Edith Arcus

Edith grew up on Trafalgar street in Royal Oak, but thus far her life following God has meant she has taken up many challenges both close to home and in distant countries! More often than not we praise a person for their courage and kindness, their strength of character, or their ability to overcome.  What can be lost is the bigger picture: the ways in which God is working with us. This is a truth Edith lives by.

Born in Te Puke, Edith’s family soon moved to Royal Oak, where a neighbour asked Edith and her brothers to come along to a Sunday School across the road. Edith felt that following Christ was a calling on her heart and it led her to Bible College, and remained when she went to Timaru to pursue nursing training, “And while I was there the lord was showing me more and more that he wanted me overseas. It sort of just grew in me the thought that God loved the whole world and to take a risk for Him, for wherever.” In her mid-twenties Edith felt called to serve through short-term mission in a hospital in Papua New Guinea.

“It was the hardest 3 months of my life. Working in a hospital, seven in a house, sleeping on the floor.” But true to the attitude of obedience in Christ, “The lord told me to go back again and so I went back.” When Edith returned to Papua New Guinea, expecting the same harsh conditions as before, she was pleasantly surprised by meeting her future husband, “I was a nurse and my husband was a teacher and we met and married there.” Graham, a school teacher from New Zealand, married Edith and they moved to the highlands of Papua New Guinea to work at a Teacher’s College. “We lived in Papua New Guinea for 14 years. Two of our kids were born there. We returned briefly for Graham to attend Bible College, before returning home for good when we bought my childhood house in Royal Oak.”

Edith and Graham extended their ‘new’ family home to accommodate their four children and regular guests, “We did barnados foster care, then we started having overseas students too, so we needed a bigger house.”  Graham went on to study landscape architecture and serviced many gardens in and around Royal Oak. When he could no longer garden himself, he passed on his knowledge to those seeking new employment opportunities. When Graham suffered a stroke, Edith took charge and put on her nursing hat. They still kept attending ROBC and teaching a local Bible in Schools programme together.

It was a difficult time, but they both remained faithful to Christ. Coming home from a prayer meeting one night, nine years after his stroke, Graham was hit by a man drinking at a bus stop. Although he was conscious immediately afterward, Graham died from the attack a few days later. What’s remarkable about this traumatic event is the way God honoured Edith’s choice to show how He was at work in her families’ situation.“If you just thought what a horrible thing to happen and got angry with that young man, that’s not the big picture. But it was amazing you see, the lord showed that he was all around it. If you don’t focus about the way the lord is all around it, you end up quite angry and bitter.”

The way in which Edith felt God’s presence is not something limited to this instance, but found daily in her Bible reading, “I find that so often the lord dovetails the things that you need to hear that day in that reading.” It’s this dedication that enables her dip into the well of living water (John 7:38) and keep on giving out to others. “Well, I still do bible in schools. I’m doing more with older people now.” Edith is booked-out Monday through Friday, doing hairstyling (a talent she learnt alongside nursing), various church ministries and attending community functions.

Even with recently moving into a retirement village she is still actively involved, and as positive and faithful as ever “..you get so much back. Because if you have to dig into the word, to give it out, you get so much yourself from it. That’s what I, not exactly get cross, but I get sad when people don’t want to do anything like that. Because it really is true it’s far more blessed to give than to receive. And if you are digging into the word and giving out, you just get so much good out of it.”

Editor's Post-script: To honour Graham Arcus, the Church have changed the name of their trust to the 'Graham Arcus Community Trust.'