Parola Kindergarten, Philippines 

Helen and Sandy 

Helen (SA) - Volunteer in India

Helen spent 3 months as a volunteer with the Diocese of Madras (Church of South India) in 2003/4, over the Australian university summer break. It was a really formative time for her, and greatly enriched her faith. She is completing an International Studies course at university, and volunteering part time with World Vision. She has enjoyed the opportunity to speak with school students about the work of World Vision and sponsorship of children. She hopes to find work in the area of community development with an aid agency when she completes her course.

Cath and Val, leaders for the trip to Vanuatu July 05 

Thai visitors to SA - Mew, Gaeng, Faan, Som and Top 

Thai young people visit SA

Five young people from the Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT), a partner church with the Uniting Church, are in South Australia in March/April, 2005 as part of the Mission Ignition program coordinated by the SA Synod. In December 2004, young people from SA were hosted by the CCT for one month, and now 5 Thai young people have come to SA for 3 weeks. During their visit, they will visit city and country churches, do some sightseeing, spend time at events like Easter camps and KUCA Camp Out, http://local.sa.uca.org.au/kco/. The Mission Ignition program has been running for more than ten years, with reciprocal visits between the UCA (Australia) and CCT (Thailand) churches.

Becka (front right) with other volunteers serving at Bethany Home, Malaysia 

WA Students off to Bethany Home in Malaysia

In April, 7 Senior School students from Uniting Church schools in WA will head off for Malaysia to spend time at Bethany Home, a centre for children and adults with disabilities. They will have an opportunity to share in the community life at Bethany Home including helping in classrooms alongside teachers and helping children with physio exercises in the pool. Bethany Home aims to provide a comprehensive service for people with disabilities, and to encourage and support them to live within their family and community. It aims to equip them with skills needed to become as independent as possible and contributing members of the community. The group leaders will be Rev Hollis Wilson, Head of the Faith & Values Learning Area (St Stephen's School)and Becka, a volunteer from SA in the People in Mission program who spent 12 months at Bethany Home in 2003-4.

http://www.bethanyhome.org.my

Becka with young people with disabilities from Bethany Home at the top of the tallest mountain in SE Asia in 2004.  

Rarongo Theological College Work Party

Work party volunteers from the Uniting Church in Australia will work alongside local people at Rarongo Theological College in New Britain, PNG, in July/August 2005. Three congregations (one from Brisbane, one from Sydney, one from Adelaide) will each go for 2 weeks, as well as other volunteers during the 7 weeks. Urgent needs include the water supply and quality, electricity supply and building maintenance and repairs. The volunteers will work on the following projects: Minor repairs to the Chapel; Construction of a new 260m2 single men’s dormitory; Refit of an existing 2 storey dormitory for single women, a staff bedsit and student common room; Refit of an existing dormitory for use as a teaching block for Home Science Sewing & Women’s Health plus a unit for guest lecturers; Upgrading of the water supply including tanks, mains and building connections. In addition, the Rarongo Local Committee will refit one of the dormitory blocks, another local group will refit the learning block which has suffered extensive termite damage, and village workers will undertake the demolition of the dilapidated buildings to salvage the materials for marketing.

John C, a retired architect who is overseeing the work party project reflects on his visit to Rarongo in February: “We went to listen and discern the needs of the Rarongo community. They have an absolute unshakable faith that God is blessing the project, and our immediate reaction was of being humbled and challenged to understand the real needs of the college and the will of God for the future. The people in the community of Rarongo made us feel so welcome and were an inspiration to us as they fed us, socialised with us, and witnessed their faith to us and fuelled our desire to do the best we can in partnership to refurbish Rarongo’.

Expressions of interest to sandy@sa.uca.org.au

Rarongo Theological College building 

Karran with youth group members 

Karran and the youth group

Karran (SA)spends time each week with a group of young people from the church youth group in Bali. She helps them practice conversational English which is a great help for their vocational study. She has also been taking English classes at Dhyana Pura Training College for students in the hospitality industry. After Easter she will re-locate to a local orphanage for young people aged 12-20 years of age, but will be able to continue her conversational English classes with the youth group and women's fellowship. Karran studied Indonesian at high school and at university, and has been able to develop her Indonesian at the same time as helping others learn English.

