Open hearts, willing hands. . . feet will follow.” That’s the simple motto of a small Northland church in Kaitaia, New Zealand, spoken by people who simply saw a need and moved to meet it.
Northland is one of New Zealand’s breathtaking regions, yet it carries some of the country’s heaviest burdens. Its suicide rate stands at 14.9 per 100,000 people—a third higher than the national rate of 11.2, and it has held that gap for 15 years. For Māori men aged 25–44, the rate climbs to 30.2 per 100,000, more than two-and-a-half times that of non-Māori men in the same age group. Gang patches of Black Power, Mongrel Mob and Tribesmen are not distant headlines but part of the ordinary street scene—in a landscape already marked by poverty, isolation and hunger.
Into that reality, one church started a small Tuesday afternoon kids’ club with volleyball, cricket, table tennis and four volunteers who had more heart than resources. Children as young as three came, dragging baby siblings behind them, because the street felt safer than home and these strangers felt more like family than anyone they knew.
That Tuesday club became a community meal, which became vegetable gardens and the gardens became cooking workshops for young mums learning to stretch a dollar across a hungry week.
Stevie was one of those who found her way through the door. She did not identify as religious but after a decade-long relationship collapsed and left her in a depression she couldn’t climb out of, she walked into the Kaitaia Seventh-day Adventist Church during a Christmas community meal and felt something she hadn’t felt in years. Stevie describes it simply as finding her whānau—a belonging so complete that two years later she was sober from alcohol for the first time, standing on a stage and singing.
When Cyclone Gabrielle hit and families were stranded in Whangārei without shelter, the church hall opened within the hour, offering hot food, showers, phone charging and referrals to welfare agencies. Open hands don’t wait for a plan.
If you’re looking for a community that shows up in the storm and stays long after it passes, the door is already open—and there’s a Tuesday that might just change your life.
If this article has raised any difficult feelings or issues for you, please speak to a trusted support person, or call Lifeline on 13 11 14 (Australia) or 0800 543 354 (New Zealand).
