Solomon Islands District Newsletter (Volume 3, Issue 5)

Solomon Islands District

NEWSLETTER May 2020 Volume 3, Issue 5

Baby Boom Honiara Corps had a mini baby boom during April with four new babies being born. Envoys Wency and Fostina welcomed their son Jerry, Clayton and Cathy welcomed their daughter Tenika, Lency and Emmy welcomed their son Kylian, and Alick and Esther welcomed their granddaughter Velissa.

These precious pikinini have brought great joy and fresh life into the Corps.

meaningful as three of the four babies were dedicated, along with Kylian’s three year old brother Joel. Major Vanessa had the privilege of conducting the dedication ceremony, expressing the parents “desire to fully commit their children to God” and their “promise to

encourage them to seek Christ as Saviour and support the commitment of their lives to the service of God.” The fourth baby will be dedicated upon her grandparents return from their mission trip to the Western Province to start The Salvation Army.

Inside this issue:

Malaita Province Mission Report: Report written by Area Officer Envoy Joshua Henry

Western Province Mission Report:

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Report written by Area Leader Alick Hagi

Unfortunately the dedication service couldn’t quite be timed for Mother’s Day, but the following Sunday was no less

Personal Reflection

Stepping up to the Pulpit Since the Preaching Workshop last month, three of the participants have had the opportunity to step up to the pulpit to put their new knowledge into practice. Each of them are Officer Nominees (Candidates) who are preparing to enter the Officer Training College. This opportunity to preach is an important part of

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their preparation for full-time ministry in The Salvation Army.

Rachel preached for the very first time on Mother’s Day and did an excellent job, despite her nervousness. She overcame her fear and lived up to the title of her sermon “Woman of Courage.” Tony and Daniel have both preached before but demonstrated clearly how the

workshop contributed to the structure and delivery of their sermons.

The training and development of Salvationists for ministry continues to be a priority to raise up indigenous leaders of The Salvation Army in the Solomon Islands. This is an important step in ensuring the new openings are well led into the future.

Special points of interest:  New Growth  Mission Outreach  New Congregations  Mission Follow-up  COVID-19 Reflection

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Malaita Province Mission Report Written by Area Officer Envoy Joshua Henry On the 28th April I went on a mission trip to Rauai Village, accompanied by 10 members of the Ramah Fellowship music team, including Elders Beverley and Martin Lagwai. Although it was raining heavily, it was fine as soon as the hired vehicle arrived so that the sound system and musical equipment brought with us were safe. This trip was requested by the Soldiers recently enrolled during the District Easter Campaign. There was a large turn out of about 500 people from the communities surrounding Rauai that attended each night’s meeting.

Rauai is a small village on the northern border of West Kwara’ae Constituency in the Malaita Province. The people along Kwarea Rive know Rauai well for all the illicit activities like consumption of Kwaso (homebrew alcoholic drink), drugs, thievery, and domestic violence done by

both young and old over the years making this village a place people flee from living in.

Parents longed for something that would bring change to their children for the better. The new Soldiers returned to Rauai after their enrolment at Easter and gave witness to God by their testimonies and changed lives.

The rest of the mission team left Rauai

Rauai Mission

after the two days, but I was asked to stay on until Monday, 4th May. There were continual discussions everyday with elders and they expressed their eagerness to establish a Corps for The Salvation Army by signing a land agreement and completing an application for New Opening Status.

With Ramah Fellowship’s financial support, the Soldiers even erected a community building to gather for fellowship, since there is no home big enough to accommodate visitors. The only discouragement for the new recruits is the delay in receiving new uniforms due to the lack of availability with the recent large number of enrolments across the District. So far there are 30 Soldiers enrolled at Rauai New Opening, with a number of other new recruits waiting for the next round of Soldiership Training Classes.

Western Province Mission Report Written by Area Leader Alick Hagi My wife Esther and I, accompanied by our grandson James Hagi left Honiara on the 17th May headed to the Western Province. I had contact with a person in Munda by the name of Mr. Rex Tiokomateana who I knew while working as a Meteorological Officer serving in Munda, Western Province from 2008 to 2013. I told him that I will visit Munda, and he was very happy about my visit. He told his wife Mrs. Manalyn Tiokomateana about my trip but they didn’t know when I would make the visit. We got off the M.V. Fair Lady at Noro on the 18th May

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and no one is waiting for us, but i know how to get transport and find my way to Munda. We got into a public Bus that services the route to Munda from Noro.

When we got to Munda Mr. Rex Tiokomateana was very surprised, so was his wife. We rested and then the Family came and met us.

Thereafter, I had my first session of introducing The Salvation Army. I led them on what The Salvation Army was all about. Mr. Rex Tiokomateana’s father, who is the Paramount Chief for Roviana, was also present with his other son Mr. Anthony Danga. They were very excited about the new faith with The Salvation Army. I had us break for lunch and we walked down to a Munda Town called Lambete. We went down and bought rice and some other items in preparation for the evening fellowship. Getting back to Mr. Rex Tiokomateana house, we

Solomon Islands District

organised ourselves, then I ask him that we should meet up with other Pastors, so we visited the Pastor of Living Word, Pastor Ben Sogai, as well a Nazarene Pastor, Rev. Gibson Pina. After the visit to these Pastors and informing them of The Salvation Army, there was no objection, but they welcomed us. Then we went back to Mr. Rex house and prepared our dinner and then waited for people to come and we had our first Fellowship Meeting. The new Munda Fellowship is now under Mr. Rex and his wife who are very passionate about The Salvation Army.

