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Author: UnitingWorld

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News
February 2, 2022

Our friends in Tonga are incredibly grateful for the support so many of you have shown since Hunga Tonga-Hung Ha’api erupted on Jan 15, causing a tsunami and massive destruction on remote islands.

With your help we’ve raised over $125,000 so far for our partners to invest into their work caring for people impacted by the disaster. Thank you!

If you would like to add your support for Tonga you can still give here.

Project Manager Aletia Dundas, who is helping support the efforts of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga (FWCT) from our office in Sydney, provides an update below.

Would you like to send a message of support?

We’ve organised an e-card that we’ll deliver on Friday to our friends in Tonga. It’s easy to sign and we’d love you to add your prayer or message of support.

Should we collect items to send?

We’ve received many generous offers to donate items for people in Tonga. While we’re very grateful for the support, our partners have requested that people not send items into the country.

Items donated from Australia can clog up ports and prevent much needed aid from quickly reaching those who need it most. The vast majority of donated items aren’t appropriate for the context and tragically, end up in landfill.  Read more here about why cash donations are the best way to show your support.

Your past support in action

We talk a lot about the critical important of disaster preparedness and Tonga is a great example of how your support is making a huge difference!

After Cyclone Gita, FWCT wanted to be able to respond faster to the next disaster. Thanks to your support, they built and stocked a large storage facility to be able to begin repairs to damaged buildings within days and weeks after a cyclone rather than having to wait for supplies to be shipped in from outside. It was used for Cyclone Harold and is now being used to repair buildings damaged by the tsunami.

Back in 2015, FWCT also wanted to create a network of chaplains to support people in the event of disaster or crisis. They requested experts Rev. Dr Stephen Robinson, Rev. Nau Ahosivi and Rev. Alimoni Taumoepeau to run a series of training sessions for their ministers and create the network.

When cyclones Gita and Harold hit, the network was deployed and provided valuable support to people who’d lost their homes and were surrounded by devastation. The experience the chaplains gained during these emergencies meant they were immediately ready when the tsunami hit this month, and they’ve been hard at work visiting affected communities.

Through our partnership, FWCT also accessed a grant from the Australian Government to supply water tanks to vulnerable families affected by Cyclone Harold and to support health and hygiene advice for COVID-19 prevention. Eight were 10,000 litre tanks for communal use in vulnerable areas. Access to clean drinking water has been a critical issue since the tsunami hit, and authorities warned residents to protect water sources in advance from volcanic ash fall. We are still waiting to hear how many were able to do it and how the tanks fared.

Thank you so much for supporting our partners in Tonga before and after this crisis. It’s truly making a huge difference.

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News
January 25, 2022

We’re excited for two big events this half of 2022 and hope you’re ready to be engaged and inspired!

Lent Event

Live simply, so others may simply live.

Lent Event calls you to join other Christians in a pledge to give up or take up something in solidarity with those who live with less. Learn about how to be a good global neighbour through our Bible study series and donate to support our work, knowing that every dollar is part of God’s mission in the world, ending poverty and building hope.

What could you GIVE UP? What could you TAKE UP?
Buying things you don’t need; wasting food; checking your phone; arriving late; gossip; disposable plastic; mindless eating; worrying about things that can’t
be changed; going through the motions; procrastination…		 Composting; gratitude; patience; a new skill; prayer; forgiveness; secret acts of kindness; exercise; a budget; a new idea; graciousness; regular giving; meditation; memorising scripture…

Join a team to have more impact!

Join others online who are choosing to walk 10,000 steps a day to raise money for clean water; reducing screen time or technology to support children in school or cut back on plastic use to raise funds for climate change advocacy and disaster relief.

Visit us at www.lentevent.com.au for all the details.

Seven Days of Solidarity

Celebrate with us the work of our global neighbours!

Seven Days of Solidarity is your chance to hear inspiring stories of Christians at work in some of the world’s most challenging places. When you sign up, we’ll send you a story for each day of the week that includes ideas for action and prayer. Get your congregation on board and celebrate over two Sundays with a launch video and original worship music, impact stories, prayers, a sermon and easy ways to support the work in giving. We’re celebrating Seven Days of Solidarity during Lent (28 March to 4 April) but you can choose any time that works for you or your church.

Find out more at www.sevendaysofsolidarity.com.au

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News
January 11, 2022

Have you seen the film “Don’t look up”?  

 A stellar performer for Netflix throughout January, it follows the progress of two astronomers as they desperately try to warn a pre-occupied population that a killer comet is on a collision course with the planet. In response, politicians, celebrities and ordinary people find refuge in the idea that if they simply ‘don’t look up’, they’ll be protected from reality. 

It’s an uncomfortable watch, but many of us probably have some sympathy with the desire to keep our heads low and our focus narrow right now. It can feel like the only way to stay sane.  

