Solomon Islands District Newsletter (Volume 5, Issue 8 )

Solomon Islands District

NEWSLETTER August 2022 Volume 5, Issue 8

Adam & Tiahly’s Wedding Majors Robert and Vanessa had the joy of attending their son’s wedding in Melbourne during their furlough this month.

Adam and Tiahly were married at Mornington Salvation Army on Saturday, 20th August with the service conducted by their Corps Officers from Cranbourne Corps, Majors Michael and Christine Wright. The parents of the groom and officers presiding over the wedding trained together in 1995/96 at The Salvation Army Training College with the Messengers of the Truth session, so this was another serendipitous moment for both session mates families, as Majors Robert and Vanessa had previously conducted the wedding ceremony for one of Majors Michael and Christine’s daughters when they too were appointed to Cranbourne Corps. The reception was held

Inside this issue:

at Adam’s work at Commonfolk Café in Mornington, which provided a beautiful setting for the occasion, with plenty of quality coffee available. This wedding has meaningful ties with the Solomon Islands, as the father of the bride visited Honiara Corps in November 2018 to conduct brass music workshops and the mother of the bride in May 2019 to visit the mother of the groom, who is a close friend. Both Adam and Tiahly also visited the Solomon Islands in July 2019 for a holiday. To express this cultural and family connection, Adam’s parents commissioned a local Solomon Islands artist to handcraft a cross with three hearts to represent the union of two lives with Jesus Christ at the centre of their love for each other.

Majors Robert and Vanessa are very grateful for the opportunity to return home for this significant occasion.

Self-Denial Appeal The Ripple Effect

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Gateway Corps Rest House

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Solo Army Social Enterprises

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Home League Sewing Projects

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The Well at St Kilda Chapel

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Heathmont 3 Presbyterian Church Personal Reflection

Special points of interest:  Sacrificial Giving  Local Initiatives  Generating Income  Developing Skills  Making Connections  Promoting Mission

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Self-Denial Appeal—The Ripple Effect The theme for The Salvation Army 2022 Self-Denial Appeal has had a “Ripple Effect” across the Solomon Islands as the District is currently implementing mission support funded projects as a direct result of previous Self-Denial giving around the world. Therefore, speaking into “The Ripple Effect” this year has generated a lot of excitement and support from Solomon Islands Salvationists who have been recipients of these funds. The stories shared in the Self-Denial videos from Officers who have experienced firsthand the impact of Self-Denial giving around the world have connected strongly with this local experience of the

mission support projects. At Honiara Corps, local leaders were assigned a topic each week within “The Ripple Effect” theme to explore how The Salvation Army could make a ‘ripple effect’ in this cultural context. A modified approach was adopted by the village churches to invite the remote congregations to also

participate in the Self-Denial Appeal.

These churches were followed-up by the District team during the District Renewal Campaign that proceeded a month later.

As in previous years, inviting recipients to be contributors has been an important part of empowering Solomon Islands Salvationists to fully participate in the international mission of The Salvation Army and imagine how God might work to change their lives and transform society. One of the key Bible verses during the appeal was God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

Gateway Corps Rest House Earlier this year, Gateway Corps embarked on a self-initiated project to build a rest house for visitors to Kwai Village in North Malaita to attend or participate in local mission and ministry

programs. The house has been funded and constructed by Corps members with support from some local donations of materials, including roofing iron by a man named Coleman.

Gateway Corps member and candidate for Officership Jimley Fafaluta is the leading-hand supervising the construction of the house, which is two thirds completed.

This is a significant project to be initiated by a village church with limited resources, which is a tangible sign of growth and commitment to local mission and ministry. Such a project is also a witness to surrounding villages and

public trucks that pass by along the North Road that The Salvation Army is growing and active in North Malaita.

The District Officers are encouraged by this development at Gateway Corps.

Solo Army Social Enterprises The Salvation Army Solomon Islands is adopting a three-tier social enterprises strategy towards developing financial sustainability at all levels of the District.

The strategy will incorporate the biblical principle of the tithe to reduce an aid dependency and cargo cult mindset. This means instead of giving money to churches and mission expressions, the District is working with their communities to establish a social enterprise that will maximize local resources and skills to generate their own income. District Social Enterprises (Tier 1) will generate income to fund the overall growth and

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development of The Salvation Army across the Solomon Islands. Church Social Enterprises (Tier 2) will generate income to fund local mission and ministry initiatives. Community Social Enterprises (Tier 3) will generate income to support family and community livelihood. The District enterprises will retain 90% of the

profit and tithe 10% back to the church operating the enterprise. Church and Community enterprises will retain 90% of the profit and tithe 10% back to the District to support the overall mission development strategy. At present, the DME Coconut Oil Plant and Solo Army Lavalavas are the District Social Enterprises. Vilij Kaleko, Fish Projects, Fuel Depot, and Sewing Projects are the Church Social Enterprises. Coconut Shell Bowls and Helen’s Creations (Jewelry) are the Community Social Enterprises.

