Solomon Islands District Newsletter (Volume 3, Issue 12)

Solomon Islands District

NEWSLETTER December 2020 Volume 3, Issue 12

Promoted to Glory 2018 at the first Salvation Army Convention held in North Malaita. The North Malaita Fellowship became Gateway Corps, Suafa Bay, during the convention and later expanded its missional impact in North Malaita with the establishment of a DME Coconut Oil Plant in 2019.

After a year long struggle with ill health, the Solomon Islands District was deeply grieved to receive the news Envoy Charles Akwasitaloa, Corps Officer of Gateway Corps in North Malaita, had been ‘Promoted to Glory’.

Envoy Charles was formerly a pastor with Gospel Mission International before joining The Salvation Army with 14 other recruits from Kwai Village in North Malaita on the 12th May 2017. Under the leadership of Charles, this new group of Soldiers formed The Salvation Army North Malaita Fellowship and was granted Corps status by the PNGSI Territorial Commander, Colonel Kelvin Alley on Sunday, 22nd July

Envoy Charles was a respected spiritual leader who personified the character of Jesus Christ in all of his interactions. His quiet demeanor and strong faith commanded your attention whenever you were in his presence. Anybody who visited his home would remember being woken up at 4:30 am by the sound of a guitar outside their room for his daily early morning time of prayer and worship with his family.

Inside this issue:

The District Officers, Honiara Corps Officer and Malaita Area Officer, joined with other family members to travel to North Malaita for the funeral at Gateway Corps. The service was conducted by Majors Robert and Vanessa Evans on Tuesday, 15th December, with hundreds of mourners from surrounding villages gathering to celebrate Envoy Charles’ life, followed by a cultural burial alongside the church.

Envoy Judith Akwasitaloa, with the support of local leaders, will continue to oversee the ministry of Gateway Corps until future leadership needs are discussed by the District. Envoy Charles will be greatly missed by his family and congregation.

Well done, good and faithful servant!

An Incredible Christmas!

2

Operation Christmas 2 Child End of Year Program

2

Tall Mo

3

Christmas Carolling

3

Christmas Day at Burns Creek

3

Personal Reflection

4

Special points of interest:  Christmas series  Christmas joy  Christmas break-up  Christmas carols  Christmas Day!

An Incredible Christmas!

Thanks to The Salvation Army Worship Arts Department in Australia for the theme “An Incredible Christmas!” This theme provided helpful preaching outlines from the Gospel of Luke to assist the District Nominees (Candidates) with preparing messages about the Christmas story during the Advent season this year.

was preached by Nominee Daniel Hagi and the final week of Advent by

Nominee Jennifer Kinikoroa on “An Incredible Birth” (Luke 2:1-20).

On Christmas Day, Major Robert Evans summed up the Advent series with “An Incredible Journey” (Luke 2:15) at the newly formed Burns Creek Outpost.

In Malaita Province, Envoy Joshua Henry used the same series as he travelled between the village churches, unifying the District around a common theme this Christmas. The series provided another opportunity for the Nominees for Officership to develop as preachers of the Word and prepare for full-time ministry in The Salvation Army.

Envoy Wency Ramo’oroa commenced the series with “Incredible News!” (Luke 1:26-38), followed by Nominee Tony Kinikoroa with “An Incredible God” (Luke 1:39-56) at Hammock Beach for the End of Year Break-up. Advent three message “An Incredible Prophecy” (Luke 1:67-80)

Operation Christmas Child This year, The Salvation Army was given the opportunity to assist Samaritan Purse in the distribution of Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes at Burns Creek High Way Community and Honiara

Integrated Primary School. The delivery of the shoe boxes was coordinated by local Salvation Army leaders Webster Buakalo and Elizabeth Tolilalo, who worked alongside the Solomon Islands Samaritan Purse Director. The children at both locations were very excited to receive their gifts, with their joy overflowing as they opened the shoe boxes together.

boxes at their Corps appointments in Australia. To see them delivered and opened by the children was a joyful occasion in itself as the toys reached their intended audience.

For Majors Robert and Vanessa, it was a unique experience seeing Operation Christmas Child from the other side. For many years, they have been involved in donating and packing toys for the shoe

End of Year Program To celebrate another year of amazing mission and ministry, Honiara Corps held their end of year program at Hammock Beach in West Guadalcanal, where 155 people gathered for worship, lunch and a swim. Doing church together at the beach provided a relaxed and informal environment to celebrate all that God had done during an unprecedented year of challenges and opportunities.

contributed to a fellowship lunch, which included fish, chicken, rice, cassava and fresh tropical fruit.

Major Vanessa discovered how to get 50+ kids out of the water instantaneously, when she started

serving ice cream! It was a fun day that was enjoyed by everyone, with one community leader expressing his sincere appreciation for the opportunity for his family to come to the beach.

