Happy or Blessed?

At Youth Bible Study in Nanuku last Wednesday, we did the Beatitudes. Matthew 5. 1-12. That's because it was yesterday's lectionary (Sunday 29th Jan) and we're very keen to keep one step ahead of the preacher. 

Here's the Good News Bible version.

Jesus saw the crowds and went up a hill, where he sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them: “Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! “Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them! “Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised! Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires; God will satisfy them fully! “Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them! “Happy are the pure in heart; they will see God! “Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them his children! “Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires;the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! “Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers. Be happy and glad, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. This is how the prophets who lived before you were persecuted.

Got it? Now here's the New Revised Standard Version.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

No prizes for spotting the most obvious translation difference. Which led me to ask Nanuku Youth...

Is there a difference between being ‘happy’ and being ‘blessed’? 

You bet! They came up with loads of examples which can be inadequately summarised as, 'Anyone can feel happy about stuff but when you're blessed it's because God's done it to you'. 

How do you say those words in Hindi and Fijian? 

In Fijian-Hindi 'happy' is 'kushi' and blessed is 'ashish'. In Itaukei-Fijian, 'happy' is 'marau' and 'blessed' is 'kalougata'. Numerous example sentences offered. Nanuku youth know what they're talking about in a variety of languages.

In your daily life, what makes you ‘happy’? Explain to the group. 

If Fiji are gonna win the WellySevens     (Let's draw a veil...)

In your daily life, what makes you ‘blessed’? Explain to the group. 

(No repetition of previous answer allowed).

Coming to our Church. 

Good answer and no bribes! They're not saints - which of us is? - but they're impressively articulate about TBL. They didn't write the definitions below but they were pretty much on the same track.

Orientation week for new arrivals at the main College. Nisha and I really enjoyed today meeting brothers in ministry from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Papua New Guinea, Congregational Christian Church of Samoa and the Anglican Church of Melanesia in the Solomon Islands. Here we are, shamelessly 'selling' the Extension courses to them so they can transmit the good news to folk back home.

As it happens, we needn't have said much ourselves, because an enthusiastic ambassador for PTCEE was in our midst - little did we know - and gave a fantastic testimony. As a layman, he completed Certificate and Diploma courses up until 2006, recognising with appreciation the efforts and encouragement of PTCEE Director Deidre Madden at that time, then the call to full-time ministry came. He did his BA residentially at Bishop Patteson Theological College Kohimarama, just outside Honiara, and has been serving as an Anglican Priest in the Solomon Islands since. Now there's the opportunity to pursue a Masters here on campus at PTC. 

Fr Harry Gereniu kindly posed with Nisha by our map of the Solomons and spoke with great warmth. 'After all these years it's wonderful to be in the place where all these courses actually come from. I feel proud to have done my early theological education through PTCEE and thoroughly recommend it'. 

Thanks Fr Harry. You made our day and we thank God for your powerful testimony. Good that we'll be neighbours for the next couple of years and can draw on your solid experience of the agonies and ecstasies of Distance Ed! 

Introduction to the Study of John, James and Revelation is the latest BD course on the shelf ready to go. We thank Biblical scholar Dr Michael Sandford for his work. I fiddled with the edit and Nisha made it neat and tidy. Always a good feeling to sign off another one. Let's keep 'em rolling.

We also updated our College Handbook section. I wondered if this was a bit boring for the blog, but you can always skip it. It is, however, the bright, shiny, up to date summary of what's offered and how it's delivered from the office-at-the-corner-by-the-sea to - we hope - an ever wider, ecumenical spread of God's people across Oceania. Can you whisper the good news too? We can't leave it all to Fr Harry...

Theology for All for Life. You know you need it.

Behold - all things new!

Well, many things new, it being the end of the long Summer holiday here (yes, SUMMER) and January marks back to school time. Suva has been heaving with the annual round of buying backpacks, lunchboxes - and occasionally even school books. Little beats the pride and dignity on the face of a small student kitted out for new school I think, and it's been good to cheer on the campus children who've been, in general, pretty wriggly and glad to get back in the swing of things. 

Kini, our bookshop manager and Mum to Moji, has been busy with all this. Here's the young man himself, with kind permission, from Kini's Facebook photos. Looking good eh? And the school too!

Then, God be praised, adult students have been progressing with their Extension studies over Xmas and New Year, so Nisha and I have had a fair few assignments to process, files to update etc.

We thought we might have lost a brother from Niue. I don't mean at sea, just lost him from the pool of learning as it were. But no. O ye of little faith. Up he popped with his next two assignments from Introduction to the Study of the Bible, after a fair time lapse, (let's draw a veil over that when any inspectors visit), and the work was great. So, certificates in the post and he's wanting to press on. 

