Mid week update!

October 15, 2013

Tonight we have a story that needs to be told because of the ramifications that have taken place in the life of a young teacher, and the lives of 2 missionaries who had no reason to suspect the role that they would play in his life.  I need to start at the beginning with our meeting Viliami, the woodworking teacher.  When we first met Viliami, we were taking a tour of the campus at Liahona with a counselor named Vika, who took the time to introduce us to the teachers we would be working with.  Of course, Elder Meyers was excited to meet one of his own and get a little sawdust on his clothes.  At first we were dismayed with the condition of the machines and the shop, everything was so old, rust prevalent on the machines, several were obviously in disrepair.  But the first thing that came out of Viliami's mouth was, “I am so glad you are here, you can help me learn”.  Viliami told us his story of starting to teach one year ago, had no credentials other than the fact that he had graduated from Liahona and the woodworking program.  He had served a mission in Denver, so his command of the English language was pretty good.  We had such a good talk with him and told him we would be back to assist him with his needs.  Then we started hearing the stories about Viliami, about his inadequacies as a teacher, about the problems in his shop.  Everything seemed so negative, but it didn’t match with our feelings about Viliami.  As we have taken the time to visit with all of the teachers, we could feel an underlying feeling of fear and hesitation with them.

We started looking into the correspondence between the previous couple missionaries and were horrified at the accusations that had been made about this young man, who again, just didn’t fit what we felt about him.  We talked with the administration about him, and did find that the previous TVET missionary had insisted that several members of the staff be fired immediately because of their lack of abilities, but the Principal Fehi was adamant about keeping them on staff, work with them to train them. Fehi and Maopa have always had faith in this young man, but were torn because of a missionary making accusations against him.  They said there were a lot of problems and concerns about what was happening to the teachers, Viliami had been publicly ridiculed at staff meetings, as well as several other teachers.  The TVET staff were extremely wary of us and our intentions.  We just continued to visit them, get to know them and try to help where we could.  That’s why the power point presentation was so important to show to them that they were worthy to be teachers, that they were doing good things.

Elder Meyers went to check out a storage area that had been remodeled for the welding teachers.  He stopped by to check on Viliami and just to talk.  While they were talking, Viliami reported to Elder Meyers that he had a closet that he had no idea what was in it, the previous missionary had locked it up and no one had a key but him.  So, they looked through Elder Meyers keys and low and behold, one key worked.  When they opened up the closet, all of the tools that had been purchased by the previous missionary were in the closet, still brand new and unused.  Now to the rest of the story.

Viliami had been accused of losing, stealing tools from the school and had been told he would have to pay for all the missing tools that couldn’t be found in his department.  Viliami is not the only one with a key to his shop, just like dad’s spot, many people had access to his shop.  However, he was never accused of stealing anything or had his integrity questioned.  Viliami told dad today, that when he was being accused of many things, he just kept telling himself that Heavenly Father loved him and would take care of him.  He hasn’t known for this year if he would even have a job this year or next.  During the time we have been here, we have sent several really direct letters, stating our opinion about the worth of this young teacher.  Now we find out that the head of the department and the principal have been praying for him, just knowing him and his character.  He has been the executive secretary to the stake president here for many years, probably since he returned from his mission, is extremely reliable and trust worthy.  He hasn’t had any evidence to support that fact that he hasn’t taken any tools from the school because there were visible holes in his equipment and he certainly does not have the money to replace them.  I think the thing that hurts the most on our end was the fact that he was not as important as the equipment that was lost.  We also found out that he has a lot more faith than we do, because he told us he had been praying for someone to help him.

After talking to the principal and the head of the department, we found out about more injustices that had been done to this young man and to the TVET faculty by well meaning people, people who think they are helping someone by pushing their ideas/plans on another person without asking what they want or need,  We are finding out that too many people don’t take the time to get to know someone before they may be prejudged harshly or even wrongly.  We have learned a great deal today about the value of all God’s children, whoever or wherever they are.  Our responsibility in this life is to get to know and love people for who they are and what’s in their hearts.  The Tongan people have a great reverence and love for God and it shows in everything they do.

We even have prayers, devotionals, singing before the start of every school day; something that can’t happen in the USA any more. We can even talk about our faith.  So I guess my thought is that we don’t always know what we are going to learn from someone else and we certainly have no idea how we are going to influence somebody else’s life by our actions.  We have spent the day crying for this young man and praying that we can do better and help with healing some hearts.