BItesize blogging

A few light-hearted sentences and snippets in a kind of random way for this post I think. 

Since we had all the graduation festivities, campus has been slower and calmer, with farewells to families on the move and the start of preparations for those who'll be arriving for the 2015 academic year. Everywhere you look, some household item is being moved, packed, loaded or unloaded. Dangerous to sit in one place for too long. It reminds me of that Bernard Cribbens number.... 

Nice to see a report in the Fiji Sun of PTC's graduation, mentioning the College's first ever PhD graduate. Massive congratulations go to Dr Edward Kolohai, Anglican Church of Melanesia for his tremendous achievement.

Unlike the household contents, Education by Extension most certainly isn't packing up and going anywhere. 28 unfinished BD courses wink at me from their electronic file and paper folders every day and gradually we're getting to grips with them. Teaching colleagues on the staff here the Revd Dr Gwayaweng Kiki from Papua New Guinea, the Revd Dr Upolu Vaai from Samoa and Dr Richard Davies from New Zealand have all agreed to work on Extension courses in their specialist fields. Big Christmas presents for them! 

New sign-ups for courses by Extension are always welcome and roll in steadily. Latest potential registration for the BD by distance currently resides in Honolulu. Was thinking I'd better take the application forms in person...

Now here's some happy news! 

Graduate Apela and the lovely Jessella from the Congregational Christian Church in Samoa tied the knot in Suva the weekend after graduation and kindly invited pretty much the whole College to celebrate with them; which indeed we did, and felt very blessed to do so. 

                                                       

The wedding cakes were many... 

the table decorations were stunning...

...and as for the dance done by the Bride's father; probably better that photographic evidence isn't available!

Suva welcomed the Prime Minister of India last week and Mailife Fiji reported the following:

'Mr Modi made several announcements.

“We will expand our defence and security cooperation, including assistance in defence training and capacity building. We agreed to identify opportunities to expand our trade and investments and work out a concrete roadmap. We are also prepared to increase cooperation in renewable energy, especially solar and wind energy, and in building capacity to adapt to climate change. In addition, we could share our experience and expertise in disaster management and response,” he said.

India has also agreed to extend Fiji’s credit line up to $70 million and provide visas on arrival for Fijians in India. There is an agreement as well to strengthen defence ties while New Delhi will double annual scholarships awarded to Fijian students.

After singing three MOUs, Mr Modi announced a $US5 million fund to promote small business and village enterprises in Fiji'.

Picky I know, but I'm fairly sure he signed those memoranda of understanding...

PTCEEs administrator Salome and I went on an away day to do some performance reviewing and plan for the future in the department. It was well worth it. Just a change of location helps to renew the mind somehow. 

We didn't go far: just to Pacific Regional Seminary, our Catholic neighbours down the road. They kindly gave us a Conference room to ourselves, use of their lovely small Chapel, and enough food to feed all Suva's Clergy for a week. Here's what 'lunch for two'... looked like.

---------------

Never a day goes by without a good chuckle at something delightful and usually unexpected: like the following encounter. 


Some of the campus children enjoy chatting and walking companionably with me on the three minute commute from home to office and back again. They're curious about the kind of differences my presence presents: woman staying alone in a house; speaking English with a strange (ie. English) accent - that sort of thing. When their parents aren't in earshot, they're very free. One younger neighbour padded silently alongside me in her flips-flops for quite a while the other day wearing a serious face and furrowed brow. All of a sudden, she stopped without warning, swivelled to the right, folded her arms and upped her chin to look directly into my face. I stopped too and waited. 

'Do you sweat?' she enquired. 

'Well, yes - yes I do', I admitted, 'and Fiji's much hotter than the country I come from - England - so I probably sweat a bit more here. What about you?' I asked,  not entirely sure whether I should reciprocate.

'Oh yeah, of course I sweat!' she said, a little dismissively. Perhaps she felt my question was typical of white, perspiring British Methodists who really should know better. 'Bye Reverend Val'. My interrogator closed the exchange. Then off she skipped, to continue investigative journalism elsewhere, I presume.

Though as we all know, lady mission partners never sweat. We only glow...

Let's hear it for our 'Granny Graduate!'

