On Friday night, which was the night before Deepika Rani Kumar’s funeral, they kept an overnight prayer vigil for her in St Christopher’s Home in Naulu, near Suva.

That’s the place where she’d found refuge and love these past two years before heading off to New Zealand seven weeks ago.

And that's the place where she now lay in state.

Dee, who was 18, had come to New Zealand at the invitation of Sandy and Glen Williams. Sandy is the priest in charge of Whitby parish, Glen is the Anglican Mission Board’s accountant – and in those seven short weeks, Dee had become a third daughter to them.

Maybe not in formal, legal terms – but where it counts. In the heart.

So Glen took part in that prayer vigil.

He didn’t just do an hour’s shift, either.

He stuck it out for the whole night.

And the thing is, Glen reckons that vigil turned out to be “the best night of my life.”

He came away having learned that despite the tragedy of a young life cut short, Dee’s life had been fulfilled, after all.

During that vigil, Glen had sat with about a dozen women from a local settlement, and with Sr Mele.

For 27 years, Sr Mele has poured love into the hundreds of kids who’ve been through St Christopher’s Home, and she had introduced Glen to Dee late last year.

Throughout the night, those women ruminated in prayerful conversation about what Deepika’s deepest need had been, and why she was thinking of going into journalism.

Dee was keen about that field, and she already knew what the topic of her first piece of serious investigative journalism was going to be.

She’d follow every lead going – and she'd find her father.

Dee had not only never met her biological father, she didn’t even know his name.

But what Glen heard those women say was that in coming to New Zealand, Dee had actually found her true father.

It was him.

Glen Williams.

Looking back, he can see it more clearly.

For example, sometimes as Deepika was travelling with Glen in the car, she’d start a conversation. Really short those exchanges were, and Dee would kick them off:

“Pa?

“Dee.

“Pa?

“Dee.

“Love you, Pa.”

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The thanksgiving and funeral itself was held at 9:30am in St Christopher’s parish church, which is just across the lawn from St Christopher’s Home.

It was a deeply rich and emotional service. The place was packed to the gunnells, with maybe 300 folk there to pay their respects – including New Zealand’s Head of Mission in Fiji, Mark Ramsden.

He spoke about Dee’s promise, and the essay that she’d written in 2012, which had clinched the prize in the annual essay competition for Fiji's high school students which the New Zealand High Commission sponsors.

We learned lots about Deepika during the service.

We learned, for example, from Premila Kumar, her former Principal at Nakasi High School, that Deepika is a Hindi name that means: Light unto others, and that in Mrs Kumar’s assessment, Deepika was “destined for great things.”

We also heard from Sr Mele that Deepika had deserved, in her view, a Maori name, too: Hinerangi, which means: Girl from Heaven.

Sandy Williams spoke of how Dee and St Christopher’s Home had not only brought the three tikanga of this church together, she’d actually helped bring three nations together.

New Zealand and Fiji, of course – but Australia, too. Three teachers from Armidale in New South Wales, who’ve been taking young Aussie kids on mission trips to St Christopher’s for years, felt compelled to drop everything and travel from Australia to pay their respects.

Two faiths had come together to mourn Dee, too.

Sam Achary is the South Auckland funeral director who offered to do everything and to pay all costs to bring Dee home – and the Indian Hindu community had stepped in to help with those costs.

Sam was so moved by what had happened, and by what he sensed in Dee, that he not only provided $500 for refreshments after the funeral, he’s set up an annual $2000 scholarship that will enable promising St Christopher’s students to tackle varsity.

Archdeacon Sepiuta Hala’api’api led the service, and preached hope from John 14: 1-6. “Let not your hearts be troubled…”

Sepi also said how she reckoned Deepikar would have made a great journalist – because she was forever asking questions.

She described Dee’s Bible to the mourners: it is a colourful thing, with passages highlighted and underlined everywhere – and festooned with yellow Post-It notes.

Typical Dee, those notes often contained swirling questions about life and faith.

But the point is this: those questions are stuck next to passages that respond to them.

“What was so special,” said Sepi, “was that Dee knew who had the answers to her questions: Jesus.”

After the church service was over, everyone migrated with Dee for the short burial service at Naulu Cemetery.

Prayers were said after Dee was laid to rest – and one last time, the children from St Christopher’s sang for her.

They chose a simple Aaron Neville song they’d adapted for Dee, and they sang it from their hearts:

Goodbye, my Deepika
 Lay down and take your rest
 I want to lay your head
 On your Saviour’s chest
 I love you –
 But Jesus loves you best
 I bid you goodnight (goodnight)
 Goodnight (goodnight)
 Goodnight.
 I bid you goodnight (goodnight)
 Goodnight (goodnight)
 Goodnight.