Peter and Antoinette (SA), volunteers in Tonga  

Peter and Antoinette in Tonga

Peter and Antoinette are volunteers from South Australia:
How strange it is for just the two of us to be sitting down to meals – it seems years since we did it on a regular basis, having had family followed by boarders in the house ever since we were married. Well, guess what?? We were told we would have help to sweep the leaves, dispose of the rubbish, and do other such chores around the yard. Vili came on Tuesday to offer his services. He wandered into the kitchen, and asked what I wanted him to do. I was a bit non-plussed, so I suggested he might pick up leaves and sweep the drive and chop off a bit of breadfruit tree that was hanging over the carport. He did all this and then left. However – we found out yesterday that not only will he work for us, we have actually “adopted” him. Because he is single, and belongs in our “village”, he is now our “son” and will eat the evening meal with us after work weekdays, and also on weekends. He will prepare the “umu” – earth oven - for Sunday lunch and then eat lunch and dinner with us! (It seems he would also do housework – dishes, washing or sweeping indoors – but I think I can manage that!) We were therefore rather embarrassed that we sent him off empty-stomached Tuesday, and were prepared to apologise and feed him yesterday. However he didn’t turn up. We were planning “please come home, all is forgiven” type messages, then discovered that Wednesday afternoon is sport, so work is either later (after six pm) or not on that day. Vili arrived at about 6.30 dressed for socialising rather than work, so we ate together and started to get to know him. He is 25, and in his third year of a diploma course so it is also his final year. His home island is the furthest north (about 600km from here) and closer to Fiji than any of the other islands. It is one of the “beautiful” islands, being an extinct volcano, and a complete circle of land enclosing a circular freshwater lake. He travels to and from by boat which takes three days. I’ve just read that the people were evacuated during the 1946 eruption, and some returned in the mid ‘60s. Vili said about 300 people live on the island, which is nicknamed “Tin Can Island” because mail and goods were once dropped there in sealed tins by passing ships.

Sandy Boyce, People in Mission Coordinator 

Sharon, Volunteer, Diocese of Madras 

Sharon, Volunteer, India

Sharon currently works with Frontier Services as Northern Regional Manager of UCA Frontier Services (the organisation that was founded by Rev John Flynn of the Australian Inland Mission in 1912 for care of outback communities). For over a decade she has made an outstanding contribution to the development of services for the frail and aged and to training those who provide that care in the remotest region of the continent. She has developed partnerships with indigenous communities, developed training programs that can be delivered to remote communities, and developed innovative programs that allow elderly people to remain at home even in very remote communities. Today she was presented with the prestigious Louis Ariotti Award for her role in developing aged care services in the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region. The award recognises innovation and excellence in rural and remote health in areas such as research, policy, leadership and service development.
'We have a great example to follow in our founder, John Flynn', said Sharon. 'He was not one to take no for an answer when it came to the health and welfare of people in the bush. I hope I have been able to demonstrate some small measure of his passion in developing care services for the elderly in the Territory'.
Sharon is taking long service leave later in 2005 and will take up a volunteer placement in South India, where she will focus on aged care services in the Diocese of Madras.
Congratulations, Sharon!

Lyn, Volunteer in Bali 

Sandy's off to Bali

Sandy (People in Mission Coordinator) leaves today for a few days with the Gereja Kristen Protestan di Bali (Protestant Christian Church in Bali), a partner church with the UCA. The membership of the GKPB is around 8,000 people in a country of 2.5 million Balinese. Sandy and Rev John Barr (UIM Asia Area Secretary)will meet with GKPB church leaders, visit projects, and spend time with the two UCA volunteers, Karran and Lyn. The GKPB runs a hotel and conference/retreat centre, Dhyana Pura, the profits of which go to support Christian Education. Under the same name, the church runs a college for the hospitality industry that has more than 1,600 students. The school honours ethical principles and the maintenance of cultural values on Bali. The GKPB has been engaged in ministry to the many overseas tourists who come to Bali for holidays. The GKPB also serves the wider community in many programs including subsidising schools and health centres, and running orphanages. The GKPB uses the mango tree as a central image - it is highly visible, it adapts itself in a way that blends in with its rich, green, tropical climate, and it provides welcome shade in a hot climate and produces refreshing fruit.

