Solomon Islands District Newsletter (Volume 3, Issue 9)

Solomon Islands District

NEWSLETTER September 2020 Volume 3, Issue 9

Promoted to Glory Maeatua faithfully served the growing mission and ministry of The Salvation Army in his homeland and supported successive Officers with its growth and development in Honiara and later into other provinces. Peter’s death has been deeply felt by the Solomon Islands District and his On the 16th September the Solomon Islands District was very sad to receive news that Peter Maeatua from Honiara Corps had been ‘Promoted to Glory’ after a short stay in hospital.

Peter was a founding member of The Salvation Army in the Solomon Islands, enrolled along with 20 other locals in the first group of Soldiers at the “Opening Fire” weekend in November 2011. Following the disaster relief provided to victims of the 2007 tsunami in Gizo, Western Province by the Papua New Guinea Territory, Peter wrote to The Salvation Army in Australia to formally invite it to establish in the Solomon Islands. His call was forwarded onto the PNG Territory, who conducted a feasibility study in 2008 and appointed Major Soddy Maraga in 2009 to commence the ministry of The Salvation Army in Honiara. Since then, Peter

life and legacy will be long remembered for generations to come. A funeral service was conducted for Peter in Honiara on Sunday, 20th September by The Salvation Army District Officers and his body was transported by ship back to his home village in Manawai, East Areare where he was laid to rest on Wednesday, 23rd September. Honiara Corps Officer Envoy Wency and Malaita Area Officer Envoy Joshua accompanied the family on the journey to Manawai for the burial service.

Inside this issue:

Peter’s vision for The Salvation Army in the Solomon Islands continues to live on through the lives of 210 Soldiers who are committed to advancing this mission and ministry through eight congregations across three Provinces in this District. Well done good and faithful servant!

Channels of Hope Training

2

Reusable Sanitary Kits Talk

2

Biblical Justice, Human Rights & Advocacy

2

Child Protection Policy

3

New Openings

3

Nominees Weekend

3

Personal Reflection

4

Special points of interest:  Building Healthy Relationships  Empowering Women  Transforming Society  Protecting Children  Expanding Mission  Developing Leaders

Channels of Hope Training At the beginning of September Major Vanessa attended a ‘Channels of Hope for Gender’ training event with World Vision and the Christian Care Centre (CCC). The CCC is an Anglican Institution operated by two orders of Anglican nuns; the Community of Sisters of the Church (CSC) and the Community of Sisters of Melanesia (CSM). This centre plays an unique role in the Solomon Islands as the sole provider of a short term shelter for women and children affected by gender based violence. Channels of Hope for Gender is a faith based approach that explores what Scripture says about

gender relations and challenges church and community leaders' through a biblical understanding of violence. The participants in this training event evoked stimulating interaction with diverse views regarding abuse towards women and how culture has a part to play in this space. Throughout the training a lot of time was spent in God’s Word seeking a clear understanding of what the Bible says and not what we want it to say.

Small group discussions gave opportunity to explore what makes a man a man and a woman a woman in this culture. This exercise gave very interesting insight into

a Solomon Islands cultural perspective.

The Salvation Army now intends to engage Corps and Area leaders in this training to equip Salvationists across the Solomon Islands to pursue biblically healthy relationships.

Reusable Sanitary Kits Talk worth celebrating. Each one of these packs contain two pairs of underwear, two shields, eight liners, soap, washcloth, ziplock bag and instructions for use. On the reverse side of the instruction sheet is a menstrual chart to help track periods.

This helps each user know when to expect her period, so she can bring her supplies with her. As a result of this talk, the Reusable Sanitary Kits Sewing Group now have the opportunity to teach the past students of the Mary Mazzarello Centre how to make their own sanitary kits and to pass them onto others within their families and communities.

In follow-up to previous visits to the Mary Mazzarello Development Centre and the Laura Vicuna Hostel, Major Vanessa was invited to share with 60 of their women about Reusable Sanitary Kits.

Each Tuesday Major Vanessa spends time with a group of expat women to make up the sanitary kits for distribution to vulnerable women in the Solomon Islands. When they distribute the kits, they give a health talk about how to use and look after them, and speak with the girls/women about their menstrual cycle, good washing practices, health, safety, and why being a woman is

Biblical Justice, Human Rights & Advocacy This semester, Major Robert commenced the second unit of the Master of Transformational Development.

The subject for this unit is ‘Biblical Justice, Human Rights & Advocacy. Due to ongoing travel restrictions the week long intensive scheduled for this month was

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replaced by online Zoom sessions.

Despite the virtual learning environment, the sessions featured some powerful teaching from a number of expert guest speakers joining the Zoom call during the week. The students engaged in this intensive were from various community development roles across Asia/Pacific, including Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Nepal, Australia and Solomon Islands.

This diversity contributed a richness of knowledge and experience to stimulating conversations about an understanding of human rights through a biblical lens of God’s justice and its development and

advocacy applications. In the context of the Solomon Islands, this unit could not be more relevant given the human rights challenges faced in the areas of gender equality, sexual violence, climate change, systemic corruption, just to name a few.

Effectively addressing these type of issues in a culturally and socially complex environment forms a big part of Major Robert’s motivation for studying this course.

Working alongside other churches and NGO’s in this space requires well-informed leadership to navigate these issues and help facilitate transformational change.

