Pepeha
Ko Te Mata Mangonui te Maunga……………………...My Mountain is Te Mata Mangonui
Ohia te roto………………………………………………..My lake is Ohia
Ko Te Ope Whakaora te whare karakia……………….My church is The Salvation Army
Ko Nga Puhi te iwi………………………………………..My Iwi is Nga Puhi
Ko Ngati Kahu te Hapu…………………………………..My other Iwi is Ngati Kahu
Ko John toku Papa……………………………………….John is my Dad
Ko Toni toku Mama……………………………………….Toni is my Mum
Ko Ronald toku tane……………………………………...Ronald is my husband
Kei Waiharakeke ahau e noho ana……………………..I live in Blenheim
Ko Chanell ahau…………………………………………..My name is Chanell
He whakatauki He waka eke noa……………………….Maori Proverb We are all in this together
No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
Kia Ora, My name is Chanell. I am 30 years old and of both Maori and Pakeha (NZ european) descent. I write articles for Press Services International / Christian Today.
I began writing in October last year and have grown to really enjoy writing down my thoughts and putting them out there. I have always wanted to be a writer, but didn’t know where to start. I got started when Major Christina Tyson put out a request for writers on Facebook. I reached out and the rest is history.
My life
I was born in February 1990 (a millennial, I know) in Marlborough, New Zealand. Marlborough is wine country, but as I am a Salvation Army Senior Soldier (since age 17) it’s wasted on me.
I spent a lot of time growing up overseas as my parents saved up a lot of money and took my sister and I around the world for a whole year in 2000, but before that I also visited family in Australia in 1998.
I mention this because during this trip I remember the first time I “gave my heart to Jesus” (we signed a sinners prayer contract thing, it was a bit cute) at a random Sunday school during a random church service we attended. I was very sincere (my parents made sure) and I remember crying cause I was happy.
Fast forward back to the year 2000. We spent the year travelling (on a budget) around the world. We went to: Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Israel, Egypt, Greece, UK, Germany, France, Italy, USA. Our last stop before returning home was the beautiful Hawaii.
I could go into detail about the trip and times I saw God's perversion for us, but that could be a story for another day.
During my early years I did experience some spiritual encounters, some not very friendly. This got worse as I went through my teenage years. This left me feeling very spiritually vulnerable. It would affect my mental health and my identity for a long time. I leant on Jesus a lot during this time and went through some faith deconstruction as a result.
This part of my journey is ongoing, but Jesus is always with me through it.
At 17 years
When I was 17 years old I went on a year exchange to a high school in Japan. This was a very formative time for me. I love learning about other cultures and ways of life. Japan still holds a special place in my heart and I want to return one day with my husband Ronald.
When I was 19 years old I still had the travel bug and decided to do Camp America. I had a friend who was going and she convinced me to do it (my cousin and her friend had also been the previous year and they made it sound like a lot of fun).
My parents were youth workers all my life growing up and I was considering doing something in that field, but since returning to New Zealand from Japan I was a bit lost.
Salvation Army Camp
I ended up working at a Salvation Army camp in Mississippi. That is where I met my husband Ronald.
I went back to Mississippi many times over the years until Ronald moved to New Zealand in 2012. (We have been back once in 2014). We had some challenges with getting him residency and him settling in to life here, but he now seems to like it.
We got married October 2016 in the Marlborough sounds.
Off and on over the years I have worked with at risk youth, been a waitress and a receptionist. While I was waitressing, I decided I needed a change. I applied to study youth work through a faith based organisation called Praxis.
I now have a diploma in youth work and community studies and I work with my husband Ronald in OSCAR care and volunteer organising my local Salvation Army corps youth group.
Working with younger children is different to teenagers. But a lot of the learning and training I find trickles down and still fills the same needs in the child.
Ronald and I don’t yet have children of our own (minus our cats) but we hope to sometime in the future.
If I were to describe myself. I would say I am artistic, funny sometimes, a deep thinker and I care a lot about justice. As an empath, the injustice I see in the world breaks my heart most days. I can get very fired up when faced with bigotry. This also brings me a lot of stress and I rely a lot on Jesus, Ronald, my family and friends to get me though.
The world can be both a beautiful and terrible place at once. This informs my writing.
Chanell Diaz is a member of The Salvation Army in New Zealand. She and her husband Ronald both work as child care workers and Chanell is also a qualified Youth Worker through Praxis. Chanell has a heart for justice and enjoys creating art and writing in her spare time.
