Bula vinaka to the friends of the Bible Institute at Raiwaqa, Fiji,
SCHOOL UPDATE: We have come to the close of the 2021 school year at the Bible Institute at Raiwaqa. This year has presented us with many challenges. For example, we have not been able to have in-classroom instruction since 22 April 2021. Since that time, we have recorded videos, produced textbooks, workbooks, and exams for our classes. These courses were supplied to the students on Micro SD cards which were played back on school furnished tablets. The students were assigned two courses at a time and were required to report their progress each Saturday morning before 10:00 AM. At the end of the course, assignments and exams were retrieved and new videos and assignments were delivered.
We also utilized FaceBook Messenger to interact with our students where we encouraged questions and discussion. We received some really good questions from our students, answers from our instructors, and positive feedback. Overall, the students rose to the challenge and demonstrated through their questions, assignments, and exams that they were getting the material that they need to prepare them for greater service in the kingdom.
(Note: We had looked into hosting the classes live via Zoom, but this was not practical due to inconsistency and expense of the current internet service available on the island.)
One of the benefits that we derived from this year’s challenges is that we now have video courses recorded for 14 classes. These videos, with their textbooks and workbooks, can be used to teach students remotely, enable students to retake a class they failed, or make up a class they missed. The video courses recorded so far are:
1 Church History, 2 New Testament Church, 3 Genesis, 4 Exodus to Deuteronomy, 5 God's Plan of Salvation, 6 Peter and Jude, 7 Romans, 8 Joshua to Esther,
9 Godhead, 10 Psalms to Song of Solomon, 11 Denominational Doctrines,
12 Hebrews, 13 Prison Epistles, and 14 Church Leadership.
2021 GRADUATION: We had three to graduate this year from the Bible Institute at Raiwaqa. Petelo and Moana, from the neighboring nation of Samoa, and Asenaca from Naila Village here in Fiji. Because of covid19 restrictions, it was necessary to split these graduations into two events. One was hosted at the school for Petelo and Moana, the other was hosted in Naila village for Asenaca. We were fortunate to have three guest speakers for our graduation exercises who recorded their encouraging messages in video. They were Dr Denny Petrillo, president of Bear Valley, Keith Kasarjian, director of the international schools, and Terry Pafford, a good friend of the school and an elder of the Lord’s church in Midland, Texas.
Lord willing, Petelo, Moana, and their son Jimmy, are scheduled to return to Samoa on the 3rd of December. They plan to work with their home congregation at Vaimoso, in the capital city of Apia, for about 6 months. It is then their plan to move to their home island of Savaii to establish a congregation of the Lord’s church in their home village. Petelo has demonstrated a heart for preaching and evangelism while a student here in Fiji. During the lockdown, Petelo started a Bible study group with his neighbors in the settlement across the gorge, behind his house. He also has been a weekly speaker on the Talofa Bible Readers FaceBook group in American Samoa where he preaches to a Samoan audience in his native tongue.
Asenaca (Ase) is a second generation graduate. Her father, Kitioni, graduated in 2019 and is one of the leading men at the Naila Church of Christ. Kitioni currently serves as one of the preachers at Naila and heads up a prison ministry. Sister Ase has demonstrated herself to be a diligent student, consistently making A’s in her classes. Following graduation, she sent me this note via messenger:
Good evening Brother Rocco
I would like to personally thank you for everything that you have done in the school – the lessons and the values that you teach.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us.
May God give you a long healthy life. Vinaka, Ase
Ase currently has plans to enter the university to study law. She is a fine young Christian woman and will be a positive influence wherever her travels take her.
Please pray for our graduates and the work they will be entering into! We look forward to keeping up with their progress as they seek to serve the Lord with their lives.
THANK YOU! Let me close by saying, vinaka vaka levu (Fijian: thank you very much) for your interest in, your prayers for, and your support that makes this work possible. May God credit the fruits of our labor together to your account.
Rocco Pierce
Director and Instructor for the Bible Institute at Raiwaqa, Fiji