Friday, June 29, 2012

KEEP Me SAFE From ABUSE To SHINE = The BEST!


Naselesele Village Primary School's theme for Blue Ribbon Week -- Fiji's Fight Against Drugs and Child Abuse is:  KEEP Me SAFE From ABUSE To SHINE = The BEST!

To shine the best – one must not conform or compromise to the world’s satanic standards, which are anti-CHRIST – against the infallible wisdom of CHRIST JESUS, the Son of our FatherGOD.
JESUS -- The BEST EXAMPLE!
To keep our children safe from abuse – saturate the home with godliness, enriching their minds with GOD’s Word and exemplifying in our daily lives the utterly powerful meekness and humility of CHRIST.

Teach our children to imitate JESUS, for He is the BEST example of self-emptying obedience, almighty gentleness, supernatural wisdom, incomprehensible love, holy righteousness.

If you would have your children truly succeed – not so much according to the world’s self-glorifying measure of success, but true success in GOD’s eyes – then teach them of the Person of CHRIST, for who else is the superlative Teacher in all the world, for all time?
JESUS is THE ANSWER to ALL problems!
Who, but JESUS only, pleases FatherGOD in all ways, always?  Who but JESUS shines the brightest Light, far eclipsing the blinding sun?  Who but JESUS demonstrated the most tender and most generous outpouring of sacrificial love?  Who but JESUS – sinless and blameless – can teach our children true wisdom to win the fight against drugs and child abuse?

Only JESUS, the Master Teacher, Who personifies incomparable infinite Intelligence, Who knows the all in all – only CHRIST JESUS can empower our children to shine their personal best!

As written in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Friday, June 1, 2012

BENI -- Naselesele TRAGIC Casualty







When i first met Beni, he was only four years old. He was holding 3-year old Miriama’s hand to help her down G’ma Tuvi’s steps. i knew then that he was a kindhearted child – a gentle man in the making.
At 11 years old, Beni killed himself.

What happened to the child with whom i fell in love? What happened in those seven years? How could a rosary-wearying, church-attending, family-surrounded child come to such a desperate state as to see no way out but to take himself out… WAY OUT – the way out of life… the way out to death.

Beni gave clues of his downward spiral, even to me. When sitting at the treehouse in the village, i asked him to write the numbers 1 – 100. He made mistakes… i thought he was just being careless. When i was the “banker” for the children’s money and Beni decided to also put his monies in aunty Merlin’s bank, i noticed that he had so much more money than the other four kids living in the household, so much that in one week, he had surpassed their combined total. i was told that the money came from selling beer bottles. i didn’t question again how he was able to bank so much money.

Beni hinted about his inner turmoil. He drew macabre pictures of coffins and bloody daggers stabbing body-less heads. He scribbled in his notebooks incessantly instead of doing schoolwork.

In the village, i was told, there are no real orphans, for there is always a g’ma or aunty or uncle to take care of any child whose natural mother has left him or whose father is too busy doing his own thing. Everyone in the village is that child’s substitute mom or dad, for all are related to that child in one way or another. Everyone in the village was Beni’s family… no WAY was he an orphan. He was well cared for as he lived from one relative’s house to another.

Then why did Beni not go to someone – ANY one – for help, to get him out of his predicament? Why did he not go to GOD – his very present HELP in times of trouble – why did he believe that no one, not even GOD, could help him?

How did he learn to do those things which got him into trouble in school… those actions that he knew were bad, which would lead to severe punishment? Who showed him or told him that “it is easy to die”?

Beni’s tragic death tested and strengthened my faith in our utterly compassionate and ALL-Mighty GOD. i wondered how GOD will cause ALL things – even Beni’s death -- to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose. But as in Jazmyn’s seemingly untimely death, i trust in an ALL-Wise GOD, who is in TOTAL CONTROL of ALL things and all circumstances, who gives and takes away according to His sovereign will, whose will is perfect and good all the time – though we, mere human beings, may not like or understand His ways.

Even in Beni’s death, i continue to trust in GOD’s Perfect LOVE and Perfect WISDOM in allowing this tragedy. As Oswald Chambers aptly wrote: It matters not WHAT GOD does – it matters only WHO GOD is!\o/