Our first fellowship on the 18th May saw a total of 15 people attend our worship in the evening out the front of Mr. Rex Tiokomateana’s family home with his wife and their little baby girl Rebecca. I had two information sessions with this couple and I’m certain that they will carry on with leading this fellowship. The second night on the 19th May we had 14 people come again for the fellowship.

We really enjoyed the night with tea and biscuit as second part of the evening of fellowship.

I got to visit one of the houses that was built after the 2007 April 2 tsunami that hit Western Province. The Salvation Army build 15 houses after the tsunami that destroyed Paeloge Village. I captured a photo of one that was abandoned by the occupant as they moved to Honiara. On this mountain there were Five houses including this one. Two of the houses still have occupants reside in them while three others are vacant or abandoned.

These villagers were very happy with The Salvation Army for building these houses, but ten of the houses were relocated down to the coast. They had problem with climbing up the mountain and they had no water access at the mountain top. They relocated down to access the road and for their children to attend the nereby community High school.

The owner of this house is planning on relocating down the mountain also but has a problem with finance so she is pulling it down slowly reassembling according to her budget.

The music team that lead our worship night were a blessing. The man in the yellow t-shirt had never entered a church for the past five months. I ask to use his guitar and he told me that the guitar had not made any noise for the last five months he had been away from church.

He allowed us to use the guitar and so become part of the fellowship.

Volume 3, Issue 5

I am so blessed because the Taba’a family from Honiara Corps had gone home to Paeloge Village, so when my wife Esther and I with grandson James Hagi got to Paeloge, they took care of us.

So now we have Munda and then Gizo town and Paeloge as new openings.

Please do continue to pray as we partner in this Journey.

At Paeloge I had two meetings and evening fellowships. When we got to Paeloge on Thursday, 21st May there were 26 people that came and attended.

After the fellowship some of the family’s members who had houses built for them expressed their happiness in having a house that was built by The Salvation Army. Some even said that it was through The Salvation Army that they can have a permanent house which would have taken them years before they could built one of their own. It was an emotional night as those families shared their memories. Our second fellowship on Sunday evening had 53 people come and worship together. I had a chance to give one Soldiership Training Manual to Mr. Joseph Pitu. This is a very good mission ground that needs further follow-up. They said if The Salvation Army had have continued to visit their village after the Tsunami there might be a different community today at Paeloge.

I also had the opportunity to share with a teacher at Gizo Community High School that showed some interest in The Salvation Army, however, we need to follow-up on these contacts so that we can establish something concrete on the ground for Gizo and other surrounding islands. May all Glory and Honour be to God!!

Gizo & Paeloge Missions Munda Mission

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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 Phone: (677) 30344

 Additional School Fees Loan Funds: You can support by donating funds to distribute to parents applying for a loan to pay School Fees for next term.

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.

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

Prayer Points:  Continued protection from Coronavirus  New Opening Applications from Western Province  Development of Applicants and Nominees for Officership  Funding requests and applications currently being explored  Vehicles for Malaita Area Officers and SAES Trailer

Personal Reflection...

To say that the first few months of this year have been far from what any of us anticipated for the beginning of 2020 would be an understatement. The global COVID-19 pandemic has forced nations all over the world to enforce social distancing laws, and in many cases, total lockdown to mitigate the spread of the virus. This has had a profound impact on every area of life, including churches. It has been an unusual experience for us watching Salvation Army friends and networks online navigating these restrictions while we still have relative freedom of movement in the Solomon Islands due to being one of the few countries with no cases of Coronavirus.

We find ourselves feeling incredibly blessed but nervously cautious about the days ahead.

The Solomon Islands Government declared a State of Public Emergency, which we are still under, and

has issued orders to prepare for the event of the virus hitting our shores. During this time markets, bars and clubs, schools have been closed, citizens repatriated to their home provinces, but churches have remained open and pretty much business as usual. We had two nights of curfew over Easter and a 36 hour total lockdown last week to test the capabilities of the emergency and essential services. With COVID-19 testing now available in country, two groups of citizens, along with technical advisors and other essential expat personnel, were repatriated to Solomon Islands from Australia, NZ, Fiji and Vanuatu last week. They are now subjected to a period of 28 days quarantine in an attempt to remain COVID-19 free, but locals are very nervous about this process at the moment. In the event of a single case being confirmed, the entire nation will be locked down with no movement being

allowed around Honiara and between the provinces. For people who live day to day in a subsistence culture, this would indeed be a challenge. Our international borders are still closed under the SOE with no commercial flights in or out of Honiara. So we remain in Solomon Islands happy to continue to serve these beautiful people and lead The Salvation Army during this time of uncertainty.

Major Robert Evans