Missions of Mercy – Steve Bowkett has made it his mission in life to help others.
Photo: By Sharyn Smart
Steve Bowkett enjoyed working alongside locals helping them to rebuild their homes devastated by Typhoon Yolanda.
A furniture builder by trade and owner of Artesano in Fitzroy, New Plymouth, he enjoys travelling to disaster areas around the world on missions of mercy offering his skills.
“I saw the devastation on the news and straight away my heart goes out to them. I started to think about what I could do and when. It’s all about the right timing. I think rocking up there the day after would have just been quite frustrating as you just wouldn’t know what to do. I was more about helping the people rebuild their lives. So going in a few months later was good for me.”
“I’m New Plymouth born and bred I have been a traveller for a long time. I have an affinity with other languages and other cultures. I get on well with foreigners and enjoy overseas travel.
“I would like to do full-time missions one day but in the meantime I’m supporting myself through my work and doing missions when I can.”
Steve receives great support from his church, The New Plymouth Assembly. Their contributions form the base to enable him to even consider his next mission.
“It’s great to have people thinking about you when you are away and praying for you. It’s nice to have their contributions and for them to listen to your story when you get back.
“I’ve always hoped what I do would inspire other people to be involved too. NZ is quite an isolated place away from all the troubles of overseas. I can help bring it closer to home and inspire other people to give it a go. I know a lot of other people already do help in various forms.”
This trip Steve met up with Alex Gadian, a youth pastor in Cagayan City and spent 10 days supplying materials and labour to help residents of Barangay 79 (similar to a NZ suburb) in Tacloban City to rebuild their homes.
“The aim was to help as many people as possible with my limited budget and to leave a good impression of NZ people. That’s a lasting thing. So they have a positive feeling about the affluent west.”
“I was surprised how quickly they have cleaned the place up. There is a lot of rebuilding going on but there is also a lot of rubble. There was a surprising amount of broken concrete. It just made me realise the power of the wave and how so many people died, crushed in the water and rubble.
A vivid memory for Steve was when Alex took him to meet a local resident Emma.
“Her house was concrete and she somehow managed to climb up a wall with her two little girls. She climbed near the corner of the building, close to the door and scrambled onto the roof as the water was rising. The water rose right up near the ceiling.
“I’m not sure how long Emma has had power back on for but they certainly did have quite a period without all those amenities.
“They seem to have little wells in their villages where they have tyres stacked up which go down into the ground. They pull up buckets of water but it is certainly not for drinking. They have little fires just inside the backdoor or sometimes just on the side of the house. They make a fire around a ceramic stove thing that they burn little bits of wood on and have a pot sitting on top to boil the water. They survive by eating a lot of fish and rice.”
Most of the locals that Steve and Alex spoke to are struggling to fund the rebuilding of their homes.
“Amongst the locals there is always a son or brother that can swing a hammer and everybody is helping where they can. It’s just they lack the money and supplies to finish fixing up their houses and things.
“A sheet of plywood is about 500 pesos. We were buying the marine ply which is just the exterior plywood, I didn’t want to see their houses collapsing in the first rain fall. They were about 700 pesos which is about $15 a sheet, way, way cheaper than NZ of course. You probably pay $60 – $70 a sheet of plywood here.”
With donations from NZ Steve was able to purchase building materials and distribute them to 20 families as well as put his carpentry skills to work.
“I actually constructed a wall lying flat on the floor like they would in NZ and then we stood it up. It was funny, this guy he already had four poles in the ground and that was as far as he had got. We supplied him with some timber, more plywood and some iron and he just carried on the way he would normally build it.
“I was thinking of getting him to start afresh and build a square and then stand the walls up but he just got stuck in and did his way. It was interesting, not many straight right angles but he was keen to get the house up next to his sister-in-law as his house must have been somewhere else and got completely washed away.”
“We organised what we could do to help. We also gave school supplies to 50 children in that area. We went shopping at the mall and bought pencils, sharpeners, pads and folders.
“Also in Cebu On the way home we met with a contact there of my friend Alex’s and another 50 children got blessed with some school supplies.”
Steve’s current mission is to complete his custom orders and reduce the credit card balance to enable his next mercy mission back to Tacloban in early 2015.
“I just think about the next job, get stuck in and make the furniture. I’ve got a few orders to get onto which is a good thing. Your business can sort of lapse a bit when you are away off promoting your work. Thankfully I have some work to get onto and pay down the credit card a bit.
Planning for his next trip is well underway and he is seeking volunteers to join him.
“I’ve always wanted to take others with me. With a combined effort you can achieve more. It’s just a matter of finding someone that can drop everything and come. It’s a chance now to talk about it with other people. If they are interested then we can make some plans.”
“Buying airline tickets in advance helps save some money but we will certainly return and meet with those people in that little community. I’m sure that there are other people in little communities where we could be involved as well.
“This time we are looking at 6 groups of four from different churches of New Plymouth leaving on the 20th of February. They will work and outreach in six different barangays of the city for two to three weeks.
“Our daily routine will be morning purchasing, delivery of materials such as plywood, roofing and timber and helping locals with construction. Evenings will be bible study / outreaches in the same areas. A local pastor will be assigned to each group to assist with translation and be the contact point for the future.”
Steve is looking forward to heading back to Barangay 79 and continuing to help the community.
“Concentrating in one little area is good. It gives you a sense of achievement that you have managed to make a difference there. There is a huge need everywhere else but you can’t spread yourself too thin I guess.
“You make a lot of friends that you do keep in touch with. I’m also always in touch with my contacts over there. The dream would be to get the people out of tents and into houses but this would require a huge scale operation.”
If you are interested contact Steve Bowkett at Artesano, 43 Beach St, Fitzroy. You can also contact him on 027 755 1395 or at ssbowkett77@gmail.com