Manawarū Bible Chapel’s Rally celebrated the end of an era with a barn dance in honour of long-time leaders Denis and Joy Wallace.
Denis and Joy Wallace (fourth and fifth from left) at their thank you barn dance in Manawarū.
NZ Rally has played a significant role in Denis’ life. “I’m one of ten kids and started going to my local Rally in Blenheim when we moved from Hastings to Blenheim. I got converted through Rally, and am convinced it’s such a great opportunity to share the gospel with whole families.” For the last 56 years, Denis has been involved in serving NZ Rally at local, national and international levels.
For Joy, growing up in a Brethren church meant a connection to Rally:
“My Aunt Judy Barrow was a Rally leader, and as a teenager I helped with Rally... then later, when Denis and I met and got married, we moved to the Waikato where we started as Rally leaders. A lady from church would watch all the babies and toddlers and a group of us would run the Rally. That was in the early 80s, and I’ve basically been involved with Rally since then! We love kids, we love seeing kids learning about Jesus, and we love teaching them life skills.”
Together, the Wallaces have been serving with NZ Rally for 40 years. Their involvement includes organising Rally Aruras—large national and international gatherings of Rallies from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and India. Denis served on the National NZ Rally Council for 26 years, including 14 as chairman. He was instrumental in moving the council into a new phase of governance and bringing on Tony Foster as a paid staff member to liaise with churches and champion NZ Rally. Tony now serves as CEO, leading three additional part-time staff to support the work of Rally.
“It was at a CCCNZ event at Tōtara Springs that I connected with Tony and we got talking about how we could encourage churches in starting and maintaining a Rally. It has been great to see the growth and to have the support of Lichfield Lands Inc. over the years as we’ve seen Rally grow.”
Denis and Joy say it’s the holistic programme that is so appealing. “The educational, spiritual and physical aspects of Rally make it such a winning combination. The opportunity to share the gospel alongside teaching skills and the connection with families and the wider community—we find that if you’re working with people’s kids they let you into their lives as well. You become mentors, teachers and friends.”
Rally is a whole-church activity. “You’ve got to keep it in front of the church,” says Denis. “It needs prayer and leadership and support from the whole church and we’d love to see this grow throughout New Zealand.”
Denis and Joy are stepping back from Rally and are moving into a new season of life. To honour the Wallaces, their local Rally put on a barn dance, where Manawarū Bible Chapel pastor Justin Thompson expressed gratitude for their commitment to the local church, and Tony Foster (CEO of Rally) thanked them on behalf of NZ Rally as an organisation.
Denis and Joy say one of the best things has been seeing God at work over time. “We were at a local café the other day and a local mum came up to us and thanked us for being her Rally teachers. She’s a flourishing Christian working in a church and that is so encouraging to see her going on in the faith.”
Join us in praying for Denis and Joy in their next season and thanking God for their service. If you’d like to find out more about how your church could run a Rally, check out: www.nzrally.org.nz
