TREVOR VINE
By Dave Roberts
When you first get a lead on one
of these stories, you get at least some kind of
an idea of who you'll wind up speaking to.
| Trevor Vine is a case of not
quite being what I expected. Probably most telling
was that he's a little hard of hearing and we
made a decision to finish the interview in person
another time because the telephone was just
too difficult. This has got to make the job
that much harder.
It increases my sense of admiration for a
guy who just sees a deed that needs to be
done and sets out to do it. I guess that Trevor
could have used these things as an excuse
and waited for someone else to come along,
but South West Life brings you stories of
achievers who just kick the ball.
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Life for Trevor Vine, JP, is very
closely tied to Thailand. In 1974 he was in that
space where many of us find ourselves, looking for
some meaning and he found an appeal in his newspaper
for people to come to Thailand and help out at a
Catholic orphanage. Unlike many of us, off he went.
The way he tells it, all he had to do there was
hang out with the little guys and help out as best
he could. Things were afoot which were to make some
big changes in his life.
Big change number one is that on that
trip, Trevor was to meet Yom, who is now his wife
and the mother of his four children. It's nearly
thirty years on and a lot of water has gone under
the bridge but it's clear that for this and other
reasons Thailand is firmly part of his life. The
reationship was not a flash in the pan even then,
with a relationship going on in writing for some
years before Yom came to Australia in 1978, and
the couple were married in 1979 in New South Wales.
The orphanage Trevor went to work
at is run by the Catholic Church. The Catholic ethos
didn't turn Trevor around, but during the trip,
while meeting Yom, he was to come into contact with
some missionaries, who showed him things that did
exactly that, and Trevor was on a path that turned
him right around, giving some of that meaning that
he was off in search of. The change happened some
time later in Tasmania, when he became a born again
Christian. From 1974 to 1984 was a long time for
people to be praying for him, but Trevor tells that
this is what brought about some very important changes
in his life.
Every couple of years Trevor and Yom
return to Thailand to visit family. Sometimes they
travel together, other times business or the children
compel them to travel separately. In 1984 on one
such journey to Thailand, Trevor was injured in
an aircraft accident. OK, seriously injured. The
loss of hearing is one legacy from it, and sometimes
there is a difficulty in concentrating that makes
achieving his goals that much harder.
About four years ago, even the decision
to come to South West was driven by the fact that
while he wants to be an Australian, Perth is closer
to Thailand so the travel from here is better than
it was in Tasmania where he lived.
Trevor's presentation is in your face
Christian enough that I was surprised to hear him
tell the story, but he was guided to the venue where
the orphanage was established by a meeting with
some Buddhist monks on a trip in 2000. If you speak
to him about what he's doing, you'll be sure to
hear how God has done great things in his life,
and how it's all guided by God's will, but he's
awake enough to all of the processes going on around
him that there is room in the vision for all that
are sent his way.
So to the orphnange story. In the
year 2000, Trevor was woken five mornings in a row
by a vision with quite a lot of detail about what
he was to do, but at the bottom of it, he was to
go to Thailand and instigate an orphanage for girls.
Like we noted, this is a guy who just kicks the
ball, so being told to go and do it, Trevor booked
a plane and went. The story includes pool parties
in Bali where Canadians sign up to support the orphanage
on the spot. It includes the Buddhist monks, and
after some time, it includes meeting Piengta Chomnoi
who is running the orphanage they set up in Chang
Rai.
The story takes some time to get through
and we can't do it all in South West Life, but we
can tell you here that they have 32 children in
two houses in Chang Rai. Some of them are orphans,
some are deserted children. Trevor started out to
help girls, but now they've got a boys' house too,
mostly for brothers of the girls they started with.
A guy who is so badly injured that he cant talk
to me on the phone gets a vision from God, and just
goes to Thailand and starts an orphanage which now
has 5 staff and 32 kids aboard. I'm inspired.
A lot of work is going on there. Trevor's
role in Western Australia is largely administrative,
and fund raising. In Thailand they are supported
by the Pattaya International Ladies Club, the Thai
Fishermans Club, Rotary, and through Charity tins
in some of the bigger hotels. Rice comes from the
government. Talks are on to get some help from the
Motorcycle club !?!?
Back in Australia Trevor has his head
down figuring out how to get more than $200 000
together to build a purpose built orphanage and
provide a better service to the kids while saving
the need to pay rent on the places that they use
at present. Along with that, Trevor has seen the
cycle in place for a lot of young people in Thailand
who stay in orphanages through their teens and then
reach the age to leave, going out into the world
to face poverty.
The cycle has to stop, and Trevor
is collecting enough to invest $500 for each child
which will form the basis of a nest egg that will
be invested so that these young people leave the
care of the orphanage having experienced some real
love during their growing time, and with an even
chance of breaking the poverty cycle. Breaking the
cycle was in the vision, and he won't be finished
until it's done.
You have to feel a bit proud that
this level of work comes out of the South West.
Trevor has given us the email address so that those
who are interested in what is being done there can
keep up, let him know of your interest by emailing
trevor.vine@bigpond.com.
Meanwhile we'd like to keep up so you might see
an update here from time to time.
Trevor has been in Bunbury for about 4 years, after
a career in small business across Australia, running
such far reaching international operations as milk
bars and motels. He has successfully raised four
children, and he has a burden for the children and
young people of Thailand.
April 2003
