Media


Deb Wharfe is a miracleworker

A miracleworker who in 2004 turned a shoebox full of food into 15 tonnes of aid relief for the cyclone devastated Niue Island.
A phone call to an airfreight company prompted Deb to ‘look outside the square’ & a radio advert provided the impetus for a leaflet drop and a few more strategic phone calls to NZ businesses. “Air freighting through a private company was too expensive at the time for me on a limited budget and I was told there was some free container space at the Onehunga Wharf – so I thought I would just put a few necessities together.”
The result was staggering. It showed how the plight of the people had touched the hearts of so many.
Bags of clothing and essential living items turned up on her verandah daily from the local public and companies all over the country offered products and services. The total shipment accumulated from all over the country was 17 pallets of goods ranging from canned foods, to toilet paper, shovels and rakes for the growers to assist in regenerating family plots. In response to a NZ Herald article explaining the plight of the local birdlife, several cans of fruit from the shipment were rushed off to Whenuapai to travel via our emergency aid workers. Freight was donated, the use of a forklift was also donated for a time and the container shipment was off to make a difference for people who needed it badly.



Deb was so amazed at the response that she considered the United Nations as a possible option for work. She decided her own country needed her and it’s here in New Zealand that she wants to make a difference.

Pay it Forward & Free Hugs

After her first healing clinic was opened at home in Papakura, she started a Pay it Forward Campaign inspired by the movie of the same name and started making a difference in the community by staging a Free Hugs and Miracles morning in the local main street. For the past two years, along with her friend and colleague Vicky Jennings, she has hugged a few thousand people; some of whom hadn’t been hugged for years. “The healing touch of a simple hug from a stranger is quite something. It changes the way the street feels and the people all smile. Even the ones who think we are crazy still have a chuckle, that’s healing too, we don’t mind a bit and everyone needs a laugh in this day and age.”
Based now in her holistic healing centre in Royal Oak, she sells beautiful gifts & crystals, helps people with life-ache, heartaches, strains, sprains, broken bones, stress and grief; she inspires and empowers people to revisit their belief systems and to create their own miracles.

Crazy?
If you had told Deb a few years ago that she was capable of pulling together such a shipment she would have been quite certain you were crazy. She is here to teach people that we are all miracleworkers and the seemingly impossible is often possible – even beyond words and our wildest dreams.

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An Auckland South Miracle Worker

With so much bad news reported recently in South Auckland, a good news story is long overdue.
Deb Wharfe, a Papakura resident has made it her crusade to do just that.
Concerned by media attention over recent weeks reinforcing South Auckland’s bad reputation, she has dedicated her time to create a social revolution. Bad news stories she believes instill fear and hatred in the community. “Miracles happen at the intersection of faith and love and on my map that is where you will find Auckland South” she says. She refuses to call the region South Auckland saying it is a label that carries old prejudices. “We need to start talking about the good news, not be swayed by a few who have forgotten who they are. We all have the potential to be a miracle in someone else’s life and where I live miracles happen every day”.
The Pay it Forward concept for a long time has been her Alma Mater. Back in 2004 she rallied donations from the Papakura community and sent 17 tonnes of food, clothing and essential household items to Niue following Cyclone Heta.
The concept of Pay it Forward, made famous by the movie and novel of the same name, is of ‘exponential kindness in action’. The theory is that if someone does you a favour you do a favour for three people and they each pass the favour on to another three people – thereby exponentially growing the original kindness done.

‘Auckland South - We are Pay it Forward People’ is her brainchild. She is asking the public that when they pass through any city in Auckland South that they pass three kindnesses on – smile at the store clerk, let a fellow motorist into traffic, compliment someone passing by and either wave or close your comment with ‘Pay it Forward’ so we know you are a fellow crusader. Her next step in this sojourn is to start publishing these stories and instill pride into a community that she knows, from experience, can create miracles in other peoples lives. Deb cites Mahatma Ghandi “We need to be the change that we want to see in the world.”
- Franklin Life Newspaper July 08