Where it began: Clair Redfern, Papua New Guinea, 1962
Clair Agnes Redfern, then Clair Toohey, was one of the very first Australians Palms sent overseas. A farmer’s daughter from the Forbes district of New South Wales, she was doing secretarial work in Sydney when, at 21, she decided to follow a calling she had held since childhood.
In her words: “I have the distinction of being the first volunteer to become a lay missionary through Palms. We were presented with our missionary crosses by the late Cardinal Norman Gilroy before our departure. I think there were six of us on the plane to what we knew then as the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. I was assigned to the Capuchin Friars in the Mendi Diocese and became their first female lay missionary.
Not being a qualified teacher, I was assigned to prep classes, and the children ranged in age from 5 to 15. It was a revelation to see that they had the same capacity to learn as children anywhere. They only had hope.”
Clair returned to Forbes in 1965, married a local farmer, Bob, and raised ten children. Now 85 and living at St Vincent’s Care Services, she still looks back warmly on her New Guinea years. “I will always be grateful to Palms for the preparation and support they gave me.”
Frances Scurfield, Diocese of Kundiawa, Papua New Guinea, 2005 to 2007
Frances was 54 when she volunteered, her three boys grown and starting families of their own. She had long felt a pull to help in a country less fortunate than Australia, and a placement in office administration and financial accounting at the Bishop’s office in Mingende, in the highlands Diocese of Kundiawa, fitted her skills.
“When I went to Mingende I thought I would make great changes there, but I was the one changed,” she wrote. She trained several young people in the diocesan office in accounting and procedures, and almost twenty years on that office is still running. One of her mentees, Maureen, is now finance manager at one of the larger stores in Kundiawa.
The Bishop of Kundiawa, Bishop Paul Sundu, remembers her warmly. He wrote to us that Frances became “like a mother to the community,” forming genuine relationships with the priests, religious and staff around her, and that her care and simplicity left a deep impression. He still treasures a letter she once sent for his priestly anniversary, teasing him through a grand list of titles, Pope, Cardinal, Bishop, before crossing them all out to settle on “Fr Paul.” He credits her, too, with mentoring Maria Kuglame, the diocese’s financial officer, who served faithfully for 26 years before retiring. “Frances’ service truly reflects the spirit of Palms,” he wrote, “walking with people, sharing life, and building capacity that endures beyond the placement.”