Your Church in Action | Loomberah police officer among helpers to the Solomon Islands

He connected with a missionary in the Solomon Islands and said, "Have you got a project that will help your people?" The missionary responded, "Big or small?" "Big" was the reply. "Can you build as a medical clinic?"

So it was that Rod Peet brought together a bunch of friends and they travelled out and built a medical centre. Next year they went back and built two staff houses. Another year, they damned a waterfall and installed 2km of pipeline, 80 taps and an ongoing water supply for the village.

The village is Samasodu and is one of seven villages in the Katova district. For the last 16 years, Rod has led a team back to the village to serve the people they have grown to love. So it was that Easter 2023 brought a team of 37 Aussies from every part of the country. Their project this year was to build a high school in just three weeks.

Among the team were six eager volunteers from Tamworth, including Rod's brother Matt Peet. By day, Matt is a police Sergeant from Loomberah. But, like the others, he has cashed in the bulk of his annual holidays to make a difference where it is needed.

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"It's a huge undertaking", he asserts. "It doesn't just happen without a lot of equipment, expense, planning and prayer. Every plank and nail had to be packed into two shipping containers. You couldn't duck out to Bunnings for another bolt.

"The cost of all this would have been huge, but there has been fundraising through the year and Aussie suppliers have been extremely generous. The members of the team also have freely given of their time and paid their own airfares and expenses."

The team also included experts in a range of valuable pursuits. While the building was progressing, a group of three nurses ran a health program, training the locals in first aid, CPR and basic hygiene. Last year one of the locals caught an infection from an untreated cut and died while the team was there. They want to make sure that will never happen again. They brought with them a supply of basic medications and bandages.

Another team member was a horticulturalist with the CSIRO. The local community live on whatever they can grow. But they don't know how to deal with the pests. The specialist caught each of the local bugs and put them in jars. She then explained which were the good bugs and which were the bad bugs and how to make garlic spray or use ash to control them.

There were teachers in the team who held training classes for the local teachers. Tamworth plumber, Martin Siddens led a group into the jungle to work on upgrading the water supply.

There were those who put on an after-school kids club for 150 excited children. Others ran a Know your Bible course for 100 villages.

Josh Tunbridge is another Tamworth volunteer on his first Solomons experience. He said, "Solomons is a deeply Christian nation and church is a central part of daily life, but they don't understand it much. The bibles and the classes we give will help them to know and relate to God for themselves.

"In the Solomons only 20 per cent go to secondary school so many kids are automatically disadvantaged. But everybody will be able to go to this school."

Looking back on another season in the Solomons, Matt Peet reflects, "Builders, plumbers, labourers, teachers, horticulturalists, nurses. God sends us the right people. The youngest was 16. The oldest was 80.

"The turnaround in the village has been extraordinary. There is so much talent in Tamworth we could make this sort of difference in many places easily."

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