Thursday 13th November 2014 won't be forgotten in a hurry. It was Pacific Theological College's graduation day - an occasion teeming with preparations, celebrations and congratulations: not least for one of our Extension students who proudly gained her Certificate in Theological Studies. 





Best of all, Mrs Moka Jessop Togakilo managed to come over to Fiji from the island of Niue to receive her award in person.

Moka was accompanied by her daughter Helena who lives in Auckland, and we were absolutely thrilled to see them! For many friends who study at a distance, attending the graduation here just isn't a goer. Their Churches, hopefully, organise an occasion locally for them. But Moka, on this occasion, was able to be here for the full works and kindly agreed to be interviewed by me for the blog. I began by asking her, delicately, about being a somewhat mature student.

Moka: Oh yes! I just turned 71 on Sept 24^th this year. 34 years ago I and my husband were students at the University of the South Pacific which is nearby to your College, so visiting Suva again after so long is bringing back memories. My husband is also studying for his Certificate so maybe in the future when I get my Diploma at the next level we can graduate together. 

Val: Moka, tell me please about your Church and the work you do there?

Moka: Well...my Church is called Ekalesia Kelisiano Niue (EKN) and that's where I'm an ordained Elder: the word we use is ulumutua. I suppose you could say I'm the Pastor's 'right-hand woman', but actually we have no Pastor so I have pastoral charge of the Church in a village called Toi, and it's coming up to my 10th year of being ordained.

Val: So does studying theology at a distance really help you in that ministry? Does it equip you for the work on the ground?

Moka: It does. Yes! The courses have proved to me that what I'm doing is of God. It's very important for me to have theological education because otherwise people think the only real Pastors - the only ones who know anything - are those who've been to College full-time. It's hard in our Church for women leaders to be recognised and I often think of Paul and his times of misery and persecution. I have known those times too. But they have made me rely on God even more.

Val: Can you think of a particular topic or assignment in your studies which really gripped you and got you thinking?

Moka: Let me think now....oooh - so many.... it was in the Biblical Studies course when we looked at the story of Rehab. I was thinking about her being called a prostitute and how negative that is. But if we are Christians and look more deeply, we see how she performed to save Israel from the hands of her enemies by hiding the spies. It annoys me that she's labelled, and as I was studying, I was thinking, "In any new translation of the Bible, will there be a change in that word 'prostitute?'" I think there should be. You can’t look down on your sisters because that’s the past – the old life.

Val: That's really interesting, Moka: that your studies helped you to wrestle with that passage.

Moka: Mmm - studying, you know, helps you to develop your spiritual side. It's very educational and it applies to your own life and you become a different person. We have old habits and old ways of looking at things. The courses are organized in a way that helps you go forward – they inspire you. That’s it. That’s why I'm studying in the extension programme. I didn’t do it just to prove I’m a Pastor – though you can’t deny that was part of it. But the best part is to know God more and to be a better follower of Jesus day by day.

And so, after a three hour graduation ceremony and a splendid feast on Thursday evening and into the night, Moka and Helena left at 2.00am(!) Friday morning by taxi for a three hour journey to the airport and then a flight back to Auckland to attend her grandson's wedding the next day. Talk about packing it in. Phew! She didn't seem at all fazed however, and was well up for it. If Moka's anything to go by, Theological Education by Extension doesn't half keep you pulsating and perky.

You signed up yet?

Here's Moka with the wonderful Salome, PTCEE's administrator, who's been
such an encouragement to her via e-mail. Moka also paid tribute to Deidre Madden the former PTCEE Director who started her off with the studies and Michael Kafonika who urged her on during his time as Acting Director.

...and here's a hat from Niue with the current Director underneath.
Got the gear - just need the flight!

Missions old and new

Allow me to introduce you to Hannah Dudley, if you've not met before. Second from the left. An Australian missionary: feisty, eccentric and someone whose legacy receives mixed reviews these days from some contemporary Indian writers. Nevertheless, here's what she wrote on 4th November 1912 to the Modern Review.

(Source: T. Sanadhya, 'My twenty-one years in the Fiji Islands', Fiji Museum, 1991)

Sir,

Living in a country where the system called “Indentured labour” is in vogue, one is continually oppressed in spirit by the fraud, injustice, and inhumanity of which fellow creatures are the victims.

