Greetings from SWIM,
It has been a calm and quiet holiday period for SWIM and now another new year has begun. We pray that in this new year God would lead us and give us wisdom as we seek to serve our King and his people both in the Solomon Islands and here at home. We ask that you too might be praying this over SWIM this year.
In this newsletter we would like to spotlight a very special mission, the Honiara Hospital School in the Solomon Islands. This school is located at the Honiara Hospital, which is the main referral hospital in the Solomon’s. It is a place for sick children and their siblings to continue, and sometimes just begin, their education whilst in hospital. At times these visits to the hospital can last months, and often families from other islands may need to bring their children for these long periods. In this time away from their villages and homes, these children have no other opportunity to continue in their education, and so the Honiara Hospital School provides this space of learning and enjoyment in the difficult time of sickness.
The Honiara Hospital School was built over 10yrs ago by SWIM, and has been run by local people, including the current school teacher Betty. Many kids of all ages and schooling stages have spent time at the school, and the space has been a wonderful blessing. Yet during a visit of some SWIM member to the school earlier this year, the teacher and head paediatrician identified some much needed improvements to the school. These include ceiling fans and lighting, an access ramp from the kid’s ward to the school, water supply and a toilet.
SWIM has partnered with GEMS and Cadets to raise funds for these additions to the school. The Australian clubs completed their mission badge for the Hospital School in 2018, and the New Zealand clubs are set to begin this year (2019). GEMS and Cadets are Christian organisations for girls and boys (respectively) aged 9-14/15. There has been a wonderfully positive response from clubs around Australia last year, and through this support over $2,000 has been raised for the schools requested improvements with more wonderful support coming this year from our New Zealand clubs. During the badge work the boys and girls have been filling out encouragement cards to give to children who attend the hospital school, and many of these have already been received and are ready to go over soon. Tangio tumas (Thank you very much)!
From here there is much to do. With the wonderful support of the GEMS and Cadets, SWIM has begun the process of planning and building the additions to the hospital.
Thank you for your support and please pray for this process.
Prayer Points
• Continue to pray for the SWIM missionaries and base staff as they begin this new year ahead, may God continue to grant all the team strength, guidance, and wisdom, to God be the glory!
• For the Honiara Hospital School, for the students that attend and their generous teacher. Pray for their care and learning during difficulttimes of sickness, and for the God to use the school to shine His light in the Solomon Islands.
• For the work still to be done in implementing these additions to the school. May the planning go well and the project run smoothly that the school might benefit from this support.
• For SWIM and their governing board SIW as we undertake a review of the future direction of SWIM. Please pray for wisdom for those who are conducting the review, for us as we await its completion, and that God would use this to direct us to be serving Him and his people well in the Solomon Islands, Australia and New Zealand
“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” Psalm 34:8