Anna, volunteer in Diocese of Madras, Church of South India.  

Anna heads off to Diocese of Madras, India

Anna from Queensland leaves tonight to begin a 4 month volunteer placement in the CSI Diocese of Madras. She will spend some time in Chennai visiting people and projects of the Diocese before she begins her placement at Chengalpattu. She will spend time with the girls in the hostel and the Matriculation College. She has many gifts to share including music and teaching, as well as a love for young people. Yesterday Anna had her Commissioning Service at Centenary UC, a great send off from the people in her congregation as she begins her volunteer placement.

Hunga work party, Tonga 2004 

Peter W and new porch with locals from Hunga 

Short Term Exposure Trips and Work Parties 2005

Expressions of interest for Uniting Church short term exposure trips in 2005 are invited, and people are encouraged to register their interest at the earliest opportunity. There will be a maximum of 10 people for each trip. The revised destinations and times are:

Zambia (May for 2 weeks)linked with project in Mwandi
Tonga (June/July for 2 weeks including a work party)
Bali (late July for 2 weeks)
Vanuatu (July for 2 weeks including Sponsor-a-Guitar)
Philippines (Sept/Oct for 2 1/2 weeks)
India (Nov/Dec for 3 weeks, including a work party)
Thailand (December for 2 weeks)

Registrations of interest are also invited for the Rarongo Work Party (Papua New Guinea), to be held over a period of 7 weeks in July and August, with several 2 week 'blocks' rostered for groups.

Contact Sandy, sandy@sa.uca.org.au, Ph 08 8236 4240

Trevor and Beverley, Sri Lanka

Beverley and Trevor from South Australia are Uniting Church volunteers serving in the Diocese of Jaffna, Church of South India. They write about the launching of new boats for fisherfolk in mid-February. A great day of celebration!

We had the best day of our time here in Jaffna so far on 15th February when we went to Kaddupulam. Before the conflict (Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan Government) 880 people lived here and worked as fisherfolk. When the war broke out they had to move away and have lived in a refugee village of cadjun huts ever since at a place called Chillipuram, one kilometre from the sea. Some of the men were eventually allowed back through the high security zone to re-commence their fishing pursuits. They have had to leave all their boats, nets and motors on the shore each day, not being allowed to take anything other than fish back through the lines. The villagers were lucky on the morning of the Tsunami as the men had gone to a temple festival and had not gone fishing that day. They were safe but all their boats etc were gone and so was their livelihood. These are very poor families, some affected by leprosy, and I have been tending them with a medical clinic for a year now. As these people did not lose their houses they have been ignored by the Government as needing relief from tsunami damage. After our appeal to our friends and family in Australia and talking with the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India we were able to buy five boats, one from the Watsons and four from the Diocese. On the 15th, after obtaining all the correct permissions, we went to the Beach, along with our Bishop, to hand over the boats. When we arrived, there was a real carnival atmosphere as the security forces had allowed all the 41 families to attend also. This was the first time in 15 years that the women and children had been allowed onto the beach. We had a small service, the Bishop spoke with the people, we presented the keys to the motors and all the nets and then went down to the shore line for the blessing of the boats. As soon as this was over Bishop, Trevor, Ms Grace Bunker and the Pastor, Rev. Joshua went for a trip out in the boats with all the children and the fishermen. The coast is very rocky as the tsunami had dumped a lot of big slippery stones along the shore so Bishop, Trevor, Grace and Joshua were carried ashore by the men. I didn't go as the thought of a small boat and water makes me feel ill. The Watson boat is green and gold and has, "Australian Friends" donated by the Watson Family written on the side. After this we had a picnic on the beach. Rev. Joshua had organised drinks and eats for all and we enjoyed this while we watched the children playing in the sea until it was their turn to have cordial and biscuits and buns. Although we had asked about photos the request had been denied until the day when they did allow one camera, so we have a record also. At the end of the afternoon we were able to distribute gifts to all the children, which had been donated by the affluent families of the children at Udavil Girls College.To complete the setting up of the whole village with boats we needed three more and the Uniting Church has promised money for this, this week. Also a request was made by the men for a lock-up shed and a canal way through the rocks, which they will build, if we can supply the finance to protect their new equipment, and the Uniting Church will supply this also. A great day of very worthwhile work. God is Good