The proposed cast aluminium products are still under development.

Solomon Islands District

Home League Sewing Projects (Report by Major Vanessa Evans) The Honiara Home League and Junior Miss have recently learnt a new skill that will enable the women to stand out from the different stall holders at the markets as they recycle items that would normally be thrown in the garbage. This new project came about after one of my expat friends showed me a purse that was made out of part of a rice bag and other materials. I was able to look on YouTube and work out how to make them and then shared the skill with our women and young girls. They enthusiastically embraced the new skill and were very eager to make these products for themselves. After showing Robert the purses he suggested that if the ladies were interested that they could make some and

we could take them to Australia and sell them to our friends and family. With this being a possibility, the Home League and Junior Miss spent the next three Saturdays

sewing 50 purses to go to Australia. They set up a production line of measuring, cutting, sewing, and turning. Lots of laughter was had, as well as spending time together and sharing knowledge with those who didn't know how to sew or had not previously been to Home League or Junior Miss. One of the exciting things that has come out of this project is that the ladies and young girls are now thinking out of the box and are looking at other items that they may like to make. Some of the products that the ladies are looking at making include pencil cases, shopping bags, bible or book covers. I look forward to other creative ideas the ladies will come up with in the future.

The Well at St. Kilda Chapel

On their first Sunday of furlough, Majors Robert and Vanessa were invited to attend “The Well at St. Kilda Chapel” by Majors Charlie & Narelle Jacobson. The invitation was extended because there is

a group of Solomon Islanders working in Australia with the Pacific Labour Mobility Program attending their church. On this particular Sunday, some of these Solomon Islanders were leading worship, which provided a familiar and welcomed experience for Majors Robert and Vanessa. Greetings were exchanged in Pijin and common connections were established between home villages and people known to both parties. This was a real encouragement to the Solomon Islanders who are missing home. It was wonderful to learn of the support and care that is being provided to these

Solomon Islanders, who connected with The Salvation Army because they were cold and needed blankets. It is great to see Solomon Islanders experiencing the internationalism of The Salvation Army.

Heathmont Presbyterian Church A second invitation was extended to Majors Robert and Vanessa by Reverend Brian & Anne Harvey to share about their ministry in the Solomon Islands during their “Mission Spot” at the Heathmont Presbyterian Church.

They were particularly interested in The Salvation Army being recipients of Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes for distribution at a settlement community in Burns Creek. Their church has been sending shoe boxes overseas through Samaritan Purse for many years and were very interested in hearing about how they are received at the other end

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of the process. The presentation gave an overview of The Salvation Army’s ministry in the Solomon Islands and showed a video taken of the children at Burns Creek opening their shoe boxes.

An opportunity was also given to sell some of the Social Enterprises products promoted by The Salvation Army to

develop a financially sustainable mission and ministry and support community livelihood in the Solomon Islands. The congregation showed great interest in the presentation and generously supported the Social Enterprises. Rev Brian and Anne are former Salvation Army Officers, crossing paths with Majors Robert and Vanessa in Tasmania and Western Victoria throughout their ministry appointments. They watch the developing ministry of The Salvation Army in the Solomon Islands with interest and have been a great source of encouragement along the journey.

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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

 Completion of Mission Support Projects  District Renewal Campaign  Follow-up of new Mission Opportunities  Expansion of Learning Spaces into all our village churches  Success of Social Enterprises to fund local mission and minsitry

Personal Reflection…

Over the past three years I’ve been studying the Master of Transformational Development while living and serving in the Solomon Islands. In mid July, I commenced my final semester which requires me to complete a 10,000 word research paper on a topic of my choice in the community development space that is relevant to my vocational context.

My research proposal aims to explore what a Solomon Islands awareness of ‘community development’ looks like at a grassroots level by utilising cultural characteristics of human flourishing in local languages to frame an appreciative inquiry approach, using story-telling (Tok Stori) through facilitating focus groups and conducting interviews, to discover how village assets, abilities, aspirations and adaptability contribute to achieving and sustaining a Melanesian cultural ideal of community well-being and human

flourishing, known as “Stap Gud” in Pijin language. This term provides a cultural understanding of the biblical idea of ‘Shalom’, which is the ultimate goal of community development for faith-based organisations. I plan to compare and contrast the findings of the research with current development strategies being pursued in the Solomon Islands by the national government and foreign development partners and evaluate how this might affirm or inform The Salvation Army’s District Community Development Strategy in the Solomon Islands.

While being on furlough in Melbourne, I have taken the opportunity to meet with my course supervisor to formalize this proposal in preparation for presentation to the Eastern College Australia ethics committee and to apply for a research permit from the Solomon Islands Ministry of Education and Human Resources

Development, before commencing the actual research when I return from furlough. Despite this daunting process, I am looking forward to writing this research paper, as I feel it will provide significant insights to guide the future development and growth of The Salvation Army in the Solomon Islands.

Major Robert Evans