Rev Meeri Iaabeti
Meeri is the second daughter of Eriuta and Meere, born on the 7th of Jan, 1980 at Fanning Island in the Line Group. About her earlier life, she attended primary school (because there was no preschool at that time) 1986 to 1991. She attended Hiram Beingham High (one of the church’s school) at Beru from 1992 to 1996. Unfortunately, she did not graduate and was not given a form five certificate because she had been expelled due to many offences. In 1999 to 2000, she attended another secondary school where she had the chance to complete her form five and six. The following year, she became very interested to be a teacher so she applied for the Kiribati Teacher’s College where her mother works as a lecturer. Her mother supported her decision but this was totally against the will of her father who wanted to give one of his children to serve God in his church. Also he knew that this daughter of his would learn a lot from a theological college and change to be a better person. Now, Meeri is currently a student of the Pacific Theological College for the Bachelor of Divinity final year. She is from the Kiribati Uniting Church, commissioned for the first time to work as a Chaplain since 2008 in one of the Government Schools on the outer island, after graduating from Tangintebu Theological College. After serving the school for four years, she was assisting Taabuto, her husband who was also a Minister of the same denomination assigned to look after the Congregation at North Tarawa from 2012 to 2014. In 2015, she moved with her family to PTC where she began her study alongside her husband. She is an ordained minister and a mother of four children. Her parents, Eriuta and Meere were both inspirations to her ministry and study.