CWCI Australia Melanesia Director to visit the Solomon Islands

CWCI Australia’s ministry spreads across to the Melanesia area of the Pacific Ocean. One of the countries where Know Your Bible (KYB) studies are well received, is the Solomon Islands.

At the end of March 2023, the current Melanesia Director, Joan, will join the Translation Advisor Machi to travel to Honiara in the Solomon Islands.  They will have the opportunity to meet with the local KYB Executive and leaders of the Mother’s Union to discuss further extension of KYB studies in the Solomon Islands.

In Honiara, Joan and Machi are hoping to discuss the Megavoice project with the leaders there.  Megavoice involves the use of recorded messages in the local language of the women. Their culture is very much about talking and storytelling, so Megavoice has proved very popular with the women.  It enables them to hear and talk about the KYB studies in small groups in their own language.  Joan and Machi will also investigate ways KYB materials can be printed in country rather than having them printed in Australia and shipped overseas, as this is very expensive.  CWCI Australia supplies easy English versions of the studies to leaders to assist them in understanding and sharing these studies with women in many parts of the country.

Joan will then return home, while Machi will travel on with a mission team to Ysabel Island, NW of Honiara. There she will be running KYB workshops as part of the women’s ministry component of the mission trip.  Although Machi is conversant in Pijin, while at Ysabel Island she will have the assistance of a local translator.  Being immersed in speaking Pijin during this time will help her in the translation of further studies when she returns to Australia.

This trip will be Joan’s first opportunity to visit the Solomon Islands. She is looking forward to meeting local women and hearing directly from them how doing KYB studies impacts their lives. Recently Joan was able to meet with members of the CWCI Australia Melanesia sub-committee in Sydney, Australia. To help her gain a greater understanding of life in the Solomon Islands the sub-committee presented her with a dress typical of the style worn in the Solomon Islands.