US clergyman to visit Taupo

Taupo Times, Volume 23, Issue 57, 18 July 1974, Page 11

US clergyman to visit Taupo

The Rev. Wilbur Skeels, of California, is to visit Taupo this weekend and preach at the morning service in the Baptist Church. He is the son of Mr and Mrs Arthur Skeels, of Hinemoa Avenue, and has spent many years of study and ministry in California. Dr Skeels was the initiator and founder of the Marino Basin Community Mental Health Service which has since grown to include other professional staff in the medical field. This is a counselling service which offers help to the community through professional people serving at the centre as well as through lay people who have been trained to do voluntary counselling work. Other branches of this service have been established in other centres. As well as his preaching and pastoral work, Dr Skeels has done considerable work in the field of counselling and teaching. For the past six years, he has served a church in the desert area of California and on his return is to take up a new position at a

1 church just north of the Beverley Hills, in Los Angeles. Dr Skeels is accompanied by his wife and family and will be in the Taupo area for nearly a week.