Church on Move sends help to Fiji

PLAINS - Local members of the Church On the Move have spent the last two weeks building a sawmill that will be shipped to the island of Moturiki, Fiji. This sawmill is headed where there are no towns, lights, roads, horses or bicycles. Boats are the primary form of transportation. Just getting gas to run the saw mill will be a challenge and will have to be acquired from one of the more modern chain islands.

Pastor Jim Sinclair, Ken Saner, Lynn Hocker, Pat Connolly, Greg Welty and Brian Kirtley will depart the spring-like weather of Plains and head for the warmer climate of the Fuji island chains for two weeks with five other out-of-state volunteers.

This will be phase one of an annual event. Each year will build upon the previous year’s training. This year’s focus is on timbering operations. Next year will focus on using the milled and dried timber to construct homes, hospitals and other infrastructure. Trees being harvested are of the pine variety planted about 25 years ago. There is only one chain saw on the island but very few know how to use it or maintain it.

Pastor Sinclair and his team will be taking five additional Sthil chain saws and enough parts and tools for their maintenance and operation. The material support will be coupled with the safety aspects of using chain saws, timbering operations and the saw mill. Over the course of the next year each of the ten tribes will cut their own timber and bring it to the saw mill that will be centrally located on the island. The timber will be stripped of its bark, sawed into timbers, lumber and dried for various construction projects to improve their quality of life.

Over three hundred man hours and approximately $17,000 in equipment and materials have been donated by the Church On the Move and other community members. Wally Logan of Plains donated the shop and tools to make this project a reality.

“We would not have been able to complete this project without all the donations and volunteer man hours. Without all the donations we would not be going on this missionary trip,” Pastor Sinclair said.

Pastor Sinclair, Saner, Connolly, Joe Darlington and Dale Flora fabricated, assembled and crated the saw mill. Emosi Tatukivei, director of the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) of the Flathead Reservation and a missionary of 24 years, is the point of contact for this missionary sawmill project. Emosi is originally from Fuji and is a member of the Vuni Ivi Sere tribe. Not only will his tribe benefit but ten other local island tribes as well. “This opens the doorway so that other tribes can become missionaries and to know they have not been forgotten,” Emosi said. “This project will allow them to upgrade their houses and not have to live in the past. They now have the resources to change the past. This mill will reunite all the tribes.”

Emosi will fly out in advance, clear the mill through customs and prepare the pad for the mill to set on. All the concrete for the pad will have to be ferried by small canoe like boats to the island.

“I am so thankful for the Church On the Move and Pastor Jim for taking the initiative to make this a saw mill a reality,” Emosi said.