Ini Kopuria
1900-1945 20th century Feast day: June 6
Work shared rather than carried alone, and land given before words.
Who was Ini Kopuria?
A sergeant in the native constabulary on Guadalcanal, he knew every village in the Solomons from patrolling them with a weapon at his side. After an illness and a vision he left the police and in 1925 founded a brotherhood of Melanesian brothers, on his own land, which he gave away. He took a vow he had written himself, and died twenty years later in the house he had handed over.
In their own words
I thought of the Kingdom of God as a garden. There is only one garden and one Lord of the Garden, but the workers who are wanted in the garden are many.
I have visited all the villages as a police sergeant, and they all know me: why not go to them now as a missionary?