There are, however, really life-giving reasons to keep looking up.  

Looking up focusses us on the story of Christ.

At the foot of the cross, Jesus’ friends stayed to look up into the reality of his suffering and then to care for his body. They found redemption not only in their own actions, but in the ultimate, astonishing act of God in bringing new life. The same is true for us.

Looking up, and sharing the stories of others, allows us to realise our collective power to bring about change.

Understanding our experience relative to others around the world also helps us celebrate our wins and work against the losses.  

UnitingWorld calls you to embrace this call by taking part in two events in the first part of 2022. 

 Seven Days of Solidarity, during Lent March 27-April 3 or any time that suits you, shares a vision of God at work through our global neighbours. You’ll hear inspiring stories of the challenges faced and changes created by ordinary Christians around the world. Better yet, respond in worship, prayer and giving across two Sunday Services. Find out more and download videos, prayer, sermon and liturgy at www.sevendaysofsolidarity.com.au. 

 Lent Event, from March 2 – April 14, is a call to live simply so others can simply live. For forty days, take action to bring about change for others. Join a challenge to give or take something up in solidarity with those who live with less. Ask friends to support you, and hear about how your efforts can put power in the hands of ordinary people to earn an income, keep their children in school or get access to clean water. Check out www.lentevent.com.au for details. 

Together, UnitingWorld’s Lent Event and Seven Days of Solidarity point us back to God’s faithfulness and focus our eyes, heart and hands on building a Kingdom of peace and justice.  Look them up this January – you won’t regret it. 

 

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by
News
December 17, 2021

Over the past few months, we’ve been sharing stories with you from the Evangelical Christian Church in Timor, where Rev Dr Mery Kolimon and her team have been responding to the twin crises of cyclone recovery during the pandemic.

We told you the story of Yan and Alex, who are being cared for by the church after Yan’s wife and Alex’s brother were both tragically killed in flooding after Cyclone Seroja. We celebrated the news of Dolvince’s pregnancy, another survivor of the floods, and of Valentino’s joy swimming with friends in spite of a disability that threatened his life when he had to flee a landslide caused by the cyclone.

Rev Mery writes to us: “Dear sisters and brothers in Jesus Christ, thank you so much for your help that enabled us to support people in Timar, Sabu, Rote, Flores and Alar hit by the Cyclone Seroja disaster. After the emergency response we are now doing some projects on building back houses and church buildings. We are also doing some training for carpenters in order to build back safer. Besides this, we are

doing economic empowerment (gardens, small business training) for the families impacted by the disaster. God bless you too in this difficult time of the pandemic and thank you for your support and prayers.”

Your generosity has yielded $77,481.40, which we’ve been able to use to support this work in Timor and among other partners impacted in a similar way by disaster. Thank you so much!

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Blogs
December 17, 2021

Our partner staff from the protestant Christian church in Bali send you their love for Christmas!

To be Balinese is to be Hindu: more than 90% of the population practise a uniquely Balinese form of the religion. For those who’ve chosen to become Christian, the decision jeopardises family relationships and land ownership. But in spite of the cost, Christianity in Bali is growing, and this Christmas the message of God born into the world feels more real than ever.

“We can’t wait to celebrate this year- Christmas to me is all about God coming to us to share our lives in human form, and I think we’ve seen that strongly through the pandemic,” says Irene, Project Officer with our partner, the Protestant Christian Church in BaIi. “Last year it was just me alone in my house watching the Christmas service on line, but this year we’re hoping to be able to return to our family villages to go to church together and visit our ancestors in the graveyard before lunch with our families.”

Bali’s vaccination rate is now higher than anywhere else in Indonesia and the province is set to re-open to tourists. The economy is on track for recovery over the new year, and this will relieve some of the strain on families who’ve found it hard to put food on their tables for much of the past two years. 60 to 80% of the local workforce have traditionally relied heavily on tourism, and since borders closed in March 2020, the number of visitors has dropped from six million down to one. As part of Bali’s recovery, our church partners have spoken out about the importance of vaccination, shared health information, provided hope and innovated barter services and links between rural and urban communities to trade essential items. The church has punched well above its weight supporting people throughout the pandemic and are looking forward to going into the new year stronger and more resilient than ever.

Thanks for praying for our friends across Indonesia and Southeast Asia this year, and from the whole team, Happy Christmas to you all!

Make God’s love for the world known this Christmas and give a gift to bring hope and beat poverty:

www.unitingworld.org.au/sharelove

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Blogs
December 17, 2021

“Star of wonder, star of night.”

