On the weekend of February 6-9 the SPD sponsored a Faith and Science Conference at Avondale College. One aim of the Geoscience Committee was to demonstrate how a person of faith can maintain a view that is faithful to the Bible and the teachings of our Church, while at the same time being aware of the challenges from science, and our own limitations in dealing with them. About 80 people participated in the conference. Of this group 20 were secondary teachers, 9 were college lecturers and 6 were education directors, meaning that including invitees, over half the group were from an educational background.
The program included 14 lectures, 4 discussion sessions and a divine service. Two of our guest lecturers, Jim Gibson and Tim Standish from the Geoscience Research Institute delivered three papers each. As I listened to science teachers’ questions in lectures and discussions at meals, and as I talked with them, I felt that they were committed to their faith, that they were of a high calibre, and that our students are being taught to think through issues.
Though the conference was successful with its good discussion and interesting papers, I felt that there could have been more emphasis on how we can each deal with the current issues, and on how we can communicate these issues simply to our students and church members. Of course our committee did aim for this outcome but found it hard to achieve in practice. I am hoping that we can initiate some kind of written overview of current Adventist creation issues and some advice on how students and other church members may relate to these issues. If you have any suggestions or comment on issues in faith and science, I would be glad to see them on my blog site or in my mail box.
News about the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
A Holiday Conversation
First of all, Welcome back to the 2009 school year. I trust that it will all go well with you and that you are aware of God’s rich blessings on each of your ministries.
Not all schools are back yet. Spare a thought for a number of Adventist schools in Fiji. The Education Director Master Save Ramokosoi sent the following note in this last week.
“Luckily, we do not have a school in Nadi. However, the bad weather affected the whole country and the two schools that really suffered were Waiyala and Navesau. Both these schools are boarding schools and they lost most of their crops. Foods that the schools were preparing for term 1. Books were also damaged. We are trying our best to get some food and textbooks assistance from the government and we are hoping that help will come soon because school has already started. Some of our teachers are still not able to travel to their schools because some roads are still closed to traffic.”
I have asked Save for more information and may yet send out a request for a gold coin donation from your students. You will remember when the Solomons suffered the devastating earthquake at Easter 2007 that each of the Unions approved a scheme where schools could be invited at short notice to help support sister schools which had suffered some sort of devastation. We are after all a system and need to remember the needs of other sister schools throughout the South Pacific Division.
So what was the holiday conversation all about? After a great time on Norfolk Island I attended the North New Zealand family camp for the last weekend. On the Sabbath afternoon I caught up with an acquaintance who is now a mother of 2 young boys and an older daughter. She started to tell me all about her youngest son who suffers from dyslexia. Now I must confess that being a past principal of a number of years I have heard many stories about dyslexia from parents who ‘just knew’ their children suffered from it. Almost as many stories as “You know my child suffers from ADHD!” So I did my best to endure yet another delivery of “My son has dyslexia.” Yes you can call me cynical and insensitive. But despite that, I was determined this time to remain engaged and must say that I am glad that I did. This mother went on to tell me of the heartache and frustration and breakdown of mother/son relationship as she tried every method she could think of and others that had been recommended by teachers to try and fix the problem. But then she came across the Davis Dyslexia Learning strategies program. After just 12 months following it her son has made a remarkable improvement from a reading age of below 5 years to a reading age now of 10+ (he is 11). The relief for her was obvious and she is now passionate about the program that has helped her son so much.
There is not enough space here to explain how this system works, but from their web-page the following may spark some interest. “They gain new understanding of their personal thinking and perceptual processes; learn self-help methods for controlling perception, and skills for eliminating confusion.”
The mother gave me 3 websites to take a look at and I pass them on for your information as well. I believe that for any parent who believes that their child suffers dyslexia these websites will be of great assistance. Check out
http://www.dyslexiahelp.co.nz/
http://www.dyslexiafoundation.org.nz/
http://www.ddapacific.co.nz/
I hope that during this year, no matter what the learning challenge is for your students, that you will have the time and energy and motivation to help find a solution for them and their families.
The next blog I will share with you some of the success stories of the new Pacific Bible curriculum. I’ve taken enough of your busy time for now.
God bless.
Ken Weslake,
Associate Director, Education
South Pacific Division, SDA Church
News about the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific.
Not all schools are back yet. Spare a thought for a number of Adventist schools in Fiji. The Education Director Master Save Ramokosoi sent the following note in this last week.
“Luckily, we do not have a school in Nadi. However, the bad weather affected the whole country and the two schools that really suffered were Waiyala and Navesau. Both these schools are boarding schools and they lost most of their crops. Foods that the schools were preparing for term 1. Books were also damaged. We are trying our best to get some food and textbooks assistance from the government and we are hoping that help will come soon because school has already started. Some of our teachers are still not able to travel to their schools because some roads are still closed to traffic.”
I have asked Save for more information and may yet send out a request for a gold coin donation from your students. You will remember when the Solomons suffered the devastating earthquake at Easter 2007 that each of the Unions approved a scheme where schools could be invited at short notice to help support sister schools which had suffered some sort of devastation. We are after all a system and need to remember the needs of other sister schools throughout the South Pacific Division.
So what was the holiday conversation all about? After a great time on Norfolk Island I attended the North New Zealand family camp for the last weekend. On the Sabbath afternoon I caught up with an acquaintance who is now a mother of 2 young boys and an older daughter. She started to tell me all about her youngest son who suffers from dyslexia. Now I must confess that being a past principal of a number of years I have heard many stories about dyslexia from parents who ‘just knew’ their children suffered from it. Almost as many stories as “You know my child suffers from ADHD!” So I did my best to endure yet another delivery of “My son has dyslexia.” Yes you can call me cynical and insensitive. But despite that, I was determined this time to remain engaged and must say that I am glad that I did. This mother went on to tell me of the heartache and frustration and breakdown of mother/son relationship as she tried every method she could think of and others that had been recommended by teachers to try and fix the problem. But then she came across the Davis Dyslexia Learning strategies program. After just 12 months following it her son has made a remarkable improvement from a reading age of below 5 years to a reading age now of 10+ (he is 11). The relief for her was obvious and she is now passionate about the program that has helped her son so much.
There is not enough space here to explain how this system works, but from their web-page the following may spark some interest. “They gain new understanding of their personal thinking and perceptual processes; learn self-help methods for controlling perception, and skills for eliminating confusion.”
The mother gave me 3 websites to take a look at and I pass them on for your information as well. I believe that for any parent who believes that their child suffers dyslexia these websites will be of great assistance. Check out
http://www.dyslexiahelp.co.nz/
http://www.dyslexiafoundation.org.nz/
http://www.ddapacific.co.nz/
I hope that during this year, no matter what the learning challenge is for your students, that you will have the time and energy and motivation to help find a solution for them and their families.
The next blog I will share with you some of the success stories of the new Pacific Bible curriculum. I’ve taken enough of your busy time for now.
God bless.
Ken Weslake,
Associate Director, Education
South Pacific Division, SDA Church
News about the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific.
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