Bev and Trevor, Sri Lanka 

John and Elaine, Vanuatu 

John and Elaine - it's so hot in Vanuatu!

John and Elaine, UCA Volunteers in Mission from Victoria are serving as teachers in Vanuatu. On Friday 4th March 2005, they wrote:

At last I am able to email. I started on Feb 23 and the power went off. I then decided to prepare the email offline and email when I could. Since then we have either had no phones or intermittent power so I have not been able to email at all. Today I am in Vila (on the main island of Efate). I came mainly to email and phone . As well as having problems with emails and phones we have had mail delivery every 9 or 10 days (supposed to be daily and we are a post office sub agency) They forget to collect the mail at Vila and of course if they don't collect they don't take our letters to the post either. Oh well, it can only improve.

Teaching is great. The kids are really eager to learn - though I wish we could get them to talk and even then a bit louder than a whisper! The kids we had in Year 7 and now in Year 8 are good. They are confident and will speak up. Maybe we will get the others going.

Things are much better organised so far - bells go on time and the teachers are in class most days. There are much better desks and chairs for the kids - not fancy by any means but they are not broken and there is a chair for every kid - bonus!

Yesterday I went to a classroom without a teacher. The teacher had left them a message to study for the final exam - agriculture. The final exam is in November!!! Of course if you tell kids to stay in the room and study they do just that! I guess I have told you there is no such thing as a relief teacher so the kids are often on their own.

Our house is a mansion compared with the houses we have lived in previously - very breezy and easy to keep clean - just concrete floors and no coverings - like our garage floor at home. Still no fly wires to keep mossies out but the mossie net is pretty good. Kitchen bench space is about 30 cms total - getting good at juggling.

We really appreciate the second hand pencils and textas from primary school around Sale - they are great for assignment work and the kids really value them. We got the books from Maffra Secondary the other day. They are outstanding books - and because we chose them they are all relevant to the course here. We also got our teaching materials. Some stuff is missing but we are lucky to get what we have.

We now have our own vegie garden. Our old Year 10's came and planted some Island cabbage and some manioc. I wanted the island Cabbage as it is high in iron(like spinach) but I will not be cooking lap lap - we will just rely on gifts from our neighbours. The teachers have been very generous to us this year - lots of bananas which really helps us a lot as we cannot get fruit unless we go to Vila otherwise. Last night we had tuluk and somboro - both lovely local foods - but too much (92 families cooked). We gave the extras away to hungry kids - didn't want to ruin our chances of a repeat plate sometime
.
On Sunday I had to tell a children's story at church. It had to be based on the school motto - "The truth shall set you free". I did my version of one of Loloma's stories - made puppets. John finished my story with a skit enacting stealing money from a case in the dorms. I told him what I wanted him to do but he did far better - he was hilarious. Beats me how he can be so silly and clever when he isn't a confident talker . I must say he is great to team teach with - it's a bit like being in a comic show. The kids love his Grade 3 humour - and can understand it - not sophisticated.

Just finished the hottest Feb on record in Vanuatu. No wonder we were hot. However the last few days have been cooler - a bit.

Introducing the People in Mission blog

The People in Mission blog brings news about Uniting Church in Australia volunteers serving mainly in partner churches in the Asia-Pacific region and southern Africa. Hope you enjoy reading this!

For information about the People in Mission program, Kathy Periera, People in Mission Coordinator, Ph 02 8267 4230, kathyp@nat.uca.org.au