As we draw nearer to Christmas, I find myself reflecting upon the rich metaphor of light and dark within the story of Jesus’ birth. The first century, of course, was a place only sporadically lit by fire and torchlight, so stars were a source of intense interest. Matthew’s tale of an unusual celestial light in the night sky not only heralds the birth of a king, but the inbreaking of a new way of seeing and being in the world.

For so many people, the last two years have been dark. In the midst of this black night, our partner churches have been torchbearers, providing moral, spiritual and practical leadership in their communities. They’ve communicated vital information about hygiene and physical distancing; preached against fear, misinformation, and domestic violence; reinforced medical and public health messages; delivered soap, masks, and food to those left jobless and isolated; sourced oxygen tanks for hospitals; and set up livelihoods projects and barter systems to help people survive lockdown.

As a global church, we are responding in a powerful way to the call for love and justice, even in the face of a pandemic, and with war, cyclones, and climate change ever in the background. Thank you for being with us every step of the way.

In July 2020, I was preparing for a loss of half our income. But we thank God that through our faithful supporters’ unstinting generosity; our government stepping up to support our region; and a welcome investment return, we didn’t have to cut back support to our partners.

In 2022, we look forward to sharing with you our new strategic plan. We know that we face serious global uncertainty, but we remain firmly rooted in our identity, with you at our backs and our partner churches calling us to exciting new work. We will adapt and respond to this evolving context, but the light we share in God’s service will not change.

My best wishes to you and your family for Christmas,

Sureka

Dr Sureka Goringe
National Director
UnitingWorld

P.S. We’ve just finished preparing our Annual Report for the 2021 financial year. It shows what we and our partners achieved together with your generous support. Thank you so much for making it possible!

Click here to read the Annual Report 2021

With your help, we shared hope and dignity with 464 495 people, including:

229,310 Women

134,026 Children

6,783 People with Disability

What we achieved together:

Ending poverty and fighting for justice: 383,847 accessing poverty alleviation & social empowerment programs

Critical support during emergencies: 44,957 received care and health education during the pandemic and other disasters

Local leadership and capacity strengthened: 13,803 people participated in training to take control of their own futures

Equality for women and men; lifting up women and girls: 23,109 men and women engaged with our gender equality program

It couldn’t have happened without you.

We received 11,212 gifts from donors

15 people chose to leave a legacy for life through a bequest

We visited 39 churches to pray and encourage congregations

God’s love for the world began with one life, born in the most humble of places among the most ordinary of people. This is how it continues: one person at a time; one life lifting up another.

Thank you!

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Partnering Women for Change (Pacific Region)
December 1, 2021

More than 70% of women in the Pacific experience violence at the hands of a man in their lifetimes.

With the vast majority of people across the Pacific self-identifying as Christian, Pacific churches have been taking responsibility to speak up for the rights of women and girls, and calling out violence and inequality as a sin. As part of their mission to support the welfare of communities, churches have been using biblical teaching to encourage men and boys to understand that gender justice sets people everywhere free to live life to the full.

While many countries in the Pacific escaped the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns and economic slow-downs placed additional pressure on communities already at risk of gender-based violence. UnitingWorld supported partner churches to step up their efforts to protect women’s safety and autonomy during a season of extreme crisis.

Pastor Dorothy remembers being astonished by the idea that God’s vision for humanity included equality between women and men.

“I attended my first workshop in December 2018 with Rev James Bhagwan from Fiji, who opened the Bible to show how gender equality is part of God’s plan for us,” Pastor Dorothy remembers. “It was incredibly eye opening. I had never seen it before, and it had certainly never been taught in theological college.”

Pastor Dorothy is now the Gender Equality Theology Minister with the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu in a part of the world where women are too often held back from reaching their full potential. Men are the traditional gatekeepers of power and authority, and women have often been regarded as possessions, to be disciplined in whatever way a man chooses.

“The work we do is critical and allows me to help all different groups of people–clergy, administrators, congregations and children–to understand how equality between men and women is part of the Biblical story,” Pastor Dorothy says. “We work together to make practical changes like stopping family violence and giving women opportunities to lead in our homes, families, churches, communities and nation.” The Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu is actively evangelistic, and has oversight of schools and colleges, as well as a theological college to equip its ministers.

Like many Pacific nations, Vanuatu is constantly threatened by natural disasters and their impacts on people’s livelihoods and the wider economy. Alongside the gender justice work, the Presbyterian Church also educates people about the need to be prepared for and actively work against climate-related disasters.

“As a church we draw inspiration from John 10:10 where Jesus says, “I have come that you may have life, and life in abundance,” says Pastor Dorothy. “That means the gospel is relevant for every aspect of life. Jesus is a very practical saviour for humanity, a man of justice and compassion.”

UnitingWorld supports this Pacific-contextual biblical teaching, developed and led by respected Pacific theologians, to work in and through churches to address violence and advocate for gender equality. It challenges the patriarchal ideas of ‘male headship’ and ‘wifely submission’ that often justify gender-based violence, countering them with Bible-based theology of gender equality and respectful relationships.

