Pacific Partners Email Update
Serve, pray, wait patiently                                       08 Oct 2012

Greetings! 

 

For years we've needed a training and accommodation building in Tonga. Our Tongan workers have faithfully continued their discipleship work from a room in our radio station. Radio studios need to be quiet places, while our discipleship meetings are often very noisy. These activities don't fit well together in our small wooden building. (The most common word you hear around the studio is "Shhh!")

  • Space for Training - There are no public, non-church owned facilities for regular meetings and events as we disciple and train a growing number of local people.  
  • Space for Accommodation - Renting houses for overseas teams and interns from outlying islands is difficult, expensive, and time consuming.  

Pacific Partners doesn't have the resources to build the center we need, so the staff have had to put up with it. They have kept on serving, praying and waiting patiently for God to bring the answer.  
Also in this TokTok
Please help us ship
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I wanted to push
Tonga's building - a long wait
Is waiting almost over?
Important for locals to see
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Please help us 
ship the container
Our 40' container in New Zealand is full. Now, we need to hire a second container to repack and ship the building materials to Tonga.

This will cost US$5000/NZ$6000.

Click to donate
Choose 'Project - Tonga's new building' from the Program Designation' list
Keep up 
with the project
And a Facebook page where we welcome your comments.
I often wanted to 
push it . . .  

and get this project started (usually out of anxiety as a storm approaches Tonga) but I've always been daunted by our complete lack of resources. 

 

Pacific Partners is a small organisation with few resources, and none of us know anything about building.  

But now it seems, God is on the move! 

 

Just having someone who knows what they are doing to manage the project is a huge encouragement to our people in Tonga who have served, prayed and waited so patiently.

 

Please Join them in prayer . . .  

  • Pray for Mark our project manager.
  • Pray for the money to ship the container to Tonga
    (USD $5000; NZD $6000)
Tonga building project
It's been a long wait so far

Several years ago a supporter committed to provide the funds, and construction was started on a concrete training/ accommodation building.  

 

Cyclone damaged new building
Cyclone René blew down the walls of the Training and Accommodation building
Unfortunately it was never finished and it sat without a roof for several years.    

 

Then in 2010, Cyclone René blew down some of the walls of the half completed building read about it. 

 

Old wooden studio building
Our old wooden radio station building also serves as our discipleship training centre

René also severely damaged our old wooden radio station building (as well as the manager's house and toilet block). 

 

Some of the worst leaks in the station building have been patched (some with patches on patches!).

And there are parts of the floor that you shouldn't walk on, to avoid falling through.

 

So now we need more than
a training/accommodation centre - 
we need a new radio station as well! 


Each time a storm or cyclone visits Tonga (and it's often) our staff and listeners pray earnestly, asking God to protect our radio station. So that it doesn't finally collapse. And God has been faithful. The building remains intact - just.
Is the waiting almost over? 
New training centre and radio studios for Tonga

It seems God is now moving to meet this need for Tonga. Several things have happened over the past few months that indicate it's God's time to finish this project. 

  • A New Zealand businessman (experienced in construction and who has spent a lot of time in Tonga) will manage the project for us.
  • We were given a dismantled house (timber, roofing, doors, windows, cabinets, fittings, etc) which volunteers have now packed into a 40 foot container in New Zealand, ready to ship to Tonga.
  • We have started receiving unsolicited donations and help from New Zealand churches for the project.

As well as this . . . 

A college has donated stacking chairs; a business given us light fittings; another business has given us space to park our container while we load it. A church has donated extra roof struts; while another church provided a truck, a driver and labor to move the dismantled house and pack it into the container.  

 

So things are starting to happen. 

Thank you Lord!  

It's important for the local people to see that  

It is God answering their prayers

It's faith and patience that inherits the promises, according to Hebrew 6:12. We see the Island people watching God work in response to their prayers (their faith and patience) because of His great love for them. 

 

Now, as God answers in His way and His time,
They will give Him the glory  
for providing this building.

Graham Carter

 

I know that you, and many of our Partners, have also prayed over the years, as you've seen the need for this building. Thank you.

 

May God bless you
for your faith and patience too!

 

 

Graham A Carter  

President of Pacific Partners  

[ Email me ] if you want to know more about the project          

PS: Don't forget to visit our special web page and Facebook page dedicated to this project. [ Web page | Facebook page ] We welcome your comments. 


Click to donateto the building project in Tonga  (choose 'Project - Tonga's new building' from the Program Designation' list)