Solomon Islands District

Child Protection Policy The Salvation Army is committed to providing safe environments for children involved in their mission and ministry activities. To this end, the current Child Protection Policy for The Salvation Army Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands Territory is under review and

Major Vanessa has been invited to be a part of the working group. This is a great opportunity for the Solomon Islands to contribute to the evaluation of such an important policy. The working team meets weekly via Zoom to produce an up-to-date policy that will protect our children and those who work with them.

Because The Salvation Army values the well-being of children, it has a zero tolerance of all forms of child abuse.

Therefore, this Child Protection Policy review is to ensure it fully meets the requirements of the Papua New Guinea Lukautim Pikinini Act 2016 & Solomon

Islands Child & Family Welfare Act 2017, the Church Partnership Program (CPP) funding and The Salvation Army IHQ requirements, as well as the nine minimum standards outlined by the DFAT Child Protection Mapping.

As still a relatively new presence in the Solomon Islands, The Salvation Army Solomon Islands is very pleased to be involved in this process and is looking forward to implementing the reviewed and updated Child Protection Policy into every area of ministry across the District.

All Salvation Army leaders will be trained to operate within this policy.

New Openings Last month, the newsletter featured a report from the Western Province Area Leader about the successful mission to Munda that resulted in a New Opening Application and Land Agreement. This application has subsequently been approved by THQ and a Certificate of Recognition was presented to the new congregation leaders Rex and Manalyn while they attended the Nominees Weekend in Honiara. Another cause for celebration this month was the receipt of a New Opening Application and Land Agreement from Ngalifalisi in the Malaita Province. Malaita Area Officer Envoy

Joshua reported, “On January, 26th 2020 Seth Misitana Niufurai was in Honiara and heard of a joint Women's Bible Convention weekend held at Gateway CRC Church in Henderson for Honiara Corps and CRC women. Seth joined the Sunday morning combined church service and saw the Salvationists in uniform and approached me and asked how he can be a soldier in The Salvation Army. He was told to come to Ramah Fellowship and he was enrolled as a soldier on Sunday, 29th March 2020. Through that small seed, work was extended to his village of Ngalifalisi."

Nominees Weekend A Nominees (Candidates) Weekend was planned for the end of September to bring together Salvationists who are on the pathway towards becoming a Salvation Army Officer (Pastor) or those who are wanting to explore God’s calling for their lives. The District Officers led an 8 session study intensive over the weekend using Andy Stanley’s “Discovering God’s Will” curriculum.

The 15 participants included 6 Nominees who have already submitted their applications for Officership, Soldiers from Honiara Corps who have expressed an interest in full-time ministry and the two

Volume 3, Issue 9

new leaders from Munda New Opening who travelled to Honiara to explore future ministry possibilities.

Their enthusiastic interaction with this teaching resource was a clear testimony of what God is doing in their lives and how He is equipping The Salvation Army with passionate, godly local leaders who are committed to its expanding mission in the Solomon Islands. One of the many positive outcomes of the weekend was the impact it had on the new Munda leaders, Rex and Manalyn. During the final session they informed Major Robert that they now believed Officership was

the right ministry pathway for them.

Manalyn said, “I felt that there was a prompting in my heart. I discussed it with my husband and he had the same feeling...so we prayed together about it.

I have discovered God’s will for my life, therefore I need training to become an Officer in The Salvation Army.”

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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

 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

 Solomon Islands to remain COVID-19 free  Land for Honiara Corps  Financial support to start building Officer Quarters at new church openings in the Provinces  Mission growth in Western & Malaita Provinces  Vehicles for Malaita Area Officers and SAES Trailer

Personal Reflection...

It is with great honour that I share my testimony of how I became a Soldier of The Salvation Army. My name is Rex Tiokomateana and my wife’s name is Manalyn. We have two children. I grew up on the island of New Georgia, where Munda is situated. I only completed year 10 at Beulah Provincial Secondary School in 1999. It was in May this year that I was introduced to The Salvation Army by a couple on their mission to the Western Province. They came and stayed at my house in Munda and with interest I did Soldiership class with Alick Hagi. This couple spent two days with us and then left for Gizo by boat.

With my new found faith in The Salvation Army, I started a Sunday worship and mid week fellowship. An application for a new opening was filled out and sent to Honiara. After this visit I continued to share with the people what is The Salvation Army. There was a second visit in August and by this time a land

agreement was filled out and sent to Honiara where they sent it to THQ in PNG. I received a phone call from Alick Hagi concerning a weekend training for leaders and Nominees of The Salvation Army in Honiara. I was excited to hear the news of this training but as someone who does not have formal employment I was faced with financial difficulty and with a congregation of less than 10 people, it was not possible to meet my or my spouse sea fare. I put things in God’s hands and continue to pray that God will open a way for us. I praise God because He is working behind the scene, a miracle happened and it was a double blessing because our tickets were paid from Noro to Honiara and return.

Introducing the training by Major Robert, I attentively listened because my interest to learn. The training was to discover God’s call for my life. The speaker presented a topic on making decisions.

God always fulfills His promises because

of His providential will. Other sessions were eye opening for me. I learned that as my ‘vision gets clearer, the options get fewer and the decisions get easier.’

From this training I made up my mind to become a candidate because I have a clear vision and a call to become a full time Officer in The Salvation Army. In consultation with Majors Robert and Vanessa, I wasted no time and filled out an application form. Praise the Lord for this new beginning of a journey into the future.

Rex Tiokomateana