You can trace the whakapapa of Ngatiawa River Monastery back to the 1960's.

Back then, ‘Ngatiawa Camp’ was a Presbyterian venture, a place where young Presbyterians came for their annual Bible camps.

But Ngatiawa Camp eventually passed its use-by date, and the place was reborn 15 years ago when Jenny and Justin Duckworth (in his pre-bishop days) bought the property and did it up – to serve as a healing space for those they were working with in Wellington’s inner-city streets.

Ngatiawa is now the contemplative ‘motherhouse’ of Urban Vision – which, in turn, is a missional order of the Anglican Church.

“We are”, says Ngatiawa spokesman Stu Macann, “a community of prayer and hospitality, who make supportive accommodation and retreat space available – and we have a particular calling to people on the margins.”

But now, almost 60 years on from its first flush, the Ngatiawa septic system can’t take much more – it’s in dire need of a $65,000 upgrade.

Between February and March the Ngatiawa crew grappled with Stage 1 of a project to overhaul their system – which was to buy, install and set up a new septic tank.

Stage 1 cost $15,000, and with help from the hundreds who turned up to this year’s Passionfest – the annual festival they host in summer every year – they got Stage 1 sorted.

But now the Ngatiawa community needs wider help to deal to stage 2. They’ve been quoted $50,000 to pay for the trucks, diggers, piping and drain-laying needed to install a decent grey water system.  

Without that stage 2 work, says Stu, the upgrade is incomplete, and Ngatiawa won’t be able to continue to host crowds at events such as Passionfest.  

“Our vision,” says Stu “is that via crowdsourcing we will get the word out, to help pull in the funds so we can continue to do what we do.”

They’ve set up ‘Project Flush’– which is a PledgeMe crowdfunding account in which they hope to reel in at least $20,000 of the money needed.

At the time of posting that campaign had three days to run (it closes at 9pm on May 8) and they were on track for $20K and hoping to give their $50K target a decent nudge.

If you’re keen to help but don’t want to use Pledgeme, the Ngatiawa Retreat Trust is happy to accept direct donations for this project:

Their bank account number is: 06-0582-0244709-01.