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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