Irony elicits smile from missioner to destitute

By Warren Gamble

Methodist Church missioner Charlie Fenwick permits himself a smile at the irony of his Queen's Birthday honour.

The 61-year-old Auckland central missioner has been a persistent critic of a National Government he says has turned "institutional begging into a requirement."

So his appointment as a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit took him by surprise.

"I really did not expect [it from] the Government that has put in place many of the issues I have found to be working against the people I care for."

In typically modest form, he said the award reflected the hard work of his staff, the understanding of his wife, Betty, and his family, and reinforced the worthiness of the mission's work.

In the past year it has dished out more than 29,000 meals, helped 382 families with banking and budgeting advice, and provided more than 7000 nights' accommodation in its shelters.

Mr Fenwick has been the missioner at the Queen St base for the past 11 years. His family have Methodist links back to the church founder, John Wesley, but Mr Fenwick followed a distinctly non-religious path as a civil engineer building bridges throughout the upper North Island.

It was not until his late 20s, when his children started Sunday School, that he was drawn back to the church. It was not a road-to-Damascus conversion, but he gradually realised that beyond the hymns and other trappings of faith there was a practical Christian path he could follow.

He has been building human bridges since, first with the Waikato Prisoners Aid and Rehabilitation Society and then at the city mission.

Mr Fenwick said that in many ways it was good to be able to help those at the bottom, "but on the other hand it is a bloody tragedy that anybody has to."

He is still hopeful that there will be a turnaround in the trend that has seen demand for the mission's services rise about 20 per cent in the past year.