Experience
The Presbyterian Church’s Global Mission is collaborating with Uniting World (of the Uniting Church in Australia) ‘joining together in mission’ and ‘connecting communities for life.’ In particular UnitingWorld’s Experience programme is open to participants from New Zealand.
Through our agreement with Uniting World, the Presbyterian Church is now able each year to offer over 100 volunteer Experience Placements with churches throughout Africa, Asia and the Pacific. These placements aim to strengthen links between our partner Churches while transforming the lives of those trapped in poverty.
Right now, volunteers are giving their time, energy, and skills to serve on behalf of both the Presbyterian and Uniting Churches. All placements are at the specific request of our international Church Partners. We work with our overseas partner churches, looking at their requirements to find suitable volunteers.
You may be a teacher, a mechanic or a farmer. You may be a specialist in IT, business administration, youth work or public health. We need people who want to share the hope of Christ and learn more of what He is doing in His world. Our primary need is for people who will live in communities, sharing lives in a real, day-to-day way.
Experience programme is committed to a high standard of ethics and submits to all required checks for volunteers relating to child safe practices.
Partnership with Uniting World
The Placements
Experience Profiles
Applying for a Placement
Training
Experience Placements at a Glance
We have negotiated an exciting extension to a long-standing partnership with the Uniting Church in Australia. Global Mission will partner with Uniting World, the international mission department of the UCA. (Uniting World’s current National Director is the Rev Kerry Enright, once our Assembly Executive Secretary)
Uniting World has 35 international partnerships, spread over the Pacific and in Asia, mostly with churches the Presbyterian Church in NZ is also in partnership with.
We have agreed to open our opportunities for service and experience to each other’s members and church communities and in the next year will explore ways of grounding the agreement in practical ways.
E. UnitingWorld – Introduction (Extended) from UnitingWorld on Vimeo.
At any one time through Global Mission and Uniting World we have about 100 positions for supported volunteers. Click on the links below to see some of the available positions. The following links send you to the UnitingWorld website. Please remember NZer’s must apply through Global Mission.
- Administration, communications, construction
- Development
- Education
- Gender Development, Governance
- Health & Medical
- Librarians, music, social work/development
- Theological education and youth ministry
To get started contact Pamela in our Global Mission department through the “applying for a placement” tab.
Here you can read about the experiences of a few of those who have used their skills to make a real difference to communities in need.
Akino will be assisting the Church of North India in the Durgapur diocese in its outstanding development projects amongst the children and communities living in urban slum areas and underdeveloped rural areas in West Bengal. Many of these families struggle to access sufficient income to provide for the needs of their families. UnitingWorld Relief and Development are partnering with a number of these projects.
Akino is looking to build on her university studies in development and an earlier internship at the UnitingWorld Office, where she increased her understanding of good development practice. Now Akino says, “I am looking forward to building relationships and working with those in the partner organisation in Durgapur as well as with the community members I will be working with. It will be a challenging and eye opening experience, and I will have the opportunity to see firsthand how development works on the ground level and to learn so much from the local development team who have been working in the area for a number of years. I am definitely looking forward to it!”
Nicole Holden: Kiribati
Nicole is going as a UnitingWorld volunteer to The Kiribati Protestant Church as an English Lecturer at Tangintebu Theological College, Tarawa and will be assisting with the youth and women’s programmes of the Kiribati Protestant Church. Peter is going as a VIDA volunteer with UnitingWorld as an Australian Partner Organisation to the Kiribati Institute ofTechnology to work in ICT.
During the UnitingWorld volunteer training sessions in February, Nicole listed some of the questions she hopes to wrestle with as a Christian living in Kiribati: How does the well-resourced church partner help without being condescending? How do I rely fully on God when my life seems to be going so well? What will my Christian life look in a different culture? How will I use the skills God has given me (including those I don’t know I have!) for his will? If you would like to download Nicole’s full profile, including information about donating to hte work she is doing in Kiribati, click on the profile link below.
Renee O’Shanassy: Nuku’alofa, Tonga
Renee is an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) from Sunbury, Victoria, working under the nomination of UnitingWorld Experience Programs. After working with development programs in Australia, Renee decided to take up the challenge of using her skills in a cross cultural setting.
She will be working with the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga on a program aimed contribute to the well being of individuals who have been deported from Australia to their country of origin, Tonga.
“When I heard about the Deportee Program in Tonga, I thought it would be challenging bu very rewarding. I hope that I can enhance the ability of the deportee program to contribute to community development in Tonga on a long term basis,” said Renee.
“Please pray for my work with the Deportee Program, that my skills may be of use and that it might be a time of mutual blessing.”
Uniting World has produced some excellent on-line training resources for those wishing to participate in mission, for use by individuals and groups. They have graciously given us access to these resources.
When we get to the stage of matching you with your position, you will be able to do all the training required from the comfort of your own home.