Nisha and I were smiling at correspondence and e-mails from him bemoaning having to spend some months away from his beautiful Niue island home with his daughter and family in urban New Zealand. He wanted to see the family of course, 'But what am I going to do all day?' he questioned plaintively. 'I can't be doing nothing. Send the next course, please!' Which we gladly did. 

The answer to potential boredom and the 'What am I going to do all day?' question should always be, 'Some theological studies'.  

I liked this Niue flavoured response he gave in one of the assignments, picking up the classic, contextual issue that the New Testament says a fair bit about sheep and shepherds, but they don't of course feature in everyone's world. 

Just marked another - Intro to Theology this time - from someone whose home is the island of Rotuma. There's a fabulous question in this course about 'discerning spirits', which asks students to recall stories about ancestral spirits and sacred powers which are important in their own ethnic and cultural identity. The challenge is then to work out whether God's Holy Spirit is at work in these scenarios. How will we know? What measures will we bring to bear? 

Voices issuing from the land featured in one example from the village of Ropure. It is said that strangers hear voices urging them not to disrupt the environment by harmful development. They call out so that all will be left in peace. And the tale is told that once, when an industrial digger from the Public Works Department opened its cruel jaws and began to bite into sacred ground for a new project, the land retaliated by immediately breaking the machine's huge metal teeth and the population watched as it reversed itself at speed back to the wharf. The dejected digger then sailed to Suva for repairs, and worked perfectly on arrival in an urban landscape.

What do you reckon? God's Holy Spirit with a clear ecological agenda at work?

               

               Can we stop fixing it if it doesn't need fixing?

               Yes we can!

               With apologies to Bob and Scoop...

Rev Sitiveni Raikasakasa, one of the Methodist Church in Fiji's faithful Talatala was also in to see us this week and we were thrilled. He progressed with his Bachelor of Divinity degree by Extension very promisingly until 2012 and then the courses ran out. Not his fault. Which is why I've been tasked to get more on the shelves as speedily as is reasonably possible.

    Can we fix it? 

    Yes we can!

    The Lord being our helper....

So we thank Rev Sitiveni for still being up for the BD work and for his gracious spirit. We're sure that he'll be up and running again very soon and we'll be cheering him on.

We were also missing some textbooks ordered a lifetime ago. I mean, we know stuff takes a while to swim or fly over here, but this particular parcel couldn't take that long from the UK could it? 

Ah, well possibly if on a slight detour via the Falklands. Well - all islands beginning with 'F' are pretty much the same eh? Do you think they want that sheep assignment in return?

We had a morning tea to celebrate other graduates: PTC colleagues from many departments who've done their latest Occupational Health and Safety training. Our PTCEE office was inspected and found to be quite healthy apart from some spaghetti-like wires in a corner. Congrats to Nisha who's all trained up and will keep us legal. 

And, speaking of occupational health, delicious parrot mangoes are among us. 

How much, if I may enquire, do you know about the splendid parrot mango?

Well.... c/o http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/mango-fruit.html kindly read below. 

See - it's not all theology!

Totapuri mangoes feature parrot-beak shape tips, smooth shiny and come in attractive green-yellow or orange colors.

Health benefits of Mangos
Mango fruit is rich in pre-biotic dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, and poly-phenolic flavonoid antioxidant compounds.

Mango fruit is an excellent source of Vitamin-A and flavonoids like beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, and beta-cryptoxanthin. 100 g of fresh fruit provides 765 IU or 25% of recommended daily levels of vitamin-A. Together; these compounds have been known to have antioxidant properties and are essential for vision. Vitamin A is also required for maintaining healthy mucus and skin. Consumption of natural fruits rich in carotenes is known to protect from lung and oral cavity cancers.

Fresh mango is a good source of potassium. 100 g fruit provides 156 mg of potassium while just 2 mg of sodium. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure.

It is also a very good source of vitamin-B6 (pyridoxine), vitamin-C and vitamin-E. Consumption of foods rich in vitamin C helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful oxygen-free radicals. Vitamin B-6 or pyridoxine is required for GABA hormone production within the brain. It also controls homocystiene levels within the blood, which may otherwise be harmful to blood vessels resulting in coronary artery disease (CAD), and stroke.

Further, it composes moderate amounts of copper. Copper is a co-factor for many vital enzymes, including cytochrome c-oxidase and superoxide dismutase (other minerals function as co-factors for this enzyme are manganese and zinc). Copper is also required for the production of red blood cells.

Additionally, mango peel is also rich in phytonutrients, such as the pigment antioxidants like carotenoids and polyphenols.

Fair enough, Polly, I'm up for that!

Me too....

Then on Advent 3....

