Kelvyn Fairhall is a retired Baptist pastor and a board member of Hub of Hope.
The Hub of Hope NZ is a charitable trust that equips people in New Zealand to support and journey alongside individuals who are dying, and their family and friends. It was set up in 2019 with the aim of building “a network of trained believers that can confidently take the everlasting hope of Jesus to the dying”.
After retiring I volunteered as the sound desk operator for Greypower’s monthly meetings, which were held in the auditorium of Waihi Baptist Church, which my wife Mary and I attended. Through conversations with Greypower members, along with members of a club Mary was in, I became aware that many older couples had not prepared well for the death of one of them. I thought about putting together a paper that might give some assistance for such a conversation.
Before actioning that thought, my brother-in-law Michael Porteous told me about a need he had for someone to become a treasurer/trustee within the Hub of Hope Charitable Trust he had recently formed with two other people.
The purpose of this Trust is to train people to walk the spiritual journey with those who are facing end of life due to an illness.
Having served as a pastoral leader in four Baptist churches (Stratford, Balclutha, Whanganui Central and Kawerau) I had had some exposure to this sort of ministry but mostly with people reaching their end of life due to old age.
This was in 2018 when the End-of-Life Choice Bill (assisted dying) was being promoted and the Christian community at large was struggling to come up with a satisfactory and practical response to that pathway.
Weighing all these factors I agreed to Michael’s request and joined the Trust Board. I participated in a group of 12 people who did the first training course. We’d completed about five weeks of the course when the first COVID-19 lockdown happened, but fortunately, we were able to pivot to online meetings to complete our sessions.
The course will help ordinary people who are not health or ministry professionals discover how to converse naturally with and pray for others facing death due to illness or age. The course is designed to engage people in a revelatory experience and understanding of what it means to be a vehicle of God’s grace and mercy, dispensing the love of Jesus.
Testimonies from recent Hub of Hope NZ participants:
- Cathy didn’t know why she did the course or what she would do with the information. Then, within half an hour of completing the course, she found out her sister had cancer. Over the next year she journeyed with both her sisters.
- Sandy did the course and it directly resulted in a family member changing his mind on Assisted Dying to one of life and hope.
- Corlia found the course helpful for the journey she is on with her mother in a rest home, and it gave her a passion for the lonely people who live there.
Image credit: pexels.com Krzysztof Jaworski-Fotografia
