My last day in Tonga provided meetings at Dr Moulton House, the Church HQ. I was able to say hello to Tutu'aleva, former teaching colleague of Diane, now training people in counselling. It's reassuring to meet someone after many years and they are as attractive a personality as when they were younger. A useful talk with 'Ahio, the Church President, focused on setting up some courses on Methodist theology, an idea that has been around for several years but has been frustratingly difficult to put into practice. It's just possible that I'll be back in a year or so for this: we'll see.
Saia took me on a drive out to Toloa, home of Tupou College, the flagship church boarding school for boys, founded by James Egan Moulton in 1866 on the model of an English public school. Moulton's brother had founded the Leys School in Cambridge, and J E obviously didn't want to be left out. Boys are housed in large dormitories and live a strict life with plenty of work on the food plantations in the nearby bush - something that probably doesn't happen at Eton and Harrow. It's the 150th anniversary in a few weeks and the campus is full of furious, last-minute building and road-mending. We went into the vast chapel/hall where a new pulpit was being constructed behind the biggest communion table I've ever seen.
Seeing Tonga through the eyes of Saia, newly returned from 20 years in New Zealand, is fascinating. He can't understand why things aren't better organised! Driving back from, we found ourselves behind a car with an upturned bathtub on the roof. After a While we realised that the only thing holding it on were 3 brown hands (one of them belong to the driver) that emerged from the windows to grip the bath's sides. Saia wasn't impressed!
In the Evening I was taken out to dinner by a former student, Fale Lomu, and his wife. Decades ago Fale had been my student assistant in the Sia'atoutai library as we laboured through hot afternoons to create a catalogue using a card index and a typewriter with wonky keys. As a minister he's served on the staff of the college, written a commentary on the Psalms in Tongan and now works with the evangelism team. Hearing him talk about the joy of discovering pastoral ministry and the need for the church to serve the poor was another heartwarming moment.
Saia picked me up from the Tungi Colonnade at 4.45am. Church bells were already ringing - probably for an early Ascension Day mass at the Catholic Cathedral. In the airport departure lounge I found Siotame Havea, until recently principal of Sia'atoutai but now troubleshooting the Tongan church in Australia. It turned out he was the one person I should have been talking to in my visit! He'd initiated the idea of funding for Methodist theology courses and had a clear idea of what they should do.
Visiting and leaving Tonga is a mixed experience. The three years there were intensely important at a key stage for my life and ministry. So there's an element Of reconnection - and, of course - wondering what has happened to all the intervening years. There's joy in meeting people again and receiving generous hospitality. There's sadness, too. You sense that Tonga has been left behind in development and that many of the signs of apparent progress - the huge number of cars, for example - are actually reducing the quality of life. But Tongans cope with the world as it is, even if it's different from the way they'd like it to be. I guess that's something we all need to learn.
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