Esava Koro plans to work with community service groups to offer assistance to families and individuals.

“I want to get very close to the community to be able to integrate the church with the community,” he said.

Mr Koro said he wanted the church’s aims to be the same as the community’s – to build up society.

“If there’s a need in the community, they can call on the church,” he said.

Mr Koro was born in Fiji and first came to Australia in 1992 to study engineering at university.

The father-of-four went on to work for Telecom Fiji and Optus in Sydney, but found fulfilment evasive.

“I always felt there was something missing in my life and I wanted to fill that void,” he said.

“I didn’t come (to Australia) with the intention to study theology, but the Lord intervened.”

Mr Koro enrolled in Christian tertiary institution Avondale College and immediately knew he had made the right choice.

“That search for fulfilment was satisfied when I attended my first lecture at Avondale.”

Mr Koro worked for the church with indigenous Australians in the Macleay Valley after graduating.

“It was very challenging, but very rewarding,” Mr Koro said.

“There are many social problems, but I was overwhelmed by what the Lord can do in such a situation.

“Even the drunkards, the gamblers – they would change when they gave their life to the Lord.

“It gave me the satisfaction I was searching for, to see the lives of people going from their worst to the better.”

Family members and

friends from Melbourne, Kempsey and Sydney travelled to East Maitland for Mr Koro’s ordination.