
I could see the attraction of joining the Gloriavale Christian Community, located at Haupiri on New Zealand's South Island.
We’d moved to the West Coast for my (now ex) husband’s new head teacher position.
Within a few months, he was assigned a student teacher who would spend a couple of months learning from him. To our surprise, the student was a young woman from Gloriavale — a local Christian community who very rarely socialised with people on the outside.
There was a lot of gossip around our town about Gloriavale, and it was hard to know what was true.
Our friends told us things like, “They share everything. They don’t even have their own shoes.”
But none of them had actually talked to anyone from Gloriavale, so we were sceptical. We knew how easy it was to spread gossip in small towns.
Watch: You Can't Ask That... Cults. Post continues after video.
After the first student left, a second Gloriavale student was assigned to my husband’s preschool.
Both of them were friendly, bright young women and very capable teachers. As Christians ourselves, we got along well with them.