Solomon Islands District Newsletter (Volume 4, Issue 10)

Solomon Islands District

NEWSLETTER October 2021 Volume 4, Issue 10

Inside this issue:

District Leaders Training Trip Majors Robert and Vanessa travelled to Malaita Province this month to meet up with newly appointed Area Officers Envoys Hudson and Mary for a training trip to North Malaita and West Kwara’ae. This trip provided the District Officers an opportunity to demonstrate to the Area Officers how to conduct Soldiership Classes and Women’s Ministries Training in their Province. Gateway Corps and Kafomauri New Opening came together at Kwai in North Malaita for a wonderful time of fellowship and training where 11 adults completed the Soldiership Training Course and 14 children the Junior Soldiers Preparation Course, with a total of 18 ladies from both congregations who received an overview of the District Women’s Ministries Program and an introduction to Learning Spaces. Envoy Hudson joined in the Soldiership training by providing session summaries in language alongside Major Robert to ensure the recruits fully understood the teaching and to develop confidence to conduct the training himself.

The next part of the journey was to travel to Rauai New Opening in West Kwara’ae to repeat the training with new recruits from Rauai and Ramah

Fellowships.

Unfortunately, the decision to catch the first truck that passed by Kwai to Malu’u (30 minutes away) to find a connection with another truck travelling all the way to Auki, left the team stranded for 13 hours before the next available transport. This long delay, along with Major Robert completely losing his voice, led to a change of plans. Instead of stopping off at Rauai, the District Officers cut their visit short by a day and delegated the training to the Area Officers to conduct at their village in their own time.

This training trip was an important follow-up to the church leaders training held in Honiara last month and preparation for the upcoming 10th Anniversary celebrations.

The return of the church leaders after their training stimulated a lot of excitement and anticipation in their village churches with new recruits keen to join The Salvation Army. As a result of this trip and other classes to be conducted by the Honiara Corps Officers, the District expects quite a number of enrollments to mark ten amazing years of mission and ministry by The Salvation Army in the Solomon Islands.

International Day of the Girl

2

Second Global Wave 2 of Prayer House Fire Assistance

2

Territorial Appointments Bulletin

3

Malaita House of Prayer Support

3

City Women Connect 3 Closing Program Personal Reflection

Special points of interest:  Training & Development  International Focus  Emergency Relief  New Appointments  Ecumenical Support  Women’s Ministries

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International Day of the Girl The theme for this year’s International Day of the Girl was ‘RESTORE: Girl’s Caring for the Environment.’ For the Solomon Islands, this theme is of particular importance because of the dual concern about sexual violence and environmental degradation in this nation.

Major Vanessa spoke at Honiara Corps from Psalm 8:3-8 reminding the congregation of God’s deep care for ALL of His creation and challenging them to express the same care for each other and the environment.

significant challenges in this space, but speaking into this generation of girls helps to change the narrative and cast a vision of hope for the future through a generation of girls that can rise above the limitations of their culture.

This message has been reinforced throughout the year through the Junior Miss program that seeks to empower young girls to protect themselves and be responsible citizens, while equipping them to fulfill their full potential as God’s precious children, created in the image of God. Culturally, there are still a lot of

Second Global Wave of Prayer With COVID-19 continuing to wreak havoc around the world, the General’s call for a Second Global Wave of Prayer for The Salvation Army was timely for the Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands Territory, especially with the current outbreak in PNG. Solomon Islands remains in a unique position with no cases of community transmission yet to be recorded but remains extremely vulnerable on the western border between Bougainville Island (PNG) and Choiseul Province (SI). This vulnerability is exacerbated by a very low vaccination rate (only 10.8% receiving both doses).

The low rate is largely attributed to local hesitancy caused by misinformation that

feeds on conspiracy theories and bad theology. Calling The Salvation Army in the Solomon Islands to join this Global Wave of Prayer for COVID-19 provided an opportunity for the District Officers to correct some of the wrong thinking and pray intelligibly about a pandemic that doesn’t discriminated along lines of faith or culture. The Honiara Corps Officers supported the call to prayer by setting up a 24 hour prayer roster, inviting the congregation to commit to one hour time slots from 8:00 pm on Saturday, 23rd October through to 8:00 pm on Sunday, 24th October.

House Fire Assistance The Salvation Army District Headquarters received a call from a local woman requesting assistance for her niece whose house burnt down in Honiara.

