Team Fiji in the running for 8 gold medals today
Team Fiji is aiming to win gold medals in Netball, Boxing, Hockey, Beach Volleyball and golf in the final day of Pacific Games.
Fiji Pearls will meet the PNG Pepes in the gold medal final at 3pm today.
Fiji remains unbeaten in netball after a successful victory over Samoa 64-48 in the semifinal playoff last night.
In the men’s heavyweight 91kg boxing division Fiji’s Viliame Vitukalulu will fight Tahitian Boxer Heimata Neuffer in the gold medal final at 1pm.
In the welterweight final Fijian boxer, Winston Hill will face Louis Danglebermes of New Caledonia in the gold medal final at 1pm.
In the light heavy weight division, Sina Ruata will fight New Caledonian Boxer Luke Hema in the gold medal final at 1pm.
In women’s hockey, Fiji will play Papua New Guinea in the gold medal final at 3pm today.
Yesterday Fiji thrashed Tonga 21-1 in the semifinal.
The men’s hockey team will also take on Vanuatu at 4.30pm today in the gold medal final.
While in Beach Volleyball, the Men’s team has qualified for the gold medal final at 4pm today against Papua New Guinea.
Looking at the medal tally, Papua New Guinea is still leading with 76 gold, 62 silver and 57 bronze, New Caledonia is in second place with 57 gold, 47 silver and 52 bronze, Tahiti is in third place with 35 gold, 30 silver and 36 bronze.
Team Fiji is in fourth place with 29 gold, 39 silver and 34 bronze.
We got gold in the men's singles lawn bowls too. Splendid effort, chaps! Here's Semesa Naiseruvati...
Not to be outdone, Pacific Theological College had Sports Day today and we all leapt about on the main field in various directions doing all sorts of things from egg and spoon races (well, small citrus fruit and spoon) to volleyball. White team against blue team. White won (our team) but only because of the agility and enthusiasm of our younger players! I expect some revealing photos will inevitably get circulated on social media, at which point I'll take a view on whether they're appropriate for mission partner blogging...
The warm up for Sports Day was Tabata, ably led by Filemoni and Elena. I didn't know about Tabata before coming here and so Googled it...
Tabata training is one of the most popular forms of high-intensity interval training (HIIT). It consists of eight rounds of ultra-high-intensity exercises in a specific 20-seconds-on, 10-seconds-off interval. It may only take four minutes to complete a Tabata circuit, but those four minutes may well push your body to its absolute limit.
To be honest, I think we were doing a slightly less specific and serious version, which was fine by me...
From the sporty to the spiritual. It was, as ever, a joy to lead the Holy Communion service in the PTC Chapel last Friday morning. Here's what it looked like..
This last hymn is included in PTC's hymn book and is by Elizabeth J Smith. We sang it to the tune 'Duke Street', with an awareness, I think, that all our churches - of whatever denomination - need this kind of wake up call.
My reflection (mini-sermon) was as follows:
Mark 6.56 – They begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
The fringe, just the very edge, just the tassel (κρασπέδου/kraspedon in the Greek) perhaps, of the prayer shawl that the law required a Jewish man to wear. We can find the instructions about this in Numbers 15 and Deuteronomy 22.12. Tassels hung there as a reminder of the commandments.
At the end of this passage, which we can find quite emotional if we really enter into it, the most vulnerable people, the sick desperate for healing are brought by their friends and relatives to lie on mats at the market place, begging to touch even the fringe of Jesus's garment, because they dare to believe the healer’s power will be there. Cultural superstition? Traditional expectation? Or the prompting of the Holy Spirit – today there is something for me – God’s power is at work for me, even though I lie or sit at the very outer edge of society, even at the fringe.
Whenever we think about this touching of Jesus’s garment, I reckon most minds go back to the familiar Gospel story of a particular woman in the crowd who reached out to touch; to make contact with Jesus for her own healing. In Matthew’s version - chapter 9 – and in Luke's version - chapter 8 - she’s had severe bleeding, a shameful thing culturally, and the text is clear that she touches the edge of his cloak in hope. In the NRSV - the fringe. So it’s the same message as in our reading today from Mark – the ones on the very edge of society are reaching out to grasp for hope at the very edge of the garment.
