Auxiliary Captain Fostina Ramo’oroa preaching her very first sermon in a tag team delivery format with Major Vanessa Evans on the theme ’Mothers as Prayer Warriors’ from 1 Samuel 1:19-28. Despite being nervous, she stepped up to the pulpit with a confidence that was testament to her extraordinary journey of personal transformation, utilising her training from the recent Preaching Workshop. This is an important step in Fostina’s preparation to enter The Salvation Army Officer Training College, alongsideherhusbandWency.

soldier of Jesus Christ,’ as the Apostle Paul put it to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:3. This is a radical call to action against the enemy of our souls, not passive church membership. We need soldiers of Jesus Christ fully engaged in the battle" (Lieutenant Colonel James Condon, now retired Commissioner, Pipeline magazine, January 2009). There are presently another 44 recruits across the Solomon Islands District from the village churches who have completed their Soldiership Classes and are awaiting enrolment. Keeping up with the demand for uniform shirts is awelcomedchallenge!

Catholic Baby Box Launch

The Salvation Army was grateful to receive an invitation from Archbishop Chris Cardone to attend the launch of the Catholic Church Baby Box. Access to this Baby Box in Honiara is a last resort for women to leave their unwanted baby anonymously, when there are no other options. There has been a sad increase in babies being dumped in rivers, at beaches and the rubbish tip in Honiara. Unplanned pregnancies are a cultural taboo and there is a severe lack of community and government support for these young mums. The Salvation Army shares the Catholic Church position that “All life matters from the womb to the

tomb.” The Sisters who are responsible for the Baby Box will take care of the infants until a suitable family can be found to adopt the child. The Baby Box received its first child on the 25th February, long before its official launch,

Youth Group Adventure Walk

highlighting the need for this service. Other churches have a role to play in supporting this ministry by donating baby supplies, educating girls AND boys, and breaking cultural taboos by finding better ways of supporting women during an unplanned pregnancy. There were 23 in attendance at the launch, with representatives from the Catholic Church, Anglican Church of Melanesia, The Salvation Army, Pacific Churches Council, a nurse and administrator from the National Referral Hospital. The Salvation Army Home League and Junior Miss programs will be taking an active partinsupportingthis ministry.

The Honiara Corps youth invited Major Robert to take them on one of his adventure walks for a youth group activity this month. Early on Saturday, 20th May, 38 young people, along with four New Zealand Police Officers met at the District Quarters for a 7.4 km walk across the hills and valleys out the back of west Honiara. The route chosen provided these local kids with a view of Honiara that none of them had seen before, which included jungle tracks, river crossings, hidden waterfalls, steep climbs and ridgetop views; all on the outskirts of the city where they live. The Solomon Islands heads of churches were invited to attend the Australian High Commissioner’s Residence for a morning tea with the newly appointed Australian High Commissioner His Excellency Rod Hilton. This gathering of church leaders was an acknowledgement of the important role churches play in the Solomon Islands and an opportunity for the new High Commissioner to hear first hand from the church leaders some of the challenges and opportunities for community well-being in the villages. Each church leader took turns to describe how their churches contribute

inclusion of the NZ Police was a mutually enriching community engagement opportunity with The Salvation Army youth as a part of their Solomon Islands Police Support Program (SIPSP). There was lots of laughter traversing the slippery tracks, with plenty of selfies taken and stories shared along the way. Although, many of the youth found the walk physically challenging, they all had a fantastic morning out and couldn’t stop talking about it, according to parents on Sunday. It was also great to see how the youth leaders helped the slower walkers, ensuringno onewas left behind.

Church Leaders Meet Australian High Commissioner

to community well-being and how the Australia Aid program might be able to better support these efforts. Major Robert highlighted a couple of key insights from his recent research that

were applicable to this conversation. This information was positively received by the High Commissioner and affirmed by the other church leaders, who raised similar issues. The morning tea was a productive time together that reinforced efforts by previous Australian High Commissioners to work with churches in the Solomon Islands as key stakeholders in the development of communities. His Excellency Rod Hilton comes to the Solomon Islands with his wife Ewa and previous diplomatic mission experiences in Papua New Guinea and most recently India.

The

Salvation Army Solomon Islands

District Officers - Majors Robert & Vanessa Evans

PO Box 323 Honiara, Solomon Islands

Phone: (677) 30344

Fax: (677) 30344

Mobile: (677) 749 4524

Email: solomon.islands@png.salvationarmy.org

Website: www.png.salvationarmy.org

Support Needs:

 Building funds for new Officer Quarters: You can support by donating funds to contribute to the construction of Officer Quarters at our village churches in the provinces.

 Purchase of furnishings for Officer Quarters: You can support by donating funds to purchase furniture and appliances for Quarters at each of our village churches.

 Purchase of Toyota Hilux for SAES: You can support by donating funds to purchase a suitable vehicle to tow our Emergency Services trailer.

Please contact Major Robert Evans at robert.evans@png.salvationarmy.org for more information if you are able to help with any of these needs.

Prayer Points:

 Major Vanessa’s MSHT Community of Practice in Thailand

 A number of project proposals being written and submitted

 Fundraising for the Territorial Women’s Conference in PNG

 Red Shield Appeal Walkathon in July

 Establishment of a District Emergency Relief Fund

Personal Reflection…

Who can believe that we are just about half way through the year? This year has been full of challenges and amazing opportunities to share the love of Christ. Throughout the last 5 months, I have experienced the love of God, as well as thefrustrationof livingin anenvironment that has its daily challenges - challenges of boats not going where and when they should, daily power outages for up to 6 hours a day which means no water, no fans and slow internet. However, one of the highlights of this year was travelling to Moscom & Fouele for Easter. This was an enriching time of being able to share the most important time of the year with our churches in these two villages. We were treated with such love and respect, as well as just being able to share with the villages’ in the everyday rhythms of life and experiencing the local way of travellingfromonevillagetothenext.

The other highlight was being able to really get my teeth into the role of being

the Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking (MSHT) National Contact Person for The Salvation Army in The Solomon Islands. This role is something that I have been interested in for a long time and I am pleased that I now am able to meet with other agencies in the Solomon Islands to look at how we can reduce MSHT, as well as being able to validate research that has beentakingplace overthelast couple of years through IOM, RSIPF, HOPE Trust and the Ministry of Women, Youth, Children & Family Affairs (MWYCFA). With this role being a highlight, it is also a challenge trying to educate on what MSHT is and trying to change the very naïve views that are held by many within the community. Many don’t see that MSHT is happening here in the Solomons or turn a blind eye due to ignorance. The Salvation Army’s role in this area is still being looked at and finding the gap of where we can fit. As this month comes to a close and we enter the next half of the year, I am excited to be heading to

Thailand to take part in The Salvation Army SPEA Zone MSHT Community of Practice Conference. This conference will be a great time of networking with others within the SPEA Zone as well as finding out what other centres are doing and how they are supporting survivors of MSHT.

Major Vanessa Evans