"Once upon a time
--- now nearly thirty years ago ---
----- We were in the Cook Islands - way out in the Pacific - on the island of Rarotonga. The Gospel had come there in the early 1800's - taken root, and flourished. For very many years now there has been a totally indigenous Christian Church (the early missionaries were Congregationalists/London Missionary Society I think).
So - when we(my D., ouryoung daughter, and I) went there for the second time, we joined ourselves, as the year before, to the church, and were again wonderfully blessed by their fellowship. This second time of being there I asked if I could do anything to help - we were there altogetherfor about 3 months, as a part-time job was available(but that’s “another story”!). They accepted my offer, and told me I could take a S. S. class because the Islander teacher was about to have a baby. The people are Polynesians, English as a second language is spoken by just about everyone, but in the church services and Sunday School their own language(Cook Islands Maori) is used. One S. S. class though, had their lessons in English, for extra practice, because these were kids who would be going over to New Zealand later on(about 4 hrs flying time across the ocean) for further education.
The Sunday School classes were held outside under the trees. The lessons were a set curriculum, set by the 'head office of the church' for the whole of the Islands - they always had an exam set by H. O. at the end of the year! and a sort of interim one part way through, which was set by each teacher for her class.
I had no idea how to set such a test!!! Never done it before - and having been left 'to sink or swim', plunged in!! The quarter's lessons had been on the life of Joseph - a Bible story I love - so I was trying to get across to them my theme(as you would know!) of "all things work together for good to those who love God" - my very special part of that story of Joseph is when he says -
"You meant it to me for evil - BUT G O D meant it for good"
Had deluded myself into(hopefully) thinking I was getting the message across to them!!!! When the exam day came - instead of going into the church service first as was usual(& then going out to SS) we were all sent out to do our exam. No-one had told me what to do - so I got papers and pencils - and then realised that you can't write on a piece of paper down on the grass under a tree - so took them into a sort of storage shed that was there. It had an assortment of old church seats(long bench ones) in it - so I sat them all down (on the ground I think!! memory is dim ) to use the benches as tables for writing. Posed my questions - they wrote their answers - and when we were all done, the idea was for us to go back over the road again to the church building for the end of the service.
I was relieved that my ordeal(as a test-setter) was over. [At home later, I read their answers - wish I had them still!! And was deflated when I read on one paper that "the story of Joseph teaches us that if we do good things everything will turn out all right, and be a success! " ]
After the test was all finished, and we were straggling across to the church, someone said - "oh, here come the '...' family"! and sure enough - from way over came a couple of children of the class, coming slowly to do their test!!! Now - I guess they all thought I was a mad 'papa'a'* when I said "Well, they weren't here to do the test, so we'll just keep on going into church". and we did .
Oh dear - so much for my being a SS teacher in another culture!
'Time' there is a MUCH more flexible concept than in the Western world: although the schools all have "Time Tables" and pretty much adhere to them. We were very privileged to have our daughter admitted to Primary Grade 6 in the village school, and she settled in well there, and was very well taught. After her first week or so though, I spoke to the Principal(he was an elder in our village church) about not 'going easy' on her re schoolwork, homework &c. - was concerned she didn't seem to be doing as much as back home. He wisely said to me that it was way more important for her to feel settled and happy among them first of all, than to pressure her with work - he was right of course. The Education system there was excellent, and what an honour for us to be included.
That's my little story - I can see them all now - and here’s a page from 'The Mystery Worshipper' website which has a picture of the church building and a description from someone who visited there years later - you'll enjoy it I think -
Have a look at this
The church was built out of coral limestone from the reef - built long ago at a time when there was a huge 'influenza(or measles or something) epidemic' (brought in by Westerners) - many, many Islanders died - and as one or other of the Islander Christians would have to drop out of the chain of people carrying coral blocks (like a 'bucket brigade') from the Reef to the building site - another one would take their place. A friend showed us a mass burial site up in the hills - because so many had died at that time that they couldn't bury them singly. We also saw them dance the story of the building of the church, at a Festival - beautiful and moving!
--
* 'papa'a' literally means 'four-layer people'.
The New Zealand Maori language equivalent is the word 'paheka'.
