Container of love for Vanua Levu
Waiapu News
| 02 Jul 2008
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Rev Marie Gilpin blesses a rowboat destined for Vanua Levu.
One week before departing on a three-month sabbatical in Fiji, Marie Gilpin, Vicar of the Mount Parish, blessed a container of goods bound for Vanua Levu.
Inspired by Noel and Jenny Hendery’s story of their time in Dreketi Village last year, Marie began asking if it might be possible for her and husband Jimmy to also do a sabbatical in the same parish.
Dreketi is an isolated village about 60km from the nearest town on Vanua Levu. Unemployment is high and most people live off the land. Their Vicar, Henry Bull, is studying at the College of St John the Evangelist in Auckland with his wife Mita and the parish is being cared for by a local team and a non-stipendiary priest.
Once the sabbatical was finalised, some friends at the yacht club suggested the Gilpins gather a few goods to take with them for the community in Dreketi. That suggestion grew to a container-sized reality and an overwhelming outpouring of generosity from parish and local community.
Marie and Jimmy spent time with Mita and Henry, who gave detailed suggestions of what goods would be useful but never imagined the quantity of supplies their village will receive.
Mita and Henry’s visit to the parish, with lots of photos of home, helped make it much more real for the Mount parishioners, who now know the conditions the Gilpins will be living in and some of the challenges facing the villagers, one of which is the daily river crossing for some children to get to school.
After spreading the word about the container widely through a newspaper article plus letters to local schools and businesses, there was an avalanche of supplies over a three-week period. Two parishioners worked fulltime sorting and boxing the goods for three weeks and another team of three packed the container.
As well as lots of good quality second-hand items – clothes, shoes, toys, books, school bags, linen and furniture – cash donations have enabled the purchase of tools, a new laptop, outboard motor and two rowboats. A dozen bicycles have been packed into the container and Henry was given one for use while in Auckland. Carter Holt donated 45 sheets of ply which Jimmy will use to line some of the homes and community buildings. A sports company donated new balls and Neptune Shipping reduced the cost of shipping the container from $5000 to $800.
When it was discovered that Noel Hendery is working on another Fiji project, raising funds for a worship centre near Labasa, the Mount parish agreed to gift an altar no longer required, and that too was squeezed into the container.
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