On your marks

The long 'Summer' holiday draws to a close and the Pacific Theological College gears up for another academic year of residential programmes with all the hustle and bustle of cleaning and gardening in preparation. Stand in one place for too long and you're likely to get strimmed. Lots of new staff and student faces will appear as from this weekend moving into various campus properties. So, better get used to it: I can't claim to be 'new' any more! On 22 January it'll be five months since arrival. 

I've been doing a lot of assignment marking recently and it took me today to the Solomon Islands. Not physically, sadly, but that opportunity will come before too long I hope. Doctors Graham and Jenny Longbottom are Methodist Mission Partners very recently returned from the Solomons and know the context much more.

My task was to read the work of Mr Alban Leaga, an Anglican, a member of the Church of Melanesia who describes himself as a lay worker in Bita'ama Parish and a companion leader of the Melanesian Brotherhood. His assignments are posted from the small town of Auki in Malaita Province. Auki's main street looks like this.

Alban is another PTCEE mature student, born in 1947. He worked for the Solomon Islands Government in the Ministry of Health and Medical Services and then for Habitat for Humanity. He is now, clearly, one of those retired people who is nothing of the sort and became gripped by theological studies in 2007. By 2011 he'd achieved the 45 credits needed for his Certificate in Theological Studies, and here's the evidence on file.

Not satisfied with that, he's aiming to notch up another 45 credits this year to achieve a Diploma in Theological Studies: something that represents a tremendous amount of steady, committed application. We asked Alban to consider some of the challenges of studying by extension and he said this:

Genesis 3.19 says, 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread'. Living in our rural village people are self employed and have to work in their vegetable and food gardens for the families to survive. Commitments of various work activities lie ahead every day for the family with community, school and Church programmes. With such involvement it may not be possible to study in the day time. I made a discipline to a time allocated from 2.00am to 5.00am in the morning, when less disturbances can be experienced, except from others in the house.

So that's the way to do it. 

And indeed, Alban's assignments roll in; steadily, surely, consistently. The ones I marked today arise from our M102e Introduction to Pastoral Care course. By sharing one or two excerpts, we gain a real picture window onto rural, Parish life in the Solomons and into Alban's own experiences which the courses ask him to reflect on and process theologically.

In one activity, students are asked to think about times when it was important to know that other people were praying for them rather than focussing on their own prayers for other people. Alban writes:

When I am sick, I may take some medicine, but with the prayers of others I manage to recover from my illness. Also through the prayers of others I managed to survive in my travellings, in a ship wrecked on a reef out from the mainland at night. The Captain had to call for another boat for all us passengers. On an outboard motor canoe, the engine broke down when out from the islands. We had to paddle to the mainland, arriving at midnight. On a truck, climbing a hill, the engine stopped and we had to reverse back down a hill to a river, but managed to get off the road where all of us passengers were thrown off the truck on the ground. On a plane trip to Temotu Province, the plane lost its way in the air. We had to return back to where we started, Honiara, arriving very late in the evening. Should the plane have had less fuel we might have dropped in the middle of the sea. There were lots of experiences, but with God's help through other people's prayer, I have managed to overcome these hardships. 

Marking for Extension Studies is rarely dull.

In another assignment, two lists were asked for. The first asks the writer to identify needs and problems they observe in their local community. The second asks them to list gifts and talents evident in the community that might be tapped to address those needs. Here are Alban's lists from Parish life.

Needs and problems in our community

1.   School fees for school students

2.   Financial needs of families

3.   Drunkenness by alcoholic members of the community

4.   Cost of transport fare to urban towns

5.   Cost of housing materials from the hardware store

6.   Cost of children's school uniforms for families

7.   Gardening tools are not available

8.   Repair and maintenance of the community water supply

9.   Lighting for some family homes

10. Supporting elderly people

11. Lack of income generating projects or cash income

12. No start up costs available for income generating projects

Gifts and talents of our community

1.   Sewing of clothes for sale

2.   Cooking of cakes or food for sale

3.   Weaving of baskets or mats for sale

4.   Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools

5.   Church lay workers

6.   Vegetable farming of crops

7.   Building of a residential house

8.   Going out fishing on the sea coast

9.   Catching of stream or river prawns

10. Furniture making

11.  Driving of vehicles

12.  Diving and catching coastal fish with a net

Community care ministry is about prioritising which problem can be dealt with first, according to Alban, and then 'working together as a team, we will try to solve or meet one need at a time'.

In much the same way as Mr Alban Leaga, one assignment at a time, is going to get that Diploma. Watch this space. He and numerous other Extension students teach me an awful lot about keeping focussed and staying faithful.