Ultimately, this work shifts behaviours by changing beliefs: churches develop equality and protection policies, and preach and model equality in their communities.

Between January and June 2020, UnitingWorld’s partners delivered Bible-based messages supporting national government health and domestic violence advice to 49,675 people across four countries. This past financial year, 23,109 men and women engaged with our gender equality program.

Click here to find out more about the Gender Equality Theology project.

Want to support this life-changing work?

Give a gift card to support women leaders this Christmas.

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Sustainable Livelihoods and Health (Zimbabwe)
September 24, 2021

In Zimbabwe, COVID-19 and its impacts severely disrupted livelihoods and expanded the number of extremely poor by 1.3 million in 2020. Ongoing lockdowns and the health crisis have drastically contracted people’s opportunities for earning an income, especially those in the majority informal workforce.

Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) NGO UnitingWorld and its partner MeDRA (Methodist Development and Relief Agency) have been helping community microfinance groups create lifelines for those in economic stress.

Mavis (pictured) is a member of an Internal Savings and Lending (ISAL) group in a village in Gokwe South. The group receives training from MeDRA and meets together monthly to assess their collective savings and share information.  Each member takes a turn to receive a loan from the group and invest it.

When Mavis’s turn came, she received a USD$215 loan. She discussed some ideas with her family, wanting a project that would give a large benefit, while still being able to pay back the loan to the group.

Supported by her family and the ISAL group, Mavis decided to back herself on a broiler poultry project and bought seventy-five chicks. With technical assistance from MeDRA on how to look after the broilers, she felt confident the venture would succeed.

“The chicks matured into good broilers after six weeks and they sold like hot cakes!” said Mavis.

She was able to use the earnings to expand the project right away.

“I am now doing batches of 100 broilers per cycle and earning close to US$100 each time. The project increased my family’s income, and I could pay back into the group loan. I sell at the local shopping centre to customers who come to the grinding mill or buy basic groceries at the shops. Access to Gokwe’s town center has been limited by the lockdown regulations,” she said.

Mavis now feels confident to expand and diversify her project to also include a ‘tuckshop’ that sells groceries alongside the broilers.

“Especially during this pandemic, I am so proud to be the owner of a project that is giving access to a good income. I am no longer so worried about food security and school fees for my family, as my project can meet the expenses. With proper guidance from the group and MeDRA, I feel like I can never go wrong in life. Thank you for this opportunity!”

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News, Village and Economic Development (West Timor, Indonesia)
September 24, 2021

Waluwanja gets up for work every day at 5am. After a drink of hot coffee, he’s straight into his back garden, clearing out weeds, watering each plant and making sure no pests are getting in. He grows all sorts of vegetables, but lately he’s been testing out mustard greens, carrots and rice paddies, which he will sell wholesale to street vendors in his community. When a crop becomes ready for harvest, he cleans, prepares and delivers the produce direct to his customers one by one.

Waluwanja learned how to run a productive garden business through UnitingWorld’s partner TLM in West Timor. In one of the poorest provinces in Indonesia, TLM acknowledge that people’s ability to improve their lives and their communities depends on opportunities to earn a sustainable income.

A few years ago, Waluwanja visited a community garden project run by TLM that produces food and teaches people about sustainable agriculture. He walked away with knowledge and inspiration to prepare the large plot of land behind his home to grow fresh food as well as his income.

Then when he lost his job, it was the perfect time to commit to the project.

After slow beginnings, hard work and many 5am mornings experimenting with different organic fertilizers and planting strategies, he started to build a customer base among the street vendors around his village.

He says his secret is delivering early and delivering fresh.

“I have more than 15 vegetable sellers around the village and they are happy to buy from me because I always deliver early in the morning so the vegetables they are selling are still fresh.”

The income it generated enabled him to meet his daily needs, but Waluwanja realised that if he was going to grow the business even more, he was going to need help. So he reached out to some of his neighbours to work with him and he’s now thrilled that he’s creating incomes for others.

Waluwanja’s garden business is now so productive that at different times of year it generates an income averaging between IDR 6 – 18,000,000 or AUD $545 – $1,636 per month. Lately he’s been keeping busy building a new stall to sell his vegetables and other daily necessities direct from the front of his home.

Waluwanja says he works so hard because he wants to earn enough to be able to send his five children to school and eventually university.

“Thank you so much TLM Foundation for giving me a lot of knowledge about agriculture and village governance, so that I can grow to become a successful farmer”.

This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) and impacted the lives of 27,162 people like Waluwanja in 2020-2021.

Thank you ANCP and our supporters! We can’t do this life-changing work without you.

Click here to support this project.