By NZCMS Māori Evangelist, Keri-Ann Hokianga

 

I con­tinue to lead as Co-Priest at Koringa­rau (new church plant) as I found it is import­ant that pas­toral care and dis­ciple­ship happen to support my role as Evan­gel­ist. Rev Sela Havili and our fam­il­ies have been a huge support in looking at ways we can help the whānau members who choose to come to church. We cur­rently have 38 people in attend­ance on the Sunday ser­vices. Nine­teen of these people are unchurched Māori who attend the service called Koringarau.

Please note that con­nect­ing with the Māori people who do not belong to a church and/​or to a body of believ­ers is a del­ic­ate and very chal­len­ging space. As I step out into the com­munity, my dis­cus­sions with Māori are greatly impacted by neg­at­ive nar­rat­ives of the Gospel, causing them not to want to come and be part of a church or church body. Their reasons vary from col­on­isa­tion and its impacts on Māori to seeing the church as an unsafe place for Māori, to being hurt by the church, to very prac­tical reasons such as having to choose whether they fill up their cars to get to church or feed their fam­il­ies. These are dis­cus­sions that will take time as I endeav­our to connect with Māori from outside the church space.

However, connecting with Māori regarding the Gospel is being received well. I see that there is an openness to hearing me preach or tell stories about the Gospel and I have not had any Māori turn me away because they’ve taken offence to what is being preached or said.

Through my work as Co-priest at Koringa­rau I’ve been given the oppor­tun­ity to fulfil certain duties for some of the whānau, such as house bless­ings and unveil­ings of loved ones who have passed. Through these, I am intro­duced to more whānau members.

One of the most power­ful moments for me was during the funeral of a large whānau here. During the service, I preached from Matthew 11:28.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Over 80 people atten­ded this service and heard about the Sal­va­tion of Christ and the comfort he offers to those griev­ing. Con­tin­ued whanaungatanga/​relationship build­ing has allowed us to see one of the whānau members meeting reg­u­larly at our church during the week, learn­ing how to pray, sing and read the Bible.

Another excit­ing ini­ti­at­ive has been an invit­a­tion from the Chris­tian Broad­cast­ing Asso­ci­ation to record 4 months’ worth of content for Radio Waatea. This has allowed us to con­tinue part­ner­ing with Ngā Whare Waatea marae broad­cast our 30min Karaitiana/​Christian service on their radio station every Sunday morning at around 7am. This broad­cast appar­ently reaches around 5000 Māori listen­ers. You can listen to this here.

Praise God for the work he is doing in this com­munity and thank you for your support and prayers.