...I flew to Zambia for long, long overdue reunions during Christmas and New Year with those who nurtured, formed and shaped a much younger minister/mission partner in the 1990s. It was wonderful to see everyone: just wonderful, and reminded me that I owe Zambia a debt I can never repay. 

This blog post, subsequently, is very self-indulgent and little more than a picture sequence of now and then. Feel free to Google alternative entertainment...

At that time - 1992-1998 - the mission appointment was to serve the United Church of Zambia (UCZ), Ndola North Consistory, as a minister of word, sacrament and pastoral care, with occasional teaching at the UCZ theological college. Then, after Ordination in the UCZ at St Andrew's, Ndola, (later followed by Reception into Full Connexion of the British Methodist Church - we did it the wrong way around...), to be Consistory Chair of 17 congregations: Circuit Super in Methodist terms. In an area with a Church of Scotland heritage, the vocabulary then was of Consistories, Presbyteries, Elders and Moderators - though the Moderators became Bishops along the way, with very little fuss. Sensible. 

Here are just a few Zambia pictures: of people not really of places, because that's what it was about. And, as I said, thanks for the indulgence on what's supposed to be a Pacific focussed blog.  God so loved the world fortunately...

On arrival in Lusaka, with With Rev Mutale Mulumbwa, recently retired UCZ Synod Bishop - we were colleagues in Ndola years ago - and Rev Mwape Chilekwa, my first ever Circuit Superintendent. As a probationer minister, I was fortunate enough to experience models of leadership that have influenced me for life.

FM Radio stations are a big aspect of outreach and community service in the UCZ these days. Really impressive - and I love radio anyway! I was interviewed on United Voice (Lusaka) and Radio Chimwemwe (Ndola). 

And Girls' Brigade is as feisty and fun as ever - here with recent World President Ruth Chikasa and Officer Ellen Musaka, both members of St Andrew's Ndola in the days when I was  ministering there. Brilliant to see them. Everything I said earlier about influential leadership models replicated in my good sisters below...

...and most stunningly in the Revd Dr Peggy Kabonde, now General Secretary of UCZ. We were Circuit colleagues too, back in the days...I was fortunate. Along with Revd Agnes Mulenga who was a student minister then, now serving in Lusaka.

Overjoyed to meet again Mr and Mrs Peter Ndolo - Church elders extraordinaire from Kaniki, Ndola - now living in Kapiri Mposhi. 

And this is 'Mum' - Mrs Joyce Kapesa Simengwa outside our house in Lubuto compound. 

...and with Dalton, Ruth and other friends just before leaving Ndola to think about returning to an airport. Painful...

St Andrew's UCZ in the centre of Ndola, next door to the Manse, a thriving, energetic and diverse Church family even more so now - though indeed it was 25 years ago too. How good it was to cross-over into 2017 with St Andrew's and worship together on New Year's Day...

...and, looking out into the congregation, it was all of a sudden 27 Feb 1994 again - my Ordination Day. I remember so vividly standing alone in front of a Church packed to the rafters as silence fell and we waited for the Clergy procession to enter. It was headed by my friends-in-ministry Revds Peggy Kabonde and Mwape Chilekwa who've just featured in the reunion photos above. There were solemn promises to be made, then the laying on of hands, by many hands. Rev Brian Brown, then Africa Secretary at the Methodist Church in Britain's Overseas Division was in attendance. There was a UCZ stole presented and a Bible: I treasure them, particularly the presentation Bible's inscription.

And then we moved to Holy Communion. Word and Sacrament. A feast for life.

Shall I bore you with the scanned in picture sequence from '94?

According to the Methodist Church in Britain, my date of entry into ministry is logged as 1 Sept 1992, so 2017 marks 25 years. Two responses really: profound amazement and deep gratitude. 

The bidding and text of the Methodist Covenant prayer - needed much more at the start of a fresh calendar year than a new 'Methodist' year in my humble opinion -  has been ever sustaining during these minister/mission partner/tutor years because of its sheer, raw, uncompromising truthfulness.

Christ has many service to be done:
some are easy, others are difficult;
some bring honour, others bring reproach;
Some are suited to our natural inclinations and material interests,
others are contrary to both;
in some we may please Christ and please ourselves;
in others we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves.
Yet the power to do all these things is given to us in Christ who strengthens us. 

I am no longer my own but yours. 
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; 
put me to doing, put me to suffering; 
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you, 
exalted for you, or brought low for you; 
let me be full, let me be empty, 
let me have all things, let me have nothing: 
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. 
And now, glorious and blessèd God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 
you are mine and I am yours. 
So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, 
let it be ratified in heaven. 
Amen. 

Methodist Worship Book, page 290. © 1999 Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. 

Vocationally, wherever the place and whatever the circumstances, that's the deal.


Thanks be to God.