Local church raises money for mission boat

A FUNDRAISING dinner was held by Seventh-day Adventist Church members from Lau in Suva last week to collect money to buy a boat.

The fundraiser was the culmination of the around Viti Levu tour (the main island of Fiji) by the 70 member group.

Funds raised from the dinner at Central Cuisine last Thursday would be injected into the Lau Seventh-day Adventist communities account to purchase a missionary boat.

Lakeba pastor Mosese Teana said isolation of the islands in the Lau Group and lack of transportation made his outreach duty impossible.

"I've been working as a pastor in Lakeba for the past two years and the biggest problem that I face is transportation to the smaller islands for outreach," he said.

"We've decided as a group from Lau to have a tour around Viti Levu visiting all the SDA churches and singing polotu to raise funds for our missionary boat.

"We have visited churches along Sigatoka, Nadi, Lautoka, Tailevu and Wainibuka areas and I'm grateful that they have been very supportive."

Mr Teana said the fundraising dinner was organised by church members in Suva as part of their support to the church's mission.

"We have a small boat that can only cater for less than 10 people however the Fiji Islands Maritime and Safety Authority has informed us not to use the boat because of safety reasons.

"Now we are unable to reach out to our mission area which is the islands around Oneata, Fulaga, Vanuavatu and Namuka-i-Lau," said Mr Teana.

Organiser of the fundraising dinner Jokapeci Tuberi Cati said the community had never achieved so much compared to their last tour in 2008.

"I just talked about the idea of having a fundraising with my family last Tuesday and I'm grateful that it was a success," she said.

"This is just a token of our appreciation and support to the church community in Lau and if they are planning to come back again in a tour like this year, then I'm always willing to support them."

Ms Cati said more than $FD2000 was raised from the fundraising drive alone and this excluded funds raised from their around Viti Levu tour.