Henderson's in New Zealand: Kiribati 2

February 4, 2016

Our trip to Kiribati opened our eyes to the poverty and challenges many people face. The people had very few possessions, but they were willing to share whatever they had. When we were driving to the airport we saw a little girl, no more than 9 years old, carrying her younger sister on her back. They were happily walking down the road. The faith and trust of the people here is inspiring. The work of the missionaries and their willingness to live among and serve the people here is something we'll never forget. Moroni High School and the LDS meeting houses are an oasis amid the poverty. We wish there was some way the members in the U.S.A. could adopt a member family here and lift them out of poverty.
The humanitarian arm of the church has completed many projects here. They delivered 300 wheel chairs to the island and they've installed many water tanks to catch rain water that runs off the roof so f the people have clean water to use. When it rains you see people catching water in post, buckets, or whatever they can find.
There's a self-reliance initiative throughout the South Pacific that teaches the people how to be more self reliant by increasing their education, learning how to produce more crops on their land etc. The missionaries help students fill out college applications and teach skills to prepare them for college. Our ITEP (International Teacher Education Program) missionaries are adjunct professors through BYUH. They teach BYU Hawaii education courses to the teachers so they can earn their teaching certificates and degrees. They can't afford to go to college so the ITEP program brings college to them. Our missionaries here have had 4 students receive their teaching certificates and 4 students are about finished with their counseling courses. It's a great program.
Here are a few more pictures of our time in Kiribati.