Dickson Manongi, Named District Superintendent of the Solomon Islands
At the recent District Assembly (Nov 2016) of the Solomon
Islands, Rev. Dickson Manongi was ordained and appointed as District
Superintendent of the Solomon Islands District.
This is a significant developmental milestone for the Church of the
Nazarene in this South Pacific multiple island nation. As I travel around it is obvious many people,
especially in the USA, have not heard of the Solomon Islands, but many have
heard of the main island Guadalcanal from WW2 history.
This post is to introduce you to this new District
Superintendent, but he is not new to the Church of the Nazarene as he joined
the church in 1987, 5 years before the first church was planted in The Solomon
Islands, his home country. This is
God's story and His providence in preparing someone to lead in such a time as
this. Please pray for those in the
Solomon Islands.
I first met Dickson in Papua New Guinea while visiting the
National Referral Hospital. Within the first
9 months of our arrival in PNG, (1989) I took a trip to Port Moresby the
National Capital to visit the hospital.
My purpose was fourfold: I wanted to 1) see the methodology available in
the country's best equipped government hospital; 2) meet the staff and see if I
could expedite turn-around time for referrals; 3) make contacts and build relationships
to obtain supplies when our distribution center was out; & 4) visit with
any Lab/X-ray student to recruit a graduating student to come to Kudjip. I had limited success at best on all of the
above but I did meet Brother Dickson Manongi, and tried to persuade him to come
and serve his Nazarene Hospital.
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| Dickson and Doris |
It was in 1987 when Dickson and some fellow countrymen were
sent to Papua New Guinea, its Melanesian neighboring country, to study
laboratory science. Shortly after arrival Dickson began attending the
Nazarene Church, liked it, and soon became an active member. He was active in the Church of the Nazarene
when I as the director of the medical lab at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital, in the
highlands of PNG flew down to Port Moresby (POM). Imagine my excitement when I
discovered a devout Christian and Nazarene student studying laboratory
science. I just knew my prayers were
answered. I had a great conversation with
Dickson in the hospital. Dickson was engaged at the time of this
visit. Doris, the girl who soon became
his wife, was also a Medical Laboratory student, and both were active in the
church work. Success in recruiting
Dickson would give me two employees since his wife was also a trained
tech. What a deal!
I returned to Kudjip excited, but that excitement was short
lived as Rev. Wallace White, the missionary in POM, got wind of what I was up
to and called me on the phone and kindly requested me to keep my eyes and hands
off of Dickson. Wallace said, "I
have plans for Dickson to help me open the work in the Solomon's." Of course I respected my colleague's wishes
and never mentioned it again.
Dickson and wife returned home from their time in PNG and in
1992 they established their first church in Dickson's home village of
Nukukaisi, Makira Island, which is also the name of the Province.
On one of our men's retreat, shortly following the opening
of the Solomon Island's work and nearing Wallace's retirement. Some of the men were asking if they could inherit
his "boat ministry" or "island ministry" upon his
retirement. Isn't our God a God of
irony, because I made the statement in jest, "You guys can have that
ministry, since Nancy does not like to swim." Who would have imagined that we would soon be
appointed to the Solomon Islands?
Dickson never served with me in Kudjip but I served with him
for 15 years in the Solomon's. When we
arrived in the Solomon's Dickson told me, "I preach sometimes but I'm not
called to be a pastor." One time in
Fiji, Dr. Louie Bustle, then Mission Director, said, "There (referring to
Dickson) is your District Superintendent."
People both in the Solomon's and outside the country, saw the leadership
skills in Dickson. I think twice Dickson
resigned from all the boards, because when he was on a board, the other members
would wait until Dickson made a remark and then agreed with him. So he voluntarily stepped down so they would
have to say something. However, even
when he was off the board his influence was very much present. Dickson was a serious Bible student and so
enrolled in our Bible College so at the time of our move to the Philippines, he
only lacked a few courses to graduate.
I remember one time Dickson invited me to accompany him to
the Medical Laboratory meeting. They
were discussing Community Based Health Issues or something I was interested in. Anyway Dickson's boss, the Medical Director
of the Solomon Islands, began the meeting by requesting "Pastor
Dickson" to pray before the start of the meeting. I then began noticing a lot of people
referred to Dickson with the title of "Pastor".
Dickson is a person of influence. Dickson is a great Bible teacher and
trainer. I utilized his skill a lot when
I served as District Superintendent, calling on him to teach training class, to
recruit team members for the Jesus Film Team, and to head up the Community
Based Health Care Program.
There are many of my work mates and members of Solomon
Islands Church of the Nazarene who are doing a great job in their various
assignments, but in this post I wanted to highlight this one man due to his
recent appointment as DS and because of his involvement in the beginning of the
work.
Thanks for your prayers.
