Te Hāhi is a partnership between the Police and a group of local Churches in Gisborne city. This partnership came about when it was realised by the Church that Gisborne has the highest rate of family violence in New Zealand and that New Zealand has the highest rate of Family violence on a per capita basis for any OECD nation.
The question for the Christian Community was,
how can we facilitate change for good in our city and help support the Police in their work as they daily face dealing with families in crisis?
To that end, we now have a group of trained believers who carry a Police phone. When the Police team identify a family that needs prayer, love and some type of practical support the Te Hāhi team goes into action.
On most call-outs, we take a gift of food and we are welcomed into homes carrying some practical love that opens the door for prayer and ongoing spiritual help.
This initiative was initiated by a former Policewoman, Tui Keenan – who was moved with compassion as she fulfilled her role in the Police. She saw the need for Christian ministry, aroha & support for the Police & community especially in the area of family harm.
In due course of time, she was able to share her vision with Commander Sam Aberahama who placed his support behind Tui to bring the vision to a reality.
On Sunday evening 27th September 2016, the Gisborne Churches gathered for aCombined Church Service – ‘Prayer For The Police’, which was jam-packed with around 250 attending.
Police Area Commander, Sam Aberahama, called on Churches to partner with the Police as we launched the ‘Te Hahi’ ‘ (The Church) initiative.
An absolutely unique occasion made even more memorable when Commander Sam closed with an impromptu ‘Lords Prayer’ sung in his Cook Island tongue.
The ‘Te Hāhi’ concept – involves 10 Church leaders, who will be available on a roster rotation, to be called on to provide – prayer, counsel, pastoral help, CAP Debt Centre advice, etc, – when Police offer this to ‘clients’ and it is accepted, in what they will assess as safe and appropriate circumstances. Approved volunteers from each church will also be required to assist Pastors.
Since 2006, Pastors from across the city have been meeting together to pray and seek the peace and prosperity of the city. Under the godly leadership of Bruce Elder, Mark Smith and more recently Peter Cheyne, God has been calling us together in unity.
During that time, we have been holding a combined Easter celebration in the Dunedin town hall which has been a great encouragement.
In 2017 after 5 years of planning and praying, we were blessed to host Ravi Zacharias and his team to the city.
Ravi preached in the Forsyth Barr stadium to a crowd of over 3500. The week-long mission included lunchtime
meetings in the university and meetings with council and business leaders.
In recent years an Acts of Kindness trust has been set up to bless the city through a Light Party, Christmas in the stadium and a Christmas lunch in the town hall.
The founding vision of Dunedin, articulated by Thomas Burns still fires our common witness to the Lord:
By the grace of God and with His blessing upon us; may we continue in this region, the planting
and cultivating of a well ordered, God-fearing community.
In the power of His risen Son, may we stand as a sample of the Kingdom of Christ which, like a light burning in a dark place, we shall bear no indistinct testimony to the Truth.