Festus Ganiomea, District Emergency Services Coordinator, was asked to contact the family and organise a visit to assess their losses and most pressing needs. Fortunately, the community had rallied around the family, so they had a place to stay and plenty of food. What they needed was clothing, for they had escaped the fire with literally the clothes on their backs. Festus returned to the

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family with a small group of Salvationists to deliver the clothing and conduct a small house service.

The family appreciated the support and words of encouragement, especially coming from a church that they do not belong to. This simple demonstration of ’heart to God— hand to man’ had a big impact on a family who had lost everything.

faith in action during times of need, demonstrating the love of Jesus in very practical ways.

Since the establishment of The Salvation Army Emergency Services in the Solomon Islands, there have been a diverse range of opportunities for local Salvationists to serve the community through Christian

Solomon Islands District

Territorial Appointments Bulletin mission and ministry of The Salvation Army in the Solomon Islands. These appointments will take effect on Sunday, 21st November when these leaders are formally warranted with the noncommissioned rank of Envoy at the 10th Anniversary weekend.

The Solomon Islands District was very pleased to be included in this year’s Territorial Appointments Bulletin with the appointment of four new Envoys to take up a number of roles in the District.

While the District is working diligently

towards preparing local candidates for the Officer Training College in PNG, the appointment of Envoys in the meantime provides an alternative pathway to Officership for indigenous Salvationists ready and able to lead the growing

This appointment bulletin is a testimony to the District Mission Strategy to ‘identify local emerging leaders’ and ‘develop future leadership’. There is still much work to be done in this space, with many challenges for those stepping into leadership roles in The Salvation Army.

Malaita House of Prayer Support During a recent Sunday service at Honiara Corps, a group of Malaitan Pastors from a number of different church denominations attended worship while in Honiara on a fundraising mission. A combined group of churches are working towards establishing an ecumenical ‘House of Prayer’ in Auki as a base for churches passing through the capital of Malaita to gather for prayer and other ministry activities.

that week to assist with their fundraising.

This unexpected gesture of support was received with gratitude by the Pastors, who expressed their appreciation and

desire for The Salvation Army to utilize this space whenever visiting Auki. The Salvation Army continues to seek ways to work alongside other churches as a part of the body of Christ to compliment existing mission and ministry activities in the Solomon Islands.

The growing mission of The Salvation Army in Malaita will be greatly served by this ecumenical vision for a House of Prayer.

The Pastors returned the following week to share again in worship and fellowship at The Salvation Army, while they are staying in Honiara with Envoys Alick and Esther Hagi.

After a couple of the Pastors testified during the service about their intentions, Major Robert made an impromptu decision to allocate the mission offering

City Women Connect Closing Program On the last Saturday of October, 300+ ladies from 15 churches around Honiara gathered at the CRC Church in East Honiara to take part in the closing program for City Women Connect. Each church was assigned a province or region to prepare cultural dances and musical items to present at the program.

The Salvation Army was given Central Province, which was enthusiastically embraced by the Honiara Corps Home League women and Junior Miss girls.

There were a total of 28 women and girls from The Salvation Army in attendance,

Volume 4, Issue 10

who proudly wore their uniforms and cultural dress as they marched into the program under the District flag.

church representatives, that includes Home League Secretary Elizabeth Tolilalo from The Salvation Army.

The theme for the event, ‘Keep on Doing Good Things’, was based on Galatians 6:9, encouraging the women to “not become weary in doing good.” City Women Connect come together at different churches monthly throughout the year to encourage each other and provide training to equip and empower the women of Honiara in their spiritual and everyday lives. Their program is planned by an organising committee of

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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.

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

 Sponsorship for construction of Officer Quarters  Land for Honiara Corps  Preparation for implementation of 6 mission funded projects  Identifying future Officer Candidates  Safe travels for those attending 10th Anniversary

Personal Reflection…

The program at the CRC church started at 9.30 am on Saturday, 30th October. We started marching outside of the church and each of the churches represented different provinces with their own culture and as for The Salvation Army church, we

represented Central Province. As for me, the program was a blessing. I enjoyed myself to see different churches performing their dances and songs according to their culture to praise God. The program was very good and well organised and we really enjoyed our time. We were really encouraged and blessed by the message that has been shared during the fellowship. It’s good to see lots of women coming together to have fellowship and prayer time together for our nation Solomon Islands.

I was blessed as I have been part of the program today, joining with Junior Miss.

God is going to do greater things for you and me. And as for our theme “Keep on Doing Good Things”, which in Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

As I am joining the City Women closing program, it is good to keep doing good things and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). To God be the glory, great things He has done!.

Mitlyn Taba’a