Uniting Church welcomes scholarship recipient

Submitted by TemoL on Fri, 05/02/2010 - 10:39am

Rina arrived in Stawell on January 19 and will be spending another two weeks as a guest of the church.

The 24 year-old from Rotuma in Fiji, has just completed three years at the University of Fiji, majoring in geography. Also boasting a Bachelor of Arts, Rina is studying languages and will be graduating in April.

Rina is currently thinking about Ministry, but that will be a long way down the track for her.

During her two weeks in Stawell to date, Rina has experienced a shearing shed and attended Stawell West Primary School for the entire morning on Tuesday.

She was also able to experience flying in a glider with John Anselmi and next week, will be visiting Swan Hill.

Rina, who spoke at the church morning service last Sunday, will be in Stawell until February 15. From here, she will travel to Dandenong to spend time with the Fijian congregation and the Dandenong Uniting Church for two weeks, before flying back to Fiji on March 1.

Dawn Scott, from the Stawell Uniting Church, said Rina had enjoyed her stay so far.

``While in Stawell and Australia, Rina is eager to learn all about our culture and meet as many people as she can,'' she said.

``She is a lovely girl and is fitting in well with our culture. She has already come to meet a lot of people and is looking forward to meeting a lot more.''

The late Alan Howells was a lay preacher in the Methodist and Uniting Church for more than 40 years and was an active leader in the Stawell parish.

He was one of the instigators of the Stawell - Footscray work party which undertook to serve the wider church in a work party every two years.

Alan was an organiser and leader of the May 1992 Fiji work party which undertook the internal renovations and repainting of the Dilkusha Methodist church and extension of the Vuci Methodist school.

The link between Victorian lay people and the Dilkusha church stems from the construction of the original church. That Alan died while working on that project and living with a family of that community, was of great significance to the Dilkusha church.

To commemorate Alan's ministry, the Stawell Parish Council decided to bring to the parish each year, a person who is a member of the Dilkusha circuit of the Methodist Church of Fiji.

This brought about the establishment of the Alan Howells Memorial Scholarship. Alan made a bequest to the church from his estate and the Parish Council determined that the interest generated from this investment would be placed in the Memorial Fund.

The Alan Howells Memorial Scholarship enables young people from Fiji to travel and spend time with the parish in Stawell, with the funds covering airfares, transport and accommodation.