Fifteen years ago, I came to Fiji to do the mission work among the Indian people here. I had previously lived in India for five years. Knowing the natural timidity of Indian village people and knowing also that they had no knowledge of any country beyond their own immediate district, it is a matter of great wonder to me as to how these people could have been induced to come thousands of miles from their own country to Fiji. The women were pleased to see me as I had lived in India and could talk to them of their own country. They would tell me of their troubles and how they had been entrapped by the recruiter or his agents. I will cite a few cases.

One woman told me she had quarrelled with her husband and in anger ran away from her mother-in-law’s home to go to her mother’s. A man on the road questioned her, and said he would show her the way. He took her to a depot for Indentured labour. Another woman said her husband went to work at another place. He sent word to his wife to follow him. On her way a man said he knew her husband and that he would take her to him. This woman was taken to a depot. She said that one day she saw her husband passing and cried out to him but was silenced. An Indian girl was asked by a neighbour to go and see the Muharram festival. While there she was prevailed upon to go to a depot. Another woman told me that she was going to a bathing ghat and was misled by a woman to a depot.

When in the depot these women were told that they can not go till they pay for the food they have had and for other expenses. They were unable to do so. They arrive in this country, timid, fearful women not knowing where they are to be sent to. They are allotted to plantations like so many dumb animals. If they do not perform satisfactorily the work given to them, they are punished by being struck or fined, or they are even sent to goal. The life on the plantations alters their demeanour and even their faces. Some look crushed and broken-hearted, others sullen, others hard and evil. I shall never forget the first time I saw “indentured” women. They were returning from their day’s work. The look on these women’s faces haunts me.

The reason Hannah gets a mention in this week's blog is that I went to Dudley Memorial Church, named after her, last Sunday. It's one of the thriving congregations of Fijian Methodism's Indian Division, boasting a congregation which attracts members from across the social spectrum including a fair sprinkling of Suva's successful and high powered professionals. Hannah would be delighted, don't you think?

There was the warmest of welcomes from Senior Circuit Steward Anand Reuben, and his brother Revd Dr Reuben who was taking the Communion service. Dr Reuben kindly asked me to assist with serving the elements - an honour - and somehow had me signed up for the January plan before I left. He's a fast worker. 

It seemed to be a weekend of listening for the whispers of Fiji's past mission enterprises translated for the present day. Methodist missionaries William Cross and David Cargill who arrived in 1835 are named on a memorial stone at 'The Triangle', slap bang in the centre of Suva. It's very low-key; an understated, unpretentious monument, ever surrounded by swirling traffic, beeping taxi cabs and in earshot of the infectious reggae beat that booms out of the buses. 

And on that very spot, last Saturday after dark, another town centre congregation - Wesley City Mission - showed themselves to be thoroughly committed to contemporary evangelism, with a real desire to invite others to turn to Christ. I admired the initiative and was so glad I chose to attend and support. I'd met Wesley's energetic, inspirational youth group the weekend before when taking the service at their place. Just to be in their presence gives you hope and confidence that God hasn't given up. So, about an hour's worth of this contemporary city centre evangelism included powerful testimonies, great dance from the youth group guys (yes the guys danced, not the girls!) and a small, live band. There were conversations with those heading to the nightclubs and a call for commitment to Christ which attracted a handful of respondents. The Methodist Divisional Superintendent Rev Jeremaia Waqainabete spoke of his adolescence sleeping rough on the streets and the dramatic turn around in his life that finding faith enabled. Wesley's Associate Minister Rev Viliame Fatiaki was also there, supporting wholeheartedly. I was moved. It was well done. Dudley, Cargill and Cross must surely have approved?

Postscript. 

I made the point earlier of stressing that I chose to support the young people and the city evangelism event on Saturday evening. The alternative event that clashed, and the one - some might argue - I should have prioritised, was a glamorous dinner organised by Pacific Theological College's Women's Fellowship, at one of Suva's vast Chinese restaurants. There was considerable pressure not to desert the home crowd. On this occasion I did, having been present at numerous in-house celebrations and feasts since arrival, including Women's Fellowship-led events.

I've had a few quizzical looks.

Oops.

Sorry ladies. I promise to glam up and join the party next time!