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....