----- We were in the Cook Islands - way out in the Pacific - on the island of Rarotonga. The Gospel had come there in the early 1800's - taken root, and flourished. For very many years now there has been a totally indigenous Christian Church (the early missionaries were Congregationalists/London Missionary Society I think).
So - when we(my D., ouryoung daughter, and I) went there for the second time, we joined ourselves, as the year before, to the church, and were again wonderfully blessed by their fellowship. This second time of being there I asked if I could do anything to help - we were there altogetherfor about 3 months, as a part-time job was available(but that’s “another story”!). They accepted my offer, and told me I could take a S. S. class because the Islander teacher was about to have a baby. The people are Polynesians, English as a second language is spoken by just about everyone, but in the church services and Sunday School their own language(Cook Islands Maori) is used. One S. S. class though, had their lessons in English, for extra practice, because these were kids who would be going over to New Zealand later on(about 4 hrs flying time across the ocean) for further education.
The Sunday School classes were held outside under the trees. The lessons were a set curriculum, set by the 'head office of the church' for the whole of the Islands - they always had an exam set by H. O. at the end of the year! and a sort of interim one part way through, which was set by each teacher for her class.
I had no idea how to set such a test!!! Never done it before - and having been left 'to sink or swim', plunged in!! The quarter's lessons had been on the life of Joseph - a Bible story I love - so I was trying to get across to them my theme(as you would know!) of "all things work together for good to those who love God" - my very special part of that story of Joseph is when he says -
"You meant it to me for evil - BUT G O D meant it for good"
Had deluded myself into(hopefully) thinking I was getting the message across to them!!!! When the exam day came - instead of going into the church service first as was usual(& then going out to SS) we were all sent out to do our exam. No-one had told me what to do - so I got papers and pencils - and then realised that you can't write on a piece of paper down on the grass under a tree - so took them into a sort of storage shed that was there. It had an assortment of old church seats(long bench ones) in it - so I sat them all down (on the ground I think!! memory is dim ) to use the benches as tables for writing. Posed my questions - they wrote their answers - and when we were all done, the idea was for us to go back over the road again to the church building for the end of the service.
I was relieved that my ordeal(as a test-setter) was over. [At home later, I read their answers - wish I had them still!! And was deflated when I read on one paper that "the story of Joseph teaches us that if we do good things everything will turn out all right, and be a success! " ]
After the test was all finished, and we were straggling across to the church, someone said - "oh, here come the '...' family"! and sure enough - from way over came a couple of children of the class, coming slowly to do their test!!! Now - I guess they all thought I was a mad 'papa'a'* when I said "Well, they weren't here to do the test, so we'll just keep on going into church". and we did .
Oh dear - so much for my being a SS teacher in another culture!
'Time' there is a MUCH more flexible concept than in the Western world: although the schools all have "Time Tables" and pretty much adhere to them. We were very privileged to have our daughter admitted to Primary Grade 6 in the village school, and she settled in well there, and was very well taught. After her first week or so though, I spoke to the Principal(he was an elder in our village church) about not 'going easy' on her re schoolwork, homework &c. - was concerned she didn't seem to be doing as much as back home. He wisely said to me that it was way more important for her to feel settled and happy among them first of all, than to pressure her with work - he was right of course. The Education system there was excellent, and what an honour for us to be included.
That's my little story - I can see them all now - and here’s a page from 'The Mystery Worshipper' website which has a picture of the church building and a description from someone who visited there years later - you'll enjoy it I think -
Have a look at this
The church was built out of coral limestone from the reef - built long ago at a time when there was a huge 'influenza(or measles or something) epidemic' (brought in by Westerners) - many, many Islanders died - and as one or other of the Islander Christians would have to drop out of the chain of people carrying coral blocks (like a 'bucket brigade') from the Reef to the building site - another one would take their place. A friend showed us a mass burial site up in the hills - because so many had died at that time that they couldn't bury them singly. We also saw them dance the story of the building of the church, at a Festival - beautiful and moving!
--
* 'papa'a' literally means 'four-layer people'.
The New Zealand Maori language equivalent is the word 'paheka'.