Tarore and Her Book
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Download the book sample by clicking here.
The Tarore Story for 140,000 NZ Children
A young girl murdered. A devastated father refusing to seek revenge. A murderer transformed through the Gospel he stole from his victim. Then forgiveness given and peace achieved!
No, it’s not a Hollywood blockbuster! It’s the true story of a Maori girl named Tarore, the events surrounding her death and the impact her death had upon the Maori people of Aotearoa/New Zealand.
It’s a story of how God brought about His purposes amongst the Maori tribes of this nation.
It’s the story of how Maori with only one copy of the Gospel of Luke became evangelists to their own people.
It’s the story of how the first European missionary arrived on the Kapiti coast to find churches planted and Maori worshipping using fragments of the Maori Prayer Book.
It’s a story of how the first Bishop of New Zealand travelled to the South Island to find many tribes that already knew Jesus Christ.
It’s a story that will captivate you, as you read how God unfolded His plans for this nation.
And it’s a story that’s still a part of God’s plan for New Zealand.
This year renowned children’s author, Joy Cowley, is teaming up with Bible Society to write the Tarore story. The book will be distributed free to 110,000 school children through Christian Religious Education (CRE), formerly known as Bible in Schools. It will also be distributed to 30,000 Catholic school children.
The book will contain selected verses from the Gospel of Luke, and it will be illustrated using 90 year old paintings depicting the Tarore story donated by the Bibby family of Hawke’s Bay.
This is a unique opportunity to impact a generation of young New Zealanders with the Good News of the Gospel through the remarkable story of a young Maori girl, whose Gospel of Luke became the key to the conversion of many Maori tribes.
But we need your help! Your gift of just $10 will help to publish and distribute twenty copies of the Tarore story to young New Zealanders. Let’s work together to bring about the next phase of the Tarore story in this country. You can give online now via our secure online giving form.
P.S. Everyone who makes a gift will be offered a free copy of the Tarore story. Please see the 'give online' page for more details.
Joy Cowley – A Literary Taonga
Wife, mother, grandmother and committed Christian Joy Cowley (OBE, Hon D. Litt, DCNZM) is an award winning author with more than 600 books published.
Nominated in the Junior Fiction section of the 2009 Children’s and Young Adults book awards, Joy Cowley has been writing children’s literature for nearly forty years, and her books are among the mainstay of New Zealand’s school reading programme.
Throughout her life’s journey the Bible has been pivotal to Joy Cowley’s faith.
“When I was young I was expected to read my Bible right through, every year. Most years I almost managed it – skipping some of the boring passages like the laws and the begat bits. I connected with the Psalms and the Gospels and I loved Jesus, the children’s friend,” she says.
Joy Cowley has now been reading the Bible for over sixty years.
“My Bible is a well-worn map for my life journey and I do not read it alone. The Holy Spirit is always there to guide me to the teachings I need, whether they be of challenge or celebration, acceptance or affirmation, and every time I open my Bible, I come to a larger place.”
Bringing Fresh Hope to School Children
For the first time, as many as 140,000 New Zealand school children are to receive their own copy of the Tarore story. Through this project, it is hoped that the children will not only learn about the beginnings of Christianity in this country, but that they will also come to know and love some of the same verses of the Gospel of Luke that had so much impact upon Tarore and many other Maori people.
“I am thrilled that the Tarore story will be produced by Bible Society for distributing free to children throughout New Zealand,” says Petrea Medland, of the CRE national office. “Around 4,000 voluntary CRE teachers are also delighted that they are to receive this wonderful resource!”
“The story tells how Tarore’s life and the lives of many Maori were transformed by God, through their reading and living out of the truths they discovered in the Bible. I believe that as copies of this story are distributed, that same life changing power of God to transform lives will be unleashed,” says Petrea.
NZ Artist for NZ Story
Mary Glover Bibby was a talented artist and a Sunday school teacher. She used her own paintings to illustrate the missionary stories she loved to teach at Sunday school in Waipawa in the 1920s, where she lived with her husband, James Bibby.
Scottish born, Mary Glover Bibby was educated in London where she studied art. After emigrating to New Zealand in 1891 she continued to paint and sketch throughout her life.
Great granddaughter, Claire Bibby, remembers well the Tarore paintings being almost reverentially brought out for viewing at her grandparents’ farm at Ongaonga when she was a child.
The Bibby family have generously donated the use of the Tarore paintings to Bible Society to illustrate the Tarore story. As many as ten of the paintings will appear in the book.