Nominee Tony Kinikoroa preached the second message of the Advent series, “An Incredible God”, which was a very applicable message for the occasion. In true Solomon Islander style, everyone

Page 2

Solomon Islands District

Tall Mo White River is a community on the west side of Honiara that has as many social issues as Burns Creek in east Honiara. It is a community that has been on the radar of The Salvation Army for a couple of years. This month, a message was received on the Solomon Islands District Facebook page from a former national basketball player and current youth leader in White River named ‘Tall Mo’.

He wanted to connect with The Salvation Army to find out how we might work together to support the young people in White River. Major Robert and Envoy Wency met with Tall Mo at Lime Lounge

Café to learn more about each other and explore future ministry opportunities.

Tall Mo runs a basketball program for young people and is keen to partner with an organisation to help provide informal education opportunities for all the children who have dropped out of the education system in his community. This is a potential point of connection with the mission purpose of The Salvation Army’s Learning Spaces to reduce the vulnerability of uneducated children in the Solomon Islands. Honiara Corps will explore this space further with Tall Mo in the new year.

Christmas Carolling This year, the scheduled Christmas Carolling roster was cut short due to the unavailability of the RSIPF Brass Band and unexpected death of Envoy Charles.

Nevertheless, the brass learners had the

opportunity to play at the Pikinini Christmas Party at the Defense Compound on Saturday, 12th December and at four locations in Burns Creek on Sunday, 13th December.

shortened program, the band played and sang well and were really appreciated by the attentive audiences. It was a great opportunity to extend some Christmas joy through music in the community.

At each location, the brass learners played simple arrangements of the four carols they had been practicing during November - Hark the Heralds Angels Sing, Good King Wenceslas, Silent Night and We Three Kings. The four young guys in the band also sang entertaining arrangements of Mary’s Boy Child and Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.

Despite the limited repertoire and

Christmas Day at Burns Creek Honiara Corps Christmas Day Service had a change of location this year to the newly formed Burns Creek Outpost. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Christmas together with this

new congregation and get to know each other better over Christmas lunch. In the Solomon Islands, Christmas is a time when most people travel back to their home province for holidays, so those

from the Corps who stayed behind in Honiara appreciated the opportunity to come together for Christmas lunch with their church family. Even without all the decorations and trimmings associated with Christmas in Australia and other parts of the world, the sense of family and focus on the Nativity story made it feel every bit like Christmas for Majors Robert and Vanessa, who were not able to be with their own family this year.

The Salvation Army Solomon Islands wishes Salvationists and supporters around the world a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Volume 3, Issue 12

Page 3

Support Needs:  Mission Travel Budget You can support the follow-up of increasing mission requests for The Salvation Army to commence in other villages by contributing to travel costs between the Provinces.  Building Funds for construction of Officer Quarters: You can support by donating funds to support the construction of Quarters at each of our village churches.

The Salvation Army Solomon Islands District Officers - Majors Robert & Vanessa Evans PO Box 323 Honiara, Solomon Islands

 Purchase of additional equipment for SAES: You can support by donating funds to purchase a deep freezer to store food for Emergency Services and Disaster Relief.

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.

Phone: (677) 30344 Fax: (677) 30344 Mobile: (677) 749 4524 Email: solomon.islands@png.salvationarmy.org

Prayer Points:

Website: www.png.salvationarmy.org

 New leadership for Gateway Corps  Land for Honiara Corps  Progression of Nominees/Candidates towards training for full-time ministry in The Salvation Army  Approval of project proposals submitted to supporters  Preparations for 10th Anniversary & General’s visit

Personal Reflection...

Reflecting back on this time last year, who could possibly have imagined how 2020 was going to play out?! I think it’s fair to say that COVID-19 changed the world as we know it. Closed international borders, travel restrictions and social distancing redefined how we moved and interacted with each other.

For the Solomon Islands, the impact has been far less dramatic compared to other nations, with the few cases of COVID-19 confined to quarantine. However, the State of Public Emergency conditions in place since March meant the cancellation of a number of District events and two conference visits to PNG. Despite these interruptions to our planned calendar, the mission and ministry of The Salvation Army locally has developed and grown beyond our expectations. This year has seen four new congregations established in the provinces, the enrolment of 82

new soldiers across the District and the commencement of an outpost by Honiara Corps. The Solomon Islands District now has an average Sunday attendance of 378 from 9 congregations with a total of 208 members.

While we celebrate this growth, we also acknowledge the challenges and losses of this year.

Cyclone Harold devastated a number of coastal communities, resulting in an emergency relief effort to alleviate the loss of food crops. Our DME Coconut Oil Plant experienced four months of loss production due to theft and other operational challenges. Then there was the death of two Salvationists who had a significant impact on the growth and development of The Salvation Army in the Solomon Islands.

In both the blessings and challenges, we praise God for His provision and guidance throughout a most unusual year. We are

also grateful for the tremendous support and encouragement we have received from family and friends both locally and from afar.

While we cannot predict what next year will look like, we enter 2021 anticipating “Even Greater Things.”

Major Robert Evans