In 2008, Newlife Uniting Church at Robina on the Gold Coast held the 30-30 Challenge – to raise $30,000 over 30 days to build accommodation for visiting medical staff at a hospital in the Solomon Islands.

Support was so strong that they raised over $70,000.

Thanks to the practical engagement of the Newlife congregation, the accommodation house at Helena Goldie Hospital is already completed. As well as a permanent boarding house for visiting medical staff, it’s an important revenue generator.

The accommodation is just one of many projects that Newlife is working on in partnership with United Church Solomon Islands (UCSI) and UnitingWorld. It’s a relationship based on learning from one another and sharing skills. UCSI identifies a local need and collaborates with Newlife and UnitingWorld to provide a long-term solution that will benefit all Solomon Islanders.

Such has been the growing ownership of Newlife’s commitment to the UCSI that every member of the 1,200 strong congregation upholds as their personal mission a commitment to the country and its people.

Lead Minister, Rev. Stu Cameron said parishioners identified their own strengths in connecting with the community overseas – be it in a profession, an interest or a desire to pray.

“We have a dedicated ‘point person’, Earl Reeves, a member of our congregation who’s retired from the workforce and has a real passion for this mission with United Church Solomon Islands. He is supported by a very strong Missions Committee, and matches skills to needs,” Rev. Cameron explains.

The Newlife community is committed to reaching out beyond their local community and Australia’s shores to embrace a unique relationship with one country for the long term.

It’s a relationship that, despite its infancy, is creating firm friendships and personal partnerships, and helping to bring transformation to both communities.

Newlife was already supporting a number of mission workers but wanted to partner with a Church overseas and become involved community to community so they could learn from each other’s experiences and faith. “Mission begins at our doorstep but it doesn’t end there,” Rev. Cameron reminds his congregation.

“A Church in the 21st century in a global village needs to have local mission at the forefront but also needs to be involved in global mission.”

Newlife parishioners have readily embraced the relationship. Small groups, youth groups, individuals, and entire congregations have worked on projects in the Solomons including involvement with IT, providing occupational therapy services, teaching assistance and building projects. In December Newlife’s young adults are heading over to the Solomons to assist at a Church conference.

Rev. Cameron is quick to point out that it’s not mission tourism; the strength of the partnership has grown thanks to relationships, connections and conversation. “We’ve been to the Solomon Islands many times, shared meals at their tables, and hosted our new friends in our own congregation, been involved in each other’s worship services, had small groups together, and talked about the challenges we each face.”

“We have laughed together, cried together, sung together, prayed together – we’ve done life together. That’s what partnership is all about and as we’ve done that we begin to learn from one another.

Rev. Cameron describes the development of the relationship as a “slow burn”; a deliberate move on the part of both Churches to create long term relationships that would develop over years, and for generations to come.

Rev. Cameron says that the Church in the Solomons is a remarkable witness to God. “The great gift in our partnership with United Church Solomon Islands has been inspired by people who are so resource poor by comparison with us but so rich in God in the way in which they live out their faith. “The country faces challenges that really are beyond our experience here in Australia.

The Church is the social infrastructure, the social groove of the region and the nation, providing the majority of health care and education services.”

“The nation would be desperately poor without it.”

Rev. Cameron is left with no doubt that both communities will be changed for the better as the partnership deepens in the years to come.

“Our own lives, our communities here in Australia will continue to be transformed as we see that we’re part of something much bigger.”