Riches and repositories

Pretty sure I bored you about Project PTCEE a few posts ago, but we're green for go now. Every important committee and person in authority has given it the thumbs up. So watch, as they say, this space... 

What is it in a nutshell? Well, up to now, the Pacific Theological College's Education by Extension (Distance Learning) programme offers only print-based courses, mailed out to hard working students across the small islands, who then return their work by post. We won't stop doing print-based for those in really isolated places with little or no internet access. But it's 2017 and the Pacific islands communicate digitally and online. We urgently need to upgrade, upskill and get the computers, technology and platforms in place for online courses, open access resources and a much more flexible and helpful learning approach. The initial set-up costs are daunting but once in place, PTCEE will be considerably more cost effective and accessible. We're so determined, and doing everything we can locally here in Fiji. If you can come on board the PTCEE canoe and help us row a bit faster into the future, we'd love to hear from you. Click HERE for all the finer details and the maths!

In an attempt to keep one step ahead of these developments and sound vaguely convincing at meetings, I've just done a MOOC. A Massive Open Online Course on the topic of Open Education Resources and Repositories. And I've been Certified to prove it, excuse me. In the great scheme of things, our present print based material will be digitized and new material added as we build up a wonderful repository of accessible courses and resources for the Pacific. Please God.

You know the four R's of OER? Bind them on your foreheads.

Among the residential students, it's been submission week for Masters theses so much midnight oil burned and a fair bit of last minute proof reading has come my way. I enjoy it, and learn a huge amount, but don't enjoy witnessing the stresses and strains that our scholar-pastors endure on the journey to submission. They don't, as the common misconception goes, 'bring it all on themselves' for not being organised enough. A number of elements converge to make thesis writing at PTC a great deal more agonising and hurdle jumping than it need be. But better not get me started...  

One thesis - I won't credit the author just yet but will when the time comes - took me right back to my ministerial training at Wesley Bristol 1989-91. Do you know, to my shame, I don't think I've studied John Wesley's 'money' sermons since then. And I know you've scrutinised them at least twice a week and done a Powerpoint. Sermon 50 is on the Use of Money and Sermon 51 examines characteristics of The Good Steward  In Sermon 50, we find Wesley's classic trinitarian principle of economics; Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can'. Ever tried that? How did you find it? 

In reading some of the thesis I was glad to be reminded of how the original Methodist class meeting, in its desire to 'watch over one another in love', watched over finances with particular care and distributed wealth to the poorest; offering small loans for business and the like. Local stewards were entrusted with the 'penny a week' offerings and made to account for them meticulously. Accountability before God for the right use of resources was of massive importance for Wesley. Be prepared, he warns. One day, the Lord will enquire of us...

 “How didst thou employ the worldly goods which I lodged in thy hands?

...in what manner didst thou employ that comprehensive talent, money? — not in gratifying the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life; not squandering it away in vain expenses — the same as throwing it into the sea; not hoarding it up to leave behind thee — the same as burying it in the earth; but first supplying thy own reasonable wants, together with those of thy family; then restoring the remainder to me, through the poor, whom I had appointed to receive it; looking upon thyself as only one of that number of poor, whose wants were to be supplied out of that part of my substance which I had placed in thy hands for this purpose; leaving thee the right of being supplied first, and the blessedness of giving rather than receiving? Wast thou accordingly a general benefactor to mankind? feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting the sick, assisting the stranger, relieving the afflicted, according to their various necessities? Wast thou eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame, a father to the fatherless, and an husband to the widow? And didst thou labour to improve all outward works of mercy, as means of saving souls from death?”

And there it is in that last sentence. All of this is about care of the soul as much as the body. Money matters are fundamentally mission matters. All God's work. The hypothesis being tested out in the aforementioned thesis is whether Wesley's writings on money and stewardship, read in 2017, offer workable, contemporary principles for the financial strategies and operations of our denominations and indeed our personal stewardship responsibilities. How much direct application of them might be helpful? Fascinating. Sit up, Finance Departments everywhere!

And talking of money matters, I live next door to our College's Director of Finance and Administration these days. He moved in after Anna, Kasa, Ema and Lucia moved out. Try to keep up. I can feel the power seeping through the walls and swear I can hear the steady clink, clink of Pacific pennies being counted one by one into bulbous jars at 2 in the morning by candelight. Actually, Sanjeet and another member of our awesome Finance Team, Rima, have just been at one of Fiji's swanky resorts attending the Certified Public Accountants bash and claiming, via Facebook photos, that they have the biggest minds.

But as amply illustrated earlier in this post, I too have been Certified and PTCEE has a bigger Repository. So there.

Here's Sanjeet on the right with his Mum and Dad who were visiting. I had friends over for Fiji Father's Day - including three proud Dads. 

...and even though Wendy's Dad was in the same room, she still insisted on calling.

Thanks for reading. Don't forget the homework: John Wesley's Sermons 50 & 51. 
Or else...