Pathway Trust
Pathway Trust is a Christchurch-based charitable organisation with God at its centre, committed to helping people make a fresh start through reintegration, accommodation and employment support. Pathway has been operating for 28 years, with over 20 years of that spent in prison reintegration work. Since 2018, that work has taken shape as the Navigate Initiative, a reintegrative community unit operating inside Christchurch Men’s Prison in partnership with the Department of Corrections, supporting men to rebuild their lives across seven key areas from employment and education to whānau relationships and identity, all in the belief that no one is beyond the reach of Christ’s restoration.
Uelese Fa’au is the Navigate Initiative Unit Manager at Pathway Trust. Married for 10 years, he and his wife live in Christchurch and have a 6-year-old son, Noah. Before joining Pathway, Uelese served as a Chaplain at Christchurch Men’s Prison, where he first began journeying alongside men in the very place he now leads reintegration work. That background gives him an unique, first-hand understanding of what it takes to walk with a man from the inside of a prison cell to a genuine fresh start, and a deep conviction that it is only through an encounter with Jesus Christ that lasting transformation happens.
Prayer Points
1. For the men (Tū Ora) currently in the Navigate Initiative — that they would encounter Jesus personally, and find in Him genuine hope and a renewed identity as they prepare to return to their communities.
2. For whānau reconciliation — for the families and children of men in the programme, that the Holy Spirit would restore broken relationships with patience and grace.
3. For our reintegration navigators and staff — that God would give them strength, wisdom and protection from burnout, as they carry heavy caseloads and reflect the love of Jesus to some genuinely difficult situations.
4. For provision for the reintegration work — that God would provide steadily and generously for the day-to-day costs of the reintegration work, and would grow that provision so Pathway can extend its outreach and reach even more men and their whānau in Jesus’ name.
5. For money and funding for the reintegration work itself — that God would provide steadily and generously for the day-to-day costs of walking alongside men through the Navigate Initiative.
6. For the success of Pathway’s social enterprises — for Alloyfold, Oak Tree and Pathway Affordable Housing, which together fund around half of Pathway Trust’s costs, that God would prosper this work so the reintegration mission can keep going strong.
7. For the men who stumble — that those who reoffend or relapse would know they are not written off, in God’s eyes or ours, and that Pathway’s team would have Christ’s own resilience to keep walking with them.