But it’s interesting to remind ourselves that Mark’s gospel has already told the story of the woman with severe bleeding earlier on in his account of Jesus's life – in chapter 5 – and Mark actually doesn’t mention that ‘tassel’ word – or the very edge of the garment. That detail is missing. And Mark adds a little extra something too – Matthew and Luke don’t have it – in Mark 5.27 – this woman had heard about Jesus for herself. She’d also had money to spend on doctors, we're told, so maybe a women not quite so on the edge economically? Who knows. She had heard, Mark tells us, about Jesus and she makes a decision to get near to him and places herself – very controversially – saying: If I can just touch his clothes. Not merely the edge or the fringe. The cloak, the clothing, the garment. The ‘begging’ word is not here, nor is that attitude of, ‘If I may be permitted to touch just the very edge because it’s all I’m worth’. The crumbs from under the table....' No. Perhaps she says - let me reach out for more than that.
Drama:
Dr Rayappan has kindly agreed to play the role of Jesus for a few moments and I'll take the role of the woman who reaches out. Watch and see which of these two scenes speaks to you most powerfully.
1. Jesus is walking around – not looking at the woman – she approaches very timidly – crouching – just reaching out for the very edge of his garment – a fleeting touch - then immediately retreats in fear.
2. Jesus again is just walking around – not looking at the woman – she approaches much more intentionally and boldly, moving alongside him and grasping his arm in a firm grip. He turns to look.
In Matthew, Luke and Mark’s versions of the woman’s healing – whatever the touch looked like – edge or full garment - God’s power through Jesus was hers. All the gospel versions are clear on that. God’s amazing grace and abundant mercy laughs in the face of human discrimination. It doesn't ask first, who's teetering on the edge or who's at the centre. Jesus has compassion for ALL the crowd who are like sheep without a shepherd and teaches them all many things without first separating them into faculty and support staff, residential and extension students, BDs and MThs and so on and so forth - the many categories of humanity we seem to invent at PTC.
No, God doesn't favour the full garment and neglect the fringe. The question is whether WE believe the outer edge, the fringe, the margin is all we’re ever permitted to grasp at? A place which will keep us in our place. Or, whether we dare to grasp intentionally, and maybe culturally inappropriately, for some more of the real garment.
Not because we, in ourselves, are ever worthy. We're not. But because our amazing God has a passionate love and longing for those at the fringes to be first at the feast.
We also enjoyed singing Kevin Nicols' hymn for Holy Communion, deeply profound in its sheer simplicity. For now, I'll leave you with that. God Bless.
In bread we bring you Lord, our body's' labour
In wine we offer you our spirit's grief.
We do not ask you, Lord, who is my neighbour?
But stand united now, one in belief.
For we have gladly heard your Word, your holy Word
And now in answer, Lord, our gifts we bring.
Our selfish hearts make true, our failing faith renew,
Our life belongs to you, our Lord and King.
The bread we offer you is blessed and broken,
And it becomes for us our spirit’s food.
Over the cup we bring, your Word is spoken;
Make it your gift to us, your healing blood.
Take all that daily toil, plants in our heart’s poor soil,
Take all we start and spoil, each hopeful dream.
The chances we have missed, the graces we resist,
Lord, in this Eucharist, take and redeem.
Wow Val... what a celebration... many thanks! We know from PNG and UK experience that news of the Pacific Island games doesn't reach Europe but is of course the Olympics of the South Seas. Here in northern England Sportschaplaincy is rich seem and a few of us , who are involved in racing chaplaincy, get across tot meetings which are held in the Bradford Bulls stadium where ball sports predominate of course. Despite this the training days reveal some very rewarding accounts of people getting out of the pews and onto the 'turf' in the name of Christ. Stay fit with or without the interval training. Peace